So how do you approach one of the most photographed places and make it new, unique, or especially interesting? I confronted this in Chicago recently. The Loop is the heart and soul of the city, an outdoor museum of architecture and grit, of industry and culture. In the canyons between the skyscrapers, extremes of light and dark make exposure difficult. The relative narrowness of viewpoint in streets controlled by the El impact on the ability to get a full view of the streets or the buildings. I wanted to capture Jewelers Row on Wabash Street. With the limitations of angle, I looked for something different. The texture of this particular sky at this moment, with this lighting, cooperated.
I like to shoot the signs identifying a neighborhood as, in my opinion, they seem to give a validity to where you are. I decided to turn this into a vertical image and capture the surrounding buildings, framing the sky. The sky, with clouds, formed its own pattern, and by judicious use of the filters in Lightroom (particularly the dehazing one) I was able to achieve a vibrant sky. The upward thrust of the buildings—itself not perhaps particularly original—nonetheless is different here because of the sky and the use of the sign and lamppost. In other words, while we all may like the dramatic effect of capturing skyscrapers and sky like this (or tall trees in a forest), we should remain cognizant of the foreground or anchoring feature of the image.
In this one, we have the El—more a suggestion—in the lower left corner, the focal point of the lamppost and sign identifying clearly where we are, and the view of Jewelers Row not as the full street, but in a vertical viewpoint. We have a vivid sense of being in the Chicago canyons of the Loop, and of the particular character of this street.
I like to shoot the signs identifying a neighborhood as, in my opinion, they seem to give a validity to where you are. I decided to turn this into a vertical image and capture the surrounding buildings, framing the sky. The sky, with clouds, formed its own pattern, and by judicious use of the filters in Lightroom (particularly the dehazing one) I was able to achieve a vibrant sky. The upward thrust of the buildings—itself not perhaps particularly original—nonetheless is different here because of the sky and the use of the sign and lamppost. In other words, while we all may like the dramatic effect of capturing skyscrapers and sky like this (or tall trees in a forest), we should remain cognizant of the foreground or anchoring feature of the image.
In this one, we have the El—more a suggestion—in the lower left corner, the focal point of the lamppost and sign identifying clearly where we are, and the view of Jewelers Row not as the full street, but in a vertical viewpoint. We have a vivid sense of being in the Chicago canyons of the Loop, and of the particular character of this street.
How do you manage to make an image unique when the subject matter is familiar to so many people?