Day 338 - Shadowy absences

Sunshine and cold temperatures makes for exceptionally crisp days and, perhaps surprisingly, crisp photographs as well.

I know I've featured at least one other photo of Gibson Memorial United Church on this blog in the past but I quite like the shape and colour of the building. Here, the strong sunlight creates very sharp shadows on the brickwork, creating a visually interesting image by accentuating the rigid lines of the building itself.

I also like the fact that two horizontal shadows fall across the church's sign, reminders of the power lines that are ubiquitous in this city, marring just about every photo you take. Their presence in this photo is limited to this shadowy reminder, which I think adds to the impact of the shot rather than taking away from it.

Day 337 - Those little triangular shadows

I find it hard to focus on this photograph. I think it's because of the many different lines, angles and planes in the shot and especially because of those little triangular shadows to the bottom right of each of the windows.

I don't know what prompted me to take this picture but I'm glad I did. I then took four more at different levels of zoom but it's this first one, with the slight tilt to the windows, that I like best. The early morning sunlight makes the concrete of the building glow and creates those little shadows, making the whole thing a little bit like abstract art.

Day 336 - Street lamp and decapitated sculpture

This burst of morning sun on the windows of a building made photograph difficult but interesting.

In order to reduce the amount of light coming in through the lens to a reasonable level, I had first to stop the aperture down to its smallest: in the case of my little Olympus, that's f8. But that was just the first, easiest step.

Even at f8, there was still too much light coming in if I set the shutter speed at anything slower than 1/100th of a second. At that setting, the sun on the building still looked like a burst of fire but at least the other elements in the photo were starting to show.

At a slightly faster shutter speed, you could actually see the faces of the pedestrians. But the sunburst was still really strong. So I kept pushing the shutter speed higher, interested to see when the sunburst building itself would start to be recognisable. That happened at 1/400th of a second but this shot, the only I liked best, had a shutter speed of 1/500th.

I like the shape of the light on the windows as well as the dark shapes of the pedestrians, vehicles and signs in the foreground. I'm pleased with the balanced composition, especially with the street lamp left and the decapitated sculpture of the saxophonist on the top right of the picture.

Day 335 - Sunlight on satellite dish

So there I am, standing on King Street in downtown Fredericton, fumbling to get the Olympus out of my knapsack, then out of its case, before the last vestige of sunlight leaves the buildings and darkness falls.

It's amazing how quickly the lovely early evening light disappeared. When I began the 10-second process of extricating the camera from its packaging, the warm orangey-pink light was still caressing the spire on the Wilmot United Church. When I finally had the Olympus out and on, ready to take the picture, only that satellite dish on the bank building beyond was still in the light.

I'm amazed at how different the light from the sun is at different times of the day. My favourite is this light: the warm, reddish light from the setting sun. But it's also amazing how quickly that wonderful light comes and goes. I guess, if I want to be a real photographer, I'm going to have to go to the location and actually wait for the light to show itself, rather than leaving it to luck.