Ken Ellis wrote:

On 14 Jul 2006 07:28:52 -0700, "Arild P." wrote:

Often shooting in a city with tall buildings is like shooting in a
canyon....sometimes noon is the best time to shoot...cause the light
penetrates deeper to the floor; and depending upon the orientation
of the street( EWNS)? The time of day and what you are trying
to capture, particularly in a city, will determine when you shoot -
and your composition. Early sunday morning will give a good bare
street and emphasize the depersonalization among other things;
shooting at lunch time will give you alot of stationary people and
they will fill different spaces than say around 9a, or for that matter
about coffe hour. Then again...you can emphasize bustle if
you shoot when people leave work.

Interesting vantage points yield different compositions. If you want
to shoot a corner for example...bring a tall ladder (and a helper)
and shoot from a higher elevation.

Pick apart the geometry of the buildings, railings, shadows and look
for relationships - convergences, parrallels, etc. The light will
effect what it looks like...it's composition in terms of it's
wholeness and detail.

Big light or little light? High or low? Stuff looks different inside
or outside depeneding upon the light and the factors that mitigate
that. It's nice to see a place under a few conditions of
light and weather and times - study it. Figure out what it is that
you see..what grabs you,then what it's parts are-what makes it work;
then figure out how to capture what you see. How do you want to juggle
the "space" betwean" your elements?- what lens will do that- you know
- like longer lens -more compression; wider makes more space.

And you're right..what's of interest?, what does it have? That's
probably what you want to get in close on. Put it "in your face".

Shoot from a distance, then move in- systematically. If your going to
cover a place or an object...there's usually an approach, a strong
manifestation of it, and then a fairwell or reprise (or surpise).

I muse. Probably the best thing you could do would be to look at
bodies of works of similar subjects and try to copy what makes sense
to you - that others have done. You probably will do so
imperfectly..and they will be original then - for you.


For city streets you may need to pick your date so that the sun is in the
right place to give you the illumination you need to get the shot you want.


--
--John
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(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)