Vila Nova de Gaia - White Wall

Today’s image draws from the images I took during my wanderings through Vila Nova de Gaia.  It’s an image you haven’t seen yet (except for Len), and it’s perhaps the best image of the bunch. (If you want to see some of the others, check them out here.)  I came across this image again while looking for another image and decided I should spend some time thinking about why I think it’s the best of the bunch.

For me, photography is a tool for learning about the world.  By trying to see photographically, it helps me see the world differently and to learn about it.  I recently pulled a John Caponigro book from my bookshelf and one of the quotes from it (lots of images, and just a few quotes, so it’s an easy book to grab and digest with a few minutes of time - which I had) spoke of exploring the landscape within the landscape.  The something more that is there.  It’s that learning to see which photography (as I suspect painting or drawing would) gives me that provides me with so much joy.  The actual images are icing on the cake.  

That said, in many ways I’m a very intuitive photographer.  Something I see appeals to me (it can be the way the light is falling on an object, it can be an object itself that is interesting, or it can be a gut reaction that something would make a lovely photograph), and then I frame it.  From there I don’t try to apply any rules, I simply move things around until it feels right.  If it doesn’t have “it” after that, I’ll often stop right there and not make the photograph.  If the still has “it” I usually have a decent image.  But it takes more to have a good, and even more to have a great image.  While I never apply any strict rules for my images, I do know there are things that can take away from an image or improve it, so it’s after that point of initial composing, when I feel like I have something decent in the frame, that I start to become more analytical about creating the image.  What needs to be eliminated?  Are the edges clean or distracting? Should I move my position to emphasize an aspect of the image?  Are there any photographic controls such as shutter speed or aperture that can enhance the image? And so on.

Since it’s not a totally rational process it helps to study images later to see what worked and what didn’t.  And if you have several images from a shooting session (like this wall), part of that process is figuring out why is one better than the other. How are they different? What works in one image and not the other? And, always, why?  Through that process of learning and coming to understand what is successful and what isn’t, you develop your innate sensitivity so that the intuitive can take over even more effectively and that your eye gets trained to see the details while you’re photographing. Thus developing the ability to push the image from being decent to good, good to very good or . . . while you’re photographing. You get the idea.

So why is this image the best of the bunch?

I’ll start with something that I don’t focus on a lot with photography, though it is hugely important for some other photographers.  That is - story.  And if not story, humor.  I find something a bit ironic about the blue arrow pointing towards the do not enter sign.  A go-stop juxtaposition that makes me chuckle (the signs make total sense when you know the intersection of the three streets at this point - but that information is missing from the story, which allows the humor to creep in).  

But then why is this image better than the image with just the two signs?  I think it’s a question of balance.  Someone can probably give you a psychological reason for this adage, but odd numbers (particularly 3) of objects in an image often seem to settle the image when an even number doesn’t.  Here, the plant off to the right (I’ve decided it’s the plant, not the window) gives that harmonizing structure to the signs.  

Why the plant and not the window?  I think it’s the red color.  Apparently, much like faces (eyes in particular and the human form in general) will draw your attention in a photograph, the color red, among the colors, will do the same.  That’s why, in part, as your eyes roam around the image you keep returning to the red sign (it’s a larger, brighter red than the plant - but the plant has visual weight due to the red, compounded by the dark window).  

Generally, the whole central area has a dynamic appeal to it through the primary colors contrasted by the white background.  Your eye wants to go to the various colorful objects (three).  The strong arrow on the blue field is subdued somewhat by being in shadow attracts the eye; then the arrow leads you to the primary red “do not enter” sign is bright and on its own, even exaggerated by half of it standing out from the shadowed wall; and then there’s the red plant, emphasized by the light grid, all on the dark background against the stark white wall.  The white wall makes those primary colors stand out.  

However, what originally attracted me to this wall (read: immediately grabbed my eye) was the shadow cast on the wall to the left, skimming across its textured surface.  That is what led me to lift the camera and to explore different ways of organizing the elements within the frame within that context, which would only last for a few minutes.  And as I explored that frame, the elements presented possibilities to exploit - some intentional and some accidental.  

As I look at the image here’s what I see.  There’s the texture along the wall in shadow.  The contrast between the subtle texture of the well-lit wall and the wall in shadow - split by the pole for the do not enter sign.  The placement of the pole was intentional, to split the two sides - light on one side, shadow on the other side of the pole.  

There is also a very thin white line along most of the right side of the pole for the blue sign, separating it from the light pole.  As well as the thin white line on the edge where the shadow wall meets the street to the left of the light pole between the wall and the shadow of the light pole. Each of those thin slivers of white add depth to the photograph.  Then there are the stronger shadows cast by the do not enter sign and the plant on the respective walls.  

All of those lighting details also help separate the various elements in the image as well as give some visual texture and interest to the photograph.  

Then there is the interplay between the various contrasts in the image.  There is the one I mentioned - the different walls to the left and right of the do not enter sign.  One is bright, one is darker.  Both have texture, but visually different types of textures.  But then there’s also the contrast of the roughly textured roof and street with the comparatively smooth wall.  And between the vertical poles, posts, window frames and chimney with the diagonal shadows and rooflines.  Again, all adding interest to the image.

And finally, there is the question I always try to ask myself when framing images - what’s happening on the edges?  That’s both a positive thing with this image and the one thing that I think is a real distraction.  

On the positive side, working counter clockwise from the top, I think I successfully resolved one of the dilemmas working with this subject that appeared time and again (and which made some images unsatisfactory) with this subject . That dilemma was how to resolve the chimney and the lamp post at the top.  Moving my camera position to the right created some separation between the two, but if only looked right if framed a bit higher, but then one saw the chimney cap which created its own resolution issues.  If you cropped out the cap, the visual separation at the top edge of the frame attracted the eye - it was better to meld the two forms together in an innocuous way.  Rounding the corner, including the whole of a roof tile edge (the dark circular element to the upper left of the blue sign) gave some substance to an otherwise bland upper left corner.   Including a bit to the left of that cap allowed the inclusion of the brick wall on the far left edge, giving a changing texture that seemed to seal that edge for me and that keeps the eye within the frame.  A visual barrier so to speak.  The changing street textures along the bottom seem fine for my purposes - sufficiently visually interesting enough to satisfy the eye, but not too much so as to distract from the central focus of the image.  Plus I think the tufts of grass to the right play the grounding function for that corner that the tile piece does for the top left corner.  Placing the framing of the window and the edge of the photograph where I did was critical - I needed a bit of black to hold down the edge.  Including the entire window created other problems with the right edge, so I cut it off where I did. Again, exactly where that edge went was where it felt right.

The flaw with the image, in my opinion, comes with the top right corner.  I’m not satisfied with it.  It adds nothing to the image and, even worse, the diagonal leads the eye away and off the frame of the image.  I couldn’t lower the top frame without losing most of the corresponding diagonal on the left ridge line (and its effect) and making the roof be such an insignificant portion of the image as to be meaningless.  I’m not sure how I could have resolved that upper right corner, but I certainly didn’t “see” it while I was making the image - that’s where having a tripod to hold your camera in a precise location so you can study the LCD screen comes in handy.  Face it, I was holding the camera at arm’s length above my head so I could keep things as parallel as possible with the edges of the frame, trying to compose the image by looking at the LCD on the back (and not having a tilting LCD screen to help).  Sometimes there aren’t good solutions to visual problems posed in the field.  You have to accept it and try to work with the limitations the subject poses to you.

So that was my process with this image.  Studying the image carefully to learn from it after the fact.  Hopefully, that exercise, as well as blogging about it, pays off in the future and the next time actually see and fix that damn problem with the upper right corner!