Once or twice a week, I combine my commute home with a few detours on Montreal streets. The neighbourhoods are filled with photo opportunities that are screaming to be discovered. To me it’s a kind of exercise that allows me to sharpen my photo vision and find interesting subjects.
Sometimes, I issue a challenge: find color contrasts, shapes, patterns, etc. On other occasions, I just wander and let the environment dictate whatever comes to my eye (and opened mind!).
On one of these photo walks, I had noticed the blue shutters. There was a window beside it (obviously!) and I didn’t want to give the impression I wanted to photograph the interior… While composing my image, I figured that if I closed in, I would have some sort of an “L” shape. I could have been the same with the shutters if the picture was flipped horizontally but I thought it had more impact this way.
Once the photo taken, I corrected the perspective (and saturate the flat colors of the raw file) in post since there were distortions from being close to the wall, even at 50mm. I couldn’t back far enough since there were cars on the curb.
All these difficulties added up to amount a form of photo training. It’s like golf that you practice regularly: the more you shoot, the more your photographic eye sharpens. Unlike golf, you don’t loose any balls… FORE !!! 😉
