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DuaneHC65

Higher Arch-ical

I shot this photo when my daughters and I visited my Mom in the Saint Louis area. I've always looked for different perspectives for my photos, and at the t...
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I shot this photo when my daughters and I visited my Mom in the Saint Louis area. I've always looked for different perspectives for my photos, and at the time, I was pushing myself harder to do so. I looked up while standing at the base of one of the legs, and the resemblance to a race track in the Mario Kart games immediately came to mind. I framed it up in my wide angle lens to lead the eye around the frame from bottom to top left.
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NIKON D700

settings

Aperture f/10 ISO 200 Shutter 1/400 Focal Length 28/1

upload_date

Nov, 2017

Views

852

Likes

+75

Awards

Contender in the Photography Awards

Chatter Award

Contender in the Visual Poetry Project

Zenith Award

Top Shot Award 21

People's Choice in A New Perspective Photo Challenge

Superb Composition

+24

Outstanding Creativity

+20

Peer Award

+18

Absolute Masterpiece

+11

Top Choice

Superior Skill

Genius

Magnificent Capture

All Star

Emotions

Impressed

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Behind The Lens

Location

The photo was taken at the base of one leg of the Gateway Arch in Saint Louis, Missouri. My daughters and I were visiting family in the area, and I wanted to show them the arch. As we walked around the base, I found my eyes drawn upward. The graceful sweep of the stainless steel drew me as close to the base as I could get. This is one of several images I shot, and I was just a few feet back from the steel.

Time

This photo was taken just before noon in the Spring of 2013.

Lighting

As this shot was taken just before noon in the Spring, the sun was high in the sky. However, the high overcast clouds helped filter the harsh light, and I positioned myself on the other side of the arch from the sun, creating a bit of backlighting and cutting down on the strong midday sunlight even more, allowing the wide variety of tones in the steel panels to appear. The gray sky and midday light made me shoot from the start with the intention of processing in black and white to bring out these variations in shading on the numerous stainless steel panels of the arch. I started my journey in serious photography in the late 1980s shooting mostly black & white with Nikon FM2 and FE2 35 mm film cameras, so I learned long ago to look at subjects with an eye toward presentations in shades of black & white. This lighting begged for processing in black & white.

Equipment

I was using my typical "tourist travel" kit at the time, a Nikon D700 with a Tamron AF 28-75 mm f/2.8 SP XR Di LD Aspherical (IF) wide-angle zoom lens and a B+W circular polarizer filter. The strong midday light modulated by cloud cover, backlighting, and polarizer allowed me to shoot at ISO 200, f/10, and a quick shutter speed of 1/400. This shutter speed meant I could safely hold the camera by hand. In this case, holding the camera by hand allowed me the greatest ease of framing the arch to align the panel lines with the bottom and the sweep up and to the top left corner of the viewfinder. This takes the eye all the way around and through the frame. Cropping in post-production was minimal due to the flexibility I had to align the image in-camera with the lens zoomed out to its widest 28 mm.

Inspiration

I started getting serious about photography over 30 years ago when I was spending as much time as possible during college breaks backpacking in the mountains of California, most often around Yosemite National Park. I wanted to capture and share the beauty I saw on those adventures, but I always wanted to present my own visions of what I saw rather than mimicking the same perspectives made famous by great photographers the likes of Ansel Adams and the Westons. That desire to find unique compositions led me to look everywhere most other photographers were *not* pointing their lenses. Later in life, as I documented my trips to famous landmarks such as the Arch, I looked for ways to depict those well-photographed subjects in non-traditional compositions using atypical perspectives and/or zooming in on details rather than capturing the usual panoramic views. At the time of my visit to Saint Louis, I was a frequent participant in some Google+ communities with many inspirational photographers with their own unique perspectives. The open and collaborative sharing of motivations, inspirations, and aspirations for the incredibly creative images shared in these communities gave me my own ideas and preconceptions of what I wanted to try on this visit to the Arch. I looked up while standing at the base of one of the legs, and the resemblance to a race track in the Mario Kart games immediately came to mind. I framed it up in my wide-angle lens to lead the eye all the way around the frame from bottom to top left.

Editing

My digital workflow is similar today to what I was doing on this image. I started in Adobe Lightroom adjusting the RAW images, fine-tuning exposure and dynamic range, cleaning up noise, and fine-tuning the composition. I then used the NIK Collection Viveza, Dfine, and finally Silver Efex modules to tweak exposure, noise, and convert to black and white. Silver Efex is my favorite tool for black & white processing, in this case, allowing me to fine-tune contrast, highlights, mid-tones, and shadows across the whole image or selecting portions large and small for adjustment. As I recall, I believe I applied a slight amount of orange filter to help the gradations in the clouds and on the stainless steel panels to stand out.

In my camera bag

My typical lightweight, walking about kit for travel photography is packed in an over-the-shoulder Peak Design messenger style bag. I now use either a Nikon D750 or D850 body. Nowadays, I almost always pack my Sigma Art zoom lenses for these types of trips, a 14-24 mm f2.8 DG and a 24-70 mm f2.8 DG. The 24-70 mm usually has one of the latest B+W low-profile nanocoated circular polarizers on it when I know I will be shooting outside. I love the B+W's slim profile and minimal light loss with high image quality. The Sigma Art lenses have amazing image quality stopped down or opened up wide and everywhere in between. They are a bit heavier than the Tamron and Tokina lenses I used to shoot with, but the results are worth the extra weight. My typical kit also includes a Nikon SB-5000 speedlight and a Manfrotto XPro carbon fiber monopod or a Giotto carbon fiber tripod. Depending on where I am going and what I intend to shoot, I will add or swap in my Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 DG telephoto zoom or Sigma 105 mm f2.8 DG Macro. I often use the B+W circular polarizers on both of those lenses as well.

Feedback

My advice for seeing and shooting unusual perspectives of familiar objects and landmarks is to think about what elements or features you like the most. Zoom in on those features with your naked eye before raising the camera lens. Look at where other photographers are standing and how they are framing the subject, and intentionally look for alternative perspectives even if those perspectives are at 90 or 180 degree angles from what everyone else is doing. As I mentioned earlier, I was once an avid participant in some very stimulating and collaborative international photography communities on the now-defunct Google+ platform. The online conversations and critiques I enjoyed there helped me grow and develop my own skills and vision more than I have grown at any other time in my photographic journey. I miss the varied, honest, candid, collaborative, and often humorous interactions I shared in those communities. While I remain in contact online with a core group of those photographers met on G+, I miss the larger, more diverse, and very active discussion threads that disappeared with the platform's demise. Find your own group of fellow photographers who also wish to collaborate and share critiques. The more diverse that group is, I believe the more you will learn and the more your own skills and creativity will grow. The more similar our collaborators and confidantes are to us, the fewer opportunities we will find to expand our vision, perspective, and skills. Groupthink rarely fosters inspiration or innovation.

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DuaneHC65

DuaneHC65

Higher Arch-ical

I shot this photo when my daughters and I visited my Mom in the Saint Louis area. I've always looked for different perspectives for my photos, and at the t... Read more

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow DuaneHC65

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I shot this photo when my daughters and I visited my Mom in the Saint Louis area. I've always looked for different perspectives for my photos, and at the t...
Read more

Share photos. Enter contests to win great prizes.
Earn coins, get amazing rewards. Join for free.