Night at dorm room
Jul, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
The photo was taken in my student room in London while I was there to improve my English - I speak French and I'm from Switzerland and I apologize for the mistakes I'll make. This was the view I had from my window on the first floor of the building. By luck I had a great view of the top of the "30 St Mary Axe" - or well known as "The Gherkin" - the name the Londoners gave to this commercial skyscraper.Time
I remembered that the picture was taken on the evening after a long day spend on walking around the streets of London with some friends I made there. I didn't had time to take pictures that could fit in my profil, just the basic touristic ones. So when I came back to my bedroom on the evening I was tired, lied on bed and switched on my TV to watch some videos just released of a festival that I dream to go one day. The idea of this photo came of it.Lighting
At first I just took a photo with my mobile phone to send to some friends. I really loved the reflection of the TV in the window with the lights outside when I decided that I could take my photo of the day. I took my camera and did all the settings to have the lighting I wanted but the pictures weren't so nice that I wanted. I realized it was because the video was running and I only had an instant of what I saw. I wanted to have an instant on the video that wasn't just people, the stage or the artist. I wanted a symbol. After some minutes watching the video I found the perfect instant I was looking for. The symbol of love, unity and respect. And then I shot the photo.Equipment
I used my Nikon D5500 with my favorite lens - the 50mm f/1.8. No flash, no tripod and no light in the room.Inspiration
This photo is a kind of representation of my days in London. There is a famous building on the background but not too sharp to look like a touristic picture. Then the reflexion on the forehand is the main part in the photo. I was glad to have the appropriate structure of the furnitures in my room to see the TV outside. Then the symbol in the reflexion is to me the people I met there. I stayed only three weeks and meet so much people with different languages, cultures and lives. We had to be all open-minded to accept the differences and all became good friends.Editing
I dind't used post-precessing. I always try to have directly the perfect representation of what I am looking at and in this case it succeed.In my camera bag
I always have a small sport backpack designed to be use every time. It's small but I can bring all my equipment with me. I have my Nikon D5500 camera with three lenses : the 18-55mm the 55-200mm zoom and my favorite one the 50mm f/1.8. I also have a small gorilla pod, two batteries, two SD cards and a charger with me - and sometimes a microphone if I decide to make a video with a proper sound. I don't really like to have too much stuff with me because I rarely only do a shooting on a day and don't have a place to let my bag so it has to be with from the morning to evening with all my other stuff.Feedback
An advice that I can give to make a photo like this is to have a good scenery outside. Prefer to shoot it by night because the reflection isn't the best on day or inexistent but you can try it anyway - I hate to give a protocol like a cook recipe because...it's art, you have to shoot when you feel it and not because someone shot something in some way or another, just be inspired but don't copy and your photographer skills will improve. If I can only give a last advice to use reflection in your photo is to have a screen near to the window or a mirror or something that can reflect and have a good luminosity on it. You can also try with an object with light on it. Don't look too complicated just be inspired by the things around you and make THE shot.
