So on my morning off I went off to drop in on friends who have just opened up a food business on Popes Quay. It’s a long time since I walked that quay and I was stopped in my tracks on the steps of St Mary’s. Something about these steps drew me in and I took out the camera and the 24mm lens and took a few pictures.
It’s one of those occassions where the light and the geometry of the steps – newly wet from a shower – just stuck me.
Now it’s no surprise to most people that I prefer people to architecture. People are just more interesting and the more time you have with someone the more interesting they become and my challenge in life is to convey that character in a photograph. And I’d normally be looking at a shot like this and looking at who to put into the frame to make it make sense and where to put them.
But I quite like this image. I tried it in black and white but it looked too much like a drawing.
On a technical note, not much has been done with this image. I made some adjustments in Lightroom to even out some minor distortion in the 24mm prime lens, adjusted contrast and colour and that’s about it. The intention is just to sligtly exagerate the natural flatness of the tone of the stone work and contrast with the colour of the doors. I decided not to clean up the gum, the cigarette butt or anything else.