Thursday, March 03, 2011

Stairway to the past

click photo to enlarge
Stairways make good photographic subjects. They offer complexity, strong forms to use in a composition, leading lines, visual routes through the image, a stage and frame for people, metaphor and much more.

This photograph was taken in the stair-well that links the floors of a museum. The translucent glass of the windows and below the hand-rail allowed the silhouettes of the people to be seen to good effect. However, as much as I tried to get a shot with people just where I wanted them, they never quite arranged themselves as I would have liked. This is the best of a fairly quickly taken group of photographs.

Thinking back I recall posting another shot taken in a museum stair-well. On this occasion, however, the motivation was the semi- abstract nature of the composition and the shades of grey that a black and white conversion produced.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Lumix LX3
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 5.1mm (24mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f2
Shutter Speed: 1/30
ISO: 160
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On