Descending into the Unknown
For a while now I’ve been planing to take a photographic trip through Hamburg’s subway stations. Most of them are quite old-fashioned, with lots of ceramic tiles, neon lights and metal railings. If one looks carefully, there are lots of cool shapes to be found. Or so I thought… In almost two hours I hadn’t taken a single interesting shot, so quite frustrated I decided to call it a day. But I’m not giving up entirely, and will be repeating the trip in the near future. Maybe on a rainy day…
As I didn’t want to declare the two hours as a complete loss, I forced myself to choose an image for today’s post among those images taken today. It was hard, but after experimenting some in Photoshop, I came up with this composite which has several symmetric and several asymmetric elements in it. How do you like it?
A few tricks for next time:
1. I wanted to know which images come from which subway station, so I brought paper and a pen, but it was easier to just take an image of the station’s name as the first image in that station.
2. Since I was taking architectural types of shots, where lines, shapes and reflections play the major role, I tried to avoid people in my images. Of course, I also took some with people, and now I think the latter ones are better. Due to the longer shutter speeds, the people appear like goasts, and I like this effect more than the sterility of the former ones.
3. I really need a wider lens.
4. The underground stations are more interesting than the ones above the ground.
5. Stations where two or more lines meet are more interesting than stations with one line only.
You are pushing the limits and experimenting, that is great because you are developing an awesome unique means of expression that comes only from you. Awesome sight and photos.