More from the three dimensional city……..OK its a bit of a crazy mess and yet I find myself drawn to this kind of out of control composition currently……like I say the three dimensional layering that makes controlled composition almost impossible because 15 things are intersecting at once…….I am watching all this looking for moments that say something or work somehow………its madness……. and moves away from particular types of clean composition that I have always made part of my style traditionally, but right now I am enjoying the making of these images and the result.
Weirdly I was chatting online to Joe of www.joesnyc.com one of my favorite photobloggers about something else : use of slow shutter speeds and blur but I think his very interesting response actually applies to this reflection and three dimensional layering in composition:
I am writing about: http://www.joesnyc.streetnine.com/archives/dumbo-september202006_00.html
Hey joe love it baby! Its amazing….. captures the hurried vibe of the downpour on the street ! I love to use this kind of movement in my shots too (especially in the rain!). Its great how successful movement is normally a mix of cool headed planning, composition and panning and then the X factor or ‘happy accident’ of it all working with the necessary ‘sweet spot’ of focus and definition……which your shot demonstrates perfectly…….Nice one bro Jez XX
Joe in reply:
Thanks. I find, of course, that these shots work best if you use big, recognizable shapes like your taxis or my umbrellas.
I’m just learning to trust slow shutter speeds like this. I gave a talk at the Prince Street Apple Store last Spring about how I was learning to embrace the uncontrollable. Essentially: now that I’m feeling like I can control so much of shooting, I have to learn to let go and enjoy catching what I can’t control… a happy accident indeed.
-=-Joe
Its always worth checking out Joe’s blog. Right now you should definitely check out: http://www.joesnyc.streetnine.com/archives/delanceystreet-october03200650.html I love it. Jez XX
[ 2 ] comments
- Joe who?? Hey, how come you’re in nyc and we haven’t gotten together?
joe @ October 5, 2006, 7:32 pm
- hey Joe…….. er …….. strictly speaking Im not in NYC……. but through the magic of television it kinda looks that way! Im about to be in DC leaving LA now…… I’ve been zapping about like crazy…. Branson……. Minisota…… Chicago ….. Detroit …. Augusta ……… Atlanta . …… LA ……. Austen ……… Memphis …… Denver ……. er ……… and maybe some other places all in the last 3 weeks ……. its been pretty busy and I’ve been kind of abandoning my blog ……… by the time I finish downloading and editing the images from that days shoot its often 1 or 2 AM and we are up and on to the next day sometimes crazily early……….. in Atlanta it was 4-30AM two days running……so getting stuff on the blog has been pretty sporadic….. and right now most of what Im shooting cannot go on the blog ……… so I thought Id better raid some stuff I shot previously up in NYC just before I left town…….. by the way your Nikon Ad is great……. I bet you put down that Manhattan Bridge Location as one of your five top places in NYC to shoot from right?……… I once spent 2 days there its great. Hey ………Im still good for that coffee/beer…….. eventually! Cheers Jez XXX
jez @ October 6, 2006, 12:15 am
