Architectural Designs - Day 18

Every day we are surrounded by architecture. Architecture needs to be sturdy and inspire, influence, and challenge us. We pass by it going and coming in fast-moving vehicles or on foot, and today more than likely we have our heads down looking at our phones.

We’re missing a lot. Older buildings with historical details and rich stories. New buildings with glistening exteriors and glass and steel facades. The juxtaposition of smooth columns adjacent to polished metal or foam gingerbread trim.

Today’s challenge is to slow down, pause, and study the details and contrasts of the architecture around you. This challenge is the opportunity to find the hidden gems lost in the travels of your life.

Study elements that tell stories of craftsmanship, history, and artistic expression. Often unnoticed by the casual passerby, details of a wrought-iron gate, weathered brick, or the pattern etched into a forgotten cornice hold visual interest for a photographer wanting to tell stories.

Follow alleys and narrow roads looking for the places usually only seen by the few people who regularly travel them or kids on bikes looking for shortcuts or staying off busy highways. It’s going to be easy to find the shapes, textures, and designs that help tell the architecture of your town by looking where others don’t.

People want to be surprised when they look at your photos. Wanting to see something new and different. You want them to think they’d never seen your subject before or never saw it in the way you did. Your photos become the portal that opens a new view of the town for them.

There is always some repeating in these challenges.

Experiment!

Textured details are important and can be a significant way to look at architecture. Stepping away from expectations raises the risks but the results can be the most dynamic way to reach your viewers. Showing someone a photo of a weathered barn that they pass every day by making a photo of it with an extremely narrow depth-of-field not only lets you employ a unique process it surprises the viewer and generates an appreciation for you and the way you see things differently.

Find a subject that challenges you to make a photo you hadn’t considered before, To try a new lens or filter, or wait for better lighting. Don’t do the expected.

The architect has already made the design. Your photo doesn’t need to highlight the architect’s work. It needs to highlight your idea of what it looks like through your eyes. You want a photo that when the architect sees it, they discover something unintended in their design. Something that only you saw.

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