How To Take Unique Photos in Boring* Places | Thypoch Ksana 21mm f3.5
Why do boring places make the best photos?
A Google image search keeps showing the same 3 landmarks of my hometown. Compared to the excitement of travel there’s just not that much around at home?
Limits fuel creativity, so here’s today’s challenge:
1 hour to get 3 “unique” shots of my hometown
Every shot needs to be sharp, no bokeh or blur
Exclusively 65:24 X-Pan crop
A lens I’m not used to.
I reached out to Thypoch for their Ksana 21mm 3.5 to pair with my Nikon Zf, wider and slower than I’m used to. It’s supposed to have a distinctive look, other than providing this lens, Thypoch don’t get to preview or pre-approve this post.
Good because I have no idea how this will go.
Landmark I: Wheel of Brisbane
The Wheel of Brisbane is set in Southbank along the Brisbane river.
The original source of prosperity all those years ago as a port city (also the cause of pain with its persistent flooding). The wheel is designed to imitate the London Eye on the south bank of the river Thames, but rather than imitate the wide shots that already exist I wanted something new.
There’s a building right next to the wheel - the upper floor has panes of glass that reflect the wheel, a long exposure might be interesting?
Back to tonight’s rules and limitations:
Everything has to be sharp, I’ve stopped down to f11
This is a 30 second long exposure to get some motion blur in the wheel.
Because of this I had to use a tripod - my mini PGYTech mantispod, on the ground.
X-Pan crop . 21mm is wide enough to get a sweeping view even with the top and bottom cropped to 65 by 24.
The Ksana’s distinctive look comes out when it’s stopped down - sun stars, a warm retro flare reminisicent of Canon FD glass - the wheel’s light smooths out nicely in the reflection.
Just in case that shot didn’t turn out I tried a couple more:
A tighter crop of the wheel itself, looks like a jet engine about to take off.
Next to an archway leading into the darkness.
Quite different from the other shots I’ve seen of this area.
But is it unique, or new?
Landmark II: Brisbane Sign
So far I’m just 10 minutes into my hour - way ahead of schedule, landmark 2 is literally a sign with our city’s name on it.
Very cliche, especially during the day, maybe it’s better at night?
I had to wait around til the small crowd cleared. I wanted to use the grass as the foreground, city lights as the background, which shine through the letters in the sign to create some leading lines.
f11, 30 second exposure, it was very dark, the lens is very small, so I had to be careful changing the aperture I didn’t bump the focus ring.
Luckily there’s a focus tab so the haptics are different on the two rings even in the dark. At 21mm the depth of field is very deep by default, when focused to infinity everything is in focus. The Ksana’s sunstars and retro lens flare add an extra sprinkle of character on top, especially for a night time shot.
A new way to capture what is otherwise a cliche.
It was time to head to landmark 3, but I was only 20 minutes in?
Being ahead of schedule (2 out of 3 shots in the bag already) I decided to do some street photography on the way.
21mm is hard to get close, f3.5 is too slow at night, I had to lean on the Zf’s high ISO performance, a shutter speed of 1/60th, and leading lines.
It’s the one visual technique I know that will work with this lens, when I can’t rely on long exposures, sunstars or flares in a quick react street setting. I also tried out Thypoch’s half-strength black promist filter, that blooming effect another trick to add more texture to plain hometown settings.
If a giant wheel, or a cliche city sign hasn’t impressed you yet, Brisbane’s also “famous” for our bridges. Not for their architecture, but the number, we’ve spent millions building so many bridges clustered together, all without improving traffic in any measure.
I took these shots on a bridge - a nice view overlooking the city.
I also set up a long exposure to get this overpass geometry.
But all of this is just the preview for the third landmark - you guessed it, yet another bridge.
Landmark III: The Story Bridge
The one found on most postcards of my city, it lights up and casts colored reflections across the river.
I’ve taken a lot of shots of it over the years, there’s never enough ambient light by the time I make it to the bridge. Still 30 minutes left in my hour, there’s enough time to setup a tripod.
F11, 60 second long exposure, some overhead flares and sunstars along with the smoothing of the water.
But what might be more interesting than the bridge is one of the oldest buildings in the city - Customs house. Initially designed as a symbol of prosperity almost 150 years ago, Brisbane went through a construction boom along with its designation as a port city. Refurbished after flooding countless times, it’s seen better days, just like the city.
By this point I’d gotten my 3 frames and then some, I’m not sure if they’re postcard worthy but they’re unique to me. With 10 minutes left I could call it a night, but there’s still one more spot - the most memorable in this city.
That’s the appeal of boring hometown photography, unlike the endless choice of visual treats while traveling when it’s the same 3 locations I can’t react, I need to think.
Limits fuel not just creativity, they also encourage you to dig deeper into history. With 5 minutes left I made it to the last spot:
Landmark IV: Eternal Flame
A monument of remembrance, every year a ceremony for fallen soldiers’ service, all these years later its flame is still going.
Like the rest of this city, 10 years ago it fell on hard times. There was water damage, it would have been easier to decommission the exhibit, but the community valued its meaning, relocated it while repairs took place just to keep the flame going.
The current detailing, architecture, lighting, is beautiful especially at night.
I’ve walked past it more than a thousand times?
Tonight’s the first time I paused to really see.
That’s why boring places are the best for your own brand of unique, textured, memorable photography.
It’s the most accessible way to keep creating?
Happy creating everyone, talk soon.
Jack.
All my sample images in this blog post were edited from RAW files using my free Chrome emulation preset. They work with most RAW files from different cameras as long as you use “Adobe Color” as the starting base. Download it for free here.
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