the moving biomass
It’s a tricky thing fitting the tallest building in the world into frame. Even with a 14mm lens, you gotta be standing really far away. This sky scraper, The Burj Khalifa is ridiculously tall. It’s so tall that it offsets almost every composition. Finding little places like this are a good way to add a little somthin-somthin to the composition and fill some of the negative space. This little place, while great compositional fill, is one of the busiest places in Dubai.
So, how did I get a clean (handheld – 5 bracketed) shot with nobody in it? Well, I waited, a really long freaking time.
It’s not out of the ordinary for me to wait 15 minutes or so for an opening to shoot. I’ve even waited up to an hour for people to clear out of the way. Bear in mind that it’s not just one group of people standing in the way, but hoards of people, all moving through, standing around, taking pictures, eating tacos & burritos, etc. It’s a living, moving biomass. Sometimes all you can do is blur your vision and wait for an opening.
What I do that helps immensely, is stand there and frame the shot using the grid function on my camera. I line everything up, lock the zoom, and memorize the position. Then I dial in all the camera settings as well as the focus. This way, when I find an opening, I can flip up my camera like a six gun and fire off my exposure brackets.
Check out some other HDR Photos from Dubai.
Technical Mumbo Jumbo:
– Nikon D700 – Nikkor 14-24 f/2.8@ 14mm f/8 Iso: 100
– 5 (handheld) Exposure Brackets (-2,-1,0,1,2)
– HDR Photography Processing & Tone Mapping using Photomatix Pro
– Post Processing & Color Correction in Photoshop
– Sharpened Edges with Topaz InFocus
– Enhanced detail with Nik Software Sharpener Pro
– Turned & fired at 10 paces
Daily Banana – Stalking The Burj Khalifa
(move the slider to compare before and after)
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