Sunday 28 March 2010

A Different View

This week, guest blogger Guy Thouret of Green Robot Studio talks us through his favourite travel photos, revealing that there can be more to this genre than run-of-the-mill tourist snaps!

Forgotten Corner of NASA


I love this shot because I find it to be a truly bizarre scene. I went for a walk around Stevens Creek Nature Reserve, which neighbours the NASA airfield in Mountain View, California. I looked across and thought, "Oh that looks like a derelict airport building," seeing the tower, the building and a shuttle bus. As I stared longer, my perception changed and this is what I think has been captured in the photo. 

You start to see that the 'building' has porches and is possibly a prop (you can see lean to supports through the window apertures). The bus has actually been crashed into a pile of rubble. As your eye starts to wander around to see what other hidden detail there is you see to the right of the bus is a burned out crushed car, coming closer, the leaned-to planks with similar looking blast (and bullet) holes in them and right at the front a strange six wheeled vehicle on a trailer. Putting all these fragments of detail together makes me imagine what possible scientific, NASA-related scenarios could have played out in this small, forgotten-looking corner of the airfield.

Odd One Out


The only thing that sets this apart from any other picture taken of any of the buildings that make up the skyline of New York was the time of day it was taken. The sun had set and it was almost dark with just a very low light level remaining.

The camera was set to the correct exposure for the lighting on the buildings with the idea that this would emphasise them while still exposing the remaining natural light to make the buildings visible. The result was completely unplanned. I ended up with a beautiful, cool blue tone across all of the buildings apart from the one uninspiring, boxy modern tower that appears black, making it stand out from the other more aesthetically appealing buildings. I guarantee you it is not Photoshopped - this is how the image came from the camera. It goes to show that you can never entirely predict what the end result will be.


For Your Safety...

While walking around Alcatraz Island in San Francisco, I had been joking about the amount of pointless signs there were all over the place instructing to do something 'for your safety'. They were everywhere! I had started snapping them with the idea of making some sort of a collage of pointless signs when I came across this stack of barriers. Already wearing their safety signs in a pre-emptive move that no matter where these barriers are placed they will have been placed by someone who thinks we need protecting.

Question for Guy? Post a comment below or visit Green Robot Studio on Etsy.

No comments:

Post a Comment