Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Melbourne, Street - How to get a better shot of the Parliament House of Victoria, Pt. 1

One of the things I find challenging as a photographer is when I had to photograph iconic buildings. By that, I mean things like the Empire State Buildings of the world, the Eiffel Towers of the world, the Sydney Opera Houses of the world, etc. 

These buildings have been photographed so often by millions of tourists/amateur photographer, that anything you capture wouldn't be hard to stand out at all (unless you're really, really, really, and I mean really good). 

Which means you're in the next category - the real professional photographers out there who dedicate entire days/weeks/months staking it out, observing the sun/weather/clouds just to get those picture-perfect tourist postcards images that you and I send home to our family when we're travelling. 

So what's the point then if I can't create anything nearly as good as what a lot of good amateurs could do, and what a lot of pros could do?

Let's take for example, the Parliament House of Victoria here in Melbourne. 

A lot of tourists would stop by this place and take a picture of themselves in front of it. Some would take a shot like this, trying to fit it all in - 


Picture wasn't taken by me, but from this website. 


So how would you do it differently? Any good shots to share?

I'll post a few up tomorrow and I'd love to know what you think of them.

3 comments:

  1. When I bought my wide angle the best thing I learnt is that it's not about fitting it all in, it's about getting close! I'm looking forward to seeing your shots of Parliament House

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  2. I am no photographer but this is what I suggest.

    How about capturing it on a rainy night. With chocoblock traffic, headlights on, umbrellas flying and pedestrians running to shade from the rain....

    But the Parliament is still so magestic with its night cap on !!!

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  3. Katie: Wide angle to get close? Hmm... very Zen-ish. But I love wide angle lenses - my LX-3's 24mm at the wide end have served me well. Hope you like the pics I posted. Got another one to share! :)

    Christina: Sounds majestic indeed, although I'm sure it'll be pretty hard to capture what you had in mind. Maybe next time when it's raining and at night, I'll try it out. :)

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