Along Prinsengracht Canal again

I’ve already told you that I had spent a significant amount of time standing on top of a little bridge along Prinsengracht Canal photographing the boats that sailed under me. The fact of the matter is that I must have spent well over 80 hours standing on top of this bridge during the two months. And a further 80 odd hours just soaking in the architecture, trees and birds along Prinsengracht Canal. I’m very fond of this strip.

I have photographed well over 300 sets of boats.

I’m not particularly excited about a lot of them. And I don’t particularly remember making this one. Perhaps that’s because I didn’t think much of it whilst I previewed it off the camera a few seconds after the moment had passed by.

I carry a very basic MacBook on my travels. I use it to transfer the photographs from my CF cards to my external hard drive. Whilst it just about manages to do the transfer, it struggles to preview RAW files that weigh 25 odd megabytes each; never mind editing them! And so I don’t bother to review my photos at the end of each day, “why waste precious abroad time when I can do it back home?” I figured. And besides, I can’t review any of the photos that I’ve made using film anyway!

About a month and a half ago, I got down to browsing through all of the photos that I’d made since June. I looked at this one. The first thing that I noticed was the pink rug on the floor that matched the woman’s shirt. In fact, it even adds contrast. I noticed the dog only after a couple of minutes of staring at this photo. I’m greatly amused by its expression. The blue box to the right of the woman matches the engine in shape and colour. And the green of the boat matches the dog’s leash.

Composition is all about balance. All the elements in the frame must be in perfect harmony with each other and indeed the universe. Colour photography is also about colour balance.

A photo like this one does not happen everyday.

FIN

PS I forgot to mention the brown of the dog and the gallon to the left of the woman.
And also the cylinder at the top left. It balances the blue box and engine.