Access: First Step To Great Images

 Access: First Step To Great Images

by William Lulow

A while ago, I wrote a piece about “access” in which I stated that photographers first need to be at a location physically in order to be in a position to make photographs of a person, place, thing or event. If you are not in close proximity to what you are photographing, well, you’re not going to get a photograph, period, much less a good one. I was speaking then about concerts and musicians. You need to be in a position to make photographs first. Then you need to have the equipment and know-how to make those images interesting. Well, this is no less true when you are attempting to make images of things.

Lately, I wanted to make an iconic image of the newly completed Governor Mario Cuomo Bridge north of New York City. Since I use the bridge regularly and have seen it at virtually all times of the day and night, I thought making a sunset image of the bridge would not only highlight it’s shape, which although not totally unique, is different enough for the New York area, but would also serve to add some glamour to it.

Being familiar with the area was a huge help because “access” means knowing where to position the camera for best effect. When you are trying to photograph large structures like buildings, houses or bridges, it is imperative that you find just the right location from the many available, to say what you want to say in your image. You also need to be there long enough for just the right light.

Natural light can be a fleeting thing. It changes virtually every moment. So my technique includes taking many images, especially during a sunset, in order to capture just the right colors and hues. Sometimes the sun can disappear from the horizon in a few seconds.

In the case of the bridge, I got to my position well enough in advance of the sunset to be able to decide what my exact shot would be. Then, it was just a matter of waiting until the sunset and other elements like the lights on the bridge to be right.

So, here are some of the shots I made along the way with the final one below:

These kinds of images would have shown up in a “contact sheet” if I were shooting film, but I have tried to reproduce images in my thought process while writing this post. The first image was just to get my bearings on camera position and composition. As the light changed, you can see my thoughts about whether the image should be horizontal or vertical and I eventually settled on the horizontal composition.The third image was interesting but the sunset wasn’t quite deep enough. And, I used several lenses from my 20mm to my 85mm and finally settled on the 60mm for the final shot. The fourth image was starting to get more interesting as well as much more saturated as far as the sunset was concerned. The fifth image was really starting to get close to what I had initially envisioned, except for one element:

the lights on the bridge. So, I decided to make the final image a bit lighter, still preserving the warmth of the sunset, but adding the bridge’s lights to make the image complete.

But the notion of “access” is still paramount to making a successful photograph. I knew where I wanted to set the camera and I had an idea of the kind of image I wanted to make. Then it was a question of assembling all the elements I needed.

Here is another “bridge” shot from a recent trip to San Francisco:

In this shot, a friend (a long time San Francisco resident), showed me this location and I immediately saw the photographic potential in it. So, if you know where to stand and when, you can make some incredible images. Someone once famously said, “Give me where to stand and I will move the earth!”