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Thilo, a student of mine living in Holland, sent me this photo for me to talk about. Here’s what he said:
Hi Joe,
I recently got this shot done at sunrise. No post processing beyond reducing the exposure by 1 stop.
I wonder what’s your opinion on this one. Maybe I am just too much used to the sight of windmills by now, but I wonder whether this might be too stereotypical to be good?”
Cheers,
Thilo”
Here’s a really good photographer that lives in Holland. Since he has grown up around windmills, he might not be as enamored by now.
What’s important to remember Thilo, is that very few people in the world have been around windmills, unfortunately myself included. Other than reading Don Quixote (who by the way was Spanish), I’ve only seen pictures of windmills. I will tell you that if you Google up pictures of Dutch Windmills, at least half of them would make Don Q turn over in his grave. Looking at photos of windmills taken in the middle of the day leaves little room for the dramatic.
Having said that, since you’re Dutch, and are able to shoot windmills all year long, your prime responsibility (as a good shooter) should be to make people that have only seen bad pictures fall in love with not only the historical side of Holland but the romantic side as well.
To me, you’ve done this in this photo. There’s a lot to look at besides the windmill; the Visual Tension you’ve created by showing the subject and it’s reflection for one. Adding a human element for another. I also like the fact that you have the person about to leave the frame which also creates Tension and makes the viewer wonder where he’s going by implying content outside of your composition.
One of my personal pearls of wisdom I talk about in both my online class with the BPSOP, and my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet is, “In a perfect world, what if”? What that means is that if you could go back and change anything you wanted, what would you change”? In this situation, I would have turned the windmill so you could see all four vanes (blades).
One last note. When I lightened it by about two stops, it looks a lot better overall. For one thing, the silhouette of the bicycle is a “quicker read”.
I can look at GOOD photos of windmills all day long…but then I’m a romantic at heart!!!
Thanks for sharing.
Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.
