Friday, November 27, 2009

The attraction of spiral staircases

click photo to enlarge
Like a lot of photographers I find myself drawn to spiral staircases. The helix shape (they're not spirals as mathematicians understand the term) lends itself to interesting compositions from above, below and from the side. Add a dark shadow and you can have a perplexing image, especially if you convert it to black and white.

Over recent years I've taken several photographs of spiral staircases, and in no instance (I think) have I produced an image that I haven't posted on the blog. That fact says something about either the visual interest of this subject or, perhaps, my lack of imagination. I'm currently "otherwise engaged" on a tiling project which gives me rather less time than usual for photography, so here's yet another spiral staircase. This one was on a hotel near the Thames in Rotherhithe, London. In fact, my wife pointed it out to me - she knows my proclivities better than anyone!

For anyone who is interested, here are the links to my other photographs of spiral staircases.

Images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Lumix LX3
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 11.1mm (52mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f4
Shutter Speed: 1/1000
ISO: 80
Exposure Compensation: -1.0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On