Selected Shots of 2016 (II)

Part 2: Without People

• Photographing people is fine (see last post: Selected Shots of 2016 (I)), but for me there is equal appeal in pictures with inanimate subjects, especially the kind which lean toward urban minimalism.

Here are twelve shots with no human subject that sum up my 2016. They are in no particular order.

1.

Old Dubai is a treasure trove of interesting arrangements of lines, shapes, and colour like this one of a heavily painted wall, door, utility box, and cable. It is part of the photo series Basic Dubai, a collection of shots which are compositionally simple and have at least a hint of minimalism.

2.

A traffic sign and a wall in a residential area of Athens had me thinking about the appeal of negative space. It is taken from the series Basic Athens.

3.

An interplay of cable, shadow, and door frame caught my eye while walking through the main town of Aegina island, a short ferry ride from Athens. It is part of the photo series Basic Aegina.

4.

It was well past midnight and I was on the tarmac of Dubai International Airport about to board a plane. There was no time to fiddle with camera settings and framing, so I could  manage only one shot as I passed by the massive wing engine. The result was one of my favourites of the year, as simple as it may be.

5.

Having just returned to Japan after nearly two weeks of travel which took me to The Emirates and Greece, I was on a hike in Nara when, in the middle of a forest, I was struck by the lush greenery in the trees as something to savour in place of the grime, concrete, and grit found on my recent trip abroad.

6.

There’s something oddly attractive about pipes. I was caught here by the juxtaposition of gentle curves and hard lines in this doorway to a an old home in Osaka.

7.

Somewhere in downtown Osaka I came across this mysterious fixture on the outside of a building. I liked how the pipes ran perpendicular to the unusual trimming on the base of the wall. It’s part of a small set of minimalist images which ran in Autumn. See ••• and the posts which precede it.

8.

At the entrance to Athens International Airport was this flagpole bearing the Greek flag. As it billowed in the wind, I liked how it created fluid lines which contrasted with the hard edges of the airport building behind it.

9.

Bright blue days are always to be appreciated. In this geeky shot I like the sunlit plaster walls and the tile trimmings. It’s part of small set of images featuring the tiling of traditional Japanese architecture, commonly found in temple compounds. See ••••.

10.

This is a blend of lines from a large parasol and the fence of a terraced beach cafe outside Kobe, Japan. Here I spent the better part of an afternoon drinking a few beers in the shade. Ah, summer.

11.

There is something alluring about the desert. Dubai Dunes is a small series of shots from a desert outing in The Emirates.

12.

Wandering about Osaka Station, I happened to look up and saw this interesting combination of lines, shapes and angles that made up the  ceiling. I framed it square because it accentuated these elements. It’s part of a small set called Theme of Angle.

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Selected Shots of 2016:
Part 1 (People) | Part 2 (Without People) | Part 3 (Rejects)