Since I’ve started to get more invested into photography as a hobby, I’ve learned a lot, a lot about photography, light, colors, composition, exposures, shutter speed, and a bunch of other technical facets of photography. But, I’ve also learned a lot about my surroundings and they way I look at things. Some of those things I’ve learned are due to research, experience, or just luck. This photo was composed based on luck.
While in New York for our very first visit, the first thing we did was bought tickets for a sight-seeing tour bus. It was one of the double decker buses and we toured Midtown and Lower Manhattan for about two hours. Half of the buildings that I took pictures of, I have no idea what it was, but as we were sitting at a stop light, I looked down and saw this bike chained to the building. There was a contrast in colors that struck me as interesting so I took a picture.
It wasn’t until much later that I realized that the name of the store “Jon Ashe” was on both the window and punched out of the chain guard of the bicycle. I at first thought it was a random bike, but then realized that it’s part of the building. I then looked up “Jon Ashe” and learned that it’s a men’s clothing store, that I had never heard of.
I really like this photo and the way that it’s composed. The name of the store on the window, the name of the store, duplicated on the bicycle, the colors, and the fact that all components ended up in the frame and not cut off.
Is it luck that I got all these things to fit in this image? Or am I subconsciously becoming better at composing? It may be both, who knows?
