“Strange things blow in through my window on the wings of the night wind and I don’t worry about my destiny.”
–Carl Sandburg
Light beams through what seems to be an opening to an outside world illuminating the dark passage. When in fact, it is a spiral staircase inside the Milwaukee Public Library in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Like many, many other folks before, I looked up and thought that this would make a great photo. But then I wondered how I could make the shot a bit different, perhaps more unique, than the countless other spiral staircase images. It was quite dark in this area (I shot this at 640 ISO at 1/15), and I didn’t have my tripod handy, so I snapped a few frames, hoping to come back at a later date to really explore.
It was not until processing, that the “a ha!” moment struck – simply rotate the image 90 degrees counterclockwise! The way the light falls in the shot, when turned, the opening to the upper floors resembles a window. (Try it, turn your head sideways and see if it looks much more like a staircase to you.)
I’m always amazed at how a simple crop or a rotation can change the way an image is perceived.
Day 150 of 365.
As always, please feel free to leave comments here if you have any questions. Click here to see more of my work.
