It may have turned a bit chilly here in the UK lately but it wasn’t that long ago that we were enduring a heatwave and that was when I took this photo of someone “fending off” the sun with their brolly.
I was initially drawn to the bench that was fixed to the top of the wall with the legs behind it but then found the shape of the scene intriguing and after exploring it for a while these two people came and sat down on the bench. Suddenly the one holding the brolly lifted it up, presumably to try and provide shade for the two of them yet it looks like they are trying to fight off the rays of the sun which provided me with a great photo opportunity.
What makes this photo a stopper, i.e a photo that will make people stop and engage with your content?
Composition
Firstly the composition is strong. The two subjects are centrally located in the middle bottom of the photo using the classic rule of thirds for composition, and the rays from the sun point directly to the two people on the bench. It also has a strong symmetry with the straight lines of the grass, the concrete wall and the sky.
Style
It is a very graphic image with not a lot of detail in it just the people on the bench and the sun itself. On a small screen though it will make you zoom in to see more of what the people are doing.
Lighting
Although the sun is more or less directly overhead, which is often the worse time to take photos, this one makes use of the lighting from it by using the sun as part of the subject matter. It also helps throw the subjects into a semi-silhouette so you focus on the shapes and not the details.
Colour
The image is mainly the blue colour of the sky, and the foreground contrasts nicely with this. The subjects sit alone on the blue with no other people or details in the sky area. other than the sun rays themselves.
Current Affairs
It’s very relevant to the current issues of the world with the climate crisis very much in the news, as it shows the strength of the sun and the effects of the heatwave.
Humour
There is an element of humour in this image as well, partly from the futility of the people trying to defend themselves from the power of the sun with just an umbrella, but if you look closely at the people they are similar in shape and size to the comedy duo Laurel & Hardy and the person on the right is even scratching their head in a similar vein to Stan Laurel when things weren’t going well!
:DK
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