A friend recently asked me to give him a short course on how I process my photos. This wouldn’t really be that short of a course, rather I’d say a long one. When he said this I thought — maybe I could start at least giving a few of my secrets away to my blog reading public. Maybe. A few.

Now this is actually a bit of false advertising because it is not processing that I will explain, rather the compositional motivation behind two recent photos. Sound complex? Don’t worry. Its not. You’ll see the photo and understand.

Photo #1:

This is Copley Plaza in Boston, kind of a famous hotel. It has a very conventional shape that I find pleasing. However, when I was photographing it, I focused on a round middle part of the hotel that I thought was interesting. What makes the photograph work for me is the roundness and how it highlights the roundness of the rest of the hotel. The flag was just kind of a bonus.

Processing wise, of course I brought the sky in a bit and blurred the edges as well to give it a more defined edge. All in all, I think it works.

Photo #2:

In this one, I wanted to portray what I saw as the openness of the building. How it sort of looks like something that is opening up. I also wanted to follow the natural compositional lines of the scene. The other stuff was just secondary, to keep the integrity of the sun as well as the shadows.