Photographing a City's ArchitectureMichael Snell highlights a true sense of place in Kansas and Quebec City with the Tamron 18-270mm VC PZD lens. |
Article by Jenn Gidman Images by Michael Snell |
Kansas and Quebec City may be separated by thousands of miles, but both are replete with a rich architectural landscape that also serves as a prime photographic opportunity. Michael Snell has taken images in both (he hails from Kansas). "I've been working on a series about small-town Kansas," he says. "As for Quebec: I don't think you can go anywhere better in North America for this type of architectural photography. It's an extremely intact old city with blocks and blocks of terrific architecture to work with." |
Michael brought along the Tamron 18-270mm VC PZD lens on his photographic adventures to capture all of the architectural character of his host cities. "You've got so many options with the 18-270," he says. "You've got the ultra-wide, you've got the telephoto end if you really want to compress a shot. The lens allowed me to explore many possibilities without changing lenses. I was effectively able to walk around whichever city I was in and 'sketch' what I was going to shoot." |
The light weight (15.9 oz.) of the world's smallest zoom lens makes the 18-270 the ideal travel companion. "It's one of the lightest lenses I've used," says Michael. "I also really like the Zoom Lock feature: I never have to worry about the lens extending and banging into things. As for the Vibration Compensation feature, I pretty much just turn it on and leave it on. I've had some issues with image stabilization on other lenses, but it's different in the 18-270 - it grips and locks and feels really solid." |
Michael, who worked in the field of historical preservation as a researcher and photographer in college, has always had an avid interest in architectural imagery. "Sometimes the whole street scene is what you need to paint a picture of a place, but sometimes it's just a façade or a part of a façade that can sum it up, too," he says. "I like to shoot a variety of wide, establishing shots that offer the flavor of the local architecture in combination, then follow that up with tight detail shots. I find art directors use both in different ways - it's good to provide them with both kinds of images." |
It's natural to think of straight, sleek lines when you think of architectural photography, but you can contrast that man-made symmetry with interesting angles. "I took a picture of a small church on a cobblestone street where I played around with the angles and shadows," Michael says. "If I had taken it straight on, there would have been some wide-angle distortion where it looked like the buildings were leaning back because of the converging vertical lines, but by tilting the frame just a little bit, all of those angles come together in a different way. It lends something to the image rather than detracting from it." |
Michael likes to use the 18-270 to zoom in on façade details. "I like flatness in this kind of photography," he says. "When you're shooting landscape photography, you're usually looking for some kind of depth to draw the viewer in, but with architectural photography, you sometimes want the opposite effect. Some of the detail shots I took in this series are gridded out in the frame and don't really show a lot of perspective. I love the telephoto end of the 18-270 for that reason - it gives me that flat, graphic look to really enhance this kind of image." |
Time of day is critical when photographing on city streets. "With architecture, your subjects are locked where they are - it's not like you can move your subject more into the shade or the sun, like you can while shooting portraiture," Michael says. "That said, I don't know that there's ever bad light. All times of day can work well to capture the look and feel of a city's architectural character. I photographed a huge trompe l'oeil in Quebec on an overcast morning when I didn't get the warm sun I was expecting - the light was nice and soft, though, and really showed off the artwork. Even at high noon, the light might bounce between the buildings in just the right way to really give you a great image." |
Michael's favorite time to shoot, however, is in the early morning and evenings. "Take advantage of that early time, especially when you're traveling and in a large city," he says. "No one's up yet, so you can photograph the buildings without bumping into 500 tourists - it's a clean, open scene. Plus it's nice to see the city wake up in the morning: The shopkeepers are coming out to open up, sweeping the sidewalks." |
Many of Michael's favorite shots in Quebec City were taken predawn or just after dawn. "I've always loved that combination of warm orange-tungsten light with that cool cobalt-blue sky you get right before sunrise," he says. "There may be a lot of contrast to deal with, but with digital I have a lot of latitude. I shoot in RAW, so there's typically enough information in one frame so I usually don't even have to assemble multiple images in HDR." |
The sky is often a perfect complement to Michael's architectural compositions. "The sky is moving and dynamic, and if you wait a few minutes, it can change entirely, especially in this part of the country," he says. "The weather in the central states tends to move through pretty fast here: You can go from full sun to wispy clouds to thunderstorms in minutes, and all those convey a different mood." |
It's also worth watching the clouds to ensure the bright and dark spots are balanced in your image. "When I photographed a theater in Kansas, it was nice that the darkest part of the cloud wasn't going behind that theater marquee - it's got a little separation of brightness behind it," Michael says. "If I had taken the photo five minutes earlier or five minutes later, it might not have worked in my favor that way. Try to wait a few minutes if you feel a scene is missing something - a cloud may drift into place so it becomes a valuable part of your composition." |
Working in other elements or natural surroundings is another way to enhance your images. "I photographed a tower that showed two American flags in the photo: one in the foreground and one against the building," Michael says. "That foreground/background aspect lends some depth to the image instead of it all being on one plane. The flags also added a pop of color and helped out with a bright section of the sky. If I didn't have that flag in the foreground, I would have had this gaping bright area in the upper right corner of the image." |
Incorporating nearby elements can also help draw the viewer's eye away from more distracting aspects of the photo. "No matter where I go in the world, a primary landmark is always covered in scaffolding when I get there," Michael laughs. "When I was in Quebec, I shot this one tower every evening right before twilight. They had covered the scaffolding on this building with a giant drop cloth that had an image of the building itself printed on it (you have to look carefully). I worked with the trees to try to figure out how to cover up much of the construction work. It's nice, too, because not only is the building backlit, but the larger tree is, too, which really makes it pop in the image. I wish I had known about this scaffolding phenomenon before I started traveling - I could have had an entire book of famous landmarks covered in scaffolding by now!" |
To see more of Michael Snell's images, go to www.michaelcsnell.com. |