Greetings fellow users of the internet.
So, over the New Year's holidays, I went to my wife's hometown, as usual. Talk to just about anyone from my wife's hometown and they will tell you "there's nothing worth photographing here". Until this year, I've more or less believed people when they said that, and I only took my camera when attending the annual festival in spring. However, this year I decided I'd look into my wife's hometown a little more (outside of the 10 blocks or so I'm used to walking/driving around). Lo and behold, I found a neat little location that given the right conditions could make for a unique image. Upon telling my family I was going there, I was met with mild confusion as they thought it would be impossible to get an interesting photo.
I already knew I would be shooting a long exposure in black and white, but when I arrived the sun's position more or less ensured I wasn't going to get the photo I expected. Rather, I was granted an opportunity to make a quick decision to take a truly unique image from this location. Every day, people walk past this location and snap an image, but I've never seen anyone do anything like the image that suddenly popped into my head. So, I grabbed my 6 and 10 stop filters, stacked them, waited for the sun to line up perfectly with the gate, and then took the shot. Typically people will tell you mid-day is the worst time to shoot, but when you get creative, it works just as well as any sunset or sunrise.
It took me a while, but I'm starting to fall in love with this shot the more time I give it . Of course, I continued to make tweaks here and there along the way (that's why it took so long to share). At first, I really wanted to remove the bridge, but over time I realized that if I did, this could just be any other gate in the water, of which Japan has many. That being said, I may go back and see what I can do with the bridge removal before I settle on the "final version".
Let me know what you think. Also, feel free to share any interesting shots you've gotten from otherwise "average" locations and "average" conditions by doing something creative.
ISO 100
25 sec
f/13
43mm
