Perfect Storm . . .
By
John Terence Turner
Stock Asylum Columnist
Oct. 16, 2006
©
2006 John Terence Turner
Unexpected juxtaposition provides this picture's visual impact.
Most sailing images have similar or uninteresting backgrounds like oceans, distant shores, other sailboats; we’ve seen them all. The idea here was to do a sailing shot in an urban setting. The sailing had to be good, but having a city close in the background would be the surprise.
 A consistent theme in John Terence Turner's column has been the importance of making sure that everything fits together visually. Finding the right location or waiting for the right conditions can mean the difference between a great image and an average or poor image. Here the photographer waited three days for the right weather to show off Patagonia's foul-weather gear. ( © John Terence Turner ). |
In Seattle, we have a Center For Wooden Boats where wooden boats are built and restored and where people learn to sail them. It is located on the south shore of Lake Union, a lake just north of the business district that is used by industry, houseboats and restaurants.
The client, Patagonia, wanted to show their foul-weather gear in action. The boat itself was a replica of an antique sloop, complete with the old-style tanbark sails. My sailor was Dick Wagner, the founder of the center.
The weather forecast predicted a stormy Saturday so we assembled at the Center For Wooden Boats, but were disappointed when confronted with a perfectly lovely day. It was sunny and windless.
Kayakers abounded on Lake Union. Their biggest problem was having sufficient sun block. The weather service was wrong again. For a foul-weather gear shot you really ought to have foul weather and we didn’t.
The next day looked the same, but the weather pictures showed an oncoming front. In Seattle, storms almost always come from the southwest. They come out of the Pacific Ocean around the southern end of the Olympic Mountains. On this day the storm came in to push away the sunshine and blue skies. I was happy.
As you can see in this picture, there was still a little sunshine, but the storm front fills the southern sky and the wind is kicking up, filling the little sloop’s antique tanbark sails. I’m shooting from north to south. Had I turned 180 degrees I would have seen clear, sunny blue skies, but this view suited my purpose just fine.
Riding in a motorized chase boat, we paralleled the sloop as it tacked back and forth across Lake Union. I shot bursts of exposures with a Nikon F5 and several lenses. We kept the chase boat in a position so that we could see the tall buildings of downtown Seattle behind the sailboat.
Because the storm was in the process of obscuring the sun, the light was changing dramatically. As you can see in this shot, I had a dark sky, but with a backlit subject and sunlight bouncing off the water.
I had a hand meter ready and I used it constantly to meter the ambient light facing away from the sun. That gave me exposure readings that prevented the sailor from becoming a silhouette.
Though light meters in today's cameras work very well in a variety of circumstances, the harsh light coming off the water on the left of this image could create havoc with even the most sophisticated metering systems. In a rapidly changing situation like this, the best shot may not be repeatable so photographers must take careful control of exposure settings and get them right every time.
Dick’s sailing was expert. He balanced on the windward rail and the sloop heeled over as he steered close to the wind. The sailor and boat looked like a painting by Winslow Homer. After taking in the little antique boat and its helmsman, the viewer's eye moves to the background and there is a modern American city. The visual surprise is achieved.
The other element that still pleases me is that this looks like a black-and-white photograph except for the boat. If you read my previous column about contrast, you know that I sometimes use tonal contrast to attract the viewers eye to an important feature of an image. Color contrast, using a bright color against a cool or subdued background, can be equally effective. (For the previous column, click here.)
In this image, the client’s product comes through in an authentic foul-weather gear moment. Patagonia used a different frame, but this one is my favorite.
(John Terence Turner has been shooting stock photography for 20 years. His work can be seen at Getty Images, Alamy and, of course, The Stock Asylum, where his column appears twice a month. He lives and works in Seattle, WA.)
Turner's web site can be found at: http://www.johnterenceturner.com.
For more of his images: click here.
For all of Turner's columns: click here.
