Show us your eye for interesting urban details
After a quick break to refuel and cool off, we headed inland to explore the urban side of Brighton. Alain and Ben headed to the Lanes, an area famous for its narrow alleyways and boutique shops. It’s easy to find yourself aimlessly wandering districts like this with no real agenda – and sometimes that can result in unexpected pictures – but we were on a fairly tight schedule. With that in mind, we quickly identified a couple of hotspots – a busy corner crossing, a wall covered in graffiti – where we paused in the hope of things developing. That’s when Alain spotted this bicycle.
“The Lanes reminds me of the old-fashioned Brighton, in which the bike remains the best mode of transport,” says Alain. “The idea of the black-and-white conversion preserving the single colour of the bicycle frame is not original, but I believe it works well here because the background brings little to the composition, and the angled light produces interesting highlights in the chrome and a strong shadow. That vivid yellow colour is the icing on the cake, as it is rather rare on bikes.”
Expert opinion
Alain’s right: spot colour is a technique that’s as old as the hills, but here the arresting combination of yellow, black and white works well. In a standard full-colour treatment, the bike would have been lost in the warm light and yellowed paving. The monochrome treatment also removes potential background distractions in the shadowed area.
Derek headed into the Lanes area later, preferring to initially work the area around the Royal Pavilion – a Grade I listed seaside residence of George, Prince of Wales, that was built in 1787. Like the West Pier, the Royal Pavilion has been photographed extensively, so once you’ve got the iconic views in the bag it’s definitely worth looking at ways that you can put your own spin on it. “Being an architect I have visited many iconic buildings,” says Derek. “Over the years the best viewpoints have already been identified, and the images have been created. Sometimes I find that a close crop can tell us more than the bigger picture. In this case the curves, patterns and the patina of age in the photo help to get to the essence of the building.”
Derek rolled out one of the most potent weapons in the Olympus Micro Four Thirds arsenal to achieve this tight crop. The 75-300mm lens gives an equivalent view to a 150-600mm lens on a full-frame camera (indeed, he only needed to take the focal length to 124mm, equivalent to 248mm in a full-frame), but in a form factor that’s much easier to carry and hold.
Expert opinion
Once again, Derek’s trained eye for structure comes to the fore in this shot. Closing in on an odd number of design details (both the seven leaf-like windows and the 11 points on the crown-like shape) allows him to create a balanced frame, with an even number of features each side of the central elements.