By Anders Woztke. A gloomy day in Kyoto did little to stop thousands of tourists – myself included – from flocking to the famous orange gates of Fushimi Inari Shrine. Stubbornly determined to get a shot without the flood of fellow admirers in frame, I waited until a break in traffic granted me precious few seconds to snap this composition of my travelling companion. The result was notably underexposed due to the overcast day, but by shooting RAW, I was able to bring it to life in the edit. I couldn’t be more pleased with the result!
A thousand gates by Anders Woztke
Sony A7 ll; Sony Zeiss 55mm f1.8 @ 55mm; f/1.8; 1/100s; ISO 400
Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kyoto, Japan
A gloomy day in Kyoto did little to stop thousands of tourists ““ myself included ““ from flocking to the famous orange gates of Fushimi Inari Shrine. Stubbornly determined to get a shot without the flood of fellow admirers in frame, I waited until a break in traffic granted me precious few seconds to snap this composition of my travelling companion. The result was notably underexposed due to the overcast day, but by shooting RAW, I was able to bring it to life in the edit. I couldn’t be more pleased with the result!
Don’s response
Nothing like a splash of bright colour to catch the eye. Anders Woztke’s composition isn’t strikingly unique, but it still manages to be visually interesting thanks to the adroit use of the rule of thirds for the subject’s postion.
The pleasing curve in the path to the vanishing point also works well and the grace notes of the orange latch on the girl’s bag and the black lamp hanging in the upper foreground.
By using a wide aperture, the photographer has compressed the depth of field so that it’s really in focus just ahead of and behind the figure. While I understand the thinking here, I wonder if the hyperfocal point might have been nudged a little closer to the camera so that the aforementioned lamp not so distractingly blurred.
