Last Friday I shared an Adobe Spark Page of my favorite Spiral Staircase photos (here’s the link in case you missed it). Anyway, I wrote that those were my favorites, but of course, I’ve photographed other spiral staircases, and different shots of the same ones, that didn’t make “the cut” and weren’t included in my Spark Page.
Today, I thought I’d share some of those shots that didn’t make the cut here, as I thought it might be helpful for educational purposes to see the ones that weren’t good enough (and being able to sort the wheat from the chaff, the Bartles from the James, the Hall from the Oates, is an important part of our job as photographers). So, knowing all that (and that you’re about to see some total B and C-level photos), here’s goes nuthin’:
This one is probably the best one of the bunch, so I’m starting with it to kind of ease you into it. It’s really not that bad, but it’s also really not that great so I pulled it from the post. It also took a lot of Photoshop work just to get to the state you see here, so maybe I’m also seeing that when I look at the shot.
This is one my friend Dave Williams (of “Tuesdays with Dave”) really wanted to shoot, and a lot of folks really love this ancient ceremonial well/staircase known as “The Masonic Initiation Wells of the Quinta da Regaleira,” but I wasn’t super digging it. I don’t know if it’s the color, or the angle or what, but this one definitely did not make the cut. It may be somewhat interesting, but I don’t think it’s beautiful.
Above: Not much better from the bottom of the well looking up, either.
Above: This staircase has potential, but the day we were there, they were doing some maintenance on the upper floors and they closed those off so we could only access the 2nd level and the floor level. Not awesome, and a weird angle to boot.
This isn’t awful, but it ain’t good. I went to Sommerset to shoot this amazing, incredible super-modernistic glass spiral staircase…but it was closed that weekend, and they said, “you can shoot this one just down the hall.” My buddy Dave, our friend Peter Treadway, and I shot it to death. To death! Nothing. This was the best of the bunch and it’s not awesome (to say the least).
Yeah, it’s not getting better from up high. Oh, well. Moving on.
Above: that’s another view, from the bottom, of that awesome spiral staircase in the Hilton Reykjavik, Iceland. It looks very different since from the top you see all red carpet. I wish it was centered up a bit more, but this one isn’t actually too bad. I think I could have snuck this one in the keepers.
Above: Here’s one that didn’t make the cut from San Francisco’s Mechanic’s Institute Library. The railing is all just distorted and everything. Kind of a symmetrical mess.
This is the other side of the Embarcadero staircase shot I shared on the Spark page. Now I see why I liked my shots from the other side so much better. Total “meh.”
I spare you the pain of any more, but there ya go. The photos that didn’t make the cut. I hope you found that helpful, interesting, (nauseating)?
Now, as we go into this week, I want you to think of these images any time you feel down about your own photography. That way, you can say to yourself, “OK, I may not have nailed this shoot, but at least it wasn’t as bad those spiral staircase shots Scott took that didn’t make the cut.” I’m glad I could be an inspiration. LOL!! ;-)
-Scott
P.S. We’re just about two weeks from ‘The Landscape Conference.” It’s going to be awesome, and you don’t want to miss it. Details and tickets at this link. It’s going to be (wait for it…wait for it…) epic! :)
