This is the third image of the my weekend visit to Leinster House that I’ve chosen to post. The first was very much a record shot, and for me, an opportunity to take a photograph that I will not often get the opportunity to take. Yesterday I posted an image which was more abstract in form, to some extent a study in composition and, conveniently, a photograph that I quite like. Today’s photograph is more recognisable, but also is one of those photographs I sometimes take that I like quite a lot, but for reasons I can’t quite explain.
On the face of it this is an architectural shot of the exterior of Leinster House taken from within the main gates on the Kildare Street side of the building. When I went out to the front of the building with my camera, in my mind’s eye I foresaw a shot which would take in a wide sweep of the building and the courtyard and so had already chosen to use my widest lens – which happens to be the fisheye lens.
A confession at this point – my name is Rónan and I’m addicted to my fisheye lens. It is one of those lenses that can easily become overused (and I easily overuse it). However in my defence until I acquire a 10 or 12mm wide-angle lens the fisheye will continue to offer me photographic opportunities that other lenses in my bag won’t. In its defence it offers a unique viewpoint on the world that creates some eye catching and attractive images. In fact, possibly my two most successful images to date – of Kilmainham and the Galway Docks – have both been taken with the fisheye lens.
So with that cleared up you might understand why it was my lens of choice for the photograph I wanted to take.
The photograph I did take is a little different and perhaps it is this which makes it an image I like for reasons I don’t understand. When I got to the courtyard and walked towards the gate a semi circle of empty seats and music stands greeted me. At the fore was a music stand all set up for an unseen conductor of this unseen orchestra. I stood there for a moment before taking the shot and before the exposure was even complete I knew this photograph would be one that would stay prominent in my archive of images.
The first photograph I ever posted on this blog was a humourous photograph titled “AC/DC fans” and when I entered it into competition in the camera club last December, I was somewhat surprised at how much the judge that night loved that photograph and saw something surreal in it that I perhaps had not seen. I feel there is something surreal about this photograph and that it hints at the power of an image to tell the story – in this case the story of an event that has not yet happened. You might disagree. You might not like the image at all. Or perhaps you think it is well exposed, well composed and in focus. If that is so, I’ll settle for that.
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