(Camera: Ricoh GXR A12 28mm)This is how I came up with this shot:
It was a rather cold late afternoon when I walked past this beggar, and so did the other passers-by. There he was under the dimly lit footbridge, crouching and waiting fruitlessly for some coins. As the wind blew, the coldness tightened the grip on him, as well as on the passers-by who were so made to hurry home.
It immediately came to me that there was the photography opportunity, and the shot had to reproduce the atmosphere of loneliness. But how?
The passing crowds and the lonely beggar made a stark contrast. I hoped to take a picture of such a scene for the busyness could actually make manifest the loneliness. Contrast can highlight a theme. But the space was too tight for even the 28mm lens to include the subjects needed for the shot. I paused a bit and noticed the yellowish street light and the shadowy patterns on the wall.
At once, I biased the white balance to bluish-pink to balance out the yellow cast. More importantly, this also added a pinkish warm feel on the wall to contrast the somber tone of the beggar. The contrast was heightened by the composition to put the light source (the lamp), denoting hope, and the beggar, representing loneliness, on two corners connected by an invisible diagonal line -- the typical reading habit from right to left, the viewers' eyes will be naturally guided from hope (lamp) to loneliness (beggar). The light, the shadowy transition of the wall and finally the gloomy beggar with his darkened shadow all came together to bring out the theme of loneliness.
This is my unique point of view in reproducing the scene and the subjective atmosphere.
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As a side note, I like the white balance correction function in Ricoh cameras a lot. But it seems that there is no way to register the tuned up WB to even the customisable slots. Curious.
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