The Buildings of San Miguel de Allende – Part 5

In this photo essay I will show some of the colourful and wonderful architecture of San Miguel. The town population is about 80,000 not including the outer developments which brings the total population about 140,000. About 20% are expats and English speaking.

There are no front lawns or even being able to see back yards and therefore the looks inside as you walk along the streets is always filled with little wonders.

While I collected many images of the great and varied doors in San Miguel, there is a local photographer who has made a wonderful book on just such a theme.

Some homes may look desolate on the front, but are still very well kept inside.

The majority of buildings are painted very vividly and color is one item they don't seem afraid of being bold with

Only a few homes have strong rich colors. More have the muted terracotta and yellow as seen in the photo below.

A typical street near the central part of town with more business ventures out of their buildings. It seems almost everyone who has a front door also has a store of some sort.

It seems that almost everyone photographs this building. Why not, as it sure tells you where you are.

The next series, which will be the last, is more of a potpourri of photos.

Niels Henriksen

People Getting Around in San Miguel de Allende – Part 4

The previous set of images that dealt with the subject of people from San Miguel were more from a tourist perspective.  Those subjects that grab your attention. Almost demand to be photographed.

I also thought that the following set of photographs had a demand for attention. From many people I've met here in San Miguel there is this understanding of 'Mexican time'.  For all things, it generally takes  longer and can be further delayed at any time.


With Fed Ex being known for its speed, I couldn't help but notice the context of the old bent man in his blue jacket, sitting with his walker beside this sign. Is this an employee waiting for his next delivery? His orange peels also tie connection back to dual color sign.

It almost seems perfect when a complimentary color walks into the field of view. I like this version better because the door balances out nicely with the man. Whereas the other photo with the windows along the wall didn't quite match the image.

San Miguel is a city built like a taco shell. Open ends and step sides. The church 'La Paroquia' is situated on a knoll itself on one of the sides.  Therefore, most of the city streets are steep and cobblestoned. At times, I find walking tiresome. I just couldn't quite believe it when a person went cycling by on a leisurely pace up one of those steep streets.

On another part of town there was a man delivering some sort of goods to local stores while using a laden down donkey as his delivery vehicle. Several days later I saw, in more residential parts of town, a man with 6 fully loaded donkeys like below.

This man on a horse in historic dress is actually an on-duty policeman of San Miguel. As far as I can tell, there are 2 of these officers in town.

The building might be interesting by itself, but with the people we now have all 6 primary colors of  Red-Orange/Yellow/Green/Blue/Purple. The interesting part with the people is that they are all in different modes of transportation.

San Miguel is known for its strong bright colours. These can at times be all mashed together in one block.  The red scooter adds to the dominance of the bold window on the red wall.

 


Niels Henriksen

People of San Miguel de Allende Mexico– Part 3

The first two articles showed photos that a tourist would normally expect to see in and around San Miguel. They do show that San Miguel is a very vibrant and diverse town. Like most towns, its not just about the colourful buildings or its natural surroundings, it's also the daily life.

It seems that almost every weekend, sometimes even during the week, there is some sort of festival underway which eventually winds up in the main town centre, 'Le Jardin'.
On one Friday there was a large school cultural event which I think was in its 4th year, at least with my best translation.  There where hundreds of kids in colourful transitional costumes. Each group took turns on stage performing their routines.

 These 8 boys were waiting patiently, which isn't normal for most boys, for their turn on the school stage that had been set up in 'Le  Jardin'.

It's great when you can catch those unexpected movements like the boy above hanging around under the stage. The sun is always very strong and hot so any place to get in the shade is a good thing.

 The girls on the other hand have no trouble showing off and posing for a photo shoot.

 The  people come in many different outfits from what's on their face to the clothes they wear.

There are many beggars throughout the downtown core. It's obvious that they are poor, especially with the average daily wage in Mexico of $15.00US. But the troubling part is that during tourist season,  some men drop off their wives, kids and even their mothers to beg 12 hours a day. Some women even have babies cradled in their arms. There are very young children sitting all day in the same spot  with their mothers not doing anything. It seems such a waste.

But whichever way you look at it, they are poor and a helping hand is always a good thing.

There are many other people who manage to get around and seem somehow to earn money from the tourists.

Some people don't have a regular place to work and can be found working in the streets.

This lady may look frail but I bet she can out walk me.

Some people bring the pets to Le Jardin because I guess there is not already enough colour around.


Niels Henriksen

San Miguel de Allende - Part 2

While San Miguel de Allende is an historic town with lots of vivid color, there are other interesting elements besides those great buildings.

Just up the hill of Park Juarez  towards Casa de Sierra Nevada are trees loaded with Great White Egrets this time of year.

In this photo, most likely a male (but I am no expert) is bringing back a stick for female to build the nest with.

When he lands beside his mate, this is the gentle tug-of-war between them for several seconds which can be seen in the photo below.

 She always wins and then starts to add it to the nest.

Just beside the hotel are a lot of steps that lead up to a favorite lookout point. I had to stop twice to rest on the way up.

 From this image it is clear to see that San Miguel sits in a bowl. A giant bowl but lots of steep walking.

The church with spires is 'La Paroquia' and to the left is the 'Bellias Artes', the national institute of Fine Arts. To give the front building more emphasis I desaturated the background a little. Otherwise the important items get lost in the details.

If you continue  up from here, you will find the  'El Charro del  Ingenio' Botanical Gardens.  San Miguel in the winter is very dry, hasn't rained once in 5 months and therefore one would expect more desert like plants. I am sure that in the raining summer months the foliage must explode in flowers before the next drought starts.

 This part of the cactus from above eye level is at least 8 ft long.

 You can also darkened and desaturated background to enhance the yellow new growth

 

In a dry environment the colors are mainly muted browns and dull  greens. Converting to B&W takes the focus away from the dull colors to stronger patterns.

 You can, with tools in Photoshop, enhance to subtle colors and make them stronger and more vivid. De-saturating the background and darkening helps to keep the focus on the plant.

Throughout the town, the Jacaranda trees are in full bloom. It's a bit strange to see a vivid lilac-purple tree with no green leaves.

 Also, the Monarchs are starting the northern journey and settling in the trees during the night. In the day time with the warm temperatures, they are very active and hard to photograph. I did manage with a long zoom and judicious cropping to get a photo of one of the monarchs.

 I love this place. People are very friendly and the food is great.


Niels Henriksen

San Miguel de Allende - Part 1

Well, I have now been in San Miguel for 3 weeks and there has been some adjustment for a person who lives in the cold. But these are the foundations for good stories at least looking from the rear view mirror.

San Miguel is situated at 6,000 feet and therefore the heat from the direct sun is more intense. Even fully clothed it seems to go right through you. The air is thinner and very dry and while you don't seem to sweat you are still loosing a great amount of water.

It is so true what the say here at least for newbies. Drink lots of water and only walk on the shady side of the street.

San Miguel is a world heritage site and once here, it is quite evident why.

Most of the buildings have strong burnt orange and yellow painted exteriors. Here I wanted the tree shadows to add texture and more interest to the strong colors.

Some people are not afraid of strong colors as is shown by the blue exterior accented with yellow and green.

Just having images of colorful buildings after a while can be boring so having other context such as humans, animals of events create that focal interest as can be seen by the worker with his feet dangling out the window. Even his orange vest compliments the wall colors.

I only have my laptop with me and it's not color calibrated and by inherent design, have a strong contrast and high color temperature. It will be interesting to see how the look at home. I will redo the RAW on a color calibrated computer and compare them.

The Laser light show on the 'La Paroquia the dominant attraction in San Miguel de Allende and bordering 'Le Jardin', is quite vivid and interesting to watch. At one point they had vines growing up around the towers and spires.

And we mustn't forget the street dancers.

Scary but fun to watch. These night scenes were all shot at ISO 6400 and are only lit by yellow street lamps. It's therefore hard to extract any true colours.

Niels Henriksen

Why I Don't Worry About Image Theft on the Web

It doesn’t mean I don’t think about it or don’t do anything. In my situation it comes down to the potential risk and amount of harm that could incur and then doing as much as is reasonable to mitigate risks. I know there are some photographers who really should worry and don’t do enough.

Behind me is the village of Neddy Harbour Newfoundland in Grose Morne National Park. Distance 14km. The rocky dome in the very background is Grose Morne mountain.

Theft has always been a problem, even before digital images on the web, except then, it was known as 'burglaries'.  We have become good, for the most part, at securing our photographs (ie, locked houses).

The web is effectively still in its infancy and we need to understand the risk and potential harm either from lost revenue or damage to you or someone else's reputation etc.

In my case, the artistic medium of choice is large printed photographs. The web images I show are like showing a snapshot of my son as compared to you meeting him in person.  If you take the snapshot, I still have him.

Here my son is standing near the top of the table-rock formations in Newfoundland. It's late July and there is still snow at the top. The cavern in the dark is the size of those air-inflated dome stadiums.

Since my printed photographs are at a minimum 14” (4,200 pixels) and since there is no program that can create that much new information from a web image, the risk of theft here is minimal.  Also, my photographs are signed and numbered, and this creates impressions in the paper especially heavy mat. For signed images the risk is very minimal.

Goolge maps with elevation set at 2 times. The red arrow is approximately where the snow cap was and where our photographs were taken.

But even the web images have merit and I don't give them away for free. At least not free for the taking. I keep image size down to 800 pixels and use 9 of 12 compression ratio for jpeg. The images are watermarked with a small signature. At least they can say they didn’t know whose images it was. The meta data is kept within the jpeg file and this contains the copyright notice and other information.

You can never stop all theft, just look at the famous artworks in museums but you can reduce the risk.

In deciding risk you should consider:

Who:
It seems that there is theft from all walks of life but don’t forget the ones that you inadvertently give away for free like contests, web sites and the famous case on Twitter with the Haiti images. Do read the fine print and especially those sections that deal with Rights or licenses.

Size:
Images can range from either a thumbnail image on a web page to the brochure cover.
Size does matter and the smaller the better. With bigger photos there are more places it can be used. If your photos are in demand then 600 or even 400 pixels is not unreasonable. Viewers can always ask to see larger and you can decide on risk.

Genre:
If your are producing images that are in demand and this changes regularly, they take it. If it's general tourist type, then probably not a big deal. Even sometimes there is a need for nostalgia in a venue. Old and borrowing can become rediscovered and exciting.
If it's cutting edge advertising then watch out.

Harm:
Harm can come from  monetary loss of a potential sale. Someone sold an image of yours. If you don't make a living by selling your images then harm is not as drastic but still, it is money that should have been yours. They should have come to you to ask. When you post images, do make it easy for anyone to see how to contact you and whether your images are creative commons (CC) etc.

Harm can also arise from identity theft from using image of a person in another's context or even harm from image  identifying scene information that could lead to yours or someone else harm.

That is why I limit my own family and friends exposure.

If I do find any photos of mine stolen I will pursue rigorously as warranted. That is one thing you need to do in order to let courts know that theft is a legal concern for you and always has been and not just now because of large financial amount involved.

Do not forget that theft or loss can also happen if your online storage is your only source and the firm either changes entities or no longer exist.


Niels Henriksen

San Miguel de Allende

I know you were expecting photos. Well so am I.  We are heading of the this lovely place for the month of March.  I am quite excited about it as its my first trip where I leave a cold snowy environment and head to some place where its hot.

The interesting part is that I will connect with some old high school friends from Kingston as well as some bloggers both from photography and painting mediums.

My carry on bag is a backpack loaded with camera equipment.  A 18-200mm VR zoom for general purpose work. A 10-20MM Wide angel for crowed  streets. A 90mm Macro because you never know what you will find when you bend down or get too close to something. A 50mm f1.8 for evening work. SB800 flash and a 15” laptop computer.

The Tripod is in the suitcase.

I know I bring too much but I just hate not having the tools when needed. Sometimes the shot just doesn’t come around a second time.

The series on compositional elements is on hold till I get back. I hope to post some interesting images of this old town.

If any of you are also down there, give a shout maybe even a walk-about.

Niels Henriksen

Composition – Vertical Lines

I had initially thought that I would split up the vertical elements into 2 parts, but on reflection I wasn't sure how this feature is used and I didn't have any clear images for the singular vertical line.
Vertical lines run down to up or is it the other way around, up to down.  Most of our perceptions derive from nature and in nature we see vertical movement as growth. That did get me wondering whether there are times that we do view a vertical element in the downward direction.

Vertical lines  naturally tend to create emotions of
growth
newness
uplifting
spiritual

The photo itself, because of the border or edge, will modify or accentuate linear type elements.
Even in fashion vertical lines are known for their slimming effects.

As you can observe in the above photograph, the portrait format helps to re-enforce the perceived length of the long slender leaves.  Long slender items can appear frail and wispy and with the added curves at tips seem to be searching (movement) for light. The main design component in the images are triangles even in the negative spaces.

With the frame of an image, vertical lines can also create feelings  of
dominance or submissiveness (depending whether the lines are the main subject)
increased height
grandeur
strength
power
scale

Vertical lines can be used to give a sense of depth to the image and are very easily recognized within  scenes.

The above image of a train bridge is actually a negative, as this version creates more sense of depth.
The negative image creates mystery thereby, creates some viewer attention as they try to comprehend how the light and dark patterns fit together, with their understanding of real world objects.

Vertical lines are key in cityscapes, especially where tall structures are involved. Multi vertical lines do create the same effect of separation and therefore can express
permanence
separation (barriers)
tension (result of being held back)

While photographing Toronto cityscapes from a high vantage point, I saw interesting vertical patterns in the image below.

The white lines create a rigid static structure with the windows providing diverging interest by having, at first glance, each pair different. It`s only on closer inspection that you notice the 3-D nature from the dark reflective sides that run diagonally across photo.

I wanted a sense of grand, mystical and forgotten era with the bench scene.
With the use of a wide angle lens, I am able to increase apparent height in the bench.  Here, all the vertical lines and angle of shot create the floating feeling and serene setting. The early morning and yellow green glow of spring add a dream-like quality.

The vertical lines and cropping do create an effect of dominance by the blue office tower.  The rust colour of the steeple and fall foliage (enhanced) create image contrast with its old world charm. The last holdout against unstoppable advancement of civilization.

Niels Henriksen

Composition - Multi-Horizontal lines

As you might surmise, with the use of the single horizontal line it's difficult to make it a most predominant feature of an image. But with the use of many horizontal lines then we are able to use its effect and by breaking the image into parts create more varied areas of interest.

The banding can create tension between layers especially when compositional form is different either through colour or texture. There is almost the perception of a wall between the layers keeping elements at bay. 

The image of the sunset over a frozen lake demonstrates this banding and contrast effect between layers.

The number 3 is a strong design element and with other odd numbers. I guess its easier to find the  middle  with odds.

There is first the 3 layers of Sky, Earth and Water.

The brightness of  the sun and the darkness of treed landscape and the mid-tones of reflected light.

With texture there is the smoothness of distant shoreline, the speckled nature of the ice and the in-   between texture of the sky (smoothness and edges). Each major band is of a different size and colour and each has its own mini bands in between. The ducks on the ice, while not quite on the thirds, add the uniqueness to the image.

Contrast in its many forms is one of our primordial attention gathering tools.

Multi Horizontal Lines

While many of the attributes are the same as with single lines, there are some changes in our perception because now, with many scenes, there's tension created between bands and this gives the scene some potential energy.

less stable

strength

harmony

more on-hold than timelessness

evocative

Just after a thunderstorm was passing over in downtown Toronto and with a low horizon sun, the reflections changed dramatically on the glass walls on the office towers. One building's normal tint caused its reflected light to turn a vibrant green.  Below the windows were white tile panels and with the green windows created vibrant visual image. There was a section where white diagonal tiles traversed the building and this created a strong focal point. Its abstract, not to every one’s taste but with the varied texture in each of the green bands there is nice detail found by gazing around.

 The edges of the white tiles help to compliment the lines of the larger bands.

More often we tend to see multi-horizontal lines in shorter lengths, especially around buildings.

The bottom image, which I have hanging in my own home, was an interesting study in different textures found on a concrete structure. The horizontal lines of the grooved lines, block work and the flat of steps all form a cohesive pattern of permanence. This stable pattern is contrasted with the diagonal  movement of the hand rail which is re-enforced for the diagonal tips of all the blocks and stairs.

In looking for images to use, I found that this was not a feature that I had used often.

It tended to show up in wider angle landscape images. Like the sunset photo there are distinct horizontal lines and bands in the photo below. There is some stability created by the bands but some tension is created with the singular lone boat out in the vast expanse set against the dark storm clouds and augmented with the wave like hill lines in the distance.

Contrast and conflict create interest within photos, and compositional elements are only aids to set apart or unify various parts of image. When developing images,   these aids help to identify areas that re-enforce the photographer’s vision.

Niels Henriksen

Photography and Composition

Compositional elements, sometimes used as rules or guidelines to aid with creation and understanding of good photographs, is really more about human life. It is our collective memory about all that we have seen and felt, which conveys to us at an instinctual level, how we will interpret symbols. That can be found within a mass of  different shapes, sizes and colours.

Some symbols are obvious, such as the boat.  But how about directional arrows formed by triangles in the sky or on land and the directional action of waves guiding the eyes - even placement within a grid of thirds.

The boat was originally white but I liked the turquoise as it adds a little more interest, and red would have been too strong for a more tranquil scene. There was no dogging or burning of any areas to enhance triangles. But if needed, I would use these techniques to increase the effectiveness.



Horizontal Line

The most simplistic of all elements is the straight horizontal line.

I am sure that most of us are familiar with looking out over a vast expanse such as prairie fields or the open ocean, and seeing far in the distance, the earth's horizon. The eyes filling evenly above and below. That horizontal thin line seems to balance the forces between the two.
At this distance, any change in nature can take hours to manifest and therefore at normal viewing moments, seems as stable as the rocks of the earth.
Most dynamic things are upright such as animals, trees, buildings, and when at their end of life, they all lay flat on the ground. 

This gives the horizontal line emotional impressions, such as
stable
sturdy
strength
balance
timelessness
meditative 
slow 

In this picture, a rule is broken (never having an even split between sky and earth) but here the centre is the focal point and the joining line (horizon) ties all the posts and buoys together. If you look closely you will see birds on almost every post and this is the final focal interest. Works well in large print.

It is rare that any single compositional element will define the entirety of the image but there are some abstracts. More often, they are used as tools to set mood, guide direction and fix attention.  Many elements may work in harmony to create a pastoral scene or in conflict to help focus the viewers thought on differences.

In the above image the very obvious horizontal line created by the white-stone brick work, anchored by the window and sign, sets up a contest for attention with the shadows of the tree which delays  easy recognition and thereby longer gaze at photo.  Next the '59' number, which are strong attention symbols, takes us to the corner of the image but our interest is drawn back inwards along the tree branch shadows then to the window, a focal point. Here we stop to look inside as human nature dictates.

These are all compositional design pieces that hopefully help to keep viewers attention on photograph.

While there are core principles for each element, I also think that these can be influenced by our lifestyles and where we live.

I would love to hear your perceptions on how you see its effects.

Niels Henriksen