First assignment approval and how it happened!

I've tried to get images selected for assignments, but had never succeeded. Until now. The "Retro Look" call for assignments was of great interest to me. This was like an open invitation to get iphone or android app processed images or even Lomo-ish images out into the competition, something I'd dare not venture to post otherwise.

I tried a couple of times and got rejected and hence was looking for a good subject. While on a trip to the UAE, I thought it would be a good idea to shoot either the brilliant sunsets of the Marina and its apartment complexes or the beautiful mosques in the region. I tried both, and found success with the Grand Mosque of Abu Dhabi.

The thing about the Grand Mosque is, unlike many other monuments of such interest, it presents you with worthwhile photo opportunities at pretty much any time of the day. If you can make it at sunrise or sunset, you'll be able to get great shots (sunrise being better). But even if you are short of time and reach only at noon, there is plenty to shoot under the harsh light.

I went there at one such noon (thanks to a friend's suggestion) and found that what you lose in terms of quality of light, you gain with potential compositional possibilities. Let me explain:

The Grand Mosque is a marvellous modern wonder which not just has the classical arches, domes and minarets characteristic of Islamic architecture, but because of the way it is built, it allows you to think in geometrically terms: parallel lines, triangles, arcs, tangents, chords, intersecting lines etc. You only have to pick a spot and look around you, and try to see geometrically. Perhaps an arch makes a shadow that leans ever so slightly towards the same point in space as a minaret diagonally opposite to it, or a row of pillars frame the main mosque in a unique way from where you stand or perhaps (like in this case) a minaret seems to bisect an arch like a chord would a circle.

This was taken just after noon. You can imagine the possibilities once the shadows lengthen and the light gets better!

And finally, to the retro look! The camera I use (Olympus E-PL5) has many quirky "art" filters built inside it and this was a slight variant of the sepia. And in most other photographs I entered into the assignments, I'd spent more time getting the look right. Here, I think I got the composition right and the look was secondary.