Daily Photo: Shade in the Brisbane CBD

There are times when a photograph is carefully planned, and there are other times when you simply happen to be in the right place with a camera in your hand. This was probably somewhere in between. I was out on a 30-degree Brisbane summer’s day, which, coming from Dunedin, seemed less like pleasant weather and more like someone had accidentally left the oven door open. It was the sort of heat that makes you walk a little slower, look for shade a little more carefully and wonder why you had decided that wandering around outside was such a good idea in the first place.

I had no particular plan beyond seeing what I could find. That’s often how I prefer to explore somewhere new, because once you start looking for a particular photograph, you can easily miss everything else going on around you. I was moving through the Brisbane CBD, taking in the heat, the light, the changing scenes and the shade when I came across a square covered with shade. There was something about the way the covered shade made me stop and take a second look. It wasn’t a famous viewpoint or some grand Australian landmark, just an ordinary piece city design that happened to look right at that particular moment.

I took the photograph, although I wasn’t thinking about photographic theory or trying to capture some profound statement about Australian architecture or Brisbane as a city. I simply liked what I was seeing. The whole scene was framed with interesting shapes and sections that moved my eye around yet drew me in at the same time. 

That’s one of the things I enjoy about wandering around with a camera. You don’t necessarily go looking for a photograph. Sometimes you just keep walking until something makes you slow down, look twice and decide that it is worth stopping for. On a 30-degree Brisbane afternoon, finding a reason to stop in the shade probably wasn’t a bad thing either.