more photos again this tme river kwai

Here are my intepretation of the bridge over river kwai.
For this shot, i tried to project strength. As with structures, my inclination was to project strength. to do so, i went low, in fact almost to the water line and shoot with a wide angle looking up. This will make the subject looks dominant and strong. Another reason for me doing so (shoot wide and low) is to put a little bit of blue in the sky. It was noon time and the sun was too bright, so shooting at angle will force some blue out of it. I like this shot because it managed to show the strength portion of the bridge (pillar). Unfortunately, the story of this bridge is not of strength. It was destroyed by the first ever version of the guided (through remote control by an operator)bomb developed by the good old US. Besides the angle of the shot compressed the bridge so much that not much of it is seen.

In this shot i tried show more of the bridge, I moved up a bit and used a longer focal length reduce the perspective distortion. Unfortunately it turns out to be a so so shot. Sky is not blue enough and left a blank wasted area. The ripples in the water also did not do much to improve the shot. It is neither too wavy nor too calm. In fact it sort of made the bridge looks weak, the reflection of the bridge in the wavy water gives the sense of movement. That is not good for shots of structures.


In this shot i shot the bridge from another angle. In this case i kinda did a combination of shot 1 and 2. Wide angle but higher elevation. The result is that the strength portion is still evident while a bit more of the bridge is shown (compared to shot 1). Water is calm enough to get an almost perfect reflection of the bridge. The problem i see with this bridge is that it is shot from a side that might not be too familiar. Background: to get to the bridge, tourists will come from the left side of the bridge and their first sight of the bridge will be from the angle where shot 1 or 2 was taken. Shooting a familiar structure from a different side might confuse the viewer and the impact of the shot will be lost.


This is a standard cover shot for the location. I shot this with a wide angle immediately after i board the train. Wide andle to ensure that i really get the window to frame the signboard. Most of the times signboards are not much in terms of significance, but as this place is of some significance, this shot kinda did a summary of the area. For this shot i also tried to do something about 'showing what is not shown'. When one speak of the River Kwai, different viewers will have different projections (imaginations) of the place. Putting just the signboard leaves the viewer to their imaginationand their own projections. I also deliberately framed the signpost with the window (plus the head) and metered on the brightest area to ensure that the window is darkened (300D no spot metering mah). The reason i darkened the window and head is to accentuate the intepretation of the place. For those in the know the place has a history. Having the signboard 'surrounded' by this dark area sort of projected the idea of htere is something more to this place than just a name (it's history). I was lucky enough to have a person sitting right smack at the edge of the window. Having his head here puts a human feel to it. History after all is about people and their actions. Without the head, the whole shot will be too cold. This shot might just cut it for me....