Well Ordered Architecture – Paris, France

I shot these buildings right next to Rue de Castiglione that I featured yesterday — we are looking northwest down Rue de Rivoli. These buildings are handsome, though slightly monotonous. However, using telephoto compression, the architectural elements become tightly packed repeating patterns.

Using a telephoto makes sense when trying to capture a distant element and when you want a detailed subsection of a scene. That’s why telephotos can be unexpectedly valuable for landscapes. You can zoom into a portion of a mountain to create a more abstract composition.

The third value of a telephoto is compressing a scene like I did here at a 120mm equivalent. In reality, these three buildings extend further out. One can emphasize it’s width and frame in a horizontal orientation without compression. However, scrunching the buildings together and framing them vertically creates a tighter composition. When the verticals light up precisely like they do here — proudly without any post-processing — I experience an extra boost of photographic pleasure.

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