Tip: Use Your Time at the Airport to Take Photos
Saturday 13 July 2019, 15:15 by Elvira Smit | 6,124 views | 3 commentsThis article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.
Chances are you only take your camera out of your bag once you have arrived at your holiday destination. Only then do you look with an open mind at your new temporary habitat.
And that while you have spent two hours waiting around at the airport. So use your time at the airport to take photos. It gives you something to do, and teaches you to look differently.
Unwritten rules
Without realising it, you follow all sorts of unwritten photography rules. An airport is uninteresting, so you do not take photos there.
At most, you take a selfie to share with your friends that you are going on holiday, and that is allowed.
At your holiday destination, you then photograph the swimming pool, the exotic meals, the cocktails, the sunset, the picturesque streets and those lovely old men sitting together so cosily in a little square.
There is nothing wrong with that, but chances are you therefore fail to photograph a lot of interesting things. Because they do not fit into our shared holiday frame of reference.
That frame is filled by tens of thousands of photos on Instagram, photos from friends' and family members' photobooks, television series, adverts and so on.
Girona Airport
Recently, I was bored out of my mind at Girona Airport in Spain. I had also done that at Schiphol, but back then I had not yet thought of taking photos.
At 19:00 in the evening, almost all the catering outlets at the airport were closed, which made the boredom worse. My friend and I sat waiting and looked into the distance. My camera was on the table in front of me. Suddenly I wondered whether there was anything to photograph here. And if not, whether I could come up with something anyway.
So I stood up and switched on my gaze.
What I saw was a lot of emptiness and one person:
Typical, because that is what I am naturally drawn to. (Would you like to know where your photographic preferences lie? Read this article.) So I stayed around this spot for a while, waiting for something I did not yet know the nature of. And sometimes nothing happens either. But this time it did.
Because suddenly everything changed. The light, the people, the atmosphere. And then I saw this:
And this:
BAM! These are the situations that send adrenaline coursing through my body. Someone else has to jump out of a plane for that, while all I need is a mini-scene at an airport. I kept taking photos from a distance, crouching down. Nobody seemed to mind.
I took photos like mad and accidentally made a blurry photo. That is how I discovered that the blur is not particularly distracting in this situation. I even think it strengthens the slightly dreamy atmosphere:
I think the most powerful image may be the one of the little boy below: with his small hands, he is leaning against the window which, as we can see from the way the light falls, has already been touched by countless small and large hands.
When I got home, I played around with the formats, something I still have not made up my mind about, by the way. In the series below, I chose a square format.
Print your photos
The next step: all the photos are now hanging on a metal plate at home. That is where they face the test of time: what will I think of these photos in six weeks? Every now and then I move things around and make different combinations. Or perhaps I decide that only one image is really strong. Or none.
Either way, it is difficult to judge without prints of your photos. Print them, and hang the whole lot up. Let your photos live, and pick up your camera at Schiphol!
P.S. Once you are on the plane, you can also simply take photos. Just have a look at Nina Katchadourian's inventive photo series.
About the author
Ik heb een eigen fotografieblog, Kronkeling. Daar schrijf ik om de week twee artikelen. Over hoe je je blik kunt scherpen, je creativiteit kunt aanwakkeren, en over fotografen die mij inspireren. Geen technische zaken, wél over hoe je leert kijken. En dat blijkt nog een hele klus. Een mooi startpunt zijn de Kronkeltips, die vind je hier.
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3 comments
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Tom wrote on Tuesday 16 July 2019 at 22:34 | replyBeautiful photos and captured with atmosphere. Let that holiday begin!
Translated from Dutch. -
Tom van Loon wrote on Wednesday 17 July 2019 at 19:56 | replyI was sent away from the arrivals hall of Rotterdam the Haigue Airport last week because of privacy legislation. When I asked for permission by email, it was refused for the same reason. Because of the crowds, I would not be able to ask all those present for permission. In my opinion, nonsense, because then no photos could be taken of any event ( vierdaagse, Tour de France etc).
Translated from Dutch. -
Elvira Smit
wrote on Thursday 18 July 2019 at 08:38
| reply
@Tom: thanks! And have a nice vacation
Translated from Dutch.
@Tom van Loon: That sounds unpleasant. Unfortunately, I don't know exactly how the legal side of things works at an airport. What usually surprises me in these cases is that you are allowed to take photos with a phone...
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