Anton says: I selected this
composition because I loved the
perspective created by the road
and moving cars. I walked around
the Arc several times and found a
little “safety island” in the middle
of a busy road with a perfect view.
What makes the photo feel dynamic
is the fact that the Arc de Triomphe
is facing the camera at a 45-degree
angle. The biggest challenge was to
find a balance between the moving
cars that I wished to transform into
light trails by using long exposure,
and Arc de Triomphe itself. I had to
watch out for the traffic lights to
predict the exact moment when the
cars would move, and it was getting
dark very quickly. It would have
been sunset if the day was clear and
there were no clouds, but there was
still a bit of warm colour coming
through, which created fantastic
contrast I did not expect to get that
day. The outcome happened to be
moody and full of atmosphere.Arc de Triomphe
Anton says: There is an ancient-
looking area in Dubai called Madinat
Jumeirah. Immediately I noticed
this massive palace and started to
have different ideas on how to shoot
it. One of them was to position the
construction to the left side of the
frame to let the sunset shine and have
some space. A big challenge I faced
was the fact that tripods were not
allowed in the entire Madinat Jumeirah
area, so that is something you should
keep in mind if you wish to travel to
Dubai. I found a solution, however: as
there were many restaurants around,
I asked if I could borrow a chair. Then
I just put the camera on it and used
my Sony A7RII’s built-in Smooth
Reflection app. I might wish to try
to photograph this area during the
sunrise – the sun would be situated on
the other side and might reveal some
interesting textures that are not visible
during sunset.Madinat Jumeirah
x2 © Anton Alymov
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