The perfect photo

What ‘the perfect photo’ is, is subjective. It is different for different people. For me, a city or a landscape should have dark clouds.

Now that sounds easy, right? Especially for those living in Belgium or having visited it when it was raining. Belgians think the weather is always bad. Well I can tell you : it most certainly isn’t !

Being ‘stuck’ in Belgium for the last half year, I can tell you the weather here was generally sunny…

But even if it is cloudy, I don’t just want ‘any’ cloud, and the clouds must be at the side that I want them. A good thing I have never claimed I am an easy person.

Usually, when it is sunny, I explore sights, and then when the weather predictions are good I go for it. Unfortunately these predictions aren’t always right, and ‘rain’, or ‘clouds’ don’t exactly mean that they are just as I want them. So generally I go to the same locations several times, just until I get it right…

The Antwerp Havenhuis (port house) is one of those locations. Here the port of Antwerp’s administration is located. The extra- ordinary building is a design by the famous architect Zaha Hadid, and it represents a diamond on top of the old, original building. I definitely want that in my portfolio!

Thunderstorms were predicted, they usually have the best clouds, even if there is no lightning, and after a message to a friend in Antwerp I knew the time was right : I jumped in the car and drove off.

Those rides are usually stressful, especially when I approach the city and I see the perfect clouds. Still 10 minutes or so to get to location, then the time to park the car, get my gear ready and shoot… during those 10 minutes just about anything can happen. The clouds can just disappear, turn to an other direction, of move so fast that I am late, or maybe they just aren’t what I expected.

This time it seems just right. I shoot dozens of photos, as the clouds move. Even though I usually know ‘on the spot’ that I have ‘the’ photo, it’s usually only when I come home that I do the final selection.

In this case I have to chose between 2. The vertical (portrait mode) where the Port House is the subject, or the horizontal (landscape mode) where the clouds make the scene. I prefer the first, as I think the 2nd has too much distraction on the right, but oh! do I love the clouds in number 2!

Which one do you prefer? Let me know in the comments!

To me, the mere fact that I am not even sure, means I will probably go back some other time… just until I am 100% satisfied!

The life of a photographer!