Bold Outlook
A unique view of one of Liverpool’s most famous streets with the radio city tower shining in the golden hour sun.
Bold Outlook
My first couple weeks in Liverpool didn’t exactly go to plan. After evading it for so long, I had managed to finally catch covid. Day after day, night after night, I would look out our window at the crowds of Bold Street below yearning to join them, begging for any of them to look up and acknowledge the ill man leaning out the window for 1 of his 10 days of quarantine. No one ever did.
But I spent a lot of time looking out the window to the outside world below. I’d made a habit of photographing each and every sunset I saw up there. After the first one, I remember saying to my friend Bliss that I was so impressed with the photos I’d taken and they were some of my favourites! Then the next day came, and the next. Each day the same view, my only view, yet the sky would be painted even more vibrantly than the last, with the late sun kissing the edges of the homes and the radio city tower cutting through the clouds.
It was not only a difficult balance leaning so far out the window to get the right angle but also to get my settings in check. I needed to get as much light into my sensor as possible to properly expose the scene below. My lens could go down to f/1.2 but then there’d be parts out of focus and any slower than my shutter speed of 1/200th a second would run the risk of blurring the pedestrians. With Bliss holding my leg so I didn’t fully fall out the window, I took my shot.
In my original composition of this photo, I focused heavily on the beautiful sky, as I am so easily distracted, but then everything else in the photo wasn’t communicating. By cropping in a good 20% I was able to make every element of the photo connect. The story is now about the couple walking through the city with our eye swooping from shop to shop up to the birds in the sky and back through to the tower. It’s always worth revisiting old photos to give them another breath of life. Even given the circumstances, I look fondly on the days I spent capturing life in Liverpool from my bold outlook above.
Sony A7III | 50mm | f/4.0 | 1/200 sec | ISO 160
The size A4 image is printed on PF Lustre 275 photo quality paper which is a flat, stiff, middle-weight paper with a lustre finish. It is open edition.
A4 Print Includes:
A4 print wrapped in polythene sleeve
Story and EXIF data of the image on translucent vellum paper
Handwritten thank you note
Embossed string-tie envelope
Packaged with care in cardboard mailing tube.
A4: 8.27” x 11.69” or 210mm x 297mm (Print area ~ 6.5” x 9.25”)
Fits beautifully in an 11” x 14” frame with 2” mat.
The size A3 image is printed on Fotospeed Platinum Baryta 300 Signature Paper which is a 100% acid free fine art paper with a smooth unglazed gloss surface. It is part of a limited edition of 100.
A3 Print Includes:
A3 print wrapped in polythene sleeve
Story and EXIF data of the image on translucent vellum paper
Handwritten thank you note
Embossed string-tie envelope
Signed and embossed certificate of authenticity featuring edition number
Packaged with care in a 12” x 16” presentation box.
A3: 11.69” x 16.53” or 297mm x 420mm (Print area ~ 10” x 14”)
Fits beautifully in a 16” x 20” frame with 3” mat.
