Not The Bermuda Triangle

There's Always An Angle If You Look Closely

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

This shot was taken about six months ago, long before I even knew what this week's theme would be. I was killing about 90 minutes in Whitehorse, capital of the Yukon, before catching a flight to Vancouver and beginning the long haul home on Air Canada.

It was a beautiful autumn evening and even though there was heavy, unseasonal snow on the mountains around, it was warm in the sun. I was just in a T-shirt and jeans as I walked briskly around the city, trying to identify and shoot every arresting sight possible.

I was actually going the other way at an intersection when I looked to my right and saw the brightly painted exterior woodwork on the Town And Mountain Hotel. I had two Pentax cameras, both DSLRs, around my neck, one with my 18-125mm lens and the other with my 70-300mm lens.


But what I really wanted was to get halfway across the pedestrian crossing to frame this shot. All the way across on the other side and I wouldn't be able to frame it this way. So I waited for the lights to change, crossed halfway and dropped anchor.

To the puzzled driver in the SUV who watched me draw a bead on the shot and hit the trigger, I hope my grin and my explanation that I'm from the Land Down Under was sufficient.

But this week, as I located this shot for this specific post, I was puzzled about an important detail. Why on earth would I have wanted to get halfway across the street to shoot this when I had a long lens on one camera? I could easily have composed the shot from where I stood on the other side.


In less than sixty seconds, I had my answer. Friends and family often ask me how on earth I can remember the smallest, seemingly inconsequential details about a photograph taken months earlier. In this case, I had the evening sun right in my eyes from the other side of the street.

Yes, I could have framed the same shot from the other side, but the strong light would have washed out the colours in the shot I really wanted to capture. By venturing and stopping midway down the pedestrian crossing, I was able to shoot straight up as the sun was totally obscured by the building.

Here's the ultimate test. Can I remember which T-shirt I was wearing? Probably not.


Visit TNChick's Photo Hunt. Today's theme: "Triangle''.