Ordinary

Unfortunately not always, but sometimes, I have a mind free enough to just go out and take photos. Aachen definitely has some nice corners, but isn’t known for its breathtaking all-encompassing beauty (as opposed to, say, Monschau – a nearby, very picturesque village). All the more interesting is the consequence of this lack of specialty: even ordinary things can look interesting when they are inside a photo, maybe with a bit of color corrections and definitely a tastefully blurred background.

And not only can they look interesting: often they are more interesting than the photos I take in special locations, say famous landmarks, in a beautiful vacation spot, or all those places you’d usually think about “shoot, I can’t forget my camera when going there!”. These places have the downside that all the good angles have already been shot, and if you are on a scenic outlook you don’t even have to think about what your photo is about anymore. I take many photos like that, and always end up underwhelmed.

So this post is about some ordinary photos I took on a lazy sunday a week or two back. And because construction sites, especially those fixing the streets, are really a thing here at the moment, there’s quite some of that. Usually one would be annoyed by not being able to drive through a street… as a pedestrian on a Sunday with nothing else to do, there is no annoyance. And with some open eyes, interesting viewpoints can be discovered.

Oh, and not to forget my prime lens fanboy-ism. All photos below were taken with the Sigma C 30mm f/1.4 lens, which suffers from a bit of distortion but is otherwise very satisfying. Not being able to zoom further limits what you can do with your camera, and forces me to not just take photos of some things that don’t look good in this perspective. Counterintuitively, this has a subtle influence on the photos that you do manage to take, and they usually look better.

But please, judge for yourself!

I wonder what 99 means here. Do they have at least 98 other scoops?

Not in Aachen anymore! On the almost-outskirts of town, a very simple sign. On itself not super interesting, but it looks better with some colors adjusted, giving it a faux-retro vibe. The light that day wasn’t amazing, either. Ya know, very ordinary.

Even looks good as a Zoom background. I tried it! Again, a slight color adjustment makes this ordinary scene look a bit more special… A place of work, but very calm on a Sunday.

On that same site, some pipes.

Emergency exit stairs reflecting in the windows. Another trick: if it looks too boring, just put a monochrome filter over it. If it still looks boring, adjust the color translation – which can put the focus on certain elements (or take it away). If it then still looks boring, just put it on your portfolio anyway and pretend that it is creative and artistic!

Flowers are always good. Very ordinary, but easy to photograph – that’s why beginners love taking flower pictures (I did and do, at least).

This photo already was almost monochrome, but just to be safe I removed the colors anyway. The everyday sign looks more interesting when isolated, I think – why is his (her?) left arm bent like this? Why is the one leg so pointy?