P&P-Part 3; Exercise 2; The user's viewpoint



Exercise; The user’s viewpoint

 

This exercise is all about how spaces are designed for particular activities that are undertaken from a specific, distinctive position. That is to say how people who go to these places, or use these places view them for their specific function.

 

I had to choose two or three buildings and create one or more images to represent the user’s viewpoint. I chose to do two buildings, with more than one image to show the how the space is now viewed.

 

The two buildings I have chosen are

1; Basilica I Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia

2; La Pedrera (meaning the Quarry) also known as, Casa Mila

 

I chose to use these buildings for this exercise not only for there beauty, but for the purpose they were built for and the people who view them in the past and present.

I recently won a free trip to Barcelona, which helped enormously with this exercise. I have been a few times before and have always loved Gaudi’s architecture (as have most people, I’m sure) I think it is some of the most beautiful in the world, the way he combined stunning architecture with functionality has always amazed me.

 

 

Basilica I Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia

This is a Roman Catholic Church built from the inspiration of the founder of the “Spiritual Association of Devotees of St. Joseph” Jose Maria Bocabella and called the “Sagrada Familia” which translates to “The Holy Family” as the church would be devoted to the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

 

When I first visited this church, it was a shell of how it is today, there was a lot of scaffolding everywhere and the queues were very short to get in, perhaps when you entered the building then, it was nowhere near completion. When I went to Barcelona again, I was in two minds as to whether or not to visit the church, as I had no idea how it would be now, I went in spite of this hoping it may have changed a bit and I’m so glad I did. Having visited this site again, I was overwhelmed, firstly buy the progress that had happened over the years and secondly by the shear power and beauty the church had now become.

 

So to represent the user’s viewpoint, I decided to shoot this building in the way that people use it today, there are mainly tourists, but also people go to pray there.  You can’t help but constantly look up when you enter the church, so much so, that I noticed a few people bumping in to each other, even the people who were sat down praying where looking up a lot, so on reflection of the way people where viewing the church, I decided to shoot it mainly from a stand point of looking up, I tried to fit to the picture as much as I possibly could to show how it would be shown in people’s eyes.

 

1/50 seconds at f/3.5 – Lens EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM

 

 As you can see from this image, majority of the people are looking up, I wanted to make them tiny in comparison to the image and I used my wide angle lens to fit in as much as possible. This is one of my favourites in this exercise it shows how people see the church and give the viewpoint of the enormity if the building. 

 

 

 

0.4 seconds at f/3.5 – Lens EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

 

This is the spiral staircase coming down from the Tower. I have a picture at the top looking down, with people’s heads in view, looking up. So when I went to the bottom, that’s exactly what I did, I had it on a slow shutter speed to create the motion blur of the people coming down the stair case and a low aperture to create focus on the bottom of the spiral staircase.

 

 

 

1/100 seconds at f/3.5 – Lens EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM

  

1/50 seconds at f/4.0 – Lens EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM

 

 In these two images I wanted to show the contrast that you can see here, it was a very odd view and almost like they forgot to stain glass the windows, it seemed to be a part of the design to fill the church with more light and on both counts, the windows that are not stained are by staircases, so I am sure it is a practical use. I wanted to use this shot to show how the building looks completely different when there is stained glass and non stained glass and the way people see it.  

 

 

 

1/6 seconds at f/3.5 – Lens EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

 

 This was taken in the tower and with all of these windows, you couldn’t help but look up, in fact it was about the only way you could view it, I wanted to capture the viewpoint from where I stood hence the reason for the sides being in the picture. I wanted to focus mainly on the wall of the inside of the tower that was closest to me, but give the feeling of longevity, hence the reason for the low aperture, also to was quite dark in there, so I had to use a slow shutter speed.  

 

 

 

1/160 seconds at f/3.5 – Lens EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM

 

There was a section of the church that was engulfed buy the most stunning colours everywhere. This section was shear stained glass windows and it bounced off the walls in every direction, people were walking around looking at the floor here, rather than the ceiling, hence the reason I wanted to reflect the floor more rather than the ceiling in this image.

 

 

La Pedrera (Casa Mila)

This building was designed and built initially for a married couple, Roser Segimon and Pere Milà, to be used as their family home, they were extremely wealthy and commissioned Gaudi to design and build it.

Afterwards it was sold and made in to flats, then after that it is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and I believe that people still live in this building, hence the reason you are restricted on the areas that you can visit.

 

This is another architectural gem with the main attraction being Gaudi’s rooftop design, the attic and one of the floors in which Roser and Pere used to live.

I chose to show this from a tourist’s point of view, due to it now mainly being used as a tourist attraction. I composed shots from the view of either being on stairs, or sitting down, due to observing people and how they used/viewed it. 

 

 

1/800 seconds at f/5.0 – Lens EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

 

 On entering the house (Casa) you walk in to the heart of the building, Gaudi designed it as a cylindrical building, so every window faces each other and as always, amazing colours were incorporated. Unfortunately, when I entered it started to rain, hence the reason for the poor quality of the image and the rain spots on the image, even though it’s a poor quality image, I felt it had to be included, due to the view point it created, where again; Gaudi wants you to look up. 

 

 

 

  1/320 seconds at f/22.0 – Lens EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

 

Luckily, after entering and taking the previous shots from the ground, the rain had stopped on my way to the roof top and the sun came out. This is the next stop for everyone who entered.

Sometimes they close the roof when it rains, so again I was lucky (highly unusual for me!) when getting to the roof, I stopped and observed people for a while and I saw a lot of people sitting on the stairs by this piece of architecture, which I think is a vent, so I decided to sit and take a shot from peoples perspectives, in hind sight I wish I had used a more shallow depth of field and mainly concentrated on the vent on the left, still, I think this make a good image.

 

 

  

1/250 seconds at f/22.0 – Lens EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

 

 This is one of the chimneys and is covered with Champagne bottles, which are believed to have been from a party that Gaudi had. As you walk down the steps, this is a view of what Gaudi created, with the turret which leads in to the attic in the background. I used a high aperture to have everything in focus. 

  

 

  

   1/250 seconds at f/22.0 – Lens EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

This is an amazing view of the “Basilica I Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia” through one of the vents on the roof, a lot of people where taking pictures of this and as I’m sure you’ll agree, it a view to be treasured, this is just as you are going up the steps to walk thorough and makes a great viewpoint.

  1/25 seconds at f/3.5 – Lens EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

Inside now, I was going to include a shot of the attic and as structurally amazing as it was, the view was not as poignant as it is on the inside of the building.
This is the top floor of the apartment, which shows the curved hallway leading though to the other rooms, it was left how it was originally decorated, so I used a low aperture to give a feeling of longevity and show the curves of the hallway.

1/50 seconds at f/4.5 – Lens EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

 

So to show the view from the window of the wrought iron decoration, I used a small aperture to mainly concentrate on the viewpoint from the building, rather than the view.