John Tait took first place in Grade A in our recent ‘Vacation’ competition with the shot above. This is how he captured the image:

As I had no brainwaves for our “Vacation” themed competition, I went on a trawl through my holiday photographs, taken last May in Lagos, Portugal. When we go to Lagos, I usually bring my 7D MK II, and my 100-400mm. I am usually looking for wildlife shots, so my birds usually have feathers rather than bikinis, and my nightlife shots are more likely to be of Owls rather than Discos and Bars. Not very fertile ground for “Vacation” shots!

 However.. I also usually bring my little Sony RX100 “Pocket Rocket” when on walkabout around town. As I am still trying to get to grips with it’s menus and creative modes, I had it set to Auto. ( I know I know….I should be shooting in manual…Sorry! ) As we walked thru’ the old town, I was intrigued by a very long building, whose outside wall curved gently around to the right, following the curve of the street. Right behind this building stands a lovely medieval Church with a nice bell tower. On the opposite side of the street, there is a line of old traditional town houses. The whole scene looked very nice and typically Portuguese in the bright sunlight.

I stood looking at the scene, and decided that it had some potential. I composed the shot, putting the Church tower on the top right hand third, and used the street, the curving building, and both pavements as lead-in lines to the Church tower. As the street was empty of people, I waited until a lady pedestrian walked around the corner and into the lower right hand third of the frame. Bingo!  I had my shot.

I took lots of shots on that trip, most of which were deleted later, but I kept this one as I really liked it. Thankfully, on competition night, a good number of club members seemed to like it too.

 – John Tait

Well done John.

Click here to see a gallery of images from the competition.

See also:
How I took that Shot – Noelle Lowney
How I took that Shot – Miriam Keogh
Winners Presentation Photos
Competition Results and 2017 League Table