I'm doing a series called One Shot Wonder, where I publish one image I think is good enough to stand on its own. Not a group of pictures, no friends to it, just one strong image. No shitty phone pictures, no leftovers, no self portraits. One quality image that doesn't fit in with anyone else, but nonetheless, looks amazing on its own. I don't want to do one of these every week, or try and capture just one image, I want it to come naturally, without planning and trying.
Apparently my one shot wonders are going to be phallic symbols, and I'm not mad about that. This shot is of the Great Pagoda in Kew Gardens, build in 1762. Having a Chinese styled building, so far from home, is quite interesting and in a way, it sticks out like a sore thumb, but in a good way. I did take a few other shots of it too, but not enough good ones to make a proper series of them, so that is why this image ended up as a One Shot Wonder.
I was drawn to the symmetry of the tower, and of course by the whopping 80 intricate dragon sculptures that guard all the corners on every level. Apparently the pagoda was missing it's dragons for over two centuries, and they only now added new ones earlier this year, trying to mimic the original ones as best as they could. No wonder they looked so vibrant!
I don't really do much of architectural photography where I would really concentrate on the symmetry and getting everything in line, so this picture doesn't fit in with my usual photography. But this structure was just begging me to take the time to do my best in getting everything to line up all nice and neat. I love the end result of it.
Shot with the Nikon D7200 and 35mm f/1.8.
