Today, I offer this photo of the Hyatt gate Hotel just outside of the Abu Dhabi proper. Truthfully, I had no idea, before tonight, what this building was: Residential, Business, Gratutitous Architecture Just for Fun and Glory?! We called it the “wavy building.” As you drive on the highway close to it, it kind of feels like it’s hanging over you, but it doesn’t–it just looks that way.
My daughter snapped this photo from the car on the way to a dentist appointment. I carry my camera everywhere since I started this “Photo of the Day.” I don’t want to miss any potential shot. Sometimes, I try a little too hard. I obsess over angles, lighting, perspective: photog stuff that, I’ll confess, I don’t know a whole lot about–I just like to take pictures. It’s refreshing to see how lovely something snapped, in haste, by a 12 year old with no inhibition can be. When I chose this one, I paused and thought for a brief moment about the deeper meaning of “perspective.”
perspective
pəˈspɛktɪv/
noun
the art of representing three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional surface so as to give the right impression of their height, width, depth, and position in relation to each other. “the theory and practice of perspective”
a particular attitude towards or way of regarding something; a point of view “most guidebook history is written from the editor’s perspective.”
I relish perspective-shifting moments. I know I spend too much time looking through a lens rather than actually experiencing things. If I had taken this shot, I would have spent a long time finding the right place from which to take it. I would want to capture the whole building from its most linear perspective. I would have taken 500 photos before I deemed one suitable. My daughter shot this building as it actually looks to us as we drive under it–as we so often do. She did not worry about capturing the whole building, she just took the shot. In ten years, I will look at this photo and remember the feeling of being under the “wavy building” as we drive by it. I’ll admit she took 1,500 selfies before and after she captured this gem, but I can delete 9/10ths of those. This one, I’ll keep along with a plan to take more shots as she does–without fear.
Hyatt Gate Hotel, aka Wavy Buidling.