Scape West Window.
One of my regular evening dog walks is into the centre of Westbourne. The Arcade holds particular attraction. A wonderful Grade II listed structure in itself, it is full of an eclectic mix of shops, cafés and even a tiny cinema!
There are a couple of a shops that specialise in the unusual. One of them, Scape West, catches my attention every time I walk through Westbourne Arcade. Well lit at night, and an altogether wonderful collection of artefacts. The sort of things that belong in a dreamland fantasy.
With the weather being once again unpredictable, rather than risk a soaking, I decided to utilise the shelter of the Arcade and photograph this fascinating shopfront. Doing so at night captures something of the atmosphere.
The majority of the lighting in this window comes from a fabulous feature lamp – a large dome, containing recreations of old-fashioned bulbs. The rest comes from lighting elsewhere in the Scape West showroom. The result is a fairly high-contrast image – one that could perhaps take the HDR treatment. However, I have refrained from doing that this time. I prefer the softness of this shot, although I have tweaked the balance to lessen the contrast so that the lamp does not overpower the image, and the darker areas are lightened so the detail can be seen.
I have also manually set the “White Balance”. The human eye automatically adjusts to compensate for the yellow in tungsten and fluorescent lighting (LEDs are a different story altogether!), but the camera doesn’t. However, in this image I wanted to retain and, indeed, enhance the yellowness of the artificial lighting. It adds a warmth and air of mystery, complementing the woods and the older artefacts.
More info on Scape Westbourne: www.scape-west.co.uk.
Photograph Details
- Taken: 30 Jan 2017
- Camera: Canon 5D MkIII
- Lens: Canon EF 24-70mm 1:2.8 L II USM
- Focal Length 41mm
- F/4
- 1/15 Sec
- ISO 400
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Hi Tim, this is Jenny from Scape interiors in Westbourne arcade. Will you be able to come along to our 10th Anniversary between 5:30-7:30 on Friday 30th of Nov,2018? There will be drinks, nibbles, raffles, free gift, carols by the candlelight on the evening and all guests will receive a 10 percent discount for their purchases (excluding sales items). It is also the same evening for Westbourne late night shopping.
Please email me jenny@scape-west.co.uk and let me know if you are able to come. We look forward to hearing from you.
Kind Regards
Jenny Brandon