Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON
This series of photographs was taken at the departure lounge of Kuala Lumpur International Airport (or KLIA, as it is known) shortly after we checked in for our flight home to Australia last week. As we entered the departure lounge, we were treated to the sight of the sun sinking towards a blanket of low cloud, but I knew I had at least twenty minutes before the sinking sun took on the colour I was looking for.
Checking in was a very swift process and after I had watched our suitcases go through, I wondered if I had enough time to duck outside the terminal building to photograph the sun against the distinctive sail-like construction of the airport roof.
Instead, as I began to walk towards an exit, I realised that the best angle was actually a few feet away from where I was standing - inside the terminal and looking through the giant windows. The graceful contour of an internal archway was just perfectly located, giving me some strong and unusual silhouettes and allowing me to frame an unusual series of shots.
My first instinct was to shoot the scene horizontally (above) before trying a vertical frame (below) to capture not just the glowing sun and the silhouettes, but also the shimmer of the sunset reflected on the glistening floor of the terminal. It was a clean, functional shot, but I still wanted something extra and I wondered if I should try and get an airline emblem or a departure sign into the frame.
As I looked around quickly, knowing I only had about a minute of two of sunset left, I could see a passanger walking away from me. Swiftly, lest he could change direction, I framed the final shot before he walked out of my line of vision.
Most times, you frame a shot because there is no one in it to obscure your line of vision. This time, I framed it specifically to include the traveller’s strong silhouette.
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