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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Twelve: Using color to express ideas > A Study in Yellow, Lima, Peru, 2003
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23-DEC-2003

A Study in Yellow, Lima, Peru, 2003

I was in a bus, which was stopped at a light on a busy street in Lima. As I looked out of the window, I saw a yellow building facade, yellow ads, and even a yellow ice cream dispenser out there on the street. A man stood on the sidewalk reading a paper, oblivious to all of this color behind him. Amazingly, he was wearing a yellow shirt. It was too good to pass up. Even though it meant shooting through a smudged bus window, I pressed my lens to the glass to avoid reflections and hoped for the best. I was quite happy with the resulting picture. As a primary color, yellow is very popular in Latin America. Peru is no exception. What we see here is a society expressing itself in color, and much of it happens to be yellow.

Canon PowerShot G5
1/640s f/4.0 at 20.7mm full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis11-Mar-2006 22:23
Almost forgot to mention the yellow bottle you noticed in that poster, Ramma. I originally looked at it as just another yellow element in this image to correspond to the man's shirt. However you point out the fact that the bottle is tilted, which echoes, in reverse, the thrust of the man's leg. Thanks for commenting on this image, Ramma. You give me new eyes to see it with.
Phil Douglis11-Mar-2006 22:20
What a marvelously sharp eye you have, Ramma. I never noticed the relationship between the legs in the poster and the position of the legs of the man until you mentioned it here. You are right -- it makes the man a perfect fit. We call this an "echo" effect -- when one element in an image repeats the dynamic of another. When it occurs more than once, I call it "rhythmic repetition."
Ramma 11-Mar-2006 12:33
Interesting photo. I could not help but note the similarity between the posture of the man and that of the lady in the poster titled GRECIO. The position of the legs and also his bright yellow shirt in the form of the tilted yellow bottle. This man literally fits into this scene !
Zane Paxton03-May-2004 17:32
Nice streetscape.
Phil Douglis25-Apr-2004 23:36
Thanks, Hina, for your comment. You are right. You would not think that an ordinary group of stores would make an expressive photograph, but when you start looking for color relationships such as this, wonderful things can happen.
Guest 25-Apr-2004 08:32
ah i like this one very much..
you made it so colorful..

yesterday i went to a place called nam sang wai in hongkong,
as i'm not so familiar with hongkong places.. i have been longing to go there again

do you know why?
it does not look so good in real life.. just a boring place..
but i saw many great pics of nam sang wai..
i dont understand why they can look so colorful and charming in pics..

the trees in the pics are greener than in real life and more lively...

i guess this pic must be the same, just a norml random store, but how wonderful a photographer can make everything happy and good in a pic .. ^^
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