I intended to use a corner shop with an awning and a display of fruit and veg outside for this, but on my way back from taking the movement pictures by the Lea, I noticed a tyre sales yard by the side of the road with a wild array of signage and – remembering that I’d never managed to take a satisfactory picture of it in the 4 years or so I’ve been passing – thought I’d give it a try.

Picture 1: without taking too much time over it…

I quite like this – there’s an organised chaos feel to the site and the markings on the road begin to converge on the entrance (something that could be pointed up a bit by shooting from a higher vantage point, somewhere to the right of where I was standing); the sky is a nice blue (contrasting with the yellow signs and barrier). It works as a record of a place, and you can see how the signs all are focussed on passing trade in cars.

As a bonus it has a sort of American feel, somehow which works with subject matter. Next, I crossed the road to get closer and took the next in the series.

Picture 2: more care taken to fill the frame to the edges.

There is a lot more to look at here somehow: the various lines make it difficult for your eye to settle comfortably, and you scan over the image taking in details – the text on the signs, the two stacks of painted TYRES, the railings and the vanishing point off implied off to the right contrasting with the flatness of the hoardings. I had a couple of goes at this, mainly trying to get the right balance between the bollard at the bottom right and the top of the white hoarding. I’m not sure why I didn’t take half a step back to get slightly more room for the bollard, but I didn’t; possibly I was slightly too concerned about filling the frame right to the edges; possibly I didn’t want to step backwards off the pavement into the path of a car…

Picture 3: a detail

Next, a detail. I took two closeups of a stack of tyres with ‘tyres’ painted onto it. Which of the two to choose?

The first had more sky in it and some space at the top or the bottom of the stack, but the curve at the top was burnt out in a way that wasn’t pleasant.

This one isn;t overexposed anywhere and has a simple reduced range of colours with grey white and black predominating and the blue outline matching the blue of the sky. Also the repetition with the second stack in the background works with the whole. This, therefore becomes the one to go with.

Picture 4: in its environment

Lastly, there was only the wider shot, showing the tyre yard in context. I could have gone a bit wider with this, but I quite like the road and the traffic giving a bit more of a sense of the passing trade the signs are there to alert and also of the drainage channel leading to the reservoirs further up the Lea Valley at the bottom right. The colours are nice again as well.

I made two crops from this one as well: a panoramic cut from the left of the main, yellow sign to the right edge of the frame, emphasising the relationship between the road and the site and between cars and the need for tyres – used as a header for this post – and a square crop of the signs and a bit of contrasting greenery.

It might have been an idea to include more of the road and the traffic in the original, uncropped photograph, as this would have allowed a more balanced panorama, but overall, I am quite happy with the exercise, not disliking any of the pictures.