This is the Star Atrium inside the Dubai Mall. Standing near the center and looking up, you immediately see the reason for its name. There were only a handful of people looking down over the railing, but the floor where I was standing was bustling with people. Being the only person standing still, it was understandable that a few people bumped into me as I looked upward and captured a few photos.

I like using symmetry in images. It often provides a unique perspective of an area or building. Think about it, how often do you find yourself perfectly centered in a particular space?

But here, you can see that I am not standing directly in the center and I angled my lens slightly toward the longest point of the star. This gives you a slightly longer bottom part of the image, when compared to the top. I thought this composition complimented the slight asymmetry of the star and provided more depth. I also found the different colors found on each of the floors to be too distracting. As a result, I turned this into a simple black and white to give the lines, curves and shapes more attention. Anyway, just wanted to share what I was thinking in composing and processing this image. The color image is at the bottom of this post if you want to compare and contrast.

About 6 months ago, I posted an image from the Waterfall Atrium of this same mall (found here). I took over a hundred images while walking around the mall that day as the architecture and interior design is very interesting. Unlike everyone else, I was not there to shop…in fact, I don’t think I even went into a store...but I did not leave empty-handed. :)

Here is the image in full color...