So I'd been itching to shoot some brutalist buildings here in Georgia, right? Saw all these fancy pro shots online and thought - hell, I can do that too. Packed my old Canon 6D with a 24-70mm lens and headed out at 5 AM. Mistake number one: didn't check the damn weather. Got soaked halfway to the Ministry of Highway Construction building near Heroes Square. Had to duck into some Soviet-era bus stop for twenty minutes while my bag absorbed half the Black Sea.
The Gear Struggle
Set up my tripod in a puddle (classic move) and realized I forgot my lens hood. Sun was creeping up behind all that concrete and creating the craziest flares. Ended up using my baseball cap as a ghetto shade. Pro tip right there: sweat-stained hats block light better than you'd think. Took like thirty shots before I noticed a pigeon had crapped on my backpack. Brutalism meets birdism.
Decided to hit the Archives Building next. Wanted that rough concrete texture to pop. Dialed the aperture to f/8 like those tutorials said - images came out flatter than week-old soda. Played with different angles until I was practically lying in some dead bushes. Security guard thought I'd collapsed and came running. Still got yelled at for "suspicious activity" but hey, crouching under a drainpipe got me the sickest perspective.
Lighting Disasters & Happy Accidents
Around noon I nearly quit. Harsh sunlight washed out all those sweet geometric shapes at the former Institute of Robotics. Ate my sad gas station sandwich in defeat. Remembered some photographer saying "brutalist needs brutal light." Waited till 3 PM when shadows got sharp as knives. Suddenly - bam! The building looked like a freaking alien battleship.
Used my own shadow to darken the foreground. Got down to eye-level with some graffiti stains that looked like battle scars. Ended up loving those accidental shots more than my carefully planned ones.
What Actually Worked:
- Shooting at crazy low angles (even if you get dirty looks)
- Chasing harsh shadows instead of avoiding them
- Putting tiny human figures near giant slabs to show scale
- Forgetting lens hoods - forces creative solutions
- Not arguing with security guards
Uploaded everything when I got home. Editing sucked though - turns out pigeon crap on your bag = zero chill during lightroom processing. Still, that shot from the drainpipe angle? Makes the Archives look like Godzilla's toenail. Totally worth wet socks and mild security guard trauma.
