Türkiye – Burj Al Babas

Burj Al Babas and the rows of identical towers

In Burj Al Babas there are numerous castle-like houses in almost uniform rows. Up close you can see individual towers, and from above you can see the repetition of their basic shapes. The straight streets and the adjoining Turkish mountains reinforce the difference between the complex and the surrounding area.

When rows of houses become a pattern

At Burj Al Babas, the repetition of the same roof and tower shapes changes the scale. Only a cross street or an undeveloped piece of ground makes the extent of the complex tangible again.

A sequence of images wins if each additional view answers a new question. You can start with an overview that introduces the location. Afterwards, a closer look may reveal a characteristic surface or shape. Finally, a side perspective can spatially explain the previously seen area. If you just string several very similar sections together, you are wasting this opportunity. When making your selection, it is therefore worth simply testing whether you can formulate your own, accurate caption for each image.

What the roofs reveal about the floor plan

If you look at it at an angle, the houses not only show their roofs, but also their facades of different widths. This gives the motif more depth than in the pure top view. Even the change from a low neighboring building to a taller building reveals something about the gradation of the place. Such a view is particularly useful for a local chronicle if the caption indicates the starting point of the view. Readers can then follow the rows of houses themselves to the edge of the picture.

Document a construction condition

When it comes to documentation, what matters most is which condition was recorded from which direction. Visible construction areas, paths already in use and open floor areas can be related to one another in the overview image. For later comparison, the chosen perspective should contain a fixed point that can be found even after the work has been completed. A neighboring street is usually better suited for this than a variable stack of materials. An exact statement of the time of recording, if known, is included in every published comparison.

The distribution of blue tones

For a direct image comparison, use shot 15 and shot 31 from the gallery with 48 aerial photos. In the first excerpt, shades of blue play a smaller role. In the second shot, blue areas take up more space. Blue can extend over a large contiguous area or only appear in individual parts. What also counts for the effect is whether these areas extend to the edge of the picture or surround the main subject.

According to camera data, Shot 1 and Shot 48 were taken on December 5, 2020. There is a gap of around 34 minutes between the two images. The exposure time was 1/1000 second for the first of the images mentioned and 1/500 second for the second.

For a selection of moving images, the gallery contains 19 linked clips. Among them is “Burj Al Babas from the air”. Under Aerial Videos the preview leads to the aerial photographer's respective offer at Adobe Stock.

Arrange recordings in a readable sequence

A sequence of images becomes more understandable when the transition from one photo to the next has a recognizable purpose. The overview can be followed by a closer view of the same structure. The view can then change to another part of the place. When making this selection, it helps to give the images short captions as a test. If the description repeats itself almost verbatim, both recordings may serve the same purpose. On this basis, an aerial photographer can specifically search for the missing perspective or select a more suitable view from the available material.

Related motifs in the aerial photo archive

The article Flugzeug Restaurant Ucak Park offers another perspective. At Uçak Park, a parked airliner forms the centerpiece of the area. In the gallery Pompei there is a different focus. Above ancient Pompeii, street axes and house floor plans emerge from an extensive archaeological area.