Sometimes (well, okay, make that most times) a slight change of angle will turn a standard, front-on shot into an interesting variation from the norm.

This shot was taken in Montreal, on a balmy night in mid-September 2005. I was walking past the Imax Theatre with a couple of cameras slung around my neck, when I stopped and wondered how I could depict this imposing facade a bit differently.

I noticed the glow from the street lamp and its soft tones down the ridged metal. I noticed the strong vertical gold stripe. I noticed the fact that the blue and red words ran perpendicular to each other. And I figured I knew how I could shoot it.

I only shot one frame, but I think it stands up fairly well. Did I shoot it with a tripod? Nope. I’ve never owned a tripod. Did I shoot it with a bells-and-whistles DSLR? Nope. This was shot with a little three-megapixel Pentax Optio LF33. (It was 2005, after all …!)

When I returned home to Melbourne, a colleague of mine immediately asked permission to use this shot as the background on his work PC. Not because he pines for Montreal. No, he uses it because his name is “Max”.

I do not crop, enhance or post-edit my images in any way.