This is the official residence of the UC Berkeley chancellor, called Blake House. It is surrounded by a small botanic garden that is open to the public on weekdays. I've been meaning to get out there, and when this challenge came up I figured it would be a good opportunity to shoot the reflecting pool in front of the residence. Had a hard time picking a shot to enter this week. Liked several, but don't have a clue which will score the best. I settled on this one ... hope I made a good choice.
Tonemapped from 5 exposures, 1 stop apart, then processed the reflecting pool and the rest of the pic separately in Elements with standard adjustments.
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The reflection in the water is gorgeous. The parts other than the water, however, are too processed (tonemapping or shadow/highlight) for my taste, particularly the greens. There's a nice depth in the colors shown in the water that seems to have been removed from the rest of the image. The water part is really great though.
Quite pleasantly geometrical; the processing feels over-forced though - the shadows are brought so far up that the light feels unbalanced, and there's a fringing to everything that feels unnatural - most especially visible in the edges of the trees against the sky.
Great composition, shame about the slightly blurred look. I'd also have kept the water a little darker to help the rest of the picture which is now overexposed.
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