This is one of the (used to be Equitable Life, now) Halifax Insurance company offices in Aylesbury. Since it's construction is has always been affectionately known as the 'Blue Leanie' by locals, due to its parallelogram sides. This shot was taken underneath the the overhanging corner.
Original was cropped, focus sharpened, hue & saturation to auto, brightness & contrast to auto, levels adjusted (main and blue channel).
Statistics
Place: 100 out of 243 Avg (all users): 5.2540 Avg (commenters): 5.4545 Avg (participants): 5.3356 Avg (non-participants): 5.1373 Views since voting: 3595 Votes: 248 Comments: 15 Favorites: 0
Thanks for the critiques folks :o) A few responses:
Like I mentioned in my previous comment, I couldn't crop any lower due to a streetlamp being just below the shot (and its right next to the building, so nearly impossible to avoid without spoteditting). I even used the 640x427 ratio to get more of the building in view, but really needed the new unrestricted aspect ratios of dpc2...
The colours are a bit oversaturated, as I was trying to bring out the blues of the glass, but the bricks really are close to that shade of redish-orange. The jaggies are mostly the result of having to meet the 150k compression, plus theyre one of the known weakness of the camera.
What I was really trying to achieve with this building was a shot similar to this shot which I'd taken a few months previously, but I wasn't able to get the same angle nor lighting as before.
Oh, and I've heard of Beckley, but I've not been (or been through) there I don't think :o)
Hi Manic, seems that muckpond has critiqued this one before me, but heres my version. By the way, am from Oxford too, grew up in a little villiage called Beckley, you know it? I live in Japan now, but often come back to Oxford cause my parents still live there. I know Aylesbury too.
Critique Club:
Well the main thing here is the sky, but being England, I know how hard it is to get a blue sky. In the case of an overcast day, I would have tried to get rid of as much as the sky as possible, fill the frame with the building. I think that it would have looked good if the top angle of the building had just pierced the top frame of the picture, either taken from a lower angle or just cropped a bit more. You could have even done a vertical panoramic shot, cropping out the pink bits and concentrating on just the centre section, would have been quite abstract but maybe cool.(wasnt DPC legal before, but would be now) Anyway, enjoy the beautiful UK weather! Hope that this helps you.
Well, I may or may not be the right person to be critiquing this one b/c I really enjoyed the photo and its symmetry.
My only comments are the washed-out sky, which you've already acknowledged, and the jaggedy compression of the angles in the windows. If those could be cleaned up, it would improve the photo immensely. Also, the color seems somewhat washed out -- are the bricks really pink? Perhaps some color correction to try and make this more natural hues would have made it a better photo.
Overall, great camera work and subject. _I_, at least, enjoyed it.
Well, I'm glad that some of you liked it... Yes, the sky was very grey, as it had been all week, and this was taken on the only day it wasn't raining. The crop was primarily done like it is because there's a streetlamp just below the bottom middle of this crop, and I wanted just the building, plus it put the upper two brickworks on the RoT points, so I was happy with that.
I'm surprised that there weren't any more blue-glass buildings in this challenge, but given my final score, I wonder if everyone else knew something I didn't... ah well...
Good clear focus. Cropped poorly. Shadows on right side of building are distracting becuase the ones on the left side are very dark and almost like shadows. Just not enough of the picture to see what it is. Would be more interesting seeing more. What there is is decent. PTL 4
Really cool architecture shot. Not sure it makes me think BLUE, but i'm assuming all the pics fit the category this week. I'm not crazy about the crop. Seems like there should be more at the bottom. Could make some cool reflection pics probably. ~indigo
Add photograph to your favorites
Add photographer to your favorites
