COMMENTS:
 

Karen Leonard	The blue adds interest, more than b+w, for a striking architectural photo.
Dean Hellinger	What's to comment? That striking building, presented with that great blue background, your selection of those soaring portions, great picture.
Eleanor Helper	Wow! Terrific impact with bold contrast of deep blue and almost silver of sunlit parts of the building with the blue gray shadowed parts and all contrasting with that deep blue Western sky. But then you had to spoil (IMHO) the simplicity by muddying of that pure blue sky. (You knew I would say that!) I agree with the decision to keep to the semi-abstract composition, omitting people and steps, and to include the blue sky (if only...)
Burt Hesselson	A very strong image against a perfect blue sky. I know you try everything flipped and have decided this is the better way, but I disagree and feel it is much stronger flipped. Most viewers including myself like to see the tallest thing in the image in the upper left.
Donn Miertl	I would like to see the black and white. This is beautifully done shot of the Air Force academy chapel. What interests me is your horizontal presentation and not including all of the entrance. By doing this you isolated the most striking architecture of the area and put the front triangle on the 1/3 line. I don’t know that this improves the shot, but it presents it in a vertical format. Hope you like it.
Tim Christoffersen	Simple, architectural abstract. I like it. My only comment is it has to my eye a somewhat flat feeling. I don’t know if something like sharpening the contrast between the slightly different vertical bands in each A-frame spire would help?
Larry Beller replies:	I appreciate all your encouraging comments. I'll start with Donn's comment. He has provided a valid alternative composition. My intention when I took it was to use gradually brightening line of spires as a lead-in to the front arch. While a tall building probably deserves a vertical image, that's not what I had in mind at the time; Donn's ne4ds more of my thought. I have to disagree with Burt. I know of no one else who insists that "most viewers" like to see high on the left and  low on the right to the detriment of any other composition consideration; to the contrary, I do know of many excellent and classic photographers, Ansel Adams for one, whose pictures regularly break that rule. Nevertheless, Burt's suggested  composition is intriguing. Simply flipping the picture gives a different set of lead-in lines, and even a tail, a different picture altogether, to my way of thinking. Even so, I prefer images that "read" from left to right, and think that my way of presenting it makes a better use of picture area. Besides, anyone who has seen the building in person would recognize that the sun never comes from the northwest at this latitude in mid-afternoon. As for Tim's comment, I had hoped that the linear differences in brightness of the arches as they lead in would give a sense of depth; apparently it is not enough. I used the "Structure" command in Viveza to do as Tim suggests, but that doesn't do it; The added detail just calls attention to itself. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Member Biography

Larry Beller - Photographic Biography My primary photographic interests have always been pictorial and landscape photography, interests that are abetted by living in retirement on the banks of the Snake River in the mountains of eastern Idaho, an hour from the Tetons and two from Yellowstone. I am gradually renewing my interest from long ago in informal portraits of people and in architectural photography, and am being dragged kicking and screaming into "Creative" photography. I compete in PSA-recognized exhibitions in digital projected color and monochrome, and in both color and monochrome prints. I have two stars in PPD large monochrome prints, one star each in PPD small monochrome and color prints, four stars in CPID, and five stars in EID. Such competition helps make up for the lack of any PSA member camera clubs in eastern Idaho. This Study Group is a big help, as well. I use a Nikon D80 DSLR with a variety of lenses, the most important being an 18-200 VR (stabilized) Nikor. I use an Epson 4490 scanner for digitizing slides and prints, an Epson 2200 printer, and a Dell Optiplex 745 computer with 4 GB of RAM and 5 TB of disk space, and a ViewSonic 19-inch LCD monitor. My software includes Adobe CS4 and Lightroom 2.