ViewCamera-like View!, a photo from Ontario, Central

Photographer's Note

Okay, I've been taking lots of photos from the Gladstone Hotel, in Toronto. I'm working on a suite there and have been taking my camera with me every day! It's a very photo-genic place . . .

This shot is through a VERY dirty window on the forth floor. I wiped a little area clean but left the rest all dirty and blurry. The result looks like something out of an old viewcamera or a shallow-DoF shot of a model train-set or something!

This area of Toronto is undergoing crazy amounts of development. There are towers and townhouses and condos going up all over the place. Smaller businesses and galleries are getting squeased out by Starbucks and the like and many of them are relocated further west on Queen Street.

Shot RAW with my 24mm prime, wide open. In photoshop I saturated the colour as they were quite washed out due to all of the dirt on the window. If you look closely at the sky you can see some of the bigger dirt smudges.

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Critiques | Translate

Clochette (8076) 2005-11-18 11:17

"This shot is through a VERY dirty window on the forth floor. I wiped a little area clean but left the rest all dirty and blurry"

You really did that on purpose ???

Apart from the fact that the subject is not interesting at all to me, I even can't see the added value of shooting it through a dirty window.

Anyway, a (quick) look at your gallery explains it all. You seem to be fond of blur. That's sometimes an artistic technic. When cleverly used.

[2] +

lotis (132) 2006-08-05 16:44

Hi Aleksandr,
I have to agree with Martine here. Maybe this blur would work with another subject, but it definately does not work here for me.

Best Regards,
Louis

yella-umbrella (17) 2007-02-03 20:08

Well, I have to disagree with everyone, because the blur (it's not even blurry, just soft) is what makes the photo stand apart from others. The softness all around pushes my eye to the cars in the bottom half of the photo so it is very good compositionally. Also, content wise, the image is very interesting. To me it shows a dusty and hot Canadian city.

Also I aplaude your interest in experimentation. It is a shame that the photos that get the most notice here on Trek Earth are the ones that are the most generic.