all that is left....

[jeeperman]

Once the grand entrance to a middle school circa 1932, now the entrance to a lakeside park here in Kirkland not far out of Seattle. This was taken at the spurr of the moment. My work has me driving all over the place and if time I pull over when I see something interesting, though I am not afforded much time to think about most shots. C&C welcome.

[DTruex]

Nice. I really like how the vines are showing up in this picture. They contrast with the entry way well.

[Peter Ryan]

Hi Paul,

I like the winter vines on this - it really suits the structure. I assume they are in full leave in the summer and I am not sure if I would like it as much.

[jeeperman]

Thanks Doug and Peter, yes spring is on its way but just barely. Most things are only just starting to bud. I may shoot this when the vines fill out but suspect I too will like this one better.

[Frankie]

Paul,
This is awesome. Again, I'm going to focus on the vines, but the fact that the vines look to be an extention of the trees on the left and within the entrance (in the white space). There even seems to be a tree of sorts on the right that looks to extend to the vines. This effect adds so many more elements for me. It's like the trees have been holding on to this last bit of the past. The more I look at this, the more amazing and surreal it becomes.
Thank you, Paul, for giving me this opportunity to let my eyes and mind wander and discover.
You really do have an amazing shot here. Bravo!

Frankie

[vicphotog]

Paul I agree with the other comments as well, and would add that you did a great job capturing this without blowing out the sky in the background (something I too often do!)
It could also look quite eerie and spooky in black and white, or re-shot at night...

[Shadowman]

Very nice that they would keep a portion of such a recently built structure.

[Black Pearl]

Looks like an interesting spot.

I'd love to see a shot at night painted with flash and a HDR mono one on a day with a blue sky/white clouds.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Paul,

Good capture, I do think I would correct the perspective (might need a tiny twist too) though.

It could also look quite eerie and spooky in black and white, or re-shot at night...

Yes, at night (if safe in that area), perhaps with a mega powerful torch to do some shots of it 'painted with light'.

EDIT
Ooops, saw this after I'd written, great minds, eh?

I'd love to see a shot at night painted with flash

Cheers,

[jiro]

Very interesting subject, Paul. A lot of good contrasts in the shot. What I like most about it is the wet pavement. It gives the shot that lonely feeling to the subject aside from the aged vines. Nice work!

[jeeperman]

Thanks for the comments everyone. The ideas given have got me thinking of some possabilities. Thanks again.

[jeeperman]

Dave, you say you would fix the perspective. I am curious as to what you would do. It is as I saw it. I was standing to the far right and got quite low. Just was not right straight on.

[Peter Ryan]

Hi Paul,

Dave’s probably in bed now. I think he was talking about how the building leans backwards a little. This is because you did get low down and the structure was not all on the same focal plan so it has a slight tilt (like converging train tracks as they go off in the distance).

If you open up the image in PS and go to Filter/Distort/Lens Correction you can alter many things caused by the lens including barrel or pincushion effects and lower down Transform. By sliding the Vertical Perspective slider a little you can draw the base in and straighten the structure. Next go the Scale at the bottom and increase the scale a little to remove the transparent background that will become apparent.

By the way you can use the second slider down (top left) to straighten horizons here as well.

[jeeperman]

Thanks Peter, I will have to take a look as I use the Gimp. Still in the learning of Gimp so I have my book handy.

[MiniChris]

Well...you know me..I had to take ashot from the cheap seats...

I redid the sharpen using the emboss method which I lowered the opacity to 50% and gave a 1.3 pixel gaussian blur..then did a saturation layer with soft light at 62%. I wanted to see a better defined edge on the vines and lettering. The first image is as you sent and the second as Dave suggested in correcting the perspective.

[jeeperman]

Thanks Chris, nice job. Oh so much yet to learn.

[Peter Ryan]

Hi Paul,

I am not sure what is in GIMP – but when Dave wakes up I think he uses it.
You can use the Transform command and manually adjust. This is some examples of manual controls using the handles and dragging as per Photoshop and PhotoPLus. I am not sure what will work in GIMP but this is style of combinations you can try to see what works for you.
Freehand resizing - Click and drag on handles
Scaled resizing aligned to one side – hold Shift key while re-sizing
Scaled resizing into the centre – hold Shift & Alt key while re-sizing
Independent re-sizing of sides – hold Control key while resizing
Straight line resizing of one side – hold Control & Shift key while re-sizing
Straight line resizing of two side – hold Control, Shift & Alt keys while
re-sizing.
Alternate corner re-sizing simultaneously – hold down Control & Alt keys while re-sizing.

[MiniChris]

Thanks Chris, nice job. Oh so much yet to learn.

To get the vertical correct, i used a transform edit with perspective. It only took a minor tweak on the left side to straighten it up.

[MiniChris]

Hi Paul,

I am not sure what is in GIMP – but when Dave wakes up I think he uses it.
You can use the Transform command and manually adjust. This is some examples of manual controls using the handles and dragging as per Photoshop and PhotoPLus. I am not sure what will work in GIMP but this is style of combinations you can try to see what works for you.
Freehand resizing - Click and drag on handles
Scaled resizing aligned to one side – hold Shift key while re-sizing
Scaled resizing into the centre – hold Shift & Alt key while re-sizing
Independent re-sizing of sides – hold Control key while resizing
Straight line resizing of one side – hold Control & Shift key while re-sizing
Straight line resizing of two side – hold Control, Shift & Alt keys while
re-sizing.
Alternate corner re-sizing simultaneously – hold down Control & Alt keys while re-sizing.

I learned something new today..thanks for the keyboard shortcuts.

[jeeperman]

Thank you Peter and Chris. I will be looking into this for sure.