Radcliffe Camera, Oxford, UK

[Hindey]

Hi,
Second in my mini-series. This was taken outside of Brasenose College, in Radcliffe Square. It's of the Radcliffe Camera (the round library, I may post a fuller photo of it later, but it is a very Oxford landmark), with some minimum Photoshopping.



Any comments welcome,
Cheers,
Chris

[SmartWombat]

Without you telling me, I wouldn't have a clue where it is or what building.
I'm not a tourist, I live here

Nice colours in the stone, if you'd managed to include one of the heads in the foreground, I'd have recognised it instantly !

[Hindey]

Heads on the Rad cam? Where? Do you mean the Sheldonian?

I'm not a tourist, honest! My girlfriend is at university there, so I feel slightly elevated from the rank of tourist. I also try not to just take a picture and walk away. I'm quite used to the buildings by now, so the tourists probably annoy me almost as much as they annoy you, in a I-need-to-get-on-the-train-please-move kind of way...

Chris

[SmartWombat]

Yes, I did mean the Sheldonian.
I'm a bit fried at the moment, dad's funeral is tomorrow.
I was cross-wired there remember it's where he got hit on the head with the bible and given his PhD.
I ought to get out and take photos more

[Hindey]

I'm sorry to hear that, you have my condolences

Oxford is a great place to take building shots I guess, if you're into that sort of thing. What'd he get his PhD in? I guess it would be a DPhil if it was from Oxford, they're funny like that!

[SmartWombat]

True, I used the generic term for the paperwork, Piled Higher and Deeper

His subject was Organic Chemistry. His thesis is at the house somewhere, along with his earliest chemistry textbook "The Chemist" published by James and Watson Watt. Still mostly uncut folios but some interesting stuff in there as I peek between the pages.

I worked on some of the stuff for his thesis, calibrating the Gas Chromatograph charts. All done by computer now of course.
Back then it was recorded on a constant speed chart recorder. You used the peak of the known solvent and a beautiful mechanical arrangement of a zigzag spring of constant, precise strength. You extended it to measure baseline to the known sample and the graduations then scaled the other peaks.

[Hindey]

Sounds way over my head! Was never into chemistry at school, which probably partly explains how I wound up doing computer science...

Does anyone else have any thoughts on the image? Or is it just not that exciting?

Cheers,
Chris

[Spike]

My thoughts...

The tilting pillars and curve of the building make for a nice composition the way you've framed this one. I also like the warm stone of the building. What I don't care for is the washed out sky at the bottom left. Too bad there wasn't more blue to work with. Adding a border could help ...

Spike

[Hindey]

Hi,
I've taken you up on your idea of a border. What do you think?



Cheers,
Chris

[Hindey]

Thanks! I agree, the frame does improve the shot. I'm rather please with it!

Again, thanks for the comments and the nice things said!

Cheers,
Chris

[SmartWombat]

Hi, I've taken you up on your idea of a border. What do you think?

Oh that's nice, it looks like a postcard.
I was troubled by that white sky before, against the white page background.
But couldn't think of any way to fix it. Apart from printing it and mounting it on dark background.

I'm still not firing on all cylinders, because that solution is so obvious!

It really makes it work, with the contrast between the curves in the photo and the border.
Before the image just sort of petered out, and I couldn't think how to deal with it online.
The black also contrasts with the colours of the stone (you captured that really well) and I'm amazed at how good it looks - without changing the image.

[Hindey]

Time to start up the cottage industry in postcard making then? ;)

Thanks again, it's really encouraging to get comments like these on a forum where I see works of such quality.

Chris

[Hindey]

Ooh, just remembered something that someone mentioned to me in person earlier. Would it be best to clone out the tip of the window, just visible? Or should I leave the design of it to whoever built it 500 years ago?

Chris