Temple of Heaven Photo

Photographer’s Note

The Temple of Heaven in Beijing, on a gorgeous Spring Day, in late May, 2007. It was very rare to see a blue sky like this, too. Usually the sky is white hazy, & smoggy. Polarized.

From Wikipedia:

"The Temple of Heaven, literally the Altar of Heaven (traditional Chinese: 天壇; simplified Chinese: 天坛; pinyin: Tiāntán; Manchu: Abkai mukdehun) is a complex of Taoist buildings situated in southeastern urban Beijing, in Xuanwu District. The complex was visited by the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayer to Heaven for good harvest. It is regarded as a Taoist temple, although Chinese Heaven worship, especially by the reigning monarch of the day, pre-dates Taoism."

This is a link to Wikipedia

MLINES, snunney, papagolf21, pasternak, axiotea, jhm, Cricri, Cretense, sayan, saylan-cb has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

Paolo (40651) 2007-11-06 0:58

Hi Chris, excellent one, a giant temple colorful, full of light and with high quality and perfect composition and exposure too.
great shot.
thanks, ciao

jurek1951 (25730) 2007-11-06 0:58

Hello Chris,
Your work is great,Perfect detail and clarity.
Wonderful colours and lovely effect,
Georg

MLINES (10842) 2007-11-06 1:12

Hi Chris. This is a superb view, uncluttered by people, so difficult to achive in this sort of place. The low to the ground gives a lift to this large important structure. Excellent clarity. TFS. Murray.

snunney (34130) 2007-11-06 1:16

Hello Chris,
A very nice capture of this temple with lots of pleasing geometric lines. Well composed and very good colours and clarity.

papagolf21 (55978) 2007-11-06 1:24

Bonjour, mon ami Chris,
Mais combien de kilomètres parcourez-vous pour nous offrir de si belles images.
Ce temple bénéficie d'une beauté exceptionnelle.
Merci pour ce joli cadeau.
Amitiés.
Philippe

barrufeto_77 (25615) 2007-11-06 1:59

Hi Chris.

The sharpness and the colours are superb! I like the different contrasts in the picture with that temple in the top.

Rgs, Oscar

azaf1 (15541) 2007-11-06 2:04

Chris hi!
A great capture. I just love the triangles created, the clarity and great colours
regards
Argiris

fayeulle (26541) 2007-11-06 2:09

Hi Chris
You are a lucky guy ! What a sky ! Really stunning for this place.
Cheers
JP

vincz (19039) 2007-11-06 2:27

Wow... great low POV. I love the feeling with all the pavement and the tower emerging from all this white. Very well done.

pasternak (13028) 2007-11-06 2:57

I like this, Chris, nice concentric pavement pattern leading to the main subject which is properly decentralized, I like the low POV which makes the temple look higher than it is...

Cheers
Alexander

siolaw (25702) 2007-11-06 3:25

Hi Chris,
An impressive view of this majestic temple, good off center framing, and a rare blus sky in Beijijb! Nice light and colors sharp details
Nice
Laurent

UnTrained (0) 2007-11-06 3:26

Hi Chris,
splendid composition, you large temple looks even greater from that view and with that framing. Strong contrasts and excellent sharpness and the wide area of the pavement takes us into the capture.
Lieben Gruss, Ulf

axiotea (15929) 2007-11-06 3:31

Hello Chris
The light enhances the beauty of the architecture and I like the multi roofed temple details. The tiles in FG add depth in a dynamic way under this unusually blue Beijing sky!
Amicalement
Marilyn

jhm (81719) 2007-11-06 3:38

Hello Chris,

I see the last period a very great quality in your photo gallery, a lot better than 2 month ago, one other camera or a other photoshop?
Splendid quality and real colours, a temple with three people but this is a wonderful composition too.
Thanks for sharing.

Best regards,
John.

Cricri (42835) 2007-11-06 7:37

Hi Chris,
Belle image de ce temple d'une grande beauté, joli détails et couleurs sous une belle lumiére et ciel bleu, compliment
Thank you....See you soon
cricri

Cormac (26449) 2007-11-06 8:15

Beautiful building, and well captured. One thing that I thought right away was - where are the people? If you look closely you can see some, but there are none in the plaza in front of the building, which makes this somehow a little strange. I know I always wait for the people to get out of the way too, but sometimes I think it's better to have some. Nice shot as it is though!

Gerrit (35491) 2007-11-06 12:06

Hi Chris,
impressive place and picture. Excellent toning and composition.
Groeten Gerrit

Cretense (54906) 2007-11-06 14:02

Hi Chris!

A brilliant temple, captured in the best way possible. Fantastic composition, perfect light managment. Beautiful colours and top quality overall definition. Congratulations!

Hercules

noborders (14197) 2007-11-07 2:28

I like very much the way you portrayed this imposing and round building, very good and creative POV + the colours are bright and shiny with a superb blue sky...
Congratulations,
C.

sayan (2609) 2007-11-07 3:20

Hi Chris

An impressive view of the temple and I like the clear blue sky here which is so uncharacteristic of Beinjing! You were lucky to get such a clear and sunny day. good off center composition with nice colors and lights!

regards

Sayan

saylan-cb (12726) 2007-11-07 3:34

Hi Chris
Great composition...
Nice details and clarity...
Beautiful colours and POV here...
Well done...
TFS/Regards

Budapestman (41042) 2007-11-07 3:55

Hi Chris,
Beauiful and particular architecture image, really fascinating spectacle. Details are very fine the composition is splendid. Light is excellent, colours are wonderful. Great! Have a nice day
George

jrj (34779) 2007-11-07 5:57

Interesting use of lines, shapes and curves in the compo here Chris. Combined with the offcentered placement of the temple you sure made an interesting photo this way.

ndb1958 (9228) 2007-11-07 8:02

Nice shot of Beijing with beautiful natural colours. Specially the blue sky is cool. Would love to see this place.
Nino

cherryripe (18794) 2007-11-07 8:05

Hi Chris
Splendid view of this temple, even more so for me as I visited it on a cloudy day. I like the effect of the wide angle accentuated the graphics of the pavement. The temple is well placed in the frame and the people help show how big it is.
Regards
Nikki

mrcrow (3989) 2007-11-07 8:32

i remember this now...it was a bit dull when we visited
there is some connection between the colour purple and heaven..?
very clean and crisp shot of the tower with the buildings to the right balancing up the view
i am glad these buildings are surviving the chinese climate and environment
cheers
geof

cessy (13647) 2007-11-07 12:23

excellent capture of the place, Chris
very good 3rd composition and wonderful colors
the sharpness and details also very good
bagus sekali :)

Bruno40 (6440) 2007-11-08 5:07

Great photo Chris. I have something similar that I am planning to post someday.
I like your uncentered composition.
Is this scanned?
TFS
jorge

pablominto (40008) 2007-11-08 23:15

Hello Chris,
A well balanced composition where the square is effectively used as lead-in to temple!
Excellent sharpness in all details and the the colours are very ttractive in the fine light...
Greetings,
Pablo -

Angshu (33318) 2007-11-11 5:07

Namaste Chris
You were lucky with the blue sky. Very good off-centre composition with the colours and sharpness perfectly done. Excellent shot to show us the temple and the surroundings.
Regards
Angshu

Waylim (10717) 2009-08-20 10:27

Chris,
It is great that you have such great weather with such nice blue sky. You managed to get the shot without too many people in it. I was here once and it was impossible to get any shot without people in in it.Excellent composition and beautiful colors. Thanks
Way