Moni Preveli, Crete II Photo

Photographer’s Note

This picture was taken in the grounds of the Holy Monastery at Preveli in southwest Crete.

This monastery, its Abbot and its Monks, played a very important part in the harbouring, protection and rescue of very many Allied troops, mainly from Australia and New Zealand, following the aerial invasion of Crete by the Germans in May, 1941. In previous centuries, it suffered greatly at the hands of the Turks.

Here you can see some of the newer buildings with the very old Monks' quarters farther back on the left. Beyond those and looking west, the rugged hills descend to the sea on Crete's southern coast.

Shot in RAW and converted and edited in PSE6 with the use of FastStone editor to assist with cropping and composition at the TIFF stage.

All comments/critiques/advice welcome!

graffer has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

graffer (1764) 2009-10-09 2:25

Hello John,

This is another fine photograph from your holiday in Crete. Again the barrenness of the countryside comes over strongly, as well as the power of the sun shining from a cloudless sky.

As you know, I have a bit of an obsession with composition, and the first thing I do when I critique a picture, is to download it and look at it in the thirds crop board grid in FastStone viewer, so that I can assess it.

Now this is a difficult one. The top two thirds of the picture are full of interest, and those flowers on the wall are on an intersection of thirds, but the lowest third – the foreground - of the picture is comparatively empty. The wooden benches lie neatly on the lower line of thirds, but I feel I would like to have somebody - perhaps a couple of the monks! - sitting on them.

There are lots of interesting diagonals, and the wall at the bottom left makes a curving lead in, as do the branching white lines on the concrete.

As usual the image from your Tamron lens is sharp, crisp and clear.

Kind regards,

Peter.

Photo Information

Copyright: John Cannon (tyro) (2664)
Genre: Places
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2009-07-12
Categories: Daily Life, Architecture
Camera: Canon 20D, Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 XR Di-II LD SP AF, Hoya 67mm Circular Polarizer
Exposure: f/10.0, 1/80 seconds
More Photo Info: view
Map: view
Photo Version: Original Version
Travelogue: Crete, July, 2009.
Date Submitted: 2009-10-08 16:36