A view from the dungeon Photo

Photographer’s Note

Bourscheid castle is located on an isolated promontory, accessible only from the north-west, 150 meters above the level of the river Sure in Luxembourg. Even today the ruins testify of an impressive fortification surrounded by a massive ring wall with 11 watchtowers. The centre of the enclosure came into being around the year 1000 when a stone construction replaced an earlier wooden defense structure. An 11C keep remain from the upper castle. The extensive circular wall was finished in 1384. The castle began to delapidate after the year 1512 when the last member of the Bourscheid family had died. In the 19C the castle fell into ruins, but has been restored since 1972 and is now a museum.

Here we see one of the watchtowers and the meander of the river Sure 150m below. On the hill slope in the background we see Lipperscheid village, and to the right of it - Grenglay hill. This panorama was not easy to make, I have taken the photo leaning with my camera from a small and narrow window of the dungeon tower, so my POV possibilities were indeed limited, and I was using the lowest zoom possible; hence this "tight" framing.

I have put in the workshop the general, more postcard-type view of the castle.

orme, Paolo, yanseiler, PixelTerror, nwoehnl, PJE, s_a_s_h_a, leiju, Voltri has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

orme (6746) 2006-07-14 3:46

There is an incredible depth to this shot, Alexander.
The colours and clarity are both excellent.
Well framed, with the tower taken 1/3 on the left.

Paolo (40694) 2006-07-14 4:07

Hi Alex, amazing shot, with a fantastic view down in the valley and wonderful spring colours.
excellent POV and great light and focus.
thanks, ciao

yanseiler (20) 2006-07-14 4:55

Hi Alexander, a nice picture but I have the following comments:
It is maybe a little bit over sharpened.
On the composition side, I like how the tower is placed on the left (you could remove the small green window maybe) and then the river beneath which leads our eyes (good) but I wonder about this very little part of sky at the top, I would say either more or nothing, it seems too small and unbalances the whole thing. The colors are great. The compo of the WS is also nice.
Kindly
Yan

avigur_11 (21273) 2006-07-14 8:14

Wow, what an impressive view, Alex, and a fantastic POV! Cutting off the tower's head is a good choice in this case, after all you can't catch them all. I like the silver colored tilework on the tower's top, and the shiny light on it. Beautiful.

ben4321 (9781) 2006-07-14 12:16

A tight composition here, Alexander, and in my view it would benefit from being tighter still. I'd lose the sliver of green to the left of the watchtower and the the strip of sky at the top of the frame.
Other than this, I think this is an excellent shot; the castle provides interesting foreground detail and the green valley behind with the graceful curve of the river is very nice indeed.
Good work.
Ben

feather (49858) 2006-07-14 12:26

I love the depth you have achieved by including the tower in the scene. It sounds like it was not easy to take. The view below is stunning.

PixelTerror (86058) 2006-07-15 4:32

Privet Alexander,
I like here the PoV and the awesome view overlooking the nice river curve, the greens are rich and the idea to introduce the view with the tower is great, it also adds some contrast which is always a good thing. Now what bothers me a bit is that you lacked angle and had to cut the tower, shooting two overlapping vertical photos and stitching them would have saved the full attractivity of this view. I possibly already told you this, and I see it's a 2005 pic, so not much to regret and thinking positively it gives you good reasons to return to this nice place if you have the opportunity ! Judging by the WS view it would be a great subject as well for me to color an addl tiny piece of yellow on my personal map ;-)
I wish you a nice week end,
Jean-Yves

jinju (14265) 2006-07-15 5:04

technically not perfect because of compression but this is not your fault but rather the limit on TE which has forced me to keep several photos off this site due to compression issues.

The composition is nice. An interesting combination of castle and the surroundings.

nwoehnl (118) 2006-07-15 5:15

I don't have any problem with the angle, Alexander, I don't think photography is about always fitting a full view of everything into a single frame (and I get increasingly bored with photos that do just that). How about letting the viewer's brain and imagination do some work, too? ;) The foreground elements of the fortress are very well used to establish the setting and emphasize a feeling of perspective for the downward view to the river and the lush greenery of the valley. Very nice.

PJE (19417) 2006-07-15 13:51

Alexander I enjoy your photos because of the refreshing viewpoints you capture. This photo has good dualistic features showing the watchtower up close and the distant details of the land as well. I like this kind of approach. In fact I am thinking what the scene would look like with a much wider angle lens. That would be interesting to see. Thanks for sharing!

s_a_s_h_a (607) 2006-07-15 16:57

Hi Sasha,
A great place and nice shot, amazing colors picture but POV isn't perfect. I think, you should cut the top side of the photo with sky (see my worksop) or opposite, there are add more...

Alex

[workshop] [compare]

xavshot (62327) 2006-07-16 13:35

Bonsoir Alexander
excellente cette vue ! j'aime vraiment ce POV sur cette vallée. Une excellente profondeur de champ et une belle impression de dominer le paysage ;o)
Bravo, beau travail
Xavier

sebinho342 (18736) 2006-07-17 8:46

Hi Alexandar, i love this view !! This is great !!
I think i have perhaps see already on TE same kind of picture from this site but anyway this picture is marvelous :)
Excellent composition indeed !!
Good eyes :)
I'll be back

Voltri (1724) 2006-10-26 15:25

Гарно, но купол обрезанный. Так что, на любителя :)