Blue Sky Photo | TrekEarth

Photographer’s Note

Emeryville, California is across the Bay from San Francisco and for years suffered from the blight of old industrial plants strung along the freeway separating this community from the Bay. Of course, it was inevitable that all of the land right in the middle of the metropolitan region would be much too valuable to stand vacant for long after the aged operations came to a close. Over the last fifteen years Emeryville has been experiencing a renaissance and is quickly becoming one of the world's centers for biotechnology. I'll be posting a couple of photos taken at the research center established in Emeryville by the Chiron Corporation which was founded in the city decades earlier by three university professors. There also has been an explosion of commercial development as well as construction of four new hotels to serve San Francisco as well as the East Bay communities of Oakland and Berkeley.

The photo I'm posting today is of an office building recently constructed within an older neighborhood now being transformed by the renewed energy in this community. I was driving by when I noticed the striking facade of this distinctly modern building. Then I noticed the building's entry with the dramatic opening to the sky. Needless to say I got out of my car and started taking photos, one of which I post this evening.

I did a slight adjustment to perspective before adjusting levels, contrast and saturation and finally sharpening with USM. Then I cropped it and sized for upload to TE. As an experiment I'm employing some suggestions made by Yitzhak in the framing. The choices as to color and size of elements are my own, of course, so the fault belongs to me if this treatment doesn't work. Feedback is always welcomed.

nwoehnl, prlcs, omritoppol, manny, sunny, Galeota, taivo, sn00zie has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

yesterday (9787) 2004-05-31 4:08

Excellent composition, great sharp, great lines, beautiful blue, excellent light, good contrast, I like it.

nwoehnl (118) 2004-05-31 4:09

Again a quite striking graphical piece, Curtis. You positioned yourself almost ideally below this opening to achieve a good parallelism of the leading horizontal and vertical lines to your frame. The circular opening towards the sky, the lamp, and the shadows created by the sunlight provide additional details that make this shot fun to explore. Colors and sharpness are very good, and the frame you added works really well here, using just a primary color from your shot, plus black.

Piotr (0) 2004-05-31 5:39

Modern ,excellent composition!, well done!

olli (2091) 2004-05-31 6:19

Very interesting architecture/abstract shot – well seen and captured, Curtis. Nice mix of lines – and I like how the big curve make the composition softer. I also like the shadow on the bottom left corner. Beautiful wooden surface.

How the lamp with the other "thing" breaks the simplicity distracts me a little – but I know there isn´t much you could do for it... I like the frame – but I think the blue line is a bit too thick...

prlcs (63) 2004-05-31 6:29

J'aime beaucoup l'aspect graphique de cette composition ainsi que le contraste entre les couleurs du bois et du ciel. Très bien vu. Bravo !
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I love very much the graphical aspect of this composition as well as the contrast between the colors of wthe ood and the sky. Very well considering. Bravo !

omritoppol (826) 2004-05-31 7:41

Very nice, i really like all the different lines and curves including the shades as well. I like the lamp in the middle; it breaks the lines a bit. Another great shot Curtis

manny (21378) 2004-05-31 8:27

It is a well-composed shot. Very good POV and most of all, you are at your best in your textured shot here. Shadows are very good. Very very good shot Curtis.

sunny (3068) 2004-05-31 9:14

Artful and so very creative composition, Curtis! :-) I like the way you captured here the light and shadows, together with the fine lines of the wooden texture. Gorgeous colours! Very well done indeed!

Galeota (10334) 2004-05-31 17:12

Astonishing graphic effect. The contrast between the texture and lines of the wood and the linear sky is seizing. An excellent POV!

taivo (1840) 2004-06-02 11:46

Amazing! Such sharpness and a fine composition. The lighting, thanks to the excellent composition, is so well managed. This is an amazing shot with great colours!

joseelias (367) 2004-06-08 8:36

Really excelent framing! The contrast between the round shapes with all the other straight lines and angles create a very interesting composition. Besides that the colors and details are very good.

But the key element here is that thin line in near the left border that create a limit to the sky. It really helps concentrating all the attention inside the frame.

hugomeren (96) 2004-06-10 9:25

Excellente composition! Well done!

Isabelle (9014) 2004-06-11 19:28

somehow, for me, this picture is a counterpart to that beautiful black pipe you´ve uploaded some time ago.
i am not into interpretations at all... but i am tempted to see those patterns as a representation of discipline (but please don´t ask me why! ;))
very beautiful. powerful and beautiful.

kooreman (321) 2004-06-23 1:11

Curtis, I like your composition. Colors are vbery nice with the blue constrasting to the brown of the woodden walls. Very well seen this shot.

janwalt (263) 2004-07-11 12:49

Curtis, thanks for your comments on "laundry". Yes, I live in Berkeley. This photo is superb. The lines and colors are great and the framing is perfect. You mention in your note that you had received some advice from someone about framing. I'm just starting in PS so I'm wondering about this framing thing. If you could point me to any links, that would be great.

sn00zie (2384) 2004-07-15 2:52 [Comment]

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Kresimir (50) 2004-07-19 3:36

This one is a real beauty! I hope someday to catch something like this. Composition of shapes and colours is perfect. This is one of those object that are not beauty by themselves, and most of the people wouldn't even notice it. That's what makes this photo even greater.

Porteplume (3255) 2004-08-15 13:34

Excellent play of lines, shapes, shadows and light. Sharp image, perfect crop.
It took me a while to understand how the building looks like in reality, and then yes! I got it! :o) - it's a great observation!

skeelerik (763) 2005-05-27 11:20

Hi Curtis,
I took a look in your portfolio and I like the pics on this page very much. The play with lines and forms and texture is very interesting. You're doing very well in this subject IMHO. For the framing in this shot I should have left out the blue one. Or crop the picture so that the blue frame touches the blue sky. I'll try a ws to see if it works. For the framing in the rusty pipeline I do not agree with Manny and Olli. I like it more without the white frame, but that's personal taste. CU, Erik

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