City of Gold, a photo from Minas Gerais, Southeast

Photographer's Note

Ouro Preto is located about 400 km to the north-west of Rio de Janeiro, close to Belo Horizonte, main city of the Minais Gerais state. When visiting Ouro Preto, one can discover that everything reminds that the city used to be the wealthiest place in Bazil under the Portuguese government. Indeed, during the ccc century, this place grew incredibly thanks to the gold extraction. Today, this 60,000 inhabitants city is divided into two parts :
- the modern one with a rather good economic activity focused on gem and metal extraction and agriculture,
- the historic part which is strongly focused on the tourism activity.

The historic part is really wealthy with a huge concentration of Portuguese buildings and churches as artefacts of the rich past. Indeed, there are about 12 churches on the top of the main hills of that city, each of them with very wealthy decorations, including the XXX church erected by the black slaves. Indeed, slavery was part of the history of that city like many big cities in Brazil which grew up between the 16th and 19th century. One can remark that the first level of any building was dedicated to the housing of the slaves working in the “Minais Gerais” which were also means the “General Mines” after the Portuguese imperial institution in charge of developing the gem and metal extraction in Brazil.

It was very nice to discover Ouro Preto at sunrise since it’s located in the mountains quite far from the sea. Thus, each morning there were a nice fog around the hills and the building before the sunlight started to warm the city.

No cropping, levels adjusted, USM applied.

Shutter speed: 1/60 sec
Aperture: 8
Exposure mode: Av
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Center-weighted average
Drive mode: Continuous: frame 1
ISO: 100
Lens: 28 to 75mm
Focal length: 28mm
AF mode: AI Focus AF
Image size: 3504 x 2336
Image quality: Raw
White balance: Auto
Saturation: High
Sharpness: High2
Contrast: High2
Tone: Normal

Paolo, arnabchat, KevRyan, jbweasle, rbcy1974, mlopes, CliffW, anthonyasael, Xalkida, eleparc, Pinho, GSHodg, Potch, picardo, celmaleite, Asiulus has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

Paolo (41216) 2005-03-31 5:01

Interesting note, and good pic, probably a little bit overexposed on the left side!
thanks, ciao

syair (250) 2005-03-31 5:02

Great colour of the buildings, I like also the mist of the background. I think what would make this photo perfect would be that the left bottom corner of this photo wouldn't be so overexpose.

karina (1109) 2005-03-31 5:12

A really beautiful picture Steven. The play of light and mist is very atmospheric. Lovely warm colouring too.

sines (0) 2005-03-31 5:25

Hi Steven,

Nice shot showing the sun and these black shadows. Ouro Preto means black gold, so we do have these two colors here. I went twice to Brazil but hadn't enough time to visit Ouro Preto. I collect minerals and that area is well known for that. I wish I was there to take that picture.

Congratulation

Luko (13978) 2005-03-31 5:33

Fantastic lighting, I see you like golden lights too ;)...
Just lacks that character who would walk up the road : when you spot such a background you sit and wait... hours, if needed to!

bgladman (1153) 2005-03-31 5:38

Love this Steven. Beautiful lighting and perfectly composed. Like Luko said all this shot needs is that distant silhouette to give it a personal touch. Still really good!

dkeus31 (27733) 2005-03-31 5:44

Hi Steven,
Very nice light and good framing, even if the left corner in too overexposed.

maria (3276) 2005-03-31 5:54

Nice POV and extremely interesting note. A pity that the contrast is very much stressed by the overexposed area on the left.
Thanks for sharing.
Regards,
Maria

jakestrikland (2) 2005-03-31 7:18

Bravo photo! great gold and black lighting the rays on the left hand side add brightness. i agree with others that it just needs somebody to add some personal touch.

arnabchat (7233) 2005-03-31 7:20

nice and sharp, almost a painting. superb golden tone makes it a special take.

bboss (3578) 2005-03-31 7:37

Very beautiful lighting and perfect exposure. I really disagree with this idea that every shot needs a human form to be better. Not for me - I like it as it is.
Cheers,
David

bantonbuju (51733) 2005-03-31 9:09

hi steven, a kind of a western-movie shot! excellent effect and technically very good; well done!

zeus (1462) 2005-03-31 9:35

excelent light, Steve. The houses have a very interestng architecture. I like a lot your picture. Looks like a post card.

faubry (35335) 2005-03-31 10:27

i like this picture with mist, light and warm colors, thanks for your note abaout black slaves
thanks
francine

KevRyan (22924) 2005-03-31 13:13

I think I agree that you can live well without a figure here - it's stunning. There may be a little burn to the left but if it were close framed in a thin darker colour I think this effect would lessen - it's accentuated by bleeding into the frame a little. Very very nice!

jbweasle (9373) 2005-03-31 13:54

Wonderful lighting - the golden glow is fabulous. I also like the way the buildings drop away from the viewer leading the eye into the frame. I might have possibly cropped just a little from the bottom to remove some of the darkness.

Hanssie (9921) 2005-03-31 14:24

How beautiful this light falling on the houses, nice angle, good shot, Steven, I like it very well !

rbcy1974 (20758) 2005-03-31 16:28

Muy bonita vista con una luz verdaderamente espectacular. :) Saludos
Daniel

alimo3 (6854) 2005-03-31 16:47

Bonsoir Steven,
une lumiere magnifique,et une perspective incroyable sur ce décor de cinéma.
Bravo.

Tom

flydragon (0) 2005-03-31 17:14

Hello Steven
une image magique
part sa lumière
et mise en valeur par
ta composition, le tout
avec une superbe note ;o)
merci
amicalement
••simon••

mlopes (494) 2005-03-31 17:18

Steven, really nice photo! i like the golden colours and the definition. The prespective is very well choosen. I Agree with luko, maybe someone walking or a old car would give even more life to it. regards, Mario

AmiBe (6042) 2005-04-01 1:43

Une lumière splendide et une bonne composition qui met bien en valeur cette vile dorée.
Juste un petit regret de ne pas y voir une "âme qui vive".

helcio (136) 2005-04-01 20:55

lindo o colorido que vc deu nas fachadas, parabens

Timmok (802) 2005-04-06 5:30

Very warm colours on this picture that shows well how peaceful this city has become after the years of economic boom. The mist makes it look even more quiet.

arbex (156) 2005-04-06 7:36

If it wasn't for the parking sign, i could say that this picture was taken in the XVII century... :-)

Congratulations, great picture! Believe me, i like the overexposition of the left side, it "explains" the nice colours of the buildings.

Didi (48938) 2005-04-12 14:53

Ca c'est bien du style Steven, Trade Mark:))
Cela me rappelle certaines photos de Paris.
La lumière qui rase les façades est magnifique.
Cependant j'aurais fixé un Cokin dégradé en biais pour atténuer l'écart de lumière; je l'ai déjà fait sur ma seconde photo du château de Saumur.

ydarias (679) 2005-04-24 6:42

Hi Steven. I like very much tour photo. The colors are fantastic. The left side overexposed in contrast with the right side is very nice. And the mood of the photo is very good too. Congratulations.

Xalkida (11740) 2005-04-25 12:52

Impressive shot with a very impressive atmosphere and a very impressive note! I like these oversharpened colors! Nice work!

desman (2228) 2005-05-11 17:11

j'aime particulièrement celle-ci !

eleparc (24063) 2005-07-06 18:55

j'avais raté cette photo fantastique. heureusement que le TE book 05 m'a permis de la découvrir. bravo!!

Eric

pawelen (92) 2005-09-29 10:24

beautiful photo , with fantastic light. well done!

deud (1920) 2005-09-29 10:29

beautiful perspective! great light and shadow! nice composition. excellent work. tfs

GSHodg (104) 2006-03-08 6:12

Lovely colours and composition. Thanks.

Potch (474) 2006-03-08 6:26

Hi! You captured Ouro Preto exactly how it is... The mist in the background is always there, early in the morning, and sometimes all day... It is one of my favorite historic Brazilian towns. Great picture! Thanks for sharing.
Regards,
Patricia

asanak (1972) 2006-03-08 6:46

Hi steven
you have golden eye!
thans for your shot.
asana

picardo (2459) 2006-08-12 12:39

Fantastic picture. Great colors and the perspective is very nice too. Very nice composition with very intresting details.
TFS
Picardo

CRATEOS (7278) 2006-08-12 12:48

a perfectly angle of shooting!!!!!make all...spledid using the light...traveling us in one other world..TFS..Steven...RGRDS Nikiforos

nagrom (51) 2006-08-12 13:43

Very beautiful light and colors on this shot ! Well done :)

lucasgalodoido (21030) 2007-08-04 15:54

Hi Steven!
The golden color was very nice and is as the name of the city, Black Gold! Good shot!
Congratulations and Hug!

serendipiti (0) 2007-10-19 2:37

Where is the people?
where?
this colors are meaning the sad?
red and brown and yellow..
i like..

retlash (783) 2007-11-26 8:09 [Comment]

Show Comment

celmaleite (4968) 2007-12-22 2:42

Não me canso de admirar as belezas de Ouro Preto. São tantas e tantas, mas sempre há algo novo para se mostrar. Parabéns pela bela apresentação!

Celma