[Leica] IMGS: Another Church In New Mexico

[rbaron at concentric.net (Robert D. Baron)]

==On Sun, Sep 13, 2009 at 1:09 AM, Ted Grant <tedgrant at shaw.ca> wrote:

> Bob Baron showed:
> Subject: [Leica] IMGS: Another Church In New Mexico
>>>>
>>>> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Bob+Baron/NM_09/Las+Trampas/ <<<<
>
> Hi Bob,
> Just think of this as though your at the Leica Seminar last afternoon
> critique session! :-) So listen carefully to my voice! :-)
>

Uncle Dr. Ted, as at the seminars I am hanging on your every word!
;-)  I am sorry I can't go this year, but if there are spots still
open and anyone is sitting on the fence or wavering, SIGN UP!  It is
one of the best learning experiences I have had!

> 1/ These don't begin to touch your first church posting! Sorry that's
> life!But true!
>

I'm not going to argue with you.  I'm here to learn.

> 2/ Of the four, only the last works because it has the least amount of
> distortion and it's an interesting photo. Good exposure no problem.
>

Thank you.  I have been going back and forth between b&w and color
versions, and I settled on the b&w version to post on the LUG and see
what responses I draw.

> 3/ Even though you are using a super wide angle 15mm ?lens it doesn't mean
> it's Ok to have distortion!
> As a matter of fact the distortion due to you not holding the camera
> properly, perfectly straight horizontally and vertically correct, tilting
> the camera up trying to get the whole building in you spoiled the impact of
> your photos.
> Instead of tilting and screwing up the shape of the building you should 
> have
> backed up to be able to hold camera correctly, eliminate the distortion 
> even
> though you'd have a slightly smaller building image, it would be better!
> Even though you'd have a bigger foreground or sky area that would be better
> than tilting! Later in Photoshop you could slightly crop foreground or sky
> if necessary and still have the complete building without any curved 
> corners
> and walls!
>

About the only thing I can say in my defense here is that if I had
backed up any more I would have stepped off a ledge and fallen about 5
feet to the gravel parking lot.

What I need to do is learn to correct the distortion in
Photoshop....it can be done, I've seen it done.  Or, I suppose, I
could have carried a step ladder in my car and backed off a long ways
and shot with a longish lens.  Maybe next time I'll think of that.

Also in my defense, my memory is there is a slight curvature or slope
to some of the walls - and some of my shots with a 35mm lens (rejected
in editing for other reasons) bear this out - but obviously not to the
extent pictured here.

> And! It wouldn't look like you were trying to squeeze a big building into a
> small box! As in I feel these are cropped too tightly and lose the pleasant
> open atmosphere we saw in the first post.
>

You made a similar comment about one of my shots of the St. Francis of
Assisi church in Ranchos de Taos - that is was cropped too tightly -
and I see what you mean here too.  That's why I posted these, to learn
(hopefully) from a viewpoint other than my own.

Does this one look too tightly cropped to you as well?
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Bob+Baron/NM_09/Santuario/W_L2000479Santuario.jpg.html
I really had some trouble making this church look interesting,
although I think this shot of a Mass in progress behind it works well
in b&w:
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Bob+Baron/NM_09/Santuario/W_L1006907TX.jpg.html

And speaking of the first church
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Bob+Baron/NM_09/StFrancisAssisi/
Do you ever feel that a subject is just too easy, like shooting fish
in a barrel? As I told Nathan off-list, it was the ideal subject.
Wonderful shapes, wonderful light, lots of space to walk around and
press the shutter button from all angles and distances. I'll take the
credit for the edits and cropping (with your help of course) but the
hardest part of that shoot was deciding which ones to use.

> So there you go! :-)
> cheers,
> ted

Many thanks!  Enjoy the Seminar, and when you are eating another
lobster think of me!

--Bob