[Keith Alan]

San Antonio's downtown main library is a 12 year old building that caused some controversy when new due to it's "Enchilada Red" paint.
We're all used to it now.
SA Central Library

My Flickr photography club held a "Meetup & Shootup" there on Sunday March 3 to take advantage of a rare opportunity: For only the third time, all of the outside terraces were open to the public.

First we'll look at the outside in these older photos:








Inside is a huge handblown glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly:




New photos from Sunday:




(Infrared)




(Handheld flash)


Humorous stories:

I had noticed that this little girl kept escaping from her mother and coming out onto the terrace to play. I put my remote flash on the ground between the benches and waited for a minute.
She smiled when she found the flash, and my timing was adequate:




This large insect was running away from me when a barefoot girl came around the corner.
Taken about 5 milliseconds before she screamed and jumped (because of the bug, not me):




It finally allowed me to get close after reaching the wall:

[matthew]

I recognize some of those...

I like the older ones, but I would have straightened the verticals in #3. Of the new set, I really like the first (naturally) and the third, and like the tones in the second. The fourth doesn't do it for me, but then ice isn't the most attractive subject for me right now.

The one with the girl is charming, and really well executed. In fact, they're all really strong, but my favourite is probably still the first one in the new series.

[Keith Alan]

Thanks, Matthew.

I don't have the software to correct the horrible barrel distortion on Old #3. No matter what I tried (PS7.0) the lines were still bent, so I decided it's a 'documentary' shot.
(That's the only reason it was posted--to get a look at the building. Shot it that night with Seymore on my F717's 2nd anniversary when I also got 'Waiting To Cross Over'.)

New #1 was for you. Not my usual style but when I saw it I thought "Matthew would like this".
New #3 was a mix of my style and yours--the perspective of the lines on the floor is me. Even more-so had I cropped it.
This time pincushion lens distortion that bothers me, but not too much.

#4 is a fountain, not ice--see the bubbles? 67f that day.
Flash-Frozen I guess.

"...tones in the second" is a great compliment. That's why I went with IR, knowing I could pull all sorts of textures out of the weathered stucco walls in post.
The original was brighter (within the limited range of IR) but I went with a much darker mood.

The little girl was a fun project, much like fishing.
I threw the bait out there and had no idea if I would catch anything, but quickly brought home a keeper.
It's a sweet little scene, but probably only interesting to photographers who hear the story of how I did it, or her mom. And the old guy in our club who watched it all happen from across the terrace.

Thanks for giving them a fair look.
My styles are all over the map, but I'm still trying to advance my skills in every possible type of photography.
The only thing missing was a 3D.

[NT73]

A very interesting series. When I looked at the first one I thought of Alcatraz. (I have not been anywhere near, honest)
I would not have noticed the barrel distortion unless I was especially searching for critique.
In PS filters there is ' Distort '/ ' spherize ' which I have sometimes used to correct b/d.
Sometimes I had to increase the canvas size to get the proper scaling.

[Keith Alan]

Are you saying that the spherize filter can work in negative numbers, to Un-spherize?
That might work.
The photo in question is old and has already served it's purpose twice so I don't plan on fixing it, but that's something I must remember for the future.

Thanks.

[Irma]

Very nice pictures all Keith...
I love those colors..

My favorites #2, #5. #7 and the girl picture is also very sweet...

[Don Schaeffer]

Beautiful architectural work. You really covered the story.

[NT73]

Are you saying that the spherize filter can work in negative numbers, to Un-spherize?
That might work.
The photo in question is old and has already served it's purpose twice so I don't plan on fixing it, but that's something I must remember for the future.

Thanks.

You are welcome.
Yes it does both ways. One end to the other is like a ball.
You can't centre the filter, but by enlarging the canvas you can centre the photo under the filter. You will figure it out when you come to use it.

Just tried a quickie. Trial and error. about 5 minutes. R/H side has a little bump I think. Top looks level.
.

[Keith Alan]

Sweet!
That's a great tip I've never seen before.
I appreciate the help.

[matthew]

I should have paid more attention to the fountain, but I was thinking that the vertical water, being against the metal pipe, was frozen (cold, not flash ) while the circulation of the water in the pool had kept it free. I'm not actually sure it would be able to happen that way, but that was my working theory. But at the very least I should have never thought it was that cold; I'm just getting tired of winter up here. "Snow" is one of my most common keywords in my library.

This may be a little late, but when I said "straighten the verticals" I hadn't really noticed the barrel distortion. (Another odd 'miss' for me, since that's something that I look for in my own images.) I meant to correct the 'lean' of the building so that it's parallel to the edges of the frame. But to be fair, I haven't tried it to see how much of the image it removes, so I'm not sure that's a good suggestion.

I'm also not seeing any pincushioning in photo N3, but I have no doubt that you know your camera well enough to describe its optical effects at any focal length. To my eye the place where it would be noticeable is the benches, but the curve of the perforated metal back hides it. One touch that I really like is the way the light falls off across the top of the frame; I'm not sure if that's added or natural, but either way it helps to keep the photo within the frame and adds interest to the wall. The slight falloff across the sides of the frame makes me think it's added, which is great, as it's a very nice touch.

The darkening at the TR corner of N1 does something similar, with the added interest of the tones changing across the wall. I also know from experience how difficult it can be to make all of the edges and lines behave themselves and act square, and it's one of those thing that needs to either be exactly right or significantly missed. Here I obviously like the exactitude of the 'correct' angles. It's unfortunate, really, because saying to yourself "Matthew would like this" probably means that nobody else will.

[Keith Alan]

Now you're seeing what I was.
N3, the floor is humping-up in the middle.
I could have easily moved closer to stay in the midrange of my zoom, but it's not so bad and I can live with it. "...exactly right or significantly missed" is a great way to put it--just like horizons (Norm?) you either need to nail it or prove you meant to be crooked.

I've recently begun adding small amounts of highly-feathered darkening to some of my photos. Either a straight vignette but more often something off-center as in N1 and N3.
More texture, a little emphasis shift, the reasons are many and the effect pleases me.

[matthew]

I can see it in N3 when you point it out, but I'd just assume that the ground itself is uneven. (You should see the tiles in my kitchen and bathroom -- and no, I didn't install them. I would have done a better job.) The slight wave in the wall's less natural, but the fact is that this sort of thing is beyond the level of detail that people will notice.

But since I was using the big computer this morning, I ran the overview photo through my favourite CS3 filter, "lens distortion". Here's the results of a quick perspective correction: