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Awards
Contest Finalist in Shapes and Lines Photo Contest
Peer Award
Superb Composition
Top Choice
Absolute Masterpiece
Superior Skill
Genius
Outstanding Creativity
Magnificent Capture
All Star
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
This shot was taken downtown Montreal Canada of the BNP Paribas Tower on Avenue McGill College. The building can easily noticed by the The Illuminated Crowd public art sculpture on the street created by Raymond Mason. These twin towers with tinted blue glass curtain-walls form a stunning modern complex for the city.Time
I remember shooting the one around noon during my lunch break. Rare am I without my camera and in this case I had just purchased a used Nikon D600 full frame DSLR with a 24mm prime lens and was eager to take it for a walk. The time of day was actually perfect to capture a crisp and bright shot of the structure.Lighting
It was a fairly clear sky and the sun ended up standing right behind me and shinning bright and causing glare through the glass. I got lucky and was able to capture a moment when the sun got damped by a small patch of clouds, which gave it some diffusion. Looking at the final result I notice that having the sun parked right behind me darkened the some of the buildings that reflect from he windows, giving them a nice contrast to the foreground.Equipment
I handheld my Nikon D600 with a wide angle 24mm f/2.8 prime lens. No flash or filter.Inspiration
I'm very drawn to architecture and have always wanted to capture this building with a wide angle, and never really felt like I had the right equipment with me or the time of day wasn't suiting, whenever I would pass in front of it. I wanted to give it justice since with so many lines, angles and shapes this tower competes with some of the best of its category. The day after I purchased my D600 and 24mm lens, I knew exactly where to go.Editing
Post-processing done using Lightroom and Photoshop. I played with the contrast and clarity of the image, corrected the lens distortion, and desaturated the image to near full Black and White. I kept a small tint of blue in the sky that I felt gave it a subtle coolness.In my camera bag
My bag is getting slimmer and slimmer, and I'm starting to stick to the essentials. I now typically carry my D600, a wide angle lens (18-35mm), 105mm f/2.8 prime lens, and the light and crisp 50mm f/1.8 for the low light settings. Depending on where I go, and what I want to capture I will also lug around my Velbon tripod and tripod head, 70-300mm lens, and my SB-600 flash. In terms of accessories, I always carry my infrared and 10-stop ND Hoya filters, eye cap for those long exposures, camera remote, extra SD cards, extra battery, and a swiss army knife.Feedback
Lighting is core to all pictures. Finding the right angle, combined with the right light will produce magic pictures. Even though quality camera equipment helps create good results, they are not critical. You can get some amazing results with an entry line DSLR or mirrors camera just by having good light. It is also important to note, that shooting RAW gives much more flexibility when editing. It will enable you to capture the most possible unedited information in your image file, which will give you the most flexibility to tweak the white balance, highlights and shadows.