Alc醶ar de Col髇 I, a photo from Distrito Nacional, East

Photographer's Note

This one was shot just a few meters to the right of Casas Reales, the palace I showed in my last panorama.

On the left is the Alc醶ar de Col髇, the palace of the Columbus family for much of the 16th century. It was built by Diego, the Portuguese son of Christopher, on the early 16th century. To the right lies one of the main gates of the wall that surrounded the whole primitive city, which is nicely shown in this post of Peter Boehringer.

I am too lazy to write anything about the history of the place, specially after noticing again how the note of Peter's post is so well written and informative.

About the place itself, I just hope that the postcard speaks for itself.

Location (latitude, longitude): 18.4774,-69.8826

Update 19-Sep-2007: After reading the critiques of ribeiroantonio, feather, vincz and pboehringer, I decided to post a WS with another crop and a slight increase of contrast. Maybe you can tell me which version you prefer, because I am divided: although I tend to agree that much of the area of the main post is redundant, at the same time, I kind of like all that pale yellow floor "sweeping" our sight to the gate and the palace. As for the palm tree on the left, it is clear to me now that it does nothing on the main post.

Update 5-Jun-2008: I posted a WS with another POV of this square.

leonorkuhn, danos, feather, Docarmo, xuaxo, pboehringer, cuneyt-sb, saylan-cb, Charo, zeca, riclopes, ChrisJ, Gerrit, lucasgalodoido, Emile has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

clnaef (6289) 2007-09-18 4:59

Bonjour,
Belle composition bien 閝uilibr閑.
Bonne journ閑.
clnaef

leonorkuhn (16237) 2007-09-18 5:21

Ol� Jos�,

Bonita composi玢o, mostrando as constru珲es antigas e os acr閟cimos posteriores de um excelente ponto de vista. Bela perspectiva, cores, luminosidade e nitidez.

Abra鏾s
Leonor

danos (110407) 2007-09-18 6:00

Ola Jose,
this wide view with the use of this lens is indeed very fascinating.A well managed shot with sharpness and clarity.I saw also your last panorama with the palace and now i have a spherical knowledge about this place.Informative your note too.Well done Jose.

Regards,Danos

ribeiroantonio (22730) 2007-09-18 6:02

Assim � primeira vista at� me parecia um edif韈io moderno, tipo Centro Cultural de Bel閙! Tens aqui uma foto muito gira mas sinto que h� qualquer coisa com a luminosidade. Parece que lhe falta contraste. Ou ent鉶 � do monitor que estou a usar neste momento.
Ant髇io

feather (51130) 2007-09-18 6:22

I enjoyed combining this with reminding myself about Peter's inputs. Both this and the Casa Reales are very austere buildings, which I guess was the fashion of the time. It's intriguing to see it is just a part of the environment and not behind a huge wall. I'm not sure that the composition works as there seems to be a lot of bland elements in the frame, but then I wasn't there so don't know what the limitations were. About a third of the image on the right seems superfluous, but cropping would give you a square format, which you probably wouldn't want. The only alternative I can think of would be to move more to your right when taking the shot and just include the archways on the right of the frame and have more of a view up the steps to the palace. Sorry to be negative, but I do find the post interesting.
Kath

[2] [workshop] [compare] +

UnTrained (0) 2007-09-18 8:06

Ol� Jos�,
lovely place, full of details and a good POV. The sky is impressing (two days after). It is a strange impression. Why? I would expect a lot of people there, just a crowd or two. So empty, so much space. Is there beside the storm this place ever so empty?
Lieben Gruss, Ulf

[2] +

Docarmo (9767) 2007-09-18 9:52

Ol� Jos�,
Bela imagem, gostei desta amplid鉶 at� chegar nas constru珲es, dando uma boa perspectiva. S� por curiosidade t閏nica: havia fios e uma ou duas pessoas que voc� removeu? Observei umas sombras no ch鉶, mas pode ser do piso mesmo. Resultou muito bom, a meu ver, pois n鉶 causa distra玢o do motivo principal do "post", neste caso.
Gostei dos links para as imagens do Peter, com a hist髍ia do lugar ficando, assim, facilmente dispon韛el.
Obrigada por partilhar conosco.
Maria do Carmo

xuaxo (6854) 2007-09-18 12:18

Ol� Jos�,
A foto apresenta uma geometria interessante. O fundo parece que n鉶 condiz com o resto, mas � mesmo assim, claro.
A luminosidade parece meio esquisita (li a resposta ao Ant髇io), mas eu at� gosto deste tom.
Um abra鏾,
F

[2] +

pboehringer (770) 2007-09-18 12:18

Jose,
your are sooooo lazy! Anyway thanks for the free referral to my DR shots. It made me interested to look back and have the memories of that delicious time that I had there including to get to know our common friend Emile.
Obviously I recognized te place rigth away and it is interesting to see that a person living in California and another in Portugal and they never met physically can have a firndship and similar experiences at a distant place they have been at different times. Internet and TE are a fascinating blend.
Regarding the technical aspects of the shot I agree with Kath. I miss a certain punch although I like the shot itself.
Regards, Peter

[2] +

cuneyt-sb (6576) 2007-09-18 22:22

Hi Jose
Woow i loved colors here, what a nice sature and clear photo.
Like it very much , very good bro.

Congrats TFS
Kind regards

saylan-cb (12738) 2007-09-18 23:30

Hi Jose
Great capture, great colors,
I like it very much
Kind regards
Saylan

vincz (19113) 2007-09-19 0:29

Cette image a un niveau de details impressionant, un grain super fin. Cote composition je pense que j'aurais croppe le palmier sur la gauche tenu par des barres de fer vertes. Je trouve personellement genant pour l'equilibre general. Ainsi on aurait eu plus l'imression 'etre entaine de ce grand parvis lumineux vers l'arche plus petite au fond.

Stepan (27210) 2007-09-19 14:28

The grey sky makes the palce a little special : martial, straight, austere...
The way you composed that is OK and I enjoy the depth you get. Well done.
St閜hane

zeca (19762) 2007-09-19 21:02

Ol� Jos�! Saiba que 鄐 vezes tamb閙 tenho pregui鏰 de escrever... normal, n�?
O que mais gosto aqui � o c閡, que comp鮡 muito bem e acrescenta bonitos detalhes � foto. A ilumina玢o tamb閙 me parece boa, com bastante equil韇rio e suavidade, expondo corretamente cada peda鏾 da imagem.
Um abra鏾,
Zeca

[2]

Charo (51290) 2007-09-20 1:44

Hola Jose,
Excelente toma que nos muestra este gran patio del alc醶ar y gran perspectiva. Yo la veo bien de contraste, quiz醩 un poco falta de luminosidad, pero eso tambi閚 viene dado por el d韆 nublado. En cualquier caso, buen trabajo.
Cordialmente
Charo

[2]

riclopes (35577) 2007-09-20 3:02

Ol� Jos�, confesso que � partida n鉶 veria aqui nenhum corte, mas acabo por gostar mais do WS, pois oferece um maior impacto do que interessa ver na imagem, que � a arquitectura � esquerda e a vista l� atr醩. O c閡 est� bonito e concordo com o remeter para outras notas que j� foram feitas, especialmente se estiverem muito boas, como � o caso - al閙 disso gosto de ver a liga玢o com o trabalho de outros membros. Eu n鉶 exagerei no "casas reales" - gosto mesmo muito daquela panor鈓ica :)
Um abra鏾,
ricardo

Bluejeans (64251) 2007-09-20 4:56

Oi Jos�
Muito bonito por dentro cheio de palmeiras , muito bem conservado , bonito o edificio do lado esquerdo ,gostei do ceu de chuva :) bom contraste de cores , parabens!!!
Um abra鏾 Gon鏰lo

[2]

ChrisJ (172436) 2007-09-20 4:59

Hi Jose

Nice overview of the plaza, with superb sharpbness, colour, lighting & contrast. I like the slight downward incline. Good repetition of the palms. Tfs!

Gerrit (62042) 2007-09-20 9:08

HiJos�,
good and alternative view of this famous building.Perfect light and clouds.
Regards, Gerrit

lucasgalodoido (27698) 2007-09-20 10:20

Ol� Jos�!
觮imo ponte de vista desse local, parece ser bem bonito, mas parece estar precisando de maiores cuidados...
Parab閚s e Abra鏾!

Emile (20352) 2007-09-20 13:29

Hola Jose.
Me alegro mucho de que hicieras un WS de esta foto ya que tienes un punto de vista muy abierto y captaste el desague oscuro de las aguas que corren por el lugar, ademas Kath tiene mucha razon de sugerir que hay mucho espacio superfluo a la derecha, hiciste un buen trabajo en tu WS aunque me hubiera gustado que clonaras la madera verde de la izquierda que sostiene la palma ya que esta no aparece en tu foto y distrae un poco.
Creo que con estas criticas positivas y buenas sugerencias es que uno aprende un poco gracias a los buenos amigos en TE.
Un fuerte abrazo y muchos saludos.

paura (25802) 2007-11-03 13:31

Jos�,
Uma boa profundidade de campo nessa composil鏰o bem harmoniosa. O ceu � ouyto rlrmrnyo brm conseguido. Beki trabalho.

Paulo