The Art in Science

Incredible lighting. Where is this exactly?

One suggestion on aesthetics, I'd pan the camera to the left to put the radio telescope (I presume) closer to the right edge (i.e., not so close to the middle).  The space to the right is empty space, partly because there is "nothing" there and partly because the scope is "looking" to the left.

I agree with Stephen... you can safely crop the right "non-telescope" part off the frame. I'd also crop off the top of the frame as well, almost to the edge of the scope. This will make the radio telescope seem much larger. You could even go further and remove a bit of the top of the radio telescope if you wanted to make it seem even larger. I love your use of monochrome here...it's very dramatic and very effective. You controlled the exposure very well, keeping details in the structure of the telescope instead of it just becoming a silhouette. Well done!

Great photo.

I agree that you have done an excellent job to stop the telescope becoming a silhouette. I don't quite agree with the above comments about cropping the right side out.. I think that the lines of shadow on the ground in that area draw the eye in towards the telescope. 

The shadows on the ground all lead to the sun, so that is where the eye is led in the photo. This is about on the left hand support of the telescope and once the eye has been led to this point within the structure of the telescope it allows you to wander and examine all the details of the telescope.

The only way I think the positioning would have been improved would be to have taken the photo from slightly further around to the right so that the shadows on the gorund led the eye closer to the center of the telescope rather than the left edge of it. However I can also see that the flare would be worse if the sun was moved from behind that steel post..

Well Done on an interesting photo.

Robert, I think you make a good point about the shadows on the ground, but we are still left with a lot of empty sky to the right, and a viewer's eye can too easily drift out of the frame (if only there were leading clouds similar to what's on the left).  So Charley has the shadows drawing the viewer in and the empty sky behind letting the viewer out; what's the best solution?  I wouldn't want to crop as much as I would want to pan to the left, because the sky seems to be so good over in that direction (yes, it's academic at this point, but the ideas would be applicable the next time Charley or someone else is facing a similar composition).