holiday home

This is very likeable, Richard. The eye is such a funny thing... I couldn't quite tell what about this was nagging at me, and finally decided that it must be ever so slightly skewed off of the horizontal (which would never matter, normally, but since you took such care to handle it symmetrically, and that shows, it puts my mind immediately to deciphering it in that way). So, I pasted a copy of it into an editor, and dragged a horizontol rule down the image... it's perfect! The clouds and other image-margin items (shrubs etc) are what are messing with my brain.

The exposure is just right - very tricky under such circumstances! I like it.

Thank you, Vadim and Matt!

Matt, I also looked at this for quite a while on my monitor and played with the leveling grid and a new plug in I have to correct wide angle barrel distortion. But, I think that the "illusion" is caused by the fact that this house is elevated above street level, so I wasn't shooting the photo from straight on, but from an angle of about 10 degrees below the front steps of the house. I pass this everyday on my way to and from work. I should have used a tripod for this one, but I braced against my car, slowed my breathing like I was getting ready to shoot a deer, timed the shot with exhale and prayed that the VR would give me a break:-) Thanks for the nice comment!

Regards,

Dick

To help make up for the perspective distortion (well, it's not really distortion - it's just perspective, caused by shooting from a lower position, as you say), you can do some de-keystoning in post production. But you always have lose a chunk of the corrected image when you do that, so if you know you'll be correcting perspective in post, it helps to shoot a little wider than you might have, so you have some room to work.

Matt, thanks, and I don't mind at all. So, I just learned another new technique in post processing, I'm not sure if I can apply this in Aperture, but there may be a plug-in to allow it. I'm still discovering lots of stuff that is available in the Aperture 2.1 program. This is what is so great about PN. Not only is it fun to view other photographer's work, I learn things to improve what I do almost every day.

I really appreciate your suggestions,

Dick

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Beautiful seasonal shot... I love the little room off to the left - it looks like someone is sitting there and enjoying the opposite view. Thanks for sharing... Mike

Thanks, Mike! That would be our high school's industrial arts teacher, who owns this house.

Best regards,

Dick