A tour of the Manitoba Legislature

[invisible]

Yesterday I took my first pictures in more than three months. See, winter here in the Canadian prairies is really rough, but now that spring has technically arrived in Winnipeg (36 ºF right now) I have no more excuses.

I decided to go once again to the Manitoba Legislature, one of the few architectural landmarks my city has to offer the world, and one of the finest limestone structures built in North America. I shot plenty of pictures but – as usual – the vast majority didn't pass the quality check (not that those that did pass are worth showing ).

Here's part 1 of the selected images.

Hope you enjoy, and I look forward to your C&C.

1. Main entrance


2. Stairway



3. Another stairway

 

[invisible]

The Legislative building is a magnet for wedding photography, and yesterday was no exception. While I was looking for things to capture, at least four different brides and grooms were having their pictures taken. You could say that these shots are like a "making off".

Enjoy part 2 of the tour.

4. Striking the perfect pose


5. Same bride viewed from the other side


6. Bride & groom


7. Some flowers

 

[boogaguy]

#6 stands far above the rest and is clearly the winner here!
Great job.

 

[invisible]

Thanks much, boogaguy. My favourites of these two bunches are 2 and 4.

Anyone else? Pretty please?

 

[invisible]

Well, not much feedback so far... but since I have more photos I will keep posting them

Here's part 3: abstract images.

8.


9.

^^^Well, not sure if this one qualifies as abstract... I like it for some reason.

10.

 

[invisible]

Not much feedback it seems... Oh well, I'll upload the rest of the set anyway...

Part 4: miscellanea

11. Mega-peephole


12. Someone's office


13. Cutting edge


14. Elegance


15. The view from the balcony



In the immortal words of Jim Morrison, this is the end...

 

[invisible]

Bumpity!

 

[cpelsy2k1]

This a great series. That building looks spectacular and you did it great justice with your pictures. I think 2 and 3 are my favs, I've never seen stairs make such a good picture, great angles on both those shots. The only recommendation I would have to maybe trying shooting with a tripod to get a lower ISO to get less grain (however that can be pretty difficult in public buildings at times)

 

[RKW3]

Very very nice shots, nice clarity and exposure on all of them.

My only tip would be to lessen the photoshopped blur a little.

 

[robitussin217]

I like number 4 a lot. It's well balanced and easy to look at. Of course, you can't see their faces but contrast and color wise I think it's good. You probably wouldn't blur the bride's maids if you were actually shooting this wedding- I think. The criticisms; there is some noticeable noise in the bride's arm and the door frame. And, I would try to do without setting the bride against the door in the background. The blur looks just a little odd at the bottom of the picture. And, you could try getting rid of that bit of purple at the bottom of the bride's maid's dress. (the one just to the left of the bride) I think 8 and 11 are interesting shots, too. I really enjoy the color. The perspective on 6 is pretty good. I might have shifted the view a little to the left. But, that's preference. Good eye!

 

[passerby]

Too many photos. Be mindful to other posters please.

 

[invisible]

Thanks all for the comments!

The only recommendation I would have to maybe trying shooting with a tripod to get a lower ISO to get less grain (however that can be pretty difficult in public buildings at times)

Actually I shot all the images with a tripod, and the ISO was 200 in the vast majority of them. Maybe the graininess happened when I converted from RAW to jpg?

My only tip would be to lessen the photoshopped blur a little.

I postprocess with Picasa (I know, it sucks, but it's the only one I know how to use). The degree of blurriness is the minimum Picasa allows, and without it the image does not work (see below – too much information and the eye wanders aimlessly). I do agree, however, that it would look much better with a softer, subtler blur.

 

[invisible]

I like number 4 a lot. (...) The criticisms; there is some noticeable noise in the bride's arm and the door frame. And, I would try to do without setting the bride against the door in the background. The blur looks just a little odd at the bottom of the picture. And, you could try getting rid of that bit of purple at the bottom of the bride's maid's dress. (the one just to the left of the bride)

I agree 100% with everything you said. I did not have an option, though... I was shooting something way less interesting when I suddenly saw this "strike a pose" moment happening across this huge room. I was almost half a block away from the action, and only had time to rotate the tripod and change a couple of settings in the camera before shooting. (See original image below. The lens was likely at 200mm...) Since the chosen shutter speed was not fast enough, the second bride's maid's arm is in motion; I wanted to salvage this image and decided to blur everything but the bride.

I'll probably come back to this image the day I learn how to use Photoshop (Picasa really shows its limitations here). By the way, I'm not sure how that purple bit at the bottom made it to the picture... I should have seen it when previewing my cropping...