Gothic Steam Engine

[TCampbell]

I think we've had a grand total of three sunny days this year... it's been a pretty gloomy spring and I'm getting cabin fever. I haven't even been able to do much astronomy.

Last weekend I decided I needed to get out... so I grabbed a few lenses and headed over to the museum to see what i might be able to capture... here's one example:


Gothic Steam Engine by Tim Campbell1, on Flickr

You can read a bit more about the engine here Project MUSE - A Gothic Novelty

 

[CoBilly]

Uh, it's unavailable. I bet it's a really awesome picture though...

 

[TCampbell]

That's odd. It shows up in my browser fine. I tried a different computer and though the embedded image didn't appear, the link was fine. So I edited the link by telling Flickr I wanted to share a different sized version of it. Now it does show up when I try it on other computers.

 

[ph0enix]

Tim, I looked at the pic. shortly after you posted it. It loaded fine then and it still is now.

 

[CoBilly]

There we go, got it now. I was right, it's a pretty awesome shot. Was this at a museum specific to mechanical stuff/engines?

edit: Nevermind, I should've read the whole post instead of just looking at the pretty picture...

 

[pgriz]

That image is of a neat machine, and the link you gave did fill in some of the blanks about its significance. But in terms of offering any C&C, can't improve on an image showing what you saw. You didn't have a really wide angle shot of the area, did you?

 

[TCampbell]

That image is of a neat machine, and the link you gave did fill in some of the blanks about its significance. But in terms of offering any C&C, can't improve on an image showing what you saw. You didn't have a really wide angle shot of the area, did you?

This particular time I deliberately constrained the angle of view. This was taken with a 70-200mm lens... at about 80mm (I think that's right. I'm not peeking at the EXIF data but I always leave the EXIF intact (my personal opinion on Photography websites as that part of the point is to share how we created an image) ALTHOUGH Flickr strips it out. If you follow the link to Flickr you can click the "Action -> View EXIF Data" to see it.

Sometimes an image needs context. If you can't take in the whole view then you don't know what it is. Other images don't require context because the object is already understood and there's interest in the detail. Car photos qualify in that category (just about everyone knows what a "whole" car is supposed to look like... so when a photographer takes a shot of just part of a car, most people can figure out that it's (a) it's a car and (b) which part of the car they are looking at.).

The problem with this image is that most people don't know what a steam engine looks like (unless it's a steam locomotive), but I personally like the image to be close enough to show detail (at least of the interesting parts.) Probably everyone figured out that the large white circular area in the bottom right is the flywheel. The Gothic cathedral arches are the feature that drew me in, so that's what I focused on. I *might* have an image taken years ago that show more of the engine (then again... I might not.)

I had my 14mm wide angle and my 24-70mm zoom with me at the time. Actually the 24-70 was on the camera as I approached it, and I switched to the 70-200 to get this angle of view.

I should ask others for an opinion. When you look at this image (which probably shows less than half of the engine... albeit the more interesting and beautiful half -- the rest of the engine doesn't have these gothic features), do you find yourself drawn to the architectural shapes or do you find yourself asking why I didn't show the whole steam engine?

 

[CoBilly]

I'm gonna answer "both". I understand the reasoning behind the shot you took, it is a beautiful shot. The mechanic in me would have appreciated an entire shot as well, even if it is ugly

 

[pgriz]

I'll say both as well. For something as uncommon as this, we need to see the overall and then the interesting bits. I can see a tryptich with each panel showing some aspect of this. It's almost the "blind men and the elephant" scenario - we can pick up the bits, but we don't know how they all come together.