Waldorf Astoria and St. Bartholomew Church

[vvcarpio]

I have not heard of the shift lens. It looks, however, that it requires dismounting and re-mounting a lens, something I try to avoid. Not to mention that the price is prohibitive -- for me anyway, a family-man hobbyist . In any case it is very interesting -- it makes me wonder how it works. Thanks, Ordo, for letting me know there is such a thing.

[Hards80]

yea, the tilt shift lenses are really nice for architecture, but yea, they are quite costly, i would love to have the new Canon 17mm TS-E. Besides their use use for correcting perspective, they can be used to create some really cool effects by changing the orientation of the focal plane.

[vvcarpio]

Here's another NYC church -- St. Raphael's Roman Catholic Church on 41st Street and 10th Avenue -- that looks like its dominance of the area is being threatened by the buildings surrounding it. Its one side is already blocked by the purple building and there's yet another construction going on in the foreground on the 10th Avenue side which I'm sure the church is hoping is not going to be a skyscraper.

#12.


This church of a Croatian saint (according to wikipedia.org) on 40th Street is back-to-back with St. Raphael's that I wonder if they're somehow associated. As you can see, there's another building rising on the right. This area of Manhattan -- right at the mouth of the Lincoln Tunnel -- seems to now be in the crosshairs of land surveyors for high-rise building constructions. It's not too far from the theater district of Broadway and still has open space -- that is, low buildings that can be flattened.

#13.


Anyway, I am practicing fixing converging perspectives taking Hards80's advice into account of not overdoing it. Hopefully I did not underdo (nor overdo again) this time.

Thank you for looking!

[Hards80]

yes, that poor church is just getting swallowed up by the towers isn't it?

1) this is a tough shot to straighten as the looming building on the edge of the frame will show the greatest convergence, and if you were to fully fix it, you would skew the building of interest, so i think you did right in getting the main subject straight and letting the peripheral building lean a bit.

2) i may have corrected this one a bit more as the lean is emphasized by the parallels of the building of interest and the skyscraper behind it.

[Wingman]

VV: You just need to suck it up and by a perspective-correction lens

[vvcarpio]

Originally Posted by jelpee

VV: You just need to suck it up and by a perspective-correction lens

I just ordered two just kidding!

Seriously, I think it's overkill for my purposes.

[vvcarpio]

Originally Posted by Hards80

yes, that poor church is just getting swallowed up by the towers isn't it?

1) this is a tough shot to straighten as the looming building on the edge of the frame will show the greatest convergence, and if you were to fully fix it, you would skew the building of interest, so i think you did right in getting the main subject straight and letting the peripheral building lean a bit.

2) i may have corrected this one a bit more as the lean is emphasized by the parallels of the building of interest and the skyscraper behind it.

Thanks for the comments ("swallowed" ) and suggestions, Hards80.

#14. I straightened the horizontal and fixed a bit more the verticals in this edit.


#15. The Church of Our Savior (Roman Catholic) on Park Avenue and 38th Street (southside of the Metlife building) is surrounded by three tall buildings to its left, right (not shown), and back. But I don't think the surrounding buildings can be classified as skyscrapers -- they're just a tad taller than the church's steeple -- and Park Avenue is a wide enough avenue plus there are no new constructions in sight so the church can feel safe about not being completely blocked into obscurity -- for now.


(Park Avenue is too wide, IMO, for pedestrians. I don't like crossing it because if you're not off the curb at the precise moment the WALK light turns on, you will not have enough time to make it to the other side before the DON'T WALK light starts blinking and urging you to hurry up and run. You can just imagine an aged person using a walker trying to cross the street...)

#16. The Church of the Incarnation (Episcopal) on 38th Street and Madison Avenue is a gem of building, IMO, in midtown Manhattan. I walked inside (I followed a man who quickly knelt in prayer in one of the pews) and the first thing I noticed besides the dimly lit cavern of dark mahogany, stone, and glass art windows was the smell. It was of strong musty old wooden furniture. The smell was in stark contrast to that outside of industry and pollution that when I walked in the world literally transformed between two opposites.

Please feel free to call this one a horror show in terms of editing if you like as I used PSE's photo merge to stitch shots of the church and its steeple together. I couldn't back up far enough to cover the whole church in just one shot.


I took a picture (bracketed) inside but hurriedly because the foyer (?) was too cramped and there was no ledge I can use to steady my shot. I had to use the floor with me backing up to the closed main entrance double doors. Anyone could walk in any minute and I'd be in the way. So the shot, unfortunately, is out of focus. Please don't comment -- I will retake however I don't know just how yet the place is a lot more darkly lit than the picture below conveys -- I just want to give everyone an idea of how beautiful the church's interior was.

#17.

[vvcarpio]

#18. Inside the Church of the Incarnation.


#19. Inside the Church of Our Savior.


C&C welcome. Thank you for looking!

[Wingman]

I like the floor level perspective on #18 (Church of the Incarnation).

[vvcarpio]

Thanks, jelpee! I thought about cropping the doors out, then thought I'd leave them in.