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Glass Masquerade · Original Short Story ·
Organised by RogerDodger
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Abated Tower
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#1 ·
· · >>Zaid Val'Roa >>GroaningGreyAgony
This is a photograph! Of a weird place! I think I can safely assume that this time.

So the story is -- as the title puts it -- about a crystal palace; the photograph tries to emulate it by depicting something that reminds the viewer of that place.

This is a bit of a tricky one. The story talks about a palace made of glass and sunlight doing rainbows and shit when it goes through the walls; the picture is of a building that is clearly not of glass. Like, at all. But the lighting is weird, and you can sorta see where the author is going.

Because, yeah, when you look at this it sorta reminds you of the crystal palace. It's the way it's lit, and the color white, and the darkness all around it. There's an air to it that reminds me of the story, and you kinda default to this sorta image when reading descriptions of the place.

So good job in finding a real world place that looks nothing like what the fic talked about -- but still makes me go 'oh yeah I kinda see it actually!' Not a small feat!

I know fuck-all about photography, though. I think the composition is nice? Feels like there's a lot of wasted space, though. I wonder if zooming in a bit more, or finding a different angle would've created a better effect. It's also kinda blurry, too, which does give it a bit of a weird air. Part of the course when you're trying to emulate a fantastical environment with a real life photograph, but it does distract me a bit.
#2 · 2
· · >>GroaningGreyAgony
I really, really like this place and would like to visit it and perhaps scribble a litte "Zaid was here" on a wall.

Photo entries are usually hit or miss for me, and this is definitely a hit. Maybe it's just the contrast between the dark night and the structure lit from within with the moon high above (I would've painted over the streetlamp to make it seem as though the building was standing alone)

I echo what >>Aragon Aragón said. Even though the building resembles nothing at all the one described in the story, it still has an air of mystery of its own. Also, while I like how the blackness frames the building, it is a bit too much, just cropping it a bit would've done wonders for this piece.

Nicely done.
#3 · 2
· · >>GroaningGreyAgony
Unless I miss my guess, Artist, you've done something rather clever here - the actual building you've photographed is, in reality, only one story tall, and you've copied and shrunk that level a few times before capping it with the wee bit on top. It's the lighting that gives it away - if the sources were all the same size, the illuminated area would take up more and more percentage of each level, and if they weren't, the light would illuminate with the same color/intensity. Also, the photo seems to get slightly better resolution the higher up you go, but that could just be my eyes playing tricks on me.

I didn't catch it until the third time I examined the piece though, so well done! I'd very much like to know where the original building is, it looks pretty neat! And I love how the moon sits overhead, even if that's another bit of clever trickery on your part. ^^
#4 ·
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Nice shoop, dog. I haven’t much to add to what’s been said. Upper-mid tier.
#5 · 2
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>>Aragon, >>Zaid Val'Roa, >>Icenrose

Abated Tower

Thanks for the great comments! Despite the visible praise, hidden undercurrents won this piece a Controversial award, which I can take both ways. :)

The source of this piece is the water tower at the old Sparta NJ train station. This station itself burned down and has now been rebuilt as an event venue, but the water tower has lingered, with renovations, from an earlier time.

I was attending a function at the station, noted the tower bathed in striking purple floodlights, and took a few shots. (Original base image / Closeup.) It wasn’t until later that I made the connection to the Crystal Palace story.

As >>Icenrose observes, I stacked copies of the higher-resolution shot of the tower like a wedding cake and tweaked it until happy with the results. I left the original tower at the top, and you can see the strip of numbers on the side if you look closely.

As usual, the easy project done at the last minute gets more attention than the one upon which you spend most of your time and care. But such is art.