Paul Halphen
About the Image(s)
I had seen this building from Interstate 4, on the way from Tampa FL to Orlando, a couple of times in the past. It is very visible from I-4, but not so easy to photograph at 80 mph, with a 18 wheeler right behind you. This time, I convinced my wife that we should pull off I-4 and find it (not as easy as it seemed). Anyway, I decided to photograph it with my Pixel 9 Pro XL, rather than my Olympus OM-D E-M1X. (I only had the longer lenses for the M1X, as I had been photographing wildlife that morning.) No tripod, Nothing to prop the phone against other than my body. But, it worked amazingly well.
The edits were done in Lightroom, with denoise and sharpening. As can be seen, I masked and darkened the foreground water, and the background horizon lights. Also added some brightening, clarity, and contrast. But, really the adjustments were relatively small. Cell phones, while they still have their limitations, continue to amaze me with their advances.
Two things I'd like some feedback on. I considered trying to minimize the color and brightness of the grass in the foreground, but decided to leave it as it was, illuminated strongly by a light on the shore. And, I took a number of photos with varying amount of the "bridge" leading into the building. This is the one I settled on. Would you prefer to see MORE or LESS of the of it? Darker or Lighter? Etc.
5 comments posted
I had edited it for the PSA Large Print Exhibition, Reflections section. So, although there is also a reflection in that background, I thought it was distracting from the reflection. But, maybe it was the wrong decision. Thanks for the input.   Posted: 07/01/2026 20:43:59
It is the Innovation, Science and Technology building at Florida Polytechnic University   Posted: 07/06/2026 02:52:18

