The new Vancouver Convention Center

[Mad Aussie]

I like both ... but the portrait version edges this new one out for me due to the 'magic hour' sky you captured. The blues contrast the golden orange so well.

[mcopan]

I totally agree. There has been some unsettled weather in Vancouver recently with -5degs Celcius (32F?) and last night when I shot this it was 5degs C above. I do wish to have the better bluer sky. I wonder if the sky darkens more towards midnight? I might go down for one last shot to get the gold and blue contrast. Thanks

[asnow]

I agree with MA that blue sky in the vertical one is much nicer. Also the vertical wins because of the mountains and a better view of the city lights in the background.

[Iguanasan]

If you could some how combine them. The light on the first and the background was much more interesting. The second, however, makes me feel much better because I see that the lean is part of the structure and not a crooked capture.

[mcopan]

When I shot the first one, the vertical one the west coast was in a cold snap. There was no clouds or anything blocking the clouds. Maybe if I' patient I could get another beautiful night soon.

[Marko]

It's a tough shot to compose perfectly - I still favour shot 1.
I like shot 2 but the bottom right looks like it's chopped just a bit too much (though I see why you cropped it there) and shot 1 just has more 'drama' due to the better light.

Just looking at this scene I can see all the potential difficulties in framing it perfectly...
Well done overall!

[mcopan]

Round Two - I finally got a gap in the weather where I could get the moutains in the background and a good color out of the sky. I shot this with ISO 1000 F14 and barely bumped the saturation up a bit to pull some more blue out in CS5.

I am learning and would like to know why I got the star flares on the lights. I really think they are interested and would like to try this trick again.
I general please let me know what you think. I think this is a good split between the beautiful British Columbia mountains and the new Convention Center.
When I uploaded this to Flickr it seemed to make it a little blurry. On my screen this is tack sharp.

[Mad Aussie]

That's the one for me!!!

[asnow]

I think I still like the first one. To me the vertical seems to add more drama.

As for the star flares ... this is a complete guess. It would seem to me the more closed your aperture the more it is prone to flares. I don't know this as a fact, it is just my crazy logic trying to figure it out. If anybody knows please correct me if I am way off base.

[Mad Aussie]

As for the star flares ... this is a complete guess. It would seem to me the more closed your aperture the more it is prone to flares. I don't know this as a fact, it is just my crazy logic trying to figure it out. If anybody knows please correct me if I am way off base.

That's right ... as the aperture closes up, the leafs of the aperture mechanism look less like a circle and more like a star, increasing the likelihood of star shaped len flares.