<<< o >>>great court 18 comments + add yours
chromasia.com

This is another shot from inside the British Museum, this time at ground level, and I think it would have been reasonably striking even without the ghostly figures wandering about on the roof. Apparently the roof is cleaned once a year and I happened to be there during the week it was scheduled.

Actually, this shot almost got me in trouble. The friend I was with was a little way and way and watched as a collection of security guards gathered behind me discussing quite what I might be doing. The first one arrived and summoned another on her walkie-talkie with the comment "there's a gentleman taking pictures of the roof, and he has a rucksack, and I'm not sure he's a tourist". The second one turned up and seemed equally puzzled so they called up a third one, and the three of them huddled together trying to decide whether I posed some sort of security threat. At which point my friend put them out of their misery – "oh, he's just a photoblogger". Sadly, I missed it all ;-)

camera
capture date
aperture
shutter speed
shooting mode
exposure bias
metering mode
ISO
focal length
image quality
white balance
cropped?
Canon G5
10.13pm on 18/6/04
f3.5
1/250
aperture priority
+1.0
evaluative
50
12.7mm
RAW
auto
no
 
4x3
comment by Urbanite at 07:43 AM (GMT) on 23 June, 2004

I've been to the British Museum umpteen times as I live nearby but my photos never look like that !!
I'll have to go back and look at it all with new eyes.

comment by Houser at 12:48 PM (GMT) on 23 June, 2004

Hey man - best photo in a long time! Good eye.

comment by Kayleigh at 02:50 PM (GMT) on 23 June, 2004

Love it! I really like the little bits of gold on the windows.

comment by Jeremy Wright at 02:57 PM (GMT) on 23 June, 2004

*gasp* Spectacular! Very colorful.

comment by RainKing at 03:31 PM (GMT) on 23 June, 2004

I really like the low perspective. Excellent composition too.

Not the first time I read of a photobloger being followed closely by guards in public places, btw.

comment by J at 04:31 PM (GMT) on 23 June, 2004

Incredible composition and color. Truly amazing.

comment by Tintil at 05:26 PM (GMT) on 23 June, 2004

Fantastic shot! I can't quite work out which direction the roof is going in. It looks as though it curves back on itself - and the figures make it more disorientating. Great work, as always.

comment by Jim at 07:12 PM (GMT) on 23 June, 2004

Great shot, I love the composition. Actually, I'm secretly just excited that I figured out where it was before reading the note ;) Love the story too, too bad your friend didn't get a shot of the security guards clustered behind you...

comment by Peace at 07:22 PM (GMT) on 23 June, 2004

cool shot! and i love the story behind it... hope it won't happen to me. lol

comment by beerzie boy at 07:45 PM (GMT) on 23 June, 2004

Brilliant perspective.

comment by Kjetil at 09:16 PM (GMT) on 23 June, 2004

Like all the others, great perspective, nice composition, good background story! Fantasic is the word I was looking!

comment by tiki at 09:35 PM (GMT) on 23 June, 2004

what a great shot. i went to england over spring break, we went to the museum.. it's very nice. very white. i liked it. that's a great story too, heh. i like everything about this entry! -snaps-

comment by Jasmin at 04:33 AM (GMT) on 24 June, 2004

I like the way the lines curve and converge at the bottom centre of the photograph. Cool colours!

comment by djn1 at 06:56 AM (GMT) on 24 June, 2004

Thanks everyone.

Tintil: the building has a central, round core – the building featured in this shot – and an outer ring. The roof rises as a dome between the two; a bit like the surface of a doughnut.

comment by Tiago at 02:10 PM (GMT) on 24 June, 2004

wow, beautiful composition!

comment by Caroline at 02:50 PM (GMT) on 29 June, 2004

I've got a similar shot, as does a friend of mine - none of us were bothered by security, but perhaps we did look touristy!

comment by m at 08:54 PM (GMT) on 7 February, 2005

I've followed in your footsteps today!
No men on the roof though.

comment by brian at 06:33 AM (GMT) on 1 June, 2005

this is a great shot. I see someone else thinks so.

file : the collection

Yours still beats his by a few feet. I'll take high contrast and creepy ghost figures over their absence any day. Anyhow, your vision is spreading. keep up the good work.