Dave, the colours are rich and compelling. I enjoy the diagonal composition, however, I found myself wanting to look at the image in portrait instead of landscape. (There was some head tilting involved.) Maybe this is due to the colour fading from deep blue, to lighter blue horizontally, instead of vertically. Intersting subject/materials and rich colour. Nice one.

Strange shot, I like it. Due to the shape of the clouds, it seems more like a vertical pix published as a horinzontal. One question, what is this DPP raw converter???

nice and weird looking thing. looks like a wing and a guitar or something... Im still waiting for that 45-min exposure shot! ;-)

OK, the rotation (which I forgot to mention) didn't quite work. Give me a few minutes and I'll put it up in portrait format.

frisky: I had every intention of doing a long exposure shot of my favourite object this evening but, while the sky was reasonably clear, there was a lot of ground mist that caused way too much light pollution ... so I gave up.

This is a great shot! I like the colors and perspective. Very cool. =)

ojorojo: DPP raw converter is the software that Canon bundle with the 20D, 1D mkII, and IDs mkII.

This is stunning (so much so that it makes a very long time lurker speak). The colours in both the sculpture and the sky are incredible. The sculpture is an interesting subject, full of detail and decay, and the diagonal works well for me.

Nice photograph and lovely colours. I was wondering though, but do you see brownish-green bands going up and down the picture?

george: now that you mention it, yes, just about. I cleaned my sensor earlier this evening (PecPad and Eclipse method) and didn't do a very good job of it; i.e. too much fluid = streaks on the sensor. I hadn't noticed until you mentioned it.

I've now cleaned it again (several times) and think I'm getting the hang of it but it's rather nerve-wracking :-/

A really strange and beautiful photo. I love it, but I see a lot of strange blocky JPEG artifacts in the dark part of the sky. Since you shot this in RAW, I assume it isn't in the original...? It might just be my monitor settings. Sorry if this is just me. :)

quasi: no, I suspect it isn't just you (though I can't see them on my setup) – see my update above for an explanation.

Amazing! I love this version as well, though I'd like to see a side-by-side comparison with the old one -- I'm not sure which one I prefer.

quasi: normally I'd put it up, but it's 4am here and in my half-asleep state I just overwrote the original version :-/

i love this shot. i agree - it looks like a guitar. that was my first impression. i wish i would have seen the original post.

nathan (and quasi): I really should get some sleep soon, but I just realised that my backup ran not long after I put this up so I did have a copy of the original after all.

This is great! I looked at the original and like it but this is better. The warm color of the sky gives it a Martian-like feel.

Excellent!

very nice capture.. its either the tail of a very evil seahorse statue thats been buried head first, or something thats along the lines of a banjo? ;)

for some reason, i prefer the original more.

Great shot. You are becoming good with night shots.

beauiful, I like the original best tho.

I prefer the original image, with the darker blue sky. First portrait shot of yours I've seen.

sheesh. incredible.

Is the "thing" "lit" in some way? I mean, you can't have lit it up yourself? Or is it the sun (sundown) that makes the "thing" so orange against the deep blue of the sky?

Really cool shot. I want to do long exposures, too, but it's too damn cold at the moment. I was wondering was kind of light surrounded the device, or if it was totally dark and it was lit by the moon/stars/etc.

Hmm a portrait ? I thaught you put only landscape photos on you'r site... Nice shot though, technically it's brilliant, I can't see any noise!

both versions are awesome.

OK... Is there any way we can have all of the cool wacky photogenic stuff shipped from Blackpool to my neighborhood? :) Anyway, I love both versions... though I prefer your processed one. The color shift in the background makes the scene more jarring and "sci-fi". Beautiful work, as always.

I love the colors in this shot, and I prefer it to the original. You are lucky to have so many interesting things in your city. It makes me wonder how many cool things I pass by each day but no longer "see." The lack of noise is incredible.

awesome shit :D
i like the original one better though. this one has a sinister feel to it. like a evil zitar or something.

Both old and new very cool :)
Like new best I think ;-)

I love the second one, it grabs me more than the original. The colors are amazing.

I'm about to have to clean my 20D's sensor as well (same method as you) and I understand your nervousness. :)

Awesome shot. Love the color tone...at first i liked the new version alot better, but now (after flipping back and forth numerous times), the original is growing on me.

All in all, the new one is the best most striking shot...

Yeah, I was going to make the guitar joke...

Nice colors...

Thanks all :-)

Henning and RainKing: yes, it's lit by the street lights.

east3rd: no ;-)

Ben: sensor cleaning, I've discovered, is not one of my favourite tasks :-/

?!? where do you find these odd structures?!

Wow, what great perspective. This is funny; when I first saw the photo, I thought it looked like an instrument, but a funny looking guitar, not an organ. The colors are great, very dramatic.

This shot seems to be out of this world. How do you put two while balance settings via a mask?

Excellent
Could be a sci-fi novel illustration :)

I have to comment on this. Makes me think of a structure that may appear in an Isaac Asimov novel. Or post holocaust.

Very (I mean VERY) eerie...