Re: Shots from above looking straight down

[P3D Dr. George A. Themelis <fj834@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>>   Just for the Hell of it, I pointed my Realist down toward the ground, from 
>> the top of the Notre Dame Cathedral, in Paris. 
>
>There is a View-Master demo reel with a shot like that.  It's looking
>down from the top of a cathedral in Kolne (Cologne), Germany.  Great
>shot!

I think I have a good one too.  At the top of the CN tower in Toronto, a
section of the floor is glassed.  Crossing over it causes a natural fear,
even though a sign clearly says that the strength of the glass is many
times that of the regular floor.  No matter what the sign says, looking
down and seeing how high you are can scare everyone!

I tried to overcome my fear and crept into the class floor to take a shot.
I used my Minolta X-700 twin rig with the cameras spaced at one foot and
took a picture looking straight down to capture the tower and the ground
underneath.

The film plane was totally parallel to the ground and I turned the picture
180 degrees to have the tower slopping at the bottom (and not the top which
is how I recorded the picture originally).  (you know there is no hint of
horizontal reference when you can turn the picture 180 degrees and make it
look more realistic!)

I entered the picture in the "Unusual Perspective" Detroit competition and
won first place!

The only thing I did not like about it is that it got a green cast because
of the glass.  This is a common problem when shooting through glass.  Can
be corrected in copying.

George


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