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Chizén Itzá
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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
Years ago (1991) I visited Chizén Itzá, the ancient Maya town in Quintana Roo in the Mexican Yucatan. As you can imagine I didn’t had a digital camera thus this pictures is a scan from a photo print. It cost me lots of time and effort to get a reasonable result. Nevertheless it is not as good as I wished but due to the nice memories I have posted it on TL. If there are any advises from my fellow TL-members how to improve scanned photo’s please let me know. Special retrieving the contrast and coloring was “a pain in the a... ehhh …. very difficult”.
By the way together with some colleagues I went to this beautiful spot in the middle of the rainforest with two rented Jeeps. After our extended visit at Chichen Itza we went back to Cancun by dawn. Due poor fuel management the Jeep of my colleagues quit 25 miles from Cancun without fuel. We solved the problem by putting one of the colleagues on the hood of my jeep and let him push with his legs the disabled vehicle while I was driving my Jeep (Luky me, but my fuel arithmetic was better than his). You can imagine due myalgia the next day he couldn’t walk anymore but he had to fly back to Amsterdam. Not a pleasant trip for him I can assure you. But it learned him be not a “Fuel Scrooge” hehehe…
El Castillo or Pyramid of Kukulcán
Built by the Maya civilization around the 9th century, "El Castillo" served as a temple to the god Kukulcan (the Maya name for Quetzalcoatl).
It is a step pyramid with a ground plan of square terraces with stairways up each of the four sides to the temple on top. Great sculptures of plumed serpents run down the sides of the northern staircase, and are set off by shadows from the corner tiers on the spring and autumn equinoxes. It was practice in Mesoamerican cities to periodically build larger and grander temple pyramids atop older ones, and this is one such example.
The structure is 24 m high, plus an additional 6 m for the temple. The square base measures 55.3 m across. The outside edges of the pyramid also include nine large steps, which are theorized to represent the nine planets in our solar system. It was common in Mesoamerican cities for newer larger temple pyramids to be built atop older ones, and archaeologists have found this to be the case here. In the 1530s Conquistador Francisco de Montejo the younger used this building as his fortress, with cannon mounted atop it during the Spanish conquest of Yucatán. Today "El Castillo" is one of the most popular and recognized tourist sites of Mexico. Retrieved from wikipedia.org
PS-talk
- adjusted curves (blue and yellow)
- increased contrast (+15)
- increased brightness (+5)
- increased saturation (+10)
- cropped
- framed |
jan515, Refugee, JohnTulip, Viking, Jorge has marked this note useful
Only registered TrekLens members may rate photo notes. |
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- Suerte
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 527 W: 64 N: 255]](http://i1.treklens.com/misc/g-g-g.gif)
(3248) - [2006-09-29 10:09]
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impressive work!great compo!wonderful colors!
tfs
Excellent work Hans considering it is a scanned image. The figures at the top of the steps give a good idea of the size f the pyramid. Good colour and well presented. TFS,
David
Many thanks for your comment on
Wooden Windmill
The mill is actually missing its blades Hans...for information on this type of windmill you could visit http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/788.html
Good shot, great composition and nice colours. Very good work.
Well done.
Zoran
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- jan515
(13522)
- [2006-09-30 4:40]
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Hello Hans,
Wonderful old architectur. Marvelously collection, a grandioses picture, wonderful contrasts. Congratulate for large shot.
Janusz
poinds tomorrow sorry
Your photo analysed:
*Very sharp
*good natural colours
*DOF and POV are good
John T
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- Viking
(4383)
- [2006-10-01 2:43]
- [+]
Hans, indrukwekkend en iets wat ik ook wel eens zou willen bezoeken. Foto heeft iets ingeboet aan scherpte maar dat zal komen door de scan. Groet
Rob
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- Jorge
![Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Note Writer [C: 128 W: 6 N: 26]](http://i1.treklens.com/misc/g-n-s.gif)
(417) - [2006-10-02 19:30]
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Great image and description. Good quality considering this image is scanned. TFS.
Jorge
![Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 124 W: 15 N: 105]](http://i1.treklens.com/misc/g-s-g.gif)
(903)![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Workshop Editor/Silver Note Writer [C: 281 W: 51 N: 15]](http://i1.treklens.com/misc/g-g-s.gif){kind=small}
Good work Hans! it is always difficult working with anything but a pure digital image but the framed effect looks good, esp. the browns in the grass and although the tree line cuts across any natural framing i think it works fine - be proud!
Neil.