Suburbia

[Harmony]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3328/3429007961_0c16aed125.jpg

[Antarctican]

I really like the grainy look to the buildings, but I'm not too sure about the sheer amount of the frame that's filled with the white area.

(The buildings look like they have some architectural interest to them, rather than being just 'boxy' in shape. Where in Vancouver are they?)

[Harmony]

I love the effect that I (by chance) stumbled upon in GIMP, especially in the closest building, but with it comes that great big white corner. I'm not so sure what to do with it, since I don't think it would look good darker, and I can't crop it out.

These buildings are actually in Richmond, the island city directly south of Vancouver. Like all the buildings here, they cap at 15 levels since Richmond is actually below sea level. Richmond is a delta island, created by the Fraser river, which branches into two arms (the island is nestled between the north and south arm of the river). Because of the fact that we're basically a mud mountain, there are no Richmond buildings with basements, and no sky scrapers. Almost every apartment building has a square theme with curved corners, though. This building is very typical.

[Antarctican]

Interesting info about Richmond! I had no idea it was below sea level, has no basements etc.

The effect is definitely neat. I held up my hands to the pic to see if a tighter crop would work to eliminate some of the white patch, but then you'd lose some of the curved windows on the right, which may not be optimal.

[Harmony]

I'll keep playing around with it, but presently, I'm pleased, because the original photo sucked :big grin:.

Oh! And I forgot to mention, also, most of the buildings around here look really weird because they're built with feng shui in mind. And many of them don't have level four, but they do have level thirteen. Generally, four is considered unlucky in Chinese culture, while eight is considered the best number. We couldn't care less about thirteen :lol:.