Rose of the Night, a photo from Zuid Holland, South

Photographer's Note

Meet windmill "De Roos" (English: The Rose): the only survivor of 15 windmills that once were standing on the proud city walls of Delft. It is not exactly known when this mill was constructed, but a little house that is built against the foot of the mill has its origin in 1727 so the mill itself must be older. The mill has been perfectly preserved since a very thorough renovation that was finished in 1990. You can visit the mill on Saturdays, but the shop with different kinds of flour and food for your pets that is located in the lower part of the mill, is open every day of the week except Monday morning and Sunday.

If you don’t have time to pay a visit to Delft and/or this windmill, but travel through Delft by train (for example when going from Amsterdam/Schiphol to Rotterdam), you can see the mill very well as it is located next to the railway. You can also visit their website at Molen de Roos.

This picture was taken on a nocturnal photo shoot for a short introduction course in photography. It was quite cold (-5 degrees Centigrade) but the sky was clear and we had full moon, so it was worth walking and cycling for a couple of hours through Delft. As you can see, the mill is beautifully lit at night.

Tech: negative scanned with Minolta Dimage Scan Dual III in "nightscene mode". Removed dust in Photoshop, ran through Neat Image to remove noise and applied USM.

Rinie_Hoff, weswang, bertolucci, erdna, PLD_images, alvaraalto, sayzey ha puntuado esta nota como útil.

Critiques | Translate

Rinie_Hoff (9340) 2005-03-15 8:38

Hey Michael! Nice tribute to nocturnal Rose and nocturnal Delft.
The lighting is fabulous, colrs are fine, and weel to discern. At the right hand side the restauration is very well visible. Shadows are strong and sharp.
The full moon is a fine element in the picture.
Very well done!

weswang (18247) 2005-03-15 12:19

Hi Michael, This is a beautiful windmill and a beautiful shot. I like the color contrast and the moon you have captured in the background. I am a little surprised to see so much detail in a night shot. Well done.

bertolucci (14052) 2005-03-15 14:47

Hi Michael, This is a very fine nocturnal capture of this classic windmill. I very much like the handling of the light here, the good defenition and the radical asymmetric framing. The hard contrast adds to this very pleasing capture. Fine job!

erdna (5713) 2005-03-15 17:05

There are so many things you did here that I like. The color came out very nice. You waited for the right position on the windmill blades. You framed the moon with the structure, and I learned from your note that you do your noise reduction first before sharpening.I am doing it wrong. I sharpen first and reduce noise after. Or does it reall matter? Thank you for this poster quality picture.

manny (22032) 2005-03-16 2:15

Good graphic quality. Excellent colors too.

dolin (7369) 2005-03-17 15:30

Hi.
Excellent shot.
The framing is really nice and the light is beautifull.
The contrast and the clearness are perfect.
Great cpature !!!
Fred

PLD_images (7149) 2005-03-19 11:03

A superb shot Michael, really great! This is the first time that I see a photo of a windmill at night, and I really like it. The composition is quite original and excellent.
Congrats for this beauty!

pamastro (7296) 2005-03-20 14:22

Very crisp shot! It looks almost like a digital image directly, not scanned. The details visible in the bricks are really amazing. And the light you captured is beautiful. I love the shadows through the blade. And the moon was perfectly placed so you got there at the right time to get everything in the composition nicely. It's very graphic. Very neat.

alvaraalto (42804) 2005-03-21 8:26

I didn't know there was a "Moulin Jeune" in Delft. Beautiful colours. Nice the shadow of the wing on the wall. Great POV

joseelias (0) 2005-04-06 4:45

This is certainly one of the most creative and interesting photos over these typical mills. In fact it’s the first night shot on one of them I recall seeing. The POV, colors and details are excellent and the detail of the moon very nice.

eco (112) 2005-07-31 16:05