I was recently walking through the city while taking a photo detour to work. I went past Fabryczna train station that has recently been demolished. Next to the now demolished train station are some old tenement apartments which have always seemed abandoned and recently have had their windows bricked in. All these buildings are in the process of being demolished to make way for a new development in the city including a new train station (we already have 4 and this was the fifth one)
As I was walking through the park I noticed as I looked up at the tenement block a shattered window and beyond the window was a lovely painting still hanging on the wall. My hand went to my pocket I whipped out my phone, I looked at the screen and could not get in close enough to get the window and the picture. I snapped a few pictures and then dug into my bag and got out my G10 that I carry with me at all times (some may ask why when you have a smart phone and use Instagram).
With the G10 I was able to get the angle that I needed and snapped a few pictures thinking of different ways I would edit them.
In the end I used the mobile pics more as an image diary with Instgram editing the picture using Pixel’o’matic.
My original idea was to create a HDR but when reviewing the images, a single image was strong by itself. I first processed the image in Camera Raw. I made some local adaptations, burning in the picture for example. I made some selective contrast adjustments and once loaded into Photoshop made a lens correction , reduce noise and sharpened the overall image.
The image is just want I was wanting when I looked up at the window. It does leave me questions about, who used to live here and why they left the painting.
I will be coming back here again.
This has shown me that there are some great things in having a good camera phone ready at a button but this convince does not match up to the ability of a dedicated camera.
What do you think about the image? What do you think about the limitations I found? What would you have done in the situation? Let me know or anything else you want to share in the comments box below.
Aperture64 
Good Evening: My favorite is the “quartet” of shots of the same scene. Without knowing much of art criticism terminology, it just feels right and seems to convey four different moods. Vonn Scott Bair
Thank you for commenting Vonn Scott Bair.
With anything artistic I don’t believe you need to have the correct terminology to make a comment about liking or even disliking something as it is most definitely a preference.
With the image of the four buildings I liked what I did with it as it did in some way work for the purpose of a journal. At the time I wasn’t too happy with it as it was not the shot that I wanted.
The image does have a pleasing balance and the colours work showing different emotions through the colours. Especially with the building soon to be torn down different people have different emotions about these buildings.
I like the one with the painting showing through the broken glass because it asks so many questions – wouldn’t it be funny if that painting was by an old master? Why does your city not think about renovating these kinds of buildings, great architecture on the outside/modern convenience on the inside – that would surely look better than a bad modern condo…
I live in a city called Łòdź that is situated in the centre of Poland. The city was a huge manufacturing city in the late 18th early 20th century. The cities population was a mixture of German Polish and Russian. Jewish people from these nationalities made up one of the biggest religous groups in the city. Nearly the whole jewish community was killed in the second world war and the Nazis distroyed so much documentation including documents linked to land ownership. under the soviet rule some buildings were claimed to be owned by the state.
The problem now is people are unsure about ownership of buildings from before the war and dont want to be caught in a situation where somebody comes and claims that this was there fathers or grandfathers building or apartment. Mostly these buildings fall into disrepair and are condemed.
In Łòdź they have started repairing some old grand buildings but not the tenemant houses. This house in particular is in the way of a new development which is meant to regenerate the city and give it a central point. In this development they have demolished a.beautiful transtation that would have looked lovely if they had renovated. A disused power station and this tenement building.
I wondered the same thing about the picture i wish i could have got a closer look.
Governments legislate about so many idiotic things you think they could make some sort of provisions for heritage buildings… At least there are people like you to document them!