Invasion of the Pixel Snatchers

Imagine this: you let a pack of fanatic photographers loose in a national parliament building. What will happen? Will they quietly take over the country (but no one else will notice)? Will they quickly pass a bill allowing unrestricted picture taking in public areas? Will they outlaw HDR processing or make video on DSLRs mandatory?

You guessed right: none of the above! Witness here what happened when 40 Belgiumdigital members were granted access for a couple of hours to the corridors, salons, meeting rooms and main assembly hall of the Belgian Senate (our 'upper house'). They swarmed all over the place, capturing every detail and corner of the room, acting like a group of forensic science students that overdosed on CSI.

Can you count the number of cameras in this picture? And can you imagine how complicated it got to shoot a decent view of the entire chamber - without fellow photographers in the frame?

Fortunately, there was more than one room for us to 'attack' and enjoy. To get to make the shot you want, there's the three P's to observe: you need an upfront Plan, you have to claim the 'ideal' Position, and then you apply a lot of Patience until the field clears...

These wonderful settings (in reality, not as vast as these wide-angle shots let believe) presented a fine challenge to fight perspective distortions and deal with multiple light sources of broadly varying intensity. I had plenty of opportunity afterwards to exercise my post-processing skills, applying my two most valued complements to Adobe's Lightroom software: PTLens and Photomatix Pro.

If you like these results, there's more to see here.

Gear notes: D700, 17-35/2.8, 24-70/2.8

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