Original: “Returning to Palm Beach International Airport” by Connor Skaryd is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
I went with the image I took late last year of Palm Beach International Airport when I was returning from west palm beach. The original photo was taken from my plane seat and just trying to capture my return home to Florida and taking the image of the sunset and the sky with the beautiful clouds about their airport. the airport. There was no way for me to avoid catching the plane’s wing in the image, but it really doesn’t cover much.
Derivative “Bridge Between Ground and Clouds” by Connor Skaryd is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
The cropped version is really focused on the control tower. Unintentionally finding that it almost perfectly meets the bottom of the clouds with my angle, I zoomed in and narrowed the field of view from my phone’s camera to emphasize the sky about the tower and remove the airplane’s wing from the image. I set the control tower to be at the bottom left intersection of the rule of thirds to really emphasize the sky. I set it to a more panoramic scale to really show the clouds and the deep red and oranges of the sunset. Making it so that the sun lit sky was the border between the ground and the clouds, that was then bridged by the air traffic control tower.
My goal with this edit is to make the air traffic control tower of the airport be a literal bridge to the sky in the image, while it is a metaphorical bridge to the sky, with the controllers in the tower guiding planes into the air. The main thing I wish I could change is having a better resolution and not having it so pixelated.
Hi Connor, I really love both these images. Cropping out the plane wing effectively shifts the meaning of the image from focusing on the plane to that beautiful skyline and control tower. I think your decision to use a panoramic scale was great; when I think of sunrises and sunsets, I usually envision them in landscape mode because I can see more of the horizon.
For alternative cropping, I personally think that leaving a bit of the plane wing on the bottom would’ve still told a similar story as your “bridge to the sky.” I would’ve cropped out the bottom and top quarters of the image, leaving the plane in the lower/middle third and the sky/control tower in the upper third. Because the final image is so pixelated, a less intense zoom/crop might help mitigate that issue. Another suggestion is increasing the sharpness and contrast to try and bring the control tower into focus, but I understand that doing so can sometimes emphasize the pixelation of a low-resolution image.
Hey Connor, I prefer the original, uncropped photo; it has a beautiful overall composition. The cropped image definitely shifts the focus, and losing the plane and clouds significantly changes the impact. Cropping just the skyline to highlight the clouds could be an interesting alternative. Another option might be a square crop that includes both the plane and more of the sky, similar to the original composition but with a different aspect ratio. My main concern with the current crop is the potential for pixelation and blurriness. It’s already somewhat noticeable, so consider how it might look when viewed larger. Before cropping, I would check the image resolution.
I actually prefer the uncropped version because it gives a fuller sense of the airport and surroundings. In the cropped version, the control tower almost blends into the skyline, making it look more like part of a city rather than a distinct structure. That said, I really appreciate how the crop shifts the focus and tells a completely different story by emphasizing the connection between the tower and the sky. You did a great job using composition and color to create a unique perspective!