Weekly Photo Challenge: Rounded

I climbed to the top of St. Peter’s Basilica this week and looking down couldn’t help but noticing how rounded St. Peter’s Square looks:

ISO 500 22mm f/9.0 1/800

I went in the early morning.  They officially open at 8, but were letting people in before that, so I was at the top just a few minutes after 8.  It was a hazy morning, but that made the view beautiful.  Here is the original file:

ISO 500 22mm f/9.0 1/800

The edits I have done in Lightroom included bumping up the temperature slider and the clarity. Other than that, I felt that the image worked as is.  It’s rare that I don’t crop a photo, but it this case I felt that wasn’t necessary. The best edit was the simplest one.  I had attempted in other edits to make an HDR version of this photo; I also cropped a version using the straighten feature.  Ultimately, it was this edit you see above that ended up being my favorite.

The climb up the dome itself was not my favorite moment in Rome. It isn’t hard in terms of the number of steps, but if you have trouble with closed in spaces it might not work for you.  The stairs are narrow and spiral inward in places. I made it, but it wasn’t a fun climb for me.  I was glad to have gone early in the morning when there were not too many other people which meant that I could just keep climbing to get to the outside viewing area and fresh air faster.   When I had done my research on the climb, I had only really considered the number of steps and not the space where those steps were. The view was worth the climb though.

The photo was worth the effort.  Have you ever felt this way about an image you have taken? What do you think of my minimal edit?  Feel free to leave a comment below.

Cheers!