I had trouble finding facts about the statues on the roof of Altare della Patria beyond their names and who made them. This is Quadriga della Libertà by Paolo Bartolini and on the opposite side of the roof terrace you'll find its counterpart Quadriga dell'Unità by Carlo Fontana. The terrace itself is named for them - Terrazza delle Quadrighe. The statues were completed in 1911 - the 50th anniversary of unified Italia - but they were not placed on the monument's roof until the year of 1930. As you may have guessed, Quadriga has something to do with the number four - it's what you call a chariot pulled by four horses.
As I went up on the terrace, the first thing that hit me, smack in the eye, was of course the gorgeous view. The next thing was the wonderful camera angle you get of these statues, contrasted against the sky. But how to make the shot different and even more bold? Break one of the basic photography "rules" and shoot straight into the sun of course. So I went to a spot that placed the sun in a way that made it look like a halo over the angel's head, and then waited for the clouds to move into a nice looking position. I hoped for the best and thought I'd worry about the lens flare later. It turned out to be an easier fix than I thought though, and I actually only got one green hued circle (with a tiny yellow one inside it). A few tweaks and some cloning later, and I dare you to guess where it was ;).
Cool! Screw the rules (ha). :-)
ReplyDelete*Goes to get a screwdriver* :P
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