Wikipedia:Valued picture candidates/Red Sand Garden

Red Sand Garden

 * Reason:Decent quality and good detail with good composition. Has been prominently featured in two articles for over 2½ years. Hard to get an image of this without heaps of tourists. Failed an FPC nom about 2 years back mainly due to some complaints about the sky at image left. Also a somewhat historical photo as this was taken about a month after the place opened. The architects who designed the gardens liked this image so much they bought it off me after seeing it on Wikipedia.
 * Articles this image appears in:Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne; Cranbourne, Victoria
 * Creator:jjron

(I don't like promoting my own nom, but clear consensus, and no one else is closing.) --jjron (talk) 13:34, 27 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Support as nominator --jjron (talk) 15:47, 13 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Support very nice image and great EV.--Mbz1 (talk) 00:55, 14 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Support What is the source of uneven sky? Polariser? Noodle snacks (talk) 04:05, 14 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Setting sun. No polariser, this was taken with my A95 compact, and back then I wasn't that comfortable with manual control, so I may well have taken the originals in auto. This was taken late afternoon (when the place was about to shut, so most visitors had left) and in mid-winter so the sun was pretty low in the west (image left). That lighting actually helps with some shadow and depth detail in the garden, but not so good for the sky. I intend to get back there sometime and try for better light in the sky, but not sure when would be a suitable time of year. Thanks all for votes. --jjron (talk) 16:04, 14 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Don't know what it'd do to the gardens, but after sunset is a possibility. Moonlight exposed for long enough can still give you colour too (but it'd take hours to stitch the pano, and its difficult to focus). Noodle snacks (talk) 01:07, 15 February 2009 (UTC)
 * And you'd have to break in to get the pic ;-). The Australian Garden is fenced off and you have to pay to get in, closing at I think 5pm. The rest of the Cranbourne gardens may stay open longer, though I seem to remember it being gated, so it may close as well before nightfall - regardless of that, you can only get a photo like this from inside the Australian Garden. --jjron (talk) 13:23, 15 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Heh, I've been locked inside the Hobart botanical gardens on a number of occasions when I have lost track of time. It is pretty straightforward to leave or exit at any time of day if you know where. It would be difficult to go unnoticed in that environment though. Noodle snacks (talk) 06:26, 16 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Oh yeah, this is a different setup from most botanic gardens. I really think you'd have to get locked in on purpose. To do so you'd have to prepare well in advance. This is in the back end of the (big) Cranbourne gardens themselves (really more like a nature reserve than a normal botanic gardens), so you'd probably have to ride your treddly in rather than driving or they'd see your car there in the Aust Gardens carpark. Then you may have to hide the bike outside, then find somewhere to hide around closing time inside in order to get locked in. It'd be quite an 'accident' ;-). --jjron (talk) 05:20, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Support per nom. Durova Charge! 06:22, 14 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Support per nom and EV. ~  ωαdεstεr 16  «talkstalk» 18:53, 20 February 2009 (UTC)