Illinois State Capitol

I love this image. But it is an utter failure.

I liked this image so much that I immediately made a big 48×48” framed print and proudly presented it in my booth at the art shows. Nobody liked it.

This is not a single shot. It is 355 images stitched together. It is extremely detailed. The original image can easily produce 100×100” print and it will be tack sharp. It looks more like a pencil drawing than a photograph.

Technically it was really hard to make this image. It was dark and I had to use high ISO 3200 which causes heavy grain in the image. I had to tackle that problem.

Also, no tripods were allowed. I had to shoot all 355 images handheld and I had to make sure that I wouldn’t miss a spot in this huge stitched panorama.

I overcame all these problems and I got the image I wanted. It was great. But nobody liked it.

I talked to people, explaining how I made the print, how detailed it is, how the composition is so precise and so on.

While I was explaining all these things, people were getting interested. But apparently nobody could tell where the dome is located.

“Is it somewhere in Italy?”

“No, this is Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, IL.”

“Oh, ok…”

And I could see on their faces a sudden change in the attitude. Like a door getting shut.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”, I started to beg people for the answer.

They usually shrug the shoulders, look down and say, “Eh, politics…”

Darn.