If you're looking for a used lens, try to get your hands on a Sigma apo tele macro - the one with 77mm filter thread.
The DA* 300 + TC will also be great. Bigmas (Big Sigma zooms 50-500 and 150-500) will also be a good option.

The 150-450.
A heavy beast, but it almost always makes it in my bag. I have found many uses for it, landscapes, portraits, school plays... it's not just for birds. IQ and handling are both stellar. Just keep in mind that handling a 500mm has its learning curve.

These are beautiful in b&w, i agree that it really shows off the arches and columns.
I can't help wonder what the vitreaux would look like in color, but i respect your choice, it's original, as is the tighter field of view you chose to isolate the details. Nicely done!

Super!!!
It is stressful looking at the video, thinking you might lose the shot. I can certainly understand opting not to overdo the motion blur!
You could crop some of the grass in front. It would be even more striking in 16:9 format, i think.
And would it be cheating to clone out the post on the left?

I found the color version on your flickr account, and i must say, this is a beautiful setting and picture!!!

While I like the b&w version as it more dramatic and surreal, it's a shame to lose such beautiful vibrant colors from the image.
But you need to work with the RAW file to adjust white balance a bit, to separate the browns from the greens - i find the yellows need some taming, particularly for the waer's surface and brownstone used for the bridge construction. The mauve glycinea (?) should look more vibrant. Also recover detail from the sky, there is some in the jpg, there should be a lot more in the raw.

From the flikr image, i would crop a little less than you have in the final version, retaining the 3:2 format and cropping a little of the left and bottom, putting the pavillion close to the top left "rule-of-thirds" point. You can't crop the top of the tree in the centre, and i would like to leave some of the sky reflections in the water, as well as the "curve" of the pond on the lower left.

Some local dodging and burning combined with color manipulation will make the pavillion stand out more.

Sometimes color just doesn't add up the way you would have liked, but i think that in this case, with some time with the RAW editor, you will get a breathtaking color image.

Wow, excellent image, particularly with a non-astro setup (i mean no eq mount / big telescope)! Love the colors and the deep blacks

It's great to see some images from Bern. I haven't been back in decades.
Thanks for sharing!

Lol gwyn!

Thank you Johnha,

My original crop was tighter, just as you describe.. I processed it in-camera, with toy camera effect!




Ooops sorry that came out sideways...

But on the flip side, it also crops out some of the marching band in the background, and while the subject is "cleaner" it hides the fact that this is in the centre of the marching band. Not sure which framing i prefer, honestly. Original color balance is impossible, as the light sources all have a different color temperature.

Marching bands are very important to us in Corfu, we have 19 philharmonic societies! The sousaphone player was in the oldest dating from 1840. I heard that a total of 700 (no typo) musicians were marching througout town the evening i took the picture.

Thank you for explainineg what the trombone part is. He doesn't look very happy about it...

I took a few "street-style" pictures of the Easter celebrations here in Corfu. I think this one of a sousaphone player turned out the best, as a number of things seem to be going on while the band is preparing. Notably, an unhappy trombone player seems to be missing all but the tip of his trombone! I wonder what happened... Let me know what you think, also of the processing. K1ii + FA-31.