Fantastic. This shot is good example of what is meant by the art of seeing. Well done.
John R
Wow, thanks man! Since that's the nicest thing anyone has said about any of my shots, I'll lay out its background. When I went out this past Saturday morning, I had originally intended to take an angled frontal picture of the barn (whose roof you see here), with a backdrop of dramatic, pre-dawn clouds. However, the clouds that I wanted weren't there, and I figured out pretty quickly that I was either going to have to come up with something else within a few minutes or go home.
Choosing to stick around, I walked around to the back of the barn and saw a potential shot, but the light changed before I had time to set up the 'pod. Discouraged, I started to walk back to pack up, when I noticed these flame-like clouds over the barn roof. Fortunately, I had my 45mm tilt/shift lens on my 5D2, so I set up the 'pod, extending it as high as I could. I used live view to tilt to the angle of the roof, dialed in f11, and fired off 2 frames of 3 shot, 2 stop brackets.
When I got home, I did some exposure blending, mainly to cut down on the noise beneath the gutter. I stitched the two frames in PTGui, and spent most of my time deciding how to crop the shot, since the original frame had much more of the barn and background. I tried the "less is more" approach with this one, to try to eliminate visual "noise." It's a simple "rule of thirds" division, with an attempt to create interest with lines and geometry: the roof lines, to my eye, somewhat mirror those in the sky. I included the gutter, because, hey- look at that patina! Anyway, glad you like it. Oh, one more thing: yes, that star in the upper right has got to go.
John