Submitter's name:	Olaf Greve
Title:	Gone glory
Gear used:	OM-4Ti + Zuiko 100/2 or Zuiko 65-200/4 @ ??mm (most likely the 65-200/4)
Film used:	Fuji Provia 100F, 1/3rd stop underexposed
Aperture used:	f8 or f11
Shutter speed:	1/125th or 1/250th
Scanning and digital techniques:	As always, the scan I made myself at work came out plainly terrible! Therefore, as a test I had some slides scanned by the pro-lab. The result is much better already, but with the building underexposed, it was always going to be difficult to get the tonal balance proper. As it is, the sky is somewhat washed out, but at least the building looks pretty much as it should. In order to get this result, a +30% brightness correction, as well as a +15% contrast correction was applied.
Technical information:	Nothing special, just a straightforward hand held shot. The main 'technical difficulty' was formed by the extensive fencing (incl. barbwire) around the perimeters of these factories. This caused some serious issues for getting the correct angle, and this excluded me from using the 24/2 and the 35/2.8 Shift for most of the shots. :( It is a good thing that I deliberately had brought some telephotos as well!
Subject information:	For this TOPE I decided to take a picture of something which has been of the utmost importance to the city (Enschede, The Netherlands) in which I live: textile factories. At one point in time, in the so-called 'industrial revolution', starting in approx. 1870, Enschede thrived on textile factories, and was the major Dutch textile fabricating city. From that time onward, until around the 1920s, the skyline was littered with these characteristical factories and their high chimneys. Not so nowadays. Long abandoned since, one now has to make an effort to find such factories. One of them is currently in use as a museum. Though that very building is much better preserved, and very pretty indeed, it has a few major traffic arteries smack at its base, making its surroundings far from aesthetically pleasing for pictures. So... The quest was on for one that was better suited for what I had in mind. After driving around town, scavenging some former industrial areas, it dawned on me where I could find some suitable ones. Indeed, I was in luck. In the area where the firework storage place explosion of May 13th 2000 pretty much leveled a complete urban area, the only three buildings that have not been torn down (or simply blown away by the explosion itself) are textile factories! At present the zone is being rebuilt with houses, and the future of these textile factories is not known to me. As is obvious from the pictures, these buildings are currently in rather run down state but they may yet be kept as monumental buildings (which I presume is the only reason why they have not (yet) been torn down anyway). The present state of these buildings really capitalises on the title, and these very few survivors of such an important era to Enschede may yet be torn down as well, though I personally hope they will be restored to their former glory.
Other pictures:	I have shot several more images, but at € 1.60 per scan, I had only 3 scanned in total. The other two pictures can be found by clicking this link.
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Comment left by: Steve Goss (no e-mail specified)

Nice record of an endangered species. Why are the tops so much wider than the rest of the towers?

Comment left by: The Photographer (no e-mail specified)

Steve, I too wondered about that. I'll try to find out the answer, and then I'll post it if I can come up with it.

Comment left by: Jeff Keller (no e-mail specified)

Every time I visit TOPE 15 I look at this picture. The picture evokes a lot of questions. Hope you took more of the area perhaps including the barbed wire...

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