Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Bicentennial Tower, Erie

Bicentennial Tower, Erie

The observation tower on Dobbin Landing was built to commemorate the bicentennial of Erie, Pennsylvania.

Reason: The tower is perfectly lined up with the middle of the road, clear, symmetrical, no distracting people in the street or on the sidewalk
Articles this image appears in: Erie, Pennsylvania
Bicentennial Tower
Creator: Tomdonohue1 (talk · contribs)

Support as nominator — Dtbohrer^{talk•contribs} 15:06, 11 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Doesn't convince me at at all when viewed at full size, quite blurry and some visible sensor dirt. Plus it is ever so slightly tilted to the right. --Dschwen 15:24, 11 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
- Sensor dirt? Where? I noticed the tilt, but wasn't sure if it was me or the picture (I put a vertical line next to the tower and didn't see anything would verify that there was a tilt). Although the tilt could be worse considering it probably was taken without a tripod (because that wouldn't have been a good idea to set up a tripod in a street). --Dtbohrer^{talk•contribs} 16:02, 11 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  - Tilt can be corrected. I see two dark blotches (looks like a typical sensor dirt artifact), one is half way between the right streetlighthead and the tower, the other one is straight above the first one. --Dschwen 19:51, 11 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    - I see it now. Wanted to make sure you weren't looking at the seagull between the first & second streetlights on the left. Take a look at this photo of the same thing but I cropped & attempted to straighten (after seeing your comment). See if it is straight or tilted to the left. --Dtbohrer^{talk•contribs} 20:13, 11 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
      - Ooops, the cropped version leans more to the left than the original leans to the right. You really have to count pixels or use guide rulers. The eye is very sensitive to small deviations from vertical and horizontal. --Dschwen 21:16, 11 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
        The editing programs I have aren't able to rotate less than 1 degree. --Dtbohrer^{talk•contribs} 22:06, 11 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose - Half the photo is taken up by ugly and irrelevant road, cars, and yellow lines that draw the eye away from the subject. --TotoBaggins 18:22, 11 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose - This is a picture of the tower, but definitely not Featured material. The road and streetlights are not appealing at all. The picture would be much more effective if the body of water was prominently featured, and if there was some more context of how the tower is situated in relation to the rest of the landscape. --Asiir 23:58, 11 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose - but thank you very much for your submission and for making it Public Domain. It's a good picture, and certainly enhances its main article, I just don't think it has enough artistic value for a FP. Zakolantern 16:17, 12 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Question. Sorry, this is perhaps a little irrelevant, but it's got me intrigued. Are the double yellow lines down the middle of the road really as wonky as they come out in these photos? What did they use to paint them to get them like that? How strange. --jjron 16:28, 12 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
- Its either because the road isn't perfectly flat or the when the lines were repainted the guy painting couldn't stay on the originals (knowing Erie & its numerous budget cuts; the city probably had some drunk guy paint them). Next time I'm downtown, I'll look at the lines. --Dtbohrer^{talk•contribs} 16:41, 12 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  - I'm going for the drunk guy ;) --jjron 05:42, 14 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Not promoted MER-C 03:55, 17 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]