It's all about the light

I was sorting through some old pictures (not too old, but taken last April) and came across this shot taken at 7:26 pm, just minutes before I walked into the library next door to this church, to attend a photo club meeting.  A few folks were standing and admiring the scene, but I was the only one with a camera.  This is why I love compact cameras... they're easy to keep with you.  And it's not too profound to say, "the best camera for the job is the one you have with you."

This was taken with a Canon S90 in jpeg mode.  All default settings.  P-mode.  The horizontal photo below is the original image.  Looking down the editing panel in Lightroom I see that it is uncropped and unedited.  A basic OOC (out of camera) jpeg.

What happened here is that we had had an afternoon of dark stormy clouds, but with the sun nearly below the horizon, the sun was low enough to blast through under the clouds to light up the steeply for just a few minutes.  The contrast against the dark clouds makes the church dazzle in the warm evening light.

The vertical image is the result of (1) a vertical crop and (2) a slight adjustment to the vertical distortion (i.e. steeple leaning inward) using the applicable slider in the Lightroom develop panel.