When I am in Pittsburgh, I like to visit the Alcoa Building downtown. I love it, at the same time as I don’t. I am drawn to its originality, design and history. But photography-wise, it is a nightmare for me. None of my photos have ever come out to properly reflect the history of successful American industry, the people that contributed to it, and the creativity of the skyscraper design. Instead, my photos just give a dull and lifeless view of endless rows of monotonic small, framed windows in a sterile geometry on a gray building. Very boring. But must it be? This time I have tried to blow life into the building by adding some human elements in post-processing, cropping hard, pushing the contrasts and working with tonality as I converted my picture into Black and White. (See the original photo at the end of the honorable mentions.)

Some time ago, when I was in Sri Lanka, I went to an area in the northeast of the country to see elephant herds. As I arrived in the area where the elephants roamed, a storm came in from the Indian Ocean. During the downpour, this young elephant poked her head out from a group of adults and I snapped the photo. The original is color, but the photo is much better in black and white. Canon EOS 20D, 38 mm, f/3.2, 160th of a second, ISO 100.

An early-morning shoot with Charles and Melissa Needle in Tuscany. Behind me was a restaurant parking lot.