There's Tidy! - the Altolusso, Luxury in Cardiff

What's great about preparing for posting a Blip is how it makes you answer the very questions you've been asking yourself.

I've seen this massive 23 floor 232 ft tall residential building being built over the past few years that I've been returning to Cardiff, Wales - and have always wanted to get a decent photo of it.

Altolusso means 'High Luxury' in Italian and my photographer friend Martyn, who I've known for decades both in camera clubs and as a work colleague, thinks this looks like New York. Personally, I love the retained old fascia of the Victorian New College that the new building behind is built on and that completely offsets what rises surprisingly from behind it. It looks like a giant cigarette lighter to me (perhaps)!

A city that's not just confident in itself but one able to laugh at itself and its stereotypes too - note the giant daffodils half way up the lamp-post!

If it wasn't for those daffs, then this Blip might well have been in black and white. As it was, I reduced the yellows in the rest of the image and added lots of contrast to the top and lightened shadows in the front building. I also originally had it all falling over backwards much more crazily, which I liked, but the buildings either side were ugly or had scaffolding and really spoilt it. I wasn't going to clone those out, so, by pulling out the top corners, I partly corrected that splaying out distortion but also lost most of those surrounding buildings too.

'Stadium House', the tall white office block in my Blip three days ago is currently Wales' tallest building, at 400ft. Which is STILL four feet shorter than the quite a few centuries older Salisbury Cathedral!

The Millennium Stadium is actually the second tallest building.