This structure, the original building of Fonseca College, dates back to the 16th century. It is used today to house the University's library. My point in making this picture was to express its extreme age, and by implication, its value to the community. After 500 years, this religious statue and its surrounding columns – a study in weathered texture -- still stand alongside of a busy street. The soft light and worn texture speak volumes about age, yet this image is still basically flat, without much depth perspective or dimensionality. To add such perspective, I first shifted the statue from the middle of frame to the left hand side, so that it looks into the picture. Off center subject placement usually adds a bit of tension and appears less static and predictable, but it did not solve this flat perspective issue. Then I realized that the shadow under the canopy over the statue seems to make it emerge from the past, and peer out on the present and future. But we still have an essentially a flat image. So I stepped back further to bring a low hanging tree branch into the frame, moving the camera so that the branch seems to reach out the statue, as if to grasp it. We now must look through these branches into the picture, which most definitely implies depth, and adds a sense of perspective to a picture that had very little before I included that branch in the frame. This bit of depth perspective, coupled with the mellow color, soft light, worn textures and the canopy shadows, carries us back into time – and that is how I made this image speak. Do you agree or disagree with my approach here? Please leave your comments, questions, and criticisms. I will respond, and our dialogue can help everyone who comes here can then learn more about expressing ideas photographically.