Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Kaaba

Kaaba Symmetry

Reason: Good quality and the only image which shows this feature
Proposed caption: The Kaaba, a large cuboidal building located inside the Masjid al-Haram, is one of Muslims' holiest places. This picture taken from the gate of King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia, seems to to divide the Kaaba and the minarets into mirror images of one another.
Articles this image appears in: Hajj, Kaaba, Masjid al-Haram
Creator: Me

Support as nominator Muhammad Mahdi Karim 17:29, 3 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose Grainy and artifacted. CillaИ X♦C [dic] 18:16, 3 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Comment uploaded Edit 2; hopefully improves the grain issue. I also removed the black dots visible between the minarets in the original. CillaИ X♦C [dic] 17:25, 5 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

*Oppose poor quality --Childzy ¤ Talk 19:18, 3 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Support. Pictures of the Kaaba are rare, and this is one of the highest-quality free ones that I've seen. I've also never seen one from this angle, that shows the people and their clothing in such detail. This is a useful and encyclopedic image, about a rare event which is closed to most of the world. Non-Muslims can't even enter the city of Mecca, let alone get this close to the Kaaba. --El on ka 19:55, 3 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

**Comment still as this will happen again it is possible to take a much higher quality image --Childzy ¤ Talk 21:34, 3 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose, too grainy. Someday there will be a better picture and for now this is the best we have, but that doesn't make it featured picture quality. gren グレン 00:31, 4 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Comment I don't want to force my picture, but heres what I have to say. Pictures of the Kaaba are rare becuase if one is seen taking pictures by the guards, one can kiss one's camera goodbye. Hence, taking a good quality camera and time to take the picture, exposes you. the angle that this picture is taken from is from the main entrance, hence more difficult. The picture looks a bit grainy when viewed under very high zoom. Muhammad Mahdi Karim 12:14, 4 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Support Great angle and view. I've never seen the kaaba's symmetry like this before. Ghelelio 14:05, 4 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Support. The photo really isn't FP quality under normal circumstances, and given the dozens of photos that have similar thumbnails on a google image search, anyone could be forgiven for thinking it reproducible. But I've just spent 15 minutes looking through all those images, as well as through a couple of galleries specifically for pics of the Kaaba, and they are all, without exception, extreme crops from a distant shot, probably from a helicopter. It's certainly an important enough subject and this may well be the best picture. Based on all the others I found, kudos on the shot! ~ Veledan • T 22:05, 4 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose. Sorry, great picture, but a poor camera. Besides, this wikimedia already a great picture of it (shown on the right) -Inklein 03:35, 5 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Support. A GIS shows that this is superior to almost every other easily found image of the Kaaba. Flickr only has three images, and About.com shows a gallery of century-old photos. Even a travel site is limited to an Instamatic-quality shot, making Muhammad Mahdi Karim's assertions believable. If there is a better one out there, I'm not sure where we're going to get it; if they were easy to get one would surely exist out there (license compatibility not considered). --Dhartung | Talk 06:37, 5 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Support per recent arguments, after a bit of looking myself it does appear you cant get a shot making this one inherently encyclopedic --Childzy ¤ Talk 07:33, 5 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Support edit1 – under the circumstances it's a pretty neat shot, but the uncropped, slightly over-exposed original just doesn't look like a worthy FP; it just needed a crop and a tweak, I think. mikaul^talk 15:20, 5 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose Come on, if a picture is historic, OK we might be able to live with quality like this. But this is more than reproduceable and the quality is rather bad. -Fcb981^{(talk:contribs)} 23:37, 5 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Support per Dhartung. There are very few outdoor, architectural photos that are difficult to take these days. This is certainly one, and deserves to be measured against its peers. -07:34, 6 September 2007 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Harmil (talk • contribs)

Support: This picture makes you really feel u r in mecca looking at hte Kaaba. its making u see the reality and such pictures r really rare —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.220.87.134 (talk) 17:52, 7 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose. I really don't like the composition. It's too bad that the shadow line passes through the center of the image, and the composition makes it look like the two towers are coming out of the Kaaba itself, rather than being part of the larger building that surrounds it. Spikebrennan 17:47, 8 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Support Rare picture. AliFazal 11:23, 8 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose. Picture is grainy and blurred, specially the people in the foreground. This takes place every year, so someone's got to be able to produce a better picture. --snowolfD4 ^{( talk / @ )} 19:01, 10 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose Per above. ^8thstar 03:13, 11 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Support The picture is well taken but the camera is not to be proud of. However considering the circumstances and the difficulty in taking pictures of this kind, I guess I have to support the picture. 196.46.104.220 06:57, 11 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Not promoted MER-C 10:07, 11 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]