Spain City of Arts and Sciences, From the Bridge

This shot is from the road bridge and provides a more interesting perspective than the same shot from the ground below the bridge in my opinion.

It is important with this shot to position yourself EXACTLY in front of the building to achieve perfect symmetry. One thing I noticed when spending two days at the City of Arts and Sciences is how many photographers weren't paying much attention to symmetry and shooting a few meters left or right of centre. There are plenty of good non-symmetrical compositions in this place, but if you're going to shoot one of the symmetrical compositions, make sure you get it exactly right. The way I did this was to position my camera and then with live view zoomed to 14x and focused on the sharp triangular structure in the middle of this shot, inch my tripod left and right until the lines behind that point went exactly through the centre of the shot. A hotshoe spirit level can also make it easier to get the horizon straight.

This shot was taken early in the morning. Within 30 minutes of sunrise there will be too many people milling about, so go early or late, ideally out of peak season and watch out for annoying delivery trucks parked on the path below (I had to wait 20 minutes for one to leave).

Use a wide lens for best effect - this was shot with a 14mm equivalent. Any more than about 18mm and I don't think you'll even get the whole building in from this angle.

The City of Arts and Sciences is a destination in and of itself for photographers - I stayed at the Tryp hotel which was about a 5 minute walk from the place and I'd recommend it. My advice is spend at least one whole day here, preferably two. There are enough compositions to keep you going for that long.