Palm Trees and Warped Structures

The first photo is a palm tree I saw from across the street and was almost ran over by a seasonal Palm Beach transplant who did not stop for the light. It is by far my favorite palm tree I have ever captured. So I wanted to share.

The second is a building I jumped out of my truck at a stop light to shoot yesterday and for some reason I feel the lines are not correct. I am having issues critiquing it myself. There is something seriously bothering me about the way the building is bowing. I shot it with a 16-35mm at I believe 18mm. I do feel it is over saturated but I am more worried about the strength of the lines and bowing. Maybe someone has some advise for me. I did the best I could manually straightening the lines within lightroom but cant seem to get it right in my head. ---- I am looking at the relationship between the Line of the left side of the building, the street lamp and the top right of the building near the roof that is bending no matter what I do. Any thoughts or maybe a book to reference would be awesome.

Many thanks,

Carl

Grace in Black and White

Lumix DMC-G5, Lumix 14-45mm



--Warren

Interesting Presidio Architecture

Lumix LX5

It was a beautiful, clear winter day out at Crissy Field. This picture was taken today, but I processed it to look more 'vintage'.

--Warren

Philly City Hall

A look at part of the east facade of Philadelphia City Hall, with 1 Liberty Place, Helmut Jahn's postmodern homage to the Chrysler Building, in the background.

Trefoil Arch Passage

There are 35 bridges and arches in Central Park - each one unique. Trefoil arch is, in a way, the most unique, as it's the only one where each entrance to the passageway is shaped differently. The west-side arch is a round Roman one, while the east-side opening is the trefoil (three-lobed) one you see here.

Trefoil Arch was designed by Calvert Vaux and
Jacob Wrey Mould, and constructed in 1862. It serves one of several paths that connect Bethesda Terrace to Conservatory Waters.

Welcome to our newest Forum member, Carl! Warren's message that you were joining prompted me to check, and I realized that I'm way behind in holding up my end of the forum. 

Vaux's Folly

No, I’m not trying to say that Calvert Vaux, the co-designer of Central Park, was foolish; perish the thought!

In architecture, a folly is a building designed and constructed purely for the delight of those who behold it. Belvedere Castle is exactly that, and has delighted visitors to the Park since 1869.

Strictly speaking, an architectural folly is built for no practical purpose, but since 1919, the National Weather Service has operated a weather station at Belvedere Castle. You can just about make out some of the instruments, above the peak of the main turret, in this photo. So next time you’re in New York City and here a radio weatherperson says, “… and the temperature in Central Park is…”, you’ll know where it comes from.

Belvedere Castle is a major stop on my Central Park photo safaris, as the view from its ramparts is stunning. Also, the Castle itself, perched high on Vista Rock, is photo-worthy both from below and close-up.

This post is in honor of our friend and blog founder Warren, whose "everyone check in" email reminded me I haven't posted here for a while. Thanks, Warren!

St. Bartholomew Dome Interior

I got up at the proverbial oh-dark-thirty Saturday morning to take a 5:30 am bus to Manhattan for a lesson in post-processing workflow with the incomparable Dave Beckerman. Specifically, Dave shared with me his more than two years of using NIK Software's suite of impressive add-ins for Photoshop or Lightroom.

It was a great experience - Dave is very creative and an excellent teacher. If any of you get a chance to spend some time in NYC, try to look him up, or even better, take a lesson from him. You won't be sorry.

After our lesson, I went to St. Bartholomew's on Park Avenue and 51st Street. It's a beautiful Byzantine-style basilica. It's one of those special places where even if think you haven't seen it, you probably have - Hollywood loves it for scenes of high-falutin' weddings. Both the original and the remake of Arthur used St. Bart's for their wedding scenes. The church also had a very big part in the Angelina Jolie film, Salt.

I took several interior shots with a tripod at St. Bart's before a docent came up to me and said that tripods were not allowed. To get this photo of the interior of the dome, I laid my camera flat on its back on a table just underneath the crossing, set it for Automatic Exposure Bracketing, and triggered off the three exposures with my infrared remote shutter release. Back home, I assembled the three exposures using NIK's HDR Effex Pro to get what you see here.

It's very interesting... I could barely make out the detail in the dome, it was that dark. But thanks to 21st-century electronics, our digital sensors just keep sucking up photons until the image processing chip says "enough." And unlike film, long exposures don't suffer from reciprocity failure. What a great world we photographers now live in!

p.s. Sorry about that photo of Russel Brand running out of St. Bart's in his gatkes.

Dahlgren Hall: U.S. Naval Academy

A mid crosses in front of Dahlgren Hall at the U.S Naval Academy.

Naval Academy Chapel Dome

Looking up at the inner dome of the Naval Academy Chapel in Annapolis.

Downtown Light, Reflections, and Shadows

Panasonic DMC-G1, Lumix 20mm f1.7

The combination of light, reflections, and shadows off of this downtown building caught my eye.

--Warren

Fontana Apartments Balconies

Panasonic DMC-G1, Lumix 45-200mm

The Fontana Apartments (East and West) are a pair of old, high rise apartment buildings at the foot of Van Ness Street, right behind aquatic park. They have a great view of SF Bay, and are run as co-ops.

This shot is from a few weeks ago when I was testing the 45-200mm for the first time. I was looking up at the apartments, and I noticed how the balconies appeared not as uniform when viewed from this angle.

Re: our monthly projects, unless someone tells me otherwise, I think we effectively skipped this month due to lack of response and a specific subject. Let's see if we can agree on an October project.

--Warren

Covered Walkway

Nikon D100, Nikkor 50mm f1.8D

This is the covered walkway in front of the Federal Reserve Bank building in downtown SF.

--Warren

Building in a Building

Nikon D100, Nikkor 50mm f1.8D

My post #6 for the June project (reflections).

This was taken in downtown SF.

--Warren

Contemporary Jewish Museum

Voigtlander Bessa R, CV 35mm f2.5 Skopar, Fuji Superia Xtra 400

View of the modern side of the Contemporary Jewish Museum next to old St. Patrick's Church.

Dan, here's my version, how did your interpretations of this scene come out?

--Warren

Imposing Facade

Canon A570is

This is no small town church (like the one in my previous post: DOM in Davenport). Here are two views of the imposing and impressive front of Grace Cathedral on Nob Hill.

--Warren

This was taken while standing in Huntington Park, which is across the street from the church:

Chinatown Buildings

Canon A570is

The Bank of America building looms in the background. This was shot from the steps of the Chinatown Branch of the SF Public Library.

--Warren

Luminous Arches

Leica M3, Leitz 50mm f2.8

Arched walkways are called "cloisters" in churches. Do they have a name in regular buildings? Hmmm.

This is in the SF Art Institute.

--Warren

St. Michael the Archangel Ukranian Catholic Church

I've seen the golden onion domes of St. Michael from various places elsewhere in Baltimore, but it was only yesterday, as I drove down Eastern Avenue, that I got to see the church close up. In the bright late-afternoon sun, it just knocked me out.

Candler Building

I get to go to work every day in this handsome 1930's building at 111 Market Place.

Inside, the building was completely renovated years ago; it's a thoroughly modern and very pleasant workspace. The lobby, complete with marble steps and columns, presents visitors and residents with an elegant welcome.

The architects of Candler Building really knew their stuff when it came to classical lines and proportions, fenestration, and so forth. Mind you, I don't really know what I'm talking about when it comes to architecture; my admittedly untutored view of what makes for good architecture is strikingly similar to Justice Potter Stewart's famous take on pornography - "I know it when I see it."

Lately, I've come to realize one way I can tell good architecture from bad is a simple test: if I find that a building is interesting to photograph, it's probably good architecture. If not, it's probably banal. Or worse.

Although in most areas of life I'm a pretty easy-going guy, architecture is an exception.

I think bad public architecture should be a capital offense (I'm looking at you, Hilton Baltimore Hotel!)

WWSD (What Would SteveR Do?) Pyramid Shot

Sony DSC-H1

Okay, maybe this will the last shot the of the Pyramid that I'll post for a while. Does it (sort of) remind you of the kind of image that SteveR would make, maybe with a little bit of my own flavor in there? Hmmm.

--Warren