Architecture – Page 2 – A Photo A Day (Squarespace)

03-31-14 Details

The impressive soaring dome at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, was no doubt inspired by the Roman Pantheon. . . .

By Scott Shephard

When I’m shooting a photo in a place like the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, I often wonder what I could possibly photograph that someone else hasn’t already done. The answer on my visit yesterday when I took this was, “Not much.”

But I still took this picture, in part because I wanted the place in my photo collection. I was also experimenting. The experiment? Can I do an HDR photo at ISO 1250, without a tripod and have two of the three exposures slower than 1/60 of a second? The answer is yes, I guess, Though a magnifying glass would no doubt show the imperfections.

On a side note, I am struck by the fact that under this spectacular dome, the statue is the Roman god Mercury. I wonder if designers could get away with blatant paganism in a public building these days?

Canon 5DIII 1/50s f/2.8 ISO1250 16mm

03-20-14 Cabin In the Woods On A Snowy Day (HDR)

A March snow storm in the Black Hills provides a picture perfect covering for houses and trees.

This home is called “Standing Rock” by its owners, Lorin and Mary B, though the huge rock that is its namesake isn’t present in this photo. Their home isn’t too far from our cabin and on one of my recent visits to the Black Hills, a March snow storm offered many good photo opportunities, including this one.

This photo, incidentally, is the result of what I call “road hunting.” I get in my truck with my camera ready and drive slowly, looking for interesting subjects and scenes. I usually get out of the truck to get the photo but on this one I just rolled down the window and braced my lens and camera on the window frame to capture the HDR sequence. Lazy? I don’t think so – I was just trying to keep my equipment out of the wet, spring snow.

Canon 1/4000s f/2.8 ISO250 70mm

03-19-14 Prairie Skyscraper (HDR)

The stark, white Farmer’s Elevator Company grain elevator in Miranda, SD, can be for miles in every direction.

Sometimes I struggle with the titles of my posts in “A Photo A Day” as I did with this one. “Sky scraper” seems so quaint and archaic, just as the phrase “Super Highway” does. Both come from the 20th century when high buildings and four-lane roads were marvelous things.

Well, the Miranda elevator has always been and still is marvelous to me. Painted in pure white, it stands out against the sky. It can be seen for miles and in a landscape that some might say is flat and plain, it breaks the redundancy.*

I did a quick search for the Farmers Elevator Company of Miranda and found that it was mentioned in a 1915 publication called The American Cooperative Journal – Volume 11. I’d like to know more about Miranda and it’s grain elevator.

Is there any chance that someone reading this might be able to help?

Canon 5DIII f/2.8 ISO160 70mm

*Speaking of redundancy, some may have already noticed the compositional similarities between today’s post and yesterday’s. Intentional? Accidental? Or both? I won’t say.

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03-04-14 Sleeping On the Job

I’m not sleeping now and I’m not really sleeping in the photo, either. I was at Lake Area Technical Institute working on a project for Office Peeps, a local office solutions retailer, and decided it might be a good time to get a self portrait. Also, I was using Camranger to remotely control my camera so it was convenient to get myself in a photo. (If you look closely at the iPad on the floor, you will see the same photo you see here because I can get a live view on my IOS device with Camranger.)

For those who are regular readers of my blog, you might see the humor in the title, given that my last post for “A Photo A Day” was on the 17th of February. Have I been sleeping too much? No. Have I been traveling? No. Did my wireless connection quit? No. Do I have a good excuse. Maybe.

I have been working on projects and, significantly, I have been working on a new web site, which you are apparently looking at right now. Thanks for visiting. (How about subscribing to new posts on both my “Learn” and “A Photo A Day” pages here at Scott Shephard Photography? Just fill in the little box on the right.)

Will “A Photo A Day” as you know it disappear? No doubt. When? There is much doubt.

And, yes, four external links is way too much for the average viewer. But you’re better than average, aren’t you? Check out some of the LATI Office Peeps project photos here.

12-15-13 Into the Light

2013 12-15 Into the Light by Watertown, South Dakota, photographer Scott Shephard

On my recent trip to Minneapolis and Saint Paul with students in the Photo/Media program at LATI, we spent about an hour in the Como Park Conservatory. I had been there several times before so I wasn’t sure that I would find anything new to photograph. But while there I did take 97 photos, some of which were HDR sequences.

Of those 97 photos, 37 were taken of the palm trees in the central dome of the conservatory. So I guess you might say that that the trees captured my attention. And this shot is one of several that I took of the very top of the central palm tree.

In black and white it may be a bit abstract in that you don’t see the context of the tree. But that’s alright with me. As I’ve said before, I like the ability to take a “whole” and show the parts in a way that the viewer might not be able to see without the aid of my camera.

Canon 5DIII 1/60s f/5.0 ISO250 100mm

For context, here’s another capture (HDR) that shows more of the tree and of it’s location:

Central Dome - Como Park Conservatory — Central Dome – Como Park Conservatory

12-12-13 Countless Unseen Details

2013 12-12 1000 Unseen Details by Watertown, South Dakota, photographer Scott Shephard
Someone once suggested that “Countless unseen details are often the difference between the mediocre and the magnificent.” When I teach photography, this is one of my many mantras: what helps our work rise above all of the billions of photos being taken is our close attention to details and our true understanding of what those details are.

This photo is not presented as an example of the “magnificence” but this detail of the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City is. If you look at a broader view (click), you will will find that while the figure of Jesus is the centerpiece of the this facade of the cathedral, it is only one small part.

And I can assure you that the architects and sculptors did not intend for this statue to be seen with a telephoto lens attached to a high resolution camera as you are seeing it.

So why are the edges of the pages of the book so carefully rendered? And why is there so much detail in the face and hands of Christ that would not be seen from a distance?

The answer is simple: these were all done in a quest to create something that was truly magnificent.

11-27-13 Curvature

2013 11-27 Curvature by Watertown, South Dakota, photographer Scott Shephard
So I’m indulging in my architectural detail fetish today, this time with a shot of the Utah state capitol dome. Tomorrow maybe I’ll have a turkey photo given that it is Thanksgiving here in the USA.

Technical note: I don’t think many of my students see my blog and that’s probably good since I preach the use of tripods when slow shutter speeds are required. In the case of this photo, I had no tripod and I got by with a pretty slow shutter speed.

Canon 5DIII 1/15s f/6.3 ISO1250 24mm

11-25-13 A Nicely Painted Ceiling

2013 11-24 A Nicely Painted Ceiliing
Given that I talked a bit about the Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel yesterday, I thought I’d post my one and only photo of the ceiling, “accidentally” taken in 2004. Photography is not allowed, but in the crowded and somewhat chaotic chapel, my camera somehow went off. And this is what I ended up with.

See God? See Adam? See the brain? See the museum guard look at me with disdain?

Canon 5D 1/13s f/4.0 ISO1600 24mm

11-23-13 Lines and Texture – St. Cecilia Cathedral, Omaha

2013 11-21 Lines and Texture - St. Cecilia Cathedral by Watertown, South Dakota, photographer Scott Shephard
It’s no secret that I have a penchant for architectural details. On the morning I visited St. Cecelia Cathedral in Omaha, I was well aware of the fact that have hundreds of church exterior and interior photos. And so, even though I had my camera with me as I walked in and around this beautiful cathedral, I had decided that I wasn’t going to take any photographs.

I walked around the building three times, enjoying and appreciating all of the work and artistry that went in to constructing St. Cecelia. It was on the third go-around that I took my camera out and started to frame things that were especially compelling.

And so here’s a second photo from my visit to the cathedral. What struck me about this scene were both the geometry of the architecture and the random, dappled shadows cast by a nearby tree. For those interested in technical details, I used red filter in the black and white processing that turned a beautiful blue morning sky into a very dark presence in this photo. I didn’t want your eyes drawn to anything but the architecture.

Canon 5DIII 1/250s f/8.0 ISO100 73mm

11-22-13 Reprise: The Most Famous Warehouse

Given all the retrospectives of the Kennedy assassination on the 50th anniversary, I thought it would be appropriate to post a photo I took while visiting Dallas a few years ago. This is the Texas Book Repository from which Oswald shot Kennedy. 50 years ago I was only nine years old but, like many of my generation, there are many things that I remember from those days in November. . . .