Posts in Category: architecture
4/30/2011: Old Town St. Augustine
Historic home on St. George Street in St. Augustine, Florida. Early evening.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 84mm equivalent field of view, f4.4 @ 1/30th @ ISO 280. Programmed Auto. Image stabilization and the high ISO ability of the back-illuminated CMOS sensor make this kind of hand held low light shot possible.
Processed for Clarity and Intensity in Lightroom. It also required some distortion control, and some creative editing using the local brush to desaturate the brand new boards and bright green bush in the lower right corner, which were a distraction.
3/29/2011: Cape Porpoise, ME
If you stand on the fishing pier at Cape Porpoise, Maine and look back down the harbor toward town, this is what you see. Certainly one of the classic Maine fishing village vistas, with the white church steeple and the white clapboard houses, the lobster boats floating on a ultra-blue sea under a spring blue sky. And, in this hard spring light, if you turn right around and look out to sea, you are confronted by the Goat Island Light on the stone ledge that guards the entrance to the harbor and the extensive shallows.
All together classic for Maine. These views make Cape Porpoise, otherwise a sort of sleepy neighbor to far more touristy Kennebunk and Kennebunkport, just about as well visited in the summer. It is still spring here, and I was all but alone out there last Saturday. And look what they all missed!
Canon SX20IS at 1) 125mm equivalent field of view @ f4.5 @ 1/640th @ ISO 80, Landscape Mode, and 2) 150mm equivalent @ f4.5 @ 1/1250 @ ISO 80, Landscape Mode.
Processed for intensity and clarity in Lightroom.
3/13/2011: Point Loma Light, San Diego
I don’t know about you, but lighthouses always fascinate me. Not that I am a fanatic. We get lighthouse fanatics here in Maine, driving up the coast, light to light, and ticking them off. There is even a shop, just down route 1 from us in Wells, called the Lighthouse Shop, which does a brisk summer business, and supplies lighthouse nick-knacks to aficionados world wide on the web. Not one of those. Still, I do enjoy a lighthouse.
This is the “old” light on Point Loma overlooking the north end of the harbor in San Diego California. It is many hundreds of feet above sea level, and has been replaced by a tower light right on the point below (see below). As you can see from the flag, there was a bit of weather moving through, and, as you can see from the tourist in the door, it is now a museum. Lighthouse museums are unique (we have several in Maine) in that the main attraction, and almost the only artifact on display, is the building itself. They do have an extra lens, which is a study in itself, here on Point Loma in the shed on the left. Here it is, on the right, from a trip a few years ago.
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The main shot at the head of the blog is with the Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent field of view, f4 @ 1/800th @ ISO 80. Landscape Mode.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity and clarity.
And of course, being Sunday, there has always been a spiritual dimension to the lighthouses. Placed as a warning for ships at sea, they became the beacon announcing home to returning sailors. Even in danger they are a reminder that someone cares. On the final leg of the journey, they are our hope of return. As Christians we are instructed to be the light of the world, not to hide our lights under bushels but to let them shine brightly, to let our eye be full of light so that we are all light within…and told that our God is, in that sense that is so true that that it is beyond common sense, light, all light. Many churches, especially of the more evangelical mold, are named Lighthouse, and every church should be one: Both caring warning and hope of home. And, in truest sense (again beyond common sense) every Christian should be one as well. I suspect this imagery is pretty common across all the great faiths, and that is safe to say that each and every human being is called to be a lighthouse…that it is our nature and our heritage if only we would. Granted most of us need a bit of polish to the lens and a bit more fuel to the fire, but that does not dim the truth of what we are called to be. Maybe that is why we love lighthouses.
1/23/2011: vegas segment 6, light and shadow
Happy Sunday! This might be my last Vegas Segment, as I have moved on to Titusville FL and plan to be out today for pics…
This is the Winn of course, which has come to dominate the Las Vegas skyline in the short time it has stood there, and even now more-so with the Encore to echo it. I shot up through the structure of the Fashion Mart, itself an interesting piece of architecture, using the foreground shapes of girders to frame the reflection of the sun.
Canon SD 4000IS at 106mm equivalent, f5.3 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 125. Programmed auto.
Processed in Lightroom for clarity and intensity. Extra Fill-Light to bring up just a touch of detail in the girders.
As I said last Sunday, it is possible to find and celebrate the beauty in Vegas, for it is there…but it is always beauty that has to be seen despite itself and its intention. It is like the whole city is as artificial as the city-scapes built in miniature inside the hotels. I survived it, but I am certainly delighted to be “outside” again! I’d like to thank all of you who kept me company on this week-long excursion into territory I don’t usually explore. I look forward to seeing the creation more or less as it comes from the mind of the creator, and maybe sharing a bit of that, somewhere out on Blackpoint Wildlife Drive at Merritt Island NWR today.
1/22/2011: Vegas Segments 5, Cranes
Vegas is not only the city that never sleeps, it is also the city that is never finished. There are people on the streets and in the bars and casinos 24 hours a day, and every year when I go back I see at least one new hotel, or new hotel wing, and there is always evidence of new construction at the moment. Construction cranes over Vegas are as much a part of the skyline as the Winn or the Venetian or Cesar’s Place.
Canon SX20IS at about 75mm equivalent, f4 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 80. Programmed Auto.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity and clarity. Perspective adjusted and cropped.
1/21/2011: Vegas Segment 4, Shadows
Shadows also speak of Vegas, or speak in Vegas. This is from the colonnade at the Venetian, where the stone screen casts shapes against the marble facade of the building itself. I totally confused about 50 tourists while attempting to shoot this. They could not figure out what I was doing, but they were polite enough not to walk into my camera line.
Canon SX20IS at 40mm equivalent, f4 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 100. Programmed auto.
Processed for intensity and clarity in Lightroom.
1/19/2011: Vegas segment 2, reflections
Vegas is a city of illusions, and reflections are the stuff of illusions…as in smoke and mirrors…the stuff of Vegas. The architects who designed the newest hotels were obviously well aware of the power. The color contrasts and textures are no accident.
Canon SX20IS at about 240mm, f5 @ 1/320th @ ISO 200. Programmed auto.
Processed for intensity and clarity in Lightroom.
1/18/2011: Las Vegas in Segments (small) 1
Okay, I will admit it…I can only take Las Vegas in tiny segments…little isolated segments, taken out of context, and capturing intentional or accidental beauty (or at least some kind of striking pattern or texture or light effect). So, since I am in Vegas, over the next few days you will be seeing a collection of such small segments…of Vegas…Vegas in Segments.
This is part of the facade of the Venetian Hotel, taken from Las Vegas Blvd. I like the pattern of stone and carving…but I like the play of light across the façade even more.
Canon SX20IS at 190mm, f5 @ 1/500th @ ISO 80. Programmed Auto.
Processed for intensity and clarity in Lightroom, and cropped for composition.
1/16/2011: Venice?
When you read this I will staying at the Venetian Hotel, and walking by this scene every day on my way to and from the Sands Convention Hall…deep in the elaborate fantasy that is Las Vegas, Nevada. The expensive fantasy, designed specifically to separate folks from their hard earned cash, by promises of cash unearned, and pleasures without price. Not a place for Sunday thoughts, but I am always amazed that if you look kind of sideways at Vegas, determined to overlook the whole “sin city” thing, there is a considerable amount of beauty there. Take the scene above. Consider the creative energy and the love of form and color…the attention to detail and design…that went into manufacturing this little slice of Venice inside a hotel. Extravagant? Certainly. Fantastic? Absolutely. But then consider…where this stands is a short helicopter ride from the north rim of the Grand Canon. If you want to talk about extravagance and fantasy, that is.
Wonder is wonder…it all belongs to the creator, no matter how deeply the hand of man is in it…what has beauty proclaims the spirit at its root. Or that is what I think anyway. And maybe thinking that will keep me more or less sane for a week in “sin city.”
Sony H50 and Sanyo GC10. Processed in Lightroom for intensity and clarity.
12/31/2010: Snowbound
Happy last day of 2010. I suppose this should be a day of reflection…but for me it is a day of anticipation…what will 2011 bring?
This snowbound salt farm sits at the edge of Laudholm Farms and the Wells National Estuarine Research Center in Wells ME. The Blizzard closed the road (which is, for the most part, unused as the entrance to Laudholm is beyond the farm on the other side where there is access from another road). Salt farms were a feature of the northern New England Colonial Coast, where the first and richest farms were established on the tidal marshes and estuaries, which did not have to be cleared. Salt hay was a staple for New England dairy in winter until well after independence.
You can see that the road had been plowed sometime during the storm, but drifts closed it again quickly.
And here is a detail from the left side of the image above…I zoomed in to isolate it.
Both images have been cropped for composition.
Canon SX20IS. 1) 28mm, f4 @ 1/640th @ ISO 80. 2) 190mm, f5 @ 1/500th @ ISO 80. Snow Mode.
Processed for intensity and clarity in Lighrtoom. Exposure was reduced in 1) for better tones on the snow.