How I Shot That - After Hours near the Bahai Temple

How I Shot That - After Hours near the Bahai Temple

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Sony a6000: https://amzn.to/2GiWa2T
Sony 50mm f1.8 OSS:  https://amzn.to/2E24YEx
Bahai Wilmette Wikipedia Page

When you are in town for a visit with family and you find a little bit of time... go do something.

The other day I was in the Chicago area and after dinner I had a little extra time.  I asked my brother, if we could go see the Bahai Temple in Wilmette, IL. 

If you haven't seen this place, it is huge!  It is the kind of thing that in most cases, a small lens was made fore.  But I really like the 50mm.  I like it so much, I still use it for getting scenic shots.  Could I have had done this with something else... probably. But I'm still very happy with this.

That night was very much spur of the moment.  The night had actually gotten a bit more chilly than I expected, too.  But being the upper Midwest, we are not unfamiliar with this change in weather.  After we found a parking spot it was a small walk up to this location. 

But, since it was cold, my brother and I did a couple of things before leaving the vicinity of his car. We checked our batteries in our Sony cameras.  Changed our lenses, and then started walking. 

As we got closer, it became apparent just how massive this structure is.  But since I had the 50mm lens on my APS-C sized camera, I had to find my first photos be from a ways back.  And that is where I found the location for this photo. 

Where most people would take the photo of the building dead center, I wanted the off-center look.  But when you do that, usually it helps to have something that makes up for the empty space.  That is where a leading line comes into play.  That is why I took this spot to start snapping away.  The lights for the parking area lined up a little to point towards the top of the dome.

Some of the first photos were a little fuzzy, and had too much noise.  I didn't have my tripod with me, so this was going to require me planting my feet in a very steady position.  I held the camera a little extra tightly, and against my head by the eyepiece.  Then I started to lower the shutter speed to 1/15 of a second and then lowered the ISO to 500.  After a few attempts, I got a clean shot. 

If you want to see a clean, enlarged photo, go to my Google Plus Post Here.
 

An interesting thing is hearing out there all of the talk about photography gear.  People look at the new toys out there, but not at what they already have.  Or, they are convinced that this one particular lens will be all they need. But the truth us going to be messy.  That is because as artists, we are usually a little messy. 

And I think that night illustrates some of this point. I sure would like different gear, but the distraction of other gear for me will be a detriment. If I had kept my 70-210 lens with me during this walk, I would have been distracted with other 'options' and couldn't have focused on what was in front of me.  It helps me stay in the moment.

Thanks for letting me vent a little bit!

How I Shot That - Milwaukee Fog and Art

How I Shot That - Milwaukee Museum of Art

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Sony a6000 - http://amzn.to/2FW83M8
Sony 20mm f8 - http://amzn.to/2pywfJC

They say, always have a Fog Plan.

A couple of years ago, at about 10 am in July on the shores of Lake Michigan in Milwaukee, I didn't have the faintest clue that we would be heading into a wall of fog.  But we were in for a treat. 

My brother and I both do photography, and we got a late start to the day.  He and I were driving in from Chicago and thought that we were going to see a lot of hard shadows and sunny skies.  However, nature sent us a gift.  Fog at the shore line that was thick but let us have all the light we needed. 

One of the best architectural treats of Milwaukee is their Museum of Art.  Looking like a sailing vessel instead of a structure, it sits on the shores of this Great Lake.  Walking outside it can be misleading when finding a center focal point to photo.  So you get it just right, or make it look like you broke the composition rules on purpose. 

I had to line up the points and check for other matching lines.  The point of this deck that came out towards me was my main setup.  In checking out the lines, I confirmed I could not see the wall of the center rib on that deck.  When lining the photo up to the top, the top of one of the masts also lined up.  I decided that the 'sail' could break the rules of composition.  I know the sides of the photo seem to be clipped a little, but that looked equal to me, so I went with it. 

When I had this photo in color, it felt like I lost contrast a little bit.  But going back to monochrome, gave me back some of the building, while still keeping some of the fog's softness. 

But this also brings up the idea of the 'Fog Plan'.  When I first came to this building, I went to the main entrance.  And then I went inside.  What was I thinking?  I wasted valuable time with the fog!  Remember, fog is your friend in photography!

Also, this was a fun day that day, walking around Milwaukee.  You should try it some time.

How I Shot That - Rivoli Theater Building BW

How I Shot That - Rivoli Theatre Building BW

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Shot with Minolta 70-210 F4 Lens - http://amzn.to/2sNQSGy
Camera is Sony a6000 - http://amzn.to/2ELLKIr

A photographer I admire has said many times, "Clouds are cool!  I won't shot if I can't see clouds."  

While I am not 100% sure that is true for every situation, clouds did make this photo better. 

Besides the obvious clouds in view on this photo, there is something else that the clouds did that day.  Normally during an afternoon walk, I am exercising futility in my photography.  Broad daylight with the sun coming almost directly overhead is actually not a very good thing.  Light coming almost directly down would have made the shadow from that little ledge at the top of the Rivoli building too much.  But Wisconsin if full of weather changes.  Cold, hot, windy, calm rain/sleet/snow (many times all at once) and of course sunny.  

Since there is so much of this changing weather, I keep reminding myself, even if your walk doesn't provide a fruitful set of photos one day, does not mean another day won't provide something awesome.  Just like this awesome September afternoon did.

Now, normally, a straight on photo of a building doesn't do it for me.  But since the wind was blowing this flag around I really wanted to make it part of the photo.  Funny thing, this flag is in a Bank parking lot across the street, it doesn't belong to the theatre at all.  But for many here in La Crosse, WI, we love this theatre just as we love America.  It only has two movie screens, a main one and a 'showing room'.  You can order a pizza, get beer, essentially have a movie type dinner here.  The main theatre even has a section in front that has tables.  When you have a child's movie playing, it is the most family friendly place.  When you are there for fright night type of a showing, it is the most fun.  And when they decide to show an old movie (that they do frequently) you have a great date with the one you love.

So I had to include this flag.  Like the movies, America is full of drama.  Just as much as the sky was showing that day.

On this walk through town, I was trying something different.  Normally, street photography makes you want to have a short lense. Most use a 20mm.  Many times you will see me with the 50mm.  But this day I used what many in the Sony/Minolta world call 'The Beer Can" lens.  We call it that because it is the 70-210 f4 Minolta lens that has no optical stabilization and is just a straight and tall can shape.  Almost the size of large beer kans from back in the day.  

From where I saw this, I had walked through an alley from another block away, letting me see across this parking lot of a bank to have this reveal itself to me.  Obviously, if I was zoomed in all the way, I would have been looking at the sign of the building, and forgetting about everything else.  So this was most of the way out at the 70mm zoom.  And I was using f4.  After making sure my shutter speed was really high at 1/2000 of a second.  This gave me the clouds a pop in shape, froze the flag in motion while giving me enough light on the building.

To show this place some love, visit them at http://www.rivoli.net/