Finally, the last blog from my road trip through Tennessee, Arkansas, and Texas. If my vegetarian and vegan followers will forgive the metaphor, but this is blog is 100% red meat – nothing but architecture, baby – no filler. Actually, you’ll also need to forgive me for the literal interpretation because that’s exactly what I ate a TON of while in Texas. Did I eat unholy fried foods at the Texas State Fair before Big Texas burned down? YES I DID. Did I have Texas barbecue, Freebirds, and Whataburger? You bet. Did I chase that all down with Shiner? Seems only proper.
The speed limit in Texas ROCKS. I don’t even know why they bother posting numbers anymore, they just need to have road signs that claim “SPEED LIMIT: LOL“.
Texas will always have a fond place in my heart. For a place in which I lived only six years, the majority of my close, long friendships are with people who currently reside or used to live in the state. I got to see a slew of them in Dallas, whether they lived in town or happened to be visiting at the same time, some for business and others to witness Texas obliterated by Oklahoma. So I actually didn’t shoot very much, I mostly saw the wonderful people I’ve been blessed with in my life.
Before I get too much further – if you’re reading this right now, you’ve likely been following my two-week long road trip. What? NOOOOOO? Well, the below links will catch you right up!
At the earliest opportunity, I went downtown to the Dallas’ art and museum district – it’s the first time I’ve been there since many of those buildings were under construction. What was the first thing I decided to see?
The Museum Tower condos. Not because it was some cathedral of architecture but the hilariously tragic circumstances of its construction. Adjacent to this middle-finger that resides in the heart of the museum district is the Nasher Sculpture Museum designed by one of my favorites, Renzo Piano. The museum is built into the sloped city block, with a glass roof above illuminating the displays below. Thanks to the glass skin of the Museum Tower, not only is the artwork inside endangered but surrounding landscape and trees.
As the sun began to lower, I experienced firsthand the brightness and heat reflecting of this building. It’s a veritable furnace. If you’re in the Dallas area, there’s no need for a tanning booth – just spend an hour in front of those condos on a nice day.
After cackling in commiseration how commercial developers can pretty much ruin anything if they set their minds to it, I checked out buildings that didn’t exist the last time I came here.
First stop was the Wyly Theatre, designed by another one of my favorites, Rem Koolhaus.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to go inside as there were no showings and closed to the public. It’s a shame because I wanted to see the building transform into a robot. Further, the exterior wasn’t lit so I didn’t get to see the architecture and urban landscape to its full impact. Thankfully, Mother Nature saved the day.
Wyly (2012)
Another place I didn’t photograph was across the street at the Winspear opera house, as a matter of bad timing. There were outdoor events, but nothing going inside the theater, so the lights never turned on. The day hours were either too cloudy, or there was too much activity going outside to get relatively clean shots.
One of my very good friends, an architect in Dallas recommended checking out the new Calatrava bridge and Perot Museum of Nature & Science by Morphosis. She was right about the Calatrava Bridge – you kind of wondered if he did the design himself or if he just had an intern do it; it would feel more exciting if I hadn’t seen all of his other work which is much more stunning. I may bother attempting to photograph it when I have more spare time.
The Perot building, under construction, is the first Morphosis design I’ve ever seen closeup. Next trip to Dallas, I’ll be interested in scoping the outside a bit more along with the exterior.
I also returned to a design of another one of my favorite architects (yes, you’re noticing a trend here), Tadao Ando – the Modern Art Museum of Ft. Worth. I first visited this building in 2006 in the early throes of pursuing photography as a hobby while still grappling with my Canon 10D, so wanted to see how I’d capture the building today.
Modern Art Museum of Ft. Worth (2012)
While on this trip, I got to meet Jason Witherspoon, a Dallas fine-art and architectural photographer. We’re both self-taught, entered photography from different professions, and experienced early success in fine-art; he did it in less than a year and I’m interested in observing how he progresses and grows over the years. We talked shop – business, equipment, prints, digital processing, and of course – the capture. It’s a super-interesting and fun educational experience talking with someone who captures similar subject matter but with a drastically different style and approach to your own. It’s even more fun to shoot with ‘em. He told me about the Irving Convention center which I did not know about. HOW DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS BUILDING? It’s a photographer’s playground, so he took me out there.
The above image was captured with my Canon 5D Mark II and 17mm tilt-shift lens. The below image was captured with Jason’s Nikon D800 and 24mm tilt-shift. Now – I do think Canon maintains an advantage over Nikon with their tilt-shifts, but they’re losing ground with their camera bodies. Right now, not only are Nikon’s latest bodies cheaper – they’re straight-up better. Hey, CANON – if you can make a $3200 camera that good, I will buy it, you’ve given me zero reason to upgrade to 5D Mark III, I’d rather just jump to one of your 1D series.
Inside the Frame (2012)
Okay, no more bitching at Canon – this piece of architecture was a great opportunity to do what I love most – manipulate the heck out of presenting a building with wide angles and tight crops.
Heaven’s Gate (2012)
Slope (2012)
Split Level (2012)
Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup, that was as much fun as it looked like. Maybe next time around I’ll spend more time in the area to some greater detailed exploration for these and other sites.
Woohoo, my 101st blog post! When I began this blog I was purely an amateur fine art photographer who practiced architecture as my full-time job. Four years later I’m a professional photographer who does a bit of architecture on the side. The bittersweet part of becoming professional is that I rarely get to shoot all the things I purely shoot for fun. So on the occasion I have that chance, I certainly savor the moment. It’s been a busy summer with many jobs and a lot of travel on the behalf of my clients. These are a few photos I’ve managed to capture in between.
This morning scene with dissipating fog was captured a few hundred feet away from a commercial shoot I had about 30 minutes outside of Winston-Salem. As I waited for the sun to rise and light the east face of my building, I turned and saw this sight down the road. I realize the ‘tree in a field’ is cliche, but I still consider it beautiful to see in person. So I snatched up my other camera, swapped a lens, and jogged over to capture this scene – then jogged right back to start my architectural shoot.
Sunrise over East Bend (2012)
I had an evening architectural shoot that had to be cancelled, so since I was in a photography mood and had a full moon, used it as an excuse to go downtown. That night I took a different view of the former Progress Energy (now Redhat) building than I did last year.
Raleigh Lights (2012)
A few weeks later I traveled near downtown in the morning to take a tilted photo of an old auto sales building.
Dew Motors (2012)
In late July, I took a rare stab at portraiture at the request of one of my friends, Kestrel.
I had obligations for three different clients between Winston-Salem and west North Carolina. On my most recent work-related trip, I took an extra day or so to visit places I didn’t get to see during my last trip to the mountains. I stayed near downtown Asheville where I captured a long-exposure on Tunnel Road.
Tunnel (2012)
Okay, so let me tell you what happened AFTER taking this photograph. It’s near 11pm. It’s a dimly lit area and I’m heading back to my car which I left at the hospital complex. I’m dressed in a t-shirt, shorts, Yankees cap, and bulky backpack with tripod strapped to it, slightly sticking out. It’s dark, it’s late, and I have a lot of expensive equipment on my back so I’m especially cautious.
As I returned towards the hospital campus, a car sides along next to me, the window rolls allllll the way down, and a white man, seemingly in his 60s is trying to get my attention. The area is well-lit but totally empty on the weekend. Drawing on all of my previous experiences walking around urban areas at night, I’m thinking to myself, Oh crap maybe it’s a doctor and he’s wondering what I’m doing in the area, immediately proceeded by Holy cow, what’s he doing rolling his window down like that, is he nuts?!
In a guarded manner I asked, “Yes, can I help you?” which for my followers outside of the southern USA, roughly translates into, “What you looking at?”
That’s when I notice what I presume to be his wife in the passenger seat, with an unfurled paper map as he inquired, “Yeah, uh – do you know where Patton Avenue is?”
Chalk that up as something that’s never happened to me before. To put this in proper perspective – since the age of 18, my experiences walking to destinations at night have been radically different, treated with much suspicion, no matter how safe or unsafe the area may be. It’s happened with police in major metro areas, it’s even happened repeatedly on my own college campus walking back to my dorm room from the architecture building at 3 a.m – wondering what I’m doing. When I was an amateur photog city patrol drew weapons on me in broad daylight only to be relieved I was just holding a camera (good story, laughs had by all). As a photographer, particularly one who captures the isolated urban and rural settings I prefer to shoot, you’re accustomed to attracting suspicious eyes. However, as a black photographer often mistaken for younger than my age, I’ve come to expect being interrupted with double the frequency – with or without a camera in hand. So I’m accustomed to getting stopped by SOMEBODY in public or semi-public areas. The last thing I’m anticipating is being asked for directions.
Already taken aback (which is no easy feat) and having helped them out, the couple then went out of the way to offer me a ride – which by then must’ve made my jaw DROP. I politely declined, partially because I was almost at my destination but also I didn’t want this nice couple to begin thinking that offering strangers a ride at 11pm was a good idea – even if it was only Asheville. I’d hate for it to become habit forming and have to see their kind, unassuming faces plastered on the 10 o’clock news, you know? In the current American sociopolitical climate, it was a refreshing relief and certainly provided me a bit more faith in humanity, even if as a temporary respite.
The next day I had the time to take two easy to moderate hikes that I didn’t get to take last fall, one to Linville Falls and the other to Crabtree Falls.
Linville Falls (2012)
Lastly, this was at an overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway or a highway close to it. Think it was Highway 221. All I remember is I got asked for directions here too.
Each year at the state fair I try to eat one food I hadn’t tried before, and somehow get one different shot. With the increasing amount gastronomically challenging foods being offered, the first is less challenging the second. As far as food is concerned, I strayed on the safe side and got some fried crawfish tails which were pretty tasty.
With photography, I’ve felt the need to slowly push myself outside of my traditional comfort zones. So recently you’ve seen me doing vertical panning, portraiture, weddings. Further, we all know what sort of photography results from these events: long exposures of ferris wheels at night. I’ve certainly had my fill of them and if you’re interested in seeing my previous state fair postings check out my blog archives.
I recently bought a second tilt shift TS-E 24mm II to complement my 17mm tilt-shift for my architectural photography. I’ve attempted using the tilt -features with 17mm with varied results. The field of view is so large that the effect of tilting isn’t as dramatic, though I’ve been able to pull some decent results here and there. What I like about Canon’s 24mm tilt-shift are several: 1) tilting is a bit more dramatic and 2) it can accept lens filters, which the 17mm cannot. So on my first visit I strapped on a circular polarizer and went to the state fairgrounds. The other neat thing is that even though this is a manual focus lens I was able to walk around without a tripod shooting anywhere between F3.5 and F8.
I was happy with the chain swing image below and used it to replace an evening shot I experimented with the previous year.
Wheeeeeeeeee (2011)
My second visit was for twilight/evening. I think I used both 24mm to shoot in the same spot I shot Pinwheel, and a 17mm to shoot the “Freak Out” ride adjacent to the ferris wheel.
Had my other camera on hand and used the 24-70mm for some silhouette work.
That’s about it, I didn’t have the patience to stay for fireworks or anything, maybe next year if I go!
On the first evening of the fair, I was to meet up with several people with one of my photography meetup groups to walk around the state fair. I got there a bit early, in time for sunset, and shot some photographs of Dorton Arena and the fairgrounds.
October 14, 2010 6:27pm (2010
The meetup was fun and the people were great. Desiree was using a handmade pinhole camera attachment with her digital camera and Sal was experimenting with video. I shot a bit but mostly had fun just taking in the sights.
Between trips out of town, I returned to the state fair on the 20th and 24th for my own personal shooting. I mostly concentrated on long-exposures and using my tilt-shift lens. Below are a couple of tilt-shift photos, with mixed degrees of success:
Swing (2010)
I’ve seen and shot so many long-exposures of ferris wheels that I wanted to do something different this time. I searched all over the fairgrounds until I spotted probably the least-used ferris wheel in the entire fair in the background against one of the slides (and its star props) in the foreground.
Hey Now You’re An All-Star (2010)
As you can tell, I found it quite addicting and couldn’t stop myself:
Went to Durham to take an evening shot of the Carolina Theater at the “blue” hour. The tricky part was this shot was getting the proper ISO without making the tubes that form the glowing sign completely indistinguishable. Thankfully, the 5DMkII handles high-speed like a champ. Shot at F9, 1/13s, 1250 ISO.
May 8
A few days later, photographer Tom Miller invited me to join him in Rolesville, NC to photograph a friend’s rural property. I had never been to the area, less than an hour way, but was surprised at all the agricultural goodies in the area. Took a bunch of notes and resolved that I must revisit the region in the near future. In the meantime, it was a clear, somewhat hazy day.
Below was my first semi-successful attempt at using the tilt-shift lens to tilt the plane of focus. I’ve been struggling with it because at 17mm wide the scale of objects I’m photographing has to be relatively large to see the effect. I’m mostly using the lens for professionally for architectural photos anyway, but stubbornly remain determined to manage selective focus with it.
(I admit I went a little super-neon with the irrigation pipe image…)
Got to scoop out the new addition to the North Carolina Museum of Art for the first time this weekend. I skipped the opening last weekend in order to avoid the crowds. Pretty neat addition, I’ll be checking it out more in the near future.
Yes. That is a ginormous metal tree in front of the addition.
Photos from one of the zen gardens with many official Rodin sculpture replicas.
Re-visited Gyre for the first time in a long time – broke out the tilt-shift lens. I love my 17mm TS-E, it provides some fantastic super-sharp images.
I did attempt a “miniature” with the tilted focal-plane, which I didn’t do as well as I would’ve liked – I figured out what I was doing wrong which I’ll address at the end of this thing.
Upon leaving the NCMOA I went downtown to catch sunset and early evening. These are cranes where the new Lightner Public Safety Center is being built.
I then went to Fayetteville Street to do some evening shots by the BB&T building.
Again, I attempted some tilt photography. Upon review, I know what I was doing in all of these pictures – in all of these photos, I tilted the photos horizontally, which caused the sharp part of the picture to be vertical. In order to do this properly, at least in these photos, I needed to rotate the lens so that I tilted vertically (which can be easily done with Canon tilt-shifts, not Nikon. ) and the sharp portion of the image was horizontal. Now that I figured what I was doing wrong, I’m looking forward to getting back at it. By the way, did I mention how much I’m madly in love with this lens?
I politely declined, partially because I was almost at my destination but also I didn’t want this nice couple to begin thinking that offering strangers a ride at 11pm was a good idea – even if it was only Asheville. I’d hate for it to become habit forming and have to see their kind, unassuming faces plastered on the 10 o’clock news, you know? In the current American sociopolitical climate, it was a refreshing relief and certainly provided me a bit more faith in humanity, even if as a temporary respite.
