LOOKING UP

Based strictly on my personal observation, Milwaukee, at 600,000, the nation's 31st largest city, is blessed with a below average skyline for a city of its size.   The commercial district is quite spread out and does not feature a distinct cluster of office towers common to other cities of its size or larger.  So the thought of capturing clusters of towering skyscrapers was not a promising one.  What occurred to me, however, was the fact that two of the city's newer condominium towers, the University Club Tower and the Kilbourn Tower, were built unnaturally close to one another.  So I wondered if I might get into the space between the two towers and get some shots looking up.  It worked.

This was an evening shot, with the sun coming from behind me as I faced east.  Even though the buildings are only around 30 stories high, the shots look impressive (sort of, anyway) because the buildings are only about 25 feet apart.

Here is similar shot, which I liked better actually.  The evening was partly cloudy, which meant that the intensity of the direct sunlight varied from moment to moment.  And in this shot the intensity was stronger than in the prior shot.

I converted the following shot, favoring a curved section of the University Tower on the right, to a black & white.

And here is a shot taken from the eastern fronts of the buildings looking west.

I thought that "leaning" the buildings to the left made the shot more dynamic, improving the overall composition.

I was feeling on a roll and decided to try my luck with the US Bank Building, a few blocks away, at 43 floors, the tallest in Wisconsin.  Here, first, is a shot of the front of the building, which faces north.

Even though this shot features nearly perfect symmetry, it really isn't doing what I was looking for, which is to provide a sense of height.  The following shots do a much better job, I think, including one that I converted to a black & white.

The question with these shots is whether the tower should point up or "lean over."  Up, I think.

Clouds can have an impact for such shots.  If I do this again, ideally I would look for an evening with dark clouds overhead but with horizontal sunlight streaming from the west.  That's asking a lot, I suppose.

John