SCOTTSDALE SCULPTURES

Scottsdale has a very attractive downtown area comprised of a number of civic buildings as well as a shopping area that includes a large number of art galleries.  Scottsdale has done a fine job of planning its civic center district that includes a number of sculptures in a park-like setting.

Here is a shot of what is surely a sculpture of Don Quixote, including one of the windmills that he was tilting against.

I was glad that I was able to position the sculpture against the white water of the fountain but wish I had been able to take the shot from a higher angle.  I think it works well as a black & white.

The civic center mall also includes a beautiful library that has an impressive quill sculpture in its entrance courtyard.

In order to show the entire brass sculpture, I would have had to incorporate more of the library building itself, which would have taken away from the quill as primary subject.  I liked that I was able to include a couple of shadows of the quill in the glass front of the building.

There is a small shopping arcade between the civic center mall and Old Town and there was an interesting "sculpture" set up in the arcade's courtyard.

This consisted of scores of bright colored plastic ribbons wrapped around the courtyard's supporting structures, making for an interesting abstract.

Scottsdale's art gallery district features a number of sculptures.  Several are clearly publicly owned, including the following.

Others are positioned in front of specific galleries and are presumably owned by the galleries, possibly for sale.  Here is one at a gallery that features a number of pieces by Andy Warhol.

In the following photo I liked that I was able to focus on the subject's hand, leaving the female body out of focus.  For this shot I set the aperture at f/4 to minimize depth of field.

And, finally, I was intrigued by the following sculpture in front of one of the galleries.  This sculpture is quite large, perhaps 5-6 feet high.

Because I was armed with my tripod, I was a bit concerned that someone inside the gallery would come running out to tell me I couldn't photograph the sculpture.  But no one did.

I had decided to include only a portion of the face in this latter shot, perhaps to add a bit of tension.