MILWAUKEE POT POURRI

Wandering around Milwaukee during the Doors Open event earlier this month, I took a few random shots mostly unrelated to the venues that I visited, and I thought I would post them here.

I took the first three shots along the Riverwalk, which borders both banks of the Milwaukee River in the downtown area.  The first I converted to black and white to emphasize the abstract pattern the shadows from an iron railing were making in the bright sunlight.

The next was of a coiled rope on a dock along the river.  Someone had taken the pains to wind the rope into a tight spiral.  I wanted to put the rope off-center and focus on the planking, and I thought it worked to convert the image to a black and white to create a semi-abstract.

I left the following as a color photo, even though the image didn't include much in the way of color.  But I wanted to retain the yellow stripe as a point of interest.

The following was actually taken at one of the Doors Open venues, which was a disappointment, as the only portion of the building that was open was the marble-clad foyer.

I took the following shot of a light fixture at the Mackie Building.  I liked it as a black and white abstract.  The one aspect I didn't like was a dark area in the lower portion of the main light globe.

I liked the alley doorway in the following shot enough to keep it.

Wandering another alley downtown, I noticed that I was looking at the Federal Courthouse two blocks to the south and decided to compose the following shot.

I have realized through trial and (a lot of) error that when taking such urban landscape shots it is generally important to include the pavement to "ground" the shot.

In walking from one venue to another, I discovered one of the newer nightclubs in the downtown area called Plum Lounge.  The place was closed, but what caught my eye was a row of plum-colored high-backed chairs.  I took the following shot, which I underexposed to isolate the chairs' color.

My favorite shot of this series was one that featured an interplay between black, steel-wire tables and chairs of an outdoor cafe and the shadows they were casting on the pavement.

In post processing I actually softened this shot a little to create more of an abstract quality.

John