CIRCUS WORLD MUSEUM

Baraboo, Wisconsin had been the summer home for the Ringling Brothers Circus in the heyday of the traveling circus.  Generally, circuses, traveling or otherwise, are no longer a thing, but the romance of the circus survives in the form of the Circus World Museum in Baraboo.  The museum is generally open to visitors except in the winter months and features daily performance shows from late May through late August.  In early May I drove up to Baraboo with my camera to capture some of the circus paraphernalia.

The museum features all manner of memorabilia in various states of restoration, especially old posters and circus wagons from a time when the circus would roll into town, including a number of exotic animals and equipment.

One thing I realized, especially as portrayed in the posters, is that the circus took advantage of exaggeration and fantasy.

The museum has a number of buildings devoted to circus wagons and similar equipment.  When I was there individuals, perhaps volunteers, were working on the restoration of some of the wagons.

Many had already been beautifully restored.

Some wagon wheels especially were nicely restored.

The Cinderella wagon below was especially nice, particularly in how it was placed in front of the light from a window. 

Here is a detail from that wagon.

The following detail shot illustrates the deterioration in some of the wagons before restoration.

Still, I liked it for its decrepitude.

John

WISCONSIN STATE CAPITOL

 After a long hiatus, I have decided to resume posting to my photography blog.  Part of my motivation has been the fact that I recently purchased a new camera.  I stayed with the Nikon family but have moved to mirrorless. I also acquired a new lens compatible with the new camera.  This one is a 24-200 mm zoom.  I plan to do some travel with my camera, and the 24-200 offers great versatility and convenience for that purpose.  But enough of the technical.

One of my first trips with my new equipment was to an old haunt, the Wisconsin State Capitol building in Madison.  This is "old ground" for me, as I have photographed the capitol numerous times in the past.  But that was part of my motivation, as I wanted to get comfortable with the new equipment and see how it handled this sort of subject matter.  In general, I was pleased with how it performed.

Here are some of the photos that I got.

This is the only exterior shot I am posting.  It was a cloudless day and there was plenty of light.  So to emphasize the building's lines, I converted the shot to a black and white and darkened the sky to make it a bit more dramatic.

The rest of the shots are of the beautiful and beautifully restored interior:

The central dome area features amazing mosaic murals.

I was able to use post processing software to rectify the support pillars that otherwise would have appeared to be on an angle.

Nice detail in the ceiling of a side corridor.

My standard procedure for making ceiling shots, where possible, is to place the camera on the floor pointed up. It works well as long as I am able to position the camera properly.  Sometimes this takes several shots.

Generally, I was quite happy with my new equipment.  One thing I noticed was that the technology has improved in terms of image stabilization.  Generally, in the past I have shot such venues using a tripod, where feasible.  Here I was able to dispense with the tripod and didn't think I lost much in the way of sharpness.

John