PARK BENCH AT FIRST LIGHT

Saturday, the 19th, proved crisp and cold and I made my way to nearby Virmond Park, overlooking Lake Michigan.  I was hoping to catch both first light and sunrise on what was one of the first cold days of the season.  Although my initial objective was first light on a clear morning, I realized that the real subjects of this shoot were going to be the trees at the edge of the bluff and the strategically placed dark metal bench positioned for quiet contemplation of the lake . . . on a warmer day.

This first photo is basically a panoramic view of the trees posed against the lightening sky, with the bench in the lower right.

Not bad, but the shot might have been improved had the darker bank of clouds over the lake not been there.  All of these were shot with a tripod, by the way, as it was still quite dark.

The next couple of shots were closeups of the bench and the tree to its left.

Finally, here is a compromise that features both trees to the left of the bench.

I thought this last shot had the best balance of the ones that I took.

I wanted to wait for sunrise.  However, not only was it cold, but it was windy, and the windchill was hovering around zero.  So I packed up and headed home to warm up.

John

RETURN TO THE DOMES--AGAIN

Last week I paid yet another visit to the Mitchell Park Domes to do a little macro.  Here is what I got.

This was a flower in the Desert Dome that I have shot numerous times before.  To give some perspective, each of the orange flowerets is about an inch long.  On this visit I attempted to do an extreme closeup to enhance the abstract quality of the image.  I experimented with different apertures to vary the depth of field.  In the end I chose this shot that featured a very narrow aperture of f/40 to maximize depth of field.

This was another plant in the Desert Dome.  What caught my attention was the contrast between the dark centers of the "leaves" and their very light margins.  To emphasize this contrast, I converted the image to a black and white.  Again, this was shot at f'40 to maximize depth of field.  Just so-so, I thought.

Yet another specimen in the Desert Dome.  The individual "grapes" of this succulent are perhaps a third of an inch long.  In post processing I significantly softened the look of this shot while retaining a sharpness at the margins.  I placed the spot where there is a single missing "grape" in the upper left in accordance with the "rule of thirds."  Maybe no one else will notice, but I did.

This was  fern from the Show Dome.  Again, I transformed it into a black and white to emphasize the pattern, and I increased the contrast to reduce any distraction from the fronds behind.

Yet another black and white.  Here my goal was simply to flood the image edge to edge with the plant.  Once again, I used a very narrow aperture (f/36) to maximize definition throughout the image.

This was a simple cascade of leaves in the Tropical Dome.  The leaves certainly have their flaws, particularly the one in the lower left, but I thought that might be part of the composition's charm. The background was dark to begin with and I was able to darken it further to isolate the leaves.

Finally, I took a couple of non-macro shots (but with my 90 mm macro lens).  The first was of a prop in the Desert Dome consisting of a large spool of rope.  The original shot was really quite boring, so I cropped it, rotated it 45 degrees, and converted it to a black and white.  More interesting, I think.

The Domes include a reception and display area between the individual domes that is populated with tables and chairs, and I caught this shot.

I liked the contrast between the black table and chairs and the bright light reflecting off the polished floor.

John

VIRMOND PARK IN FOG

Fog is a landscape photographer's friend.  We were blessed with some dense fog this weekend, and I tried to take advantage of it with a quick trip to nearby Virmond Park, situated on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan.

Here are a couple of shots of two of the park's "old friends."

I've shot this bench before and frankly a bit better than this time.  My mistake here was that I should have taken a lower viewpoint, positioning the entire back of the bench against the fog.  Next time, perhaps.

I have shot this isolated tree many times under many different conditions.  It is actually much smaller than it appears.  This photo is deceptive.  The fog was actually more dense than it looks in this shot.  In post processing I tried to bring some definition to the line of trees in the background, if only to provide some context.  I also increased the color saturation, reducing the fog's apparent density.

The park includes a simple rail fence, and I wound up taking a bunch of shots of the fence.  Here are the ones that I kept.

These two shots are a bit weird, as the rails to the right occupy nearly half of the image but don't seem that strange because of our natural understanding of perspective.  A bit too simple though.

I cropped the above shot to reduce the amount of sky/fog in the upper part of the image.  I wanted to have the fence fill the frame.  Works OK, I think.

I thought this was the best of the fence shots, primarily because of the apparent lack of uniformity in the rails, which doesn't say much.

Here is a shot of a line of trees toward the north end of the park.  

Once again, this understates the amount of fog because I increased the saturation.  In this shot I didn't mind that I was cutting off most of the upper portions of the trees, as I wanted to emphasize the trunks.  Also, I decided to allow a little lack of balance in order to include the water puddle in the lower right.

I spent a fair amount of time in the small woods that the park sports.  This is where fog can be the most beneficial, as it can eliminate distractions in the distant background while providing depth in the fore- and mid-ground.  

These shots have been cropped significantly.  Initially, the images included the tree trunks all the way to the ground.  However, as I played with these images, I decided that including the ground distracted from the contrast between the trunks and the fogged sky, resulting in a loss of depth that the fog was creating with respect to the more distant trees.  So I cropped the shots down to include just the portion against the sky.

John

MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM REOPENS

The permanent collection galleries of the Milwaukee Art Museum have been closed for the construction of a significant expansion of the galleries and a remake of the existing ones.  The galleries reopened in late November and I paid a visit in early December.  Unfortunately, my time was limited, so I will just have to pay future visits to get a better appreciation of the changes that the museum has undergone.

The museum's expansion has allowed for the public display of a larger portion of the institution's permanent collection and I was really pleased to see a number of pieces that I had not seen on previous visits.  Those included the following.

This piece, an acrylic box with a subtle shading, seems too simple, but there was something about the shading that I thought had real power.

The following shot, which I rendered as a black & white, was really only a portion of a larger work, but it was, in my mind, the most important part.

Then there were a couple of pieces of wall art that I had not seen before (or had forgotten).

When I was looking to take this second shot (which is a portion of a larger work), I heard the following exchange between a mother and daughter of about 10:

      Mother:  Oh, this is a strange piece.

      Daughter: What's so strange about it?

Well, the piece speaks for itself, but the daughter, who may have been a bit bored, was trying to establish her sophistication.

The following was an unusual piece, essentially consisting of a long rectangular aluminum tube, affixed to a wall at eye level.  I really wouldn't have paid the piece much attention if I hadn't noticed another patron (with a fairly sophisticated camera) who spent a good deal of time taking pictures, not showing the length of the tubing but, instead, sighting down the tube's interior.  So after she moved on I tried to figure out what she was up to.  I guess this was it (maybe).

Actually, I tried a number of shots, varying the point of focus as well as the depth of field.  I did like this shot OK (I think), focusing on the end of the piece and allowing the remainder to go out of focus.    Taken at f/5.0.

Although the museum's collection has some interest, in my mind the physical facility remains the institution's biggest draw.  The general galleries have been freshened and seem less cluttered, allowing the individual pieces of art more "room" for contemplation.  Here is a shot of the overall scene in the 

galleries.

The ergonomics of the gallery area have also been improved, including the stairways, something I find myself shooting.  I liked the following shot for the unusual indirect lighting.

During my visit I also paid homage to the Calatrava atrium, taking the following shot of the windows in the atrium's "prow," looking out over the lake.

John

GROHMANN MUSEUM REVISITED

A few weeks ago I uncovered a true gem of Milwaukee's visual arts community, the Grohmann Museum, housed at the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE), and posted a number of the photos I took during my initial visit there.  Recently I revisited the museum to take a few more photos.  Here is what I got.

First, this time I did get a shot of the building's exterior, including the atrium that was added at the time the building was converted to a museum.

On this second visit, too, I got a (technically) better shot of the atrium's ceiling, placing my camera on the atrium's floor, pointing up.

I liked the pattern that the spiral staircases created and got the following semi-abstract photo.

I also took a few more shots of the atrium's floor, which features mosaics that borrow from the museum's workplace and worker motif.

Among the highlights of the prior visit were the sculpture garden on the museum's roof and the office of the founder of the museum, Dr. Grohmann, also on the roof.  The docent at the admission desk told me that the sculpture garden had been closed for the season, but weather was nice and she was kind enough to unlock the door to the roof's sculpture garden.  Here are some of the shots that I was able to take.

As I explained before, each of these sculptures (except the one of a couple) is a replica of another, older sculpture.  These replica sculptures, which are terrific and which line the perimeter of the roof, are actually larger than the ones they are modeled after.  They make for a great scene looking out at Milwaukee's downtown.

One thing I learned was that these statues are not bolted in place.  On my first visit I took a photo of a glassblower statue, emphasizing the figure's outsized hands.  I wanted to see if I could improve on that shot on this visit.  However, on this visit that particular statue was facing away from the roof garden rather than toward it.  So no photo.

The docent was kind in another way.  I mentioned that on my first visit I was able to look into the founder's roof level office, which features a number of stained glass windows, but I was not able to get into the office to get better photos of those windows.  She offered to let me into the room, something not normally available.  Here are shots I got of those windows.

Again, these windows are replicas of other, original art in the museum, here rendered as stained glass.

I also caught a number of the works of art in the museum proper, both two- and three-dimensional.

Here's a painting by Pieter Breughel, the Younger, entitled The Peasant Lawyer, along with a closeup of a detail.

Although there weren't many patrons in the museum each time I visited, I wasn't alone.  In fact, there were members of an art class there creating models of some of the art.

Please visit this museum.  You will not be disappointed.

John