TRIPOLI SHRINE CENTER: DOORS OPEN MILWAUKEE

I first visited the Milwaukee's Tripoli Shrine Center at a previous Doors Open Milwaukee event a couple of years ago and decided to go back during this year's event because I had a new camera with more wide-angle reach.

The architecture of this building reflects the Middle Eastern motif of this branch of the Masonic organization.

I like the onion-shaped domes, but because of their position they are a bit difficult to photograph.  Here is a shot from the east side of the building that does a better job.

And then there are a couple of photogenic stone (molded concrete?) camels at the front entrance.

The interior is easier to photograph and the best feature is the rotunda under the building's central dome.  Here are a few shots, including one of the dome I took by placing the camera on the floor directly under the center of the dome, pointing up.

Hopefully, this gives a good idea of the architecture of that space.

Finally, I took a few shots of the windows through which the sun was streaming, creating some interesting shadows.  I decided to convert to black and white the shot that I kept to emphasize the shadowing.

John

ANNUNCIATION GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH: DOORS OPEN MILWAUKEE

The Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church is one of the last buildings that Frank Lloyd Wright designed.  A poured concrete building, it was completed in 1961.  I have photographed it before from the exterior, but its interior is generally not available to the general public.  However, for the first time it was open to the public as part of Milwaukee's Doors Open event, held each September.  Here is a shot of the church from the exterior.  Note the line of visitors.

I was included in the first set of visitors and invited to listen to a presentation on the history of the church.  The building is in an impressive setting with open areas on all sides of the round building.

The church looks small from the outside but much more spacious from the interior.  Here is a shot I took of the panels of murals behind the dais.

The church has a balcony area that encircles the interior.  Three sets of spiral staircases lead both up to the balcony and down to a basement level.   A little gaudy, I thought.

Unfortunately, I lost patience with the presentation in the church and decided I needed to leave for my next venue and missed taking more photos of the interior.  Maybe next year.

On my way back to my car, I took a couple of detail shots of the exterior.

A close inspection of these shots reveals some deterioration of the exterior, unfortunately characteristic of some of Wright's work, which is high on innovation but a little lacking in maintenance practicality.

John

NORTH FARWELL AVENUE, MKE

Recently, I saw a brief article about an urban alley on Milwaukee's East Side that is being converted into a venue for public art, and I thought I would check it out with my camera.  For any locals who may be interested, this venue is located directly behind the Oriental Theatre, in the alley running between Farwell and Prospect just south of North Avenue.  I decided that I was about three weeks early but took a few photos anyway, promising myself that I would return later in September.

The photo in the article that caught my eye was of the following mural, which has been completed.

This mural is huge, by the way, located one story up on an exterior wall adjacent to the alley.

I then ventured into the alley, which was crowded with dumpsters.  There was a signature mural that was partially completed.

And then there was an alley off the alley.

Kind of ugly, to be honest.  

I also got a couple of shots of some stenciled fish on the pavement.  These same fish have appeared elsewhere in the downtown area.

Besides looking down, I also looked up and caught this shot of a fire escape staircase.  

Back on Farwell Avenue, I took a shot of this older public mural that was showing some wear.

But my favorite shots of this series were not of public art but of the flora of the planters lining the avenue outside of the Oriental Theatre.

The first is of some ornamental wheat-like plants.

My goal here was to use a shallow depth of field to eliminate any background distractions and to focus on the one linear stem.  It worked OK, I thought.

My favorite of this series was a shot of some largish leafy plants in various shade of dark green and purple.  The day was overcast, so I did not have to worry about shadows, a good thing.  In this case I chose to leave the image relatively dark, allowing the empty spaces to go black.

John

CATHEDRAL OF THE MADELEINE

On our recent visit to Salt Lake City, I again did a shoot of the Cathedral of the Madeleine.  Even though Salt Lake City is fairly dominated by the LDS church, one of its most interesting religious venues, at least that is accessible, is the local catholic cathedral.  Built in 1909, the cathedral "suffers" from the architectural style popular during that time period, a style that emphasizes strong colors that can best be described as gaudy.   Even so, it is fun to visit such facilities and to try to capture in photos what they have to offer.  Interestingly, I was at the cathedral in May of 2015 and took many of the same shots as I did this time.  On this visit I had to wedge my photo taking between an early afternoon wedding and a late afternoon mass.  Here are some of the shots that I kept.

First, a couple of shots of the exterior of the main entrance, which is very traditional.

Here are a couple of shots of the interior from the rear of the nave that illustrate the strong colors.

In the second shot I wanted to showcase the trumpet components of the pipe organ jutting out from the front of the balcony.

Here is another shot of an interesting angel mural above the sanctuary.

And a closeup of that mural.

Here is the intricately decorated apse.

Sometimes it is important to look up, as in the following.

Here is a shot of the pipe organ above the rear of the nave that includes the rose window.

And a closeup of the rose window.

Finally, another of the major stained glass windows to the side of the sanctuary.

John

UTAH'S HOGLE ZOO

On our recent visit to Salt Lake City, we took the grandkids to the local zoo, Utah's Hogle Zoo.  I brought my camera along.

Here, first, is a mundane shot of one of the giraffes.  Just OK.

In a neighboring pen were some ostriches and I realized what ugly bodies they have.  So in the photo I took I limited my shot to the neck up.

The zebras were easier to capture.  Here are a couple of the shots that I kept.

I liked this second shot for its capture of the curve of the zebra's mane.

I tried to get a good shot of the elephants, but they were steadfast in keeping only their rumps to me.  I toyed with getting a closeup of their tails but in the end decided the shot wasn't worth keeping.

I did get a decent shot of one of the rhinos.  My goal here was to focus on the texture of the animal's skin, highlighted by the brilliant sun.

When we visited the lions, they were behind glass--dirty glass--and for the most part the animals were not close or positioned well for taking pictures.  However, I did get a nice shot of a lion cub who was napping in the morning heat.

Then it was on the the bears.

The shot I got of a polar bear was sort of a mistake: I was too close.  But I liked the effect of the closeup.  Dreaming?

One of the black bears was lying with its foot up against the glass, so I took the following shot.

I felt good about this shot because, even though there was no way to get a decent shot of the whole bear, the photo that I got is unmistakable.

The other two cat shots that I got were of a lynx and a tiger.

Both shots are flawed: The lynx was in the shade and the tiger was behind fencing, but I thought the tiger shot in particular was effective.

I did get a decent shot of a meerkat in the small animal building.  The interior light was not great, but the animal seemed to be posing for the shot.  And because the background was more or less blank, it almost looked like a museum shot of a stuffed animal.

Finally was a spoonbill that also seemed to be posing.

Here is a closeup of the bird's head.

A face that only a mother (or maybe an ornithologist) could love.

John

FARMERS MARKET SALT LAKE CITY

During our recent trip to Salt Lake City, we had occasion to visit the farmers market in the downtown area, and I took a few photos.  Basically, the market is held in a park that is one full block on each side.  There were ample crowds, and perhaps I should have tried to capture that aspect of the market, but I simply am not good at photographing people.  So instead I focused on tighter shots of some of the fare on offer.  Here are some of those.

My favorites among these are the grapes, which I liked for their diverse colors.

And, oh, yeah, we had our grandsons, Stanley and Max, with us.

John