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Posts Tagged ‘museum’

Event, Photography, Wedding | 0 comment

Jo and Claro Engagement Session

Washington, DC

Jo and Claro met me in downtown DC for some engagement photos. Claro and his family have been family friends for years. By comparison, we are Hokies, Filipino, and lived most of our lives in northern Virginia. He and his fiance Jo planned to marry last summer. When they thought about a photographer for their day, I came to mind. Of course, I jumped at the chance to cover this important event for them!

National Gallery of Art East Building

Our first stop was the National Gallery of Art. Seeing that it is a space to view large art installations, it is a beautiful space for portraits! The large open space with lots of natural light makes photos very easy. In addition, your subjects can move around freely and still be in nice even light.

We started in the East Building of the museum. Given that is a modern space with clean lines, we found plenty of places for photos. With this purpose in mind, we explored all the levels of the museum to find the best spots. In between the East and West building, there is a tunnel famous for posing subjects. Above a motorized walkway a many spot lights mimicking a symmetrical field of stars. Whenever I get a chance, I will bring subjects here. I have not fallen off of the walkway yet!

Lastly, there is collection of glass pyramids on the ground level outside of the West Building. As a matter of fact, it it right above the tunnel in the above photos. Putting them in between these glass sculptures creates some awesome reflections. In reality, it is producing a Photoshop-like effect right in the camera! Although we did not have to walk a long distance, we were able to get a lot of Jo and Claro engagement photos quickly.

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Personal, Photography, Travel | 0 comment

Milwaukee Art Museum

Santiaga Calatrava

My father was an artist. He was trained and worked as an architect, but first and foremost, I remember him as a visually creative person. He had a talent for translating his vision to paper. Overall, I came to appreciate as I saw his drawings be transformed into built structures! He would start with small sketches in the first place. Most would be small details, or sections that he was working out in his mind. For example there would be a staircase, two converging walls, or placement of doors. The changes would be made on translucent tracing paper where he would make edits on different layers, and flip back and forth to see differences.

When things became more formal, the paper would be filled with more numbers – measurements, and math that would make sense to engineers and construction managers. I always thought of this as the transition between just doodles on a page, to a space that will eventually be built. This came out of a blank piece of paper! I always come back to this space when seeing an amazing building like the Calatrava addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Calatrava addition to Milwaukee Art Museum - ©TimeLine Media
Calatrava addition to Milwaukee Art Museum – ©TimeLine Media

Museum Interior

When we walked through the building, my mind could see my dad looking from the floor to the ceiling, explaining to me some engineering or design detail. His design aesthetic was definitively contemporary, clean lined, and his favorite structures all looked like they were from the future.

Interior of Caltrava addition - ©TimeLine Media
Interior of Caltrava addition – ©TimeLine Media

This would have been his style! Inside there were poured concrete structures that did not see to have a straight edge on them. The repeating patterns of the columns inside looked like perfectly formed bones. This form continued both inside and out.

Interior of Caltrava addition - ©TimeLine Media
Interior of Caltrava addition – ©TimeLine Media

Outside was a roof made of steel fins that opened out like a sail for a ship going into Lake Michigan. The sail will open when the museum is open, and close overnight. This is a place my father would have taken us on a family vacation. I don’t know if he would have taken as many photos as I did, but I suppose that is my outlet!

Exterior of Caltrava addition - ©TimeLine Media
Exterior of Caltrava addition – ©TimeLine Media

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

Event, Personal, Photography, Travel | 0 comment

Smithsonian Buildings Tilt Shift

Washington, DC

The blog has been very ballroom dance heavy the last week. The dancing photos have just been a big part of my computer time, so I had them at the top of mind lately. I’ll start switching the subject out today. A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to walk around some Smithsonian museum buildings in Washington, DC.

Kryptos statue - Washington, DC - ©TimeLine Media
Kryptos statue – Washington, DC – ©TimeLine Media

During the summertime months, the area is filled with groups of tourists, school groups, and other visitors to the city. Mixed with all the government workers going about their business, it is a busy time for this area. I blended in much more with the tourists pointing their cameras at all the recognizable buildings.

Lens Practice

For this walk, I just had one lens on my camera – the 24mm PC-E tilt shift. I wanted to make more comparisons with some larger buildings than the ones in my neighborhood. The Hirshhorn Museum was one that I wanted to try. There are usually not as many pedestrians or large buses parked by the Jefferson Street side, so I went there for my test. Here are the two images, the first uncorrected with the camera pointing up towards the building, the second shifted to straighten the lines of the facade.

Hirshhorn Musem - Washington, DC - perspective uncorrected - ©TimeLine Media
Hirshhorn Musem – Washington, DC – perspective uncorrected – ©TimeLine Media
Hirshhorn Musem - Washington, DC - perspective corrected - ©TimeLine Media
Hirshhorn Musem – Washington, DC – perspective corrected – ©TimeLine Media

The second is really a different view than what you see as you drive by. The main circular section looks to be suspended in mid air one story above street level. As you take photos of the building when you walk by, the “leaning back” perspective is what you normally see from close below the structure. The corrected version seems so straight, that it does not look right to my eyes! When drawing straight lines, though, everything lines up as it would on a sheet of paper if you were making a blueprint of the building. This was my first try, and it will probably not be the last time that I go back to a familiar place that I am accustomed to seeing with distorted vision due to perspective.

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

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