fourpointedstar

I love these types of photos; photos where you can’t quite tell what elements are part of the foreground, background, or reflection.

I love photographic reflections because they lead the viewer to look more than once, hopefully to investigate what caused the distortion, the odd lines, or the extra shapes. This image makes me take second and third glances each time … and I took the photo!

I absolutely love that the St. Regis is reflecting the buildings across the river almost as if you were viewing a painting.

p.s. After posting this image a few places, two people chimed in: “what if you edited this to be a square and removed the trees?” and “that looks like you could give it a pop of color!”. Now we all know people who offer their opinions a bit too much, but differing opinions can add value to our lives, and in this image’s editing, I think ultimately the image benefits from their opinions.

Oh my, and to look inside that mountain outcrop?  What a wonderful spectacle of lines, shadows, and shapes!  This is definitely some kind of 3D TicTacToe game that I’m not aware of!

Of course there is a joke about the Golden Arches on the River Point building, but honestly, this construction was a wonderful addition to the Chicago River split.  In 2008 and 2009, I visited this exact spot, but there was no building, only traintracks.  Now, there’s a beautiful park, wonderful art, and the space has been utilized.

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I love a photo that doesn’t have a lot of visual clutter, and I love a photo that has a strong point of focus.  For this photo, I love that the subtle colors work so well together, and that the lines are so strong throughout.

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As you fly over the midwest, you can see a patchwork of farmland, roads, and rivers creating right angles and natural curves across the earth. Perhaps that’s why I enjoy this photo so much, it reminds me of the mixture of manmade and natural shapes. The weathered run off from the rivets just adds a little pizazz too.

As the sun faded in and out of the cloud cover throughout our walk around the museum, the colors of the metal would change. The building would reflect the blues, yellows, and greys in the sky and then my Sony would attempt to record those colors as photographs. As I was editing the images, I found so many fun and fantastic color combinations; in this image, you can see the golds, coppers, and silvers as well as the grey, blue, and yellow in the clouds.

I struggled with editing this image. I love the composition, but getting the dark and light not too dark and not too light was a challenge; and I still don’t think I’ve got it right. The light parts just aren’t light enough, and I’ve always struggled with getting monochrome images to have nice lighter parts of the image without having just a texture-less white space. Each photograph teaches us a lesson and often that lesson is “you have a lot more to learn.”

I love the warble of reflected lines in glass, but it brought a smile to my face to discover the same thing happens with metals. The straight lines of the fantastic red-ish hues stand out against the reflected copper lines. I’ve photographed this exact phenomena in many windows but finding it present in steel was simply wonderful.

Unlike most of Frank Ghery’s most famous buildings, the Museum of Pop Culture is not simply shades of shimmering silver. The building has 5 or 6 unique segments in different colors, each segment with his signature curves and waves. Shadows and reflections wandered across each curve and surface, combining to form a lasting smile across my face.

This pigeon has decided that sitting on the top of this metal cloud is a great way to interrupt my photo. At first I was annoyed, but now I enjoy the tiny interruption – almost like it’s Monty Python’s French Taunter in the castle castle threatening “I blow my nose at you!”

Ghery’s architectural works stand out in any skyline. The multiple colors, textures, and waves on the Museum of Pop Culture exhibit a wonderful feast of the eyes. While many of his buildings and designs are similar to the Pritzker Pavilion here in Chicago – mostly uniform in color – the Seattle design has multiple treatments and colors for the sheet metal. As we walked around the exterior, I found dozens and perhaps hundreds of potential abstracts, and after editing, here are a few that stood out as spectacular.

As you walk away from the Seattle Space Needle, you’re treated to the chrome and copper variations in the anodized metal. The waves and variations reminded me of a patchwork quilt that has been tossed on the couch; almost as if the wind had blown the building into that particular spot in Seattle’s downtown.

If someone asked me what my favorite image is from any given trip, I might have difficulty pointing to a singular image. But for the Seattle trip in October, this is “The Image”; I’m not even sure why. I simply love this photo – the entire trip was a photographic adventure, but this image stands above all the others in my mind.

I suppose at this point, I’m kind of known for my “reflection distorted in glass” photos, but I really love this one. The monochrome makes the textures and details really stand out, and I absolutely love the architectural elements of the building as well.

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Most folks from the Chicago area will recognize that darker building, but why is the light blue building taller? I didn’t notice this trick of angles and perspective when I photographed this scene, but now I love the photo even more.

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The concrete and glass exterior of the building on the south side of Wells becomes the perfect canvas for abstract architecture presented by the stepped exterior of the top of the building on the north side of Wells.

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This fantastic oddity was captured from street level, and I just love all of the distortion. I’ve photographed the curved fascade of the building on the corner of Wells & Hubbard a few times, but always from the 4th or 5th floor of the parking garage with light trails in mind.
(This photo was from a photo walk that I led back in April.)

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I’m drawn to reflections; the warbling that a window provides adds so much more interest to the scene. In this photo, you are actually looking at 3 different buildings, can you see each one?

Not all buildings are architecturally interesting. But every building has aspects that can lead to an interesting photo – like this stairwell in a parking gararge! And yes, I know that these doors are not in the correct stoplight order.

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The simplicity of this photo is what allows the three distinct shades of blue to stand out.

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I tend to edit my photos based on how they “feel” and one of those feelings is balance.” The photo should appear balanced, but the sad part is that I don’t know that I could quantify what makes a photo balanced … but I know it when I capture the photograph or in most cases, when I edit the photograph.

Sarah and I took a day trip up to visit family in Milwaukee and on the way took a walk through Milwaukee. I may enjoy reflections in windows more than any other kinds of architecture photography.

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I know, I know … all that I did was turn the photo sideways, but when an architect lays out clean lines, and there’s a wonderfully warped reflection, well … that’s all that I needed to do, right?

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As Sarah and I walked past 833 Michigan Street, we both noticed the modern abstract fixture hanging in the lobby. The installation definitely feels at home inside of the the large glass lobby, but the reflection of the US Bank building in the same windows blocked the view of the fixture. Fortunately, the contrast between the two makes a compelling photograph.

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If you start looking, the reflections of any town will provide dynamic views and photographs. I love the unfinished nature of this photo; how the angle of the foreground building gives the appearance of an unfinished canvas that drops into the negative space provided by the soft blue sky. You will find many reflections throughout my architecture photography, and I know that there will be more to come as well!

…view older images with the thumbnails below…

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