Tag: fisheye
The top floor of the Jeweler’s Building was, at one point, a location known as the ‘Stratosphere Lounge’. This location has a commanding view of the city of Chicago and during prohibition was rumored to be a speakeasy run by Al Capone. The shape of the building made it easy to station observers who could keep an eye out for cops. Turning to today, the top floor is used by the architecture firm JAHN for special events. One of the changes made to the space was to raise the floor. The ceiling is quite tall and with the original floor height, the windows were quite high and harder to look out of. With the new floor height, there is still plenty of headroom and it makes looking out the windows a much more enjoyable experience.
One of my favorite places to visit and subjects to shoot in New York City is the Guggenheim Museum. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and opened in 1959, it is a unique structure and makes for some interesting photography. This shot was taken across the street using the Sigma 15mm fisheye lens. What I find interesting about shooting with a fisheye in a ‘street’ situation is the way it can incorporate elements that you weren’t expecting. I composed the shot for the museum. I thought the cars moving through the shot added another level of interest. I didn’t expect the cyclist, but I’m glad he popped into the frame as I took the shot.
I recently received a request from a potential client for an image of Atlas that they might want to use in their lobby. The customer was looking for something that would ‘pop’. I had a few shots of the Atlas statue located in Rockefeller Center and I looked them over for one or more that might meet the client’s requirements. The main problem I was having is that most of the shots I took were taken at night which limited the color palette available. When looking over my catalog, I came across this image taken earlier in 2012 that I thought might have possibilities.
With fall in the air and lacking something new to post I thought I would post this shot I took last year at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. Greenfield Village was created by Henry Ford, so it’s not surprising that the Model T and other old Ford automobiles should be prominently displayed. The museum offers rides in some of the older cars. This visit occurred in mid November on a wonderful Indian summer day. It was getting later in the day and the streets of the village were becoming empty. The less crowded village streets became a nice background to the old Ford automobiles that were still tooling around the village that day.
I’ve been finding it difficult to get out and shoot new material for a variety of reasons, but today was such a nice day I decided to make an effort to get out and at least shoot something. I decided to take a short drive into Detroit to check out the progress on the Michigan Central Station. The owners are finally doing something to at least stabilize the building. Mostly this involves tightening security around the station to keep people out, removing the broken windows and putting in new windows, and working on the roof. Progress is slow, but they have definitely made some progress at least regarding the windows on the lower level. They haven’t actually replaced any that I could see, but they have removed the broken glass.
I’ve been feeling someone uninspired in my photography of late, getting bored with shooting similar subjects. I really enjoy shooting with a wide angle lens, but I typically use the wide angle for architecture shots to give me enough material to create reasonably straight lines. However, I’ve always enjoyed seeing images of architecture and other subjects which have been shot with a fisheye lens. So, just for fun and to mix things up a bit, I decided to rent the Nikkor 16mm fisheye for use on my D700. I went out for a walk around town late yesterday just to see what sort of interesting images I might be able to create with this lens. I managed to get a few that I liked and I enjoyed shooting with this lens.