Seeing and Sharing Beauty

Category: Architecture (Page 1 of 2)

A Bridge Not Too Far

“Through the captured imagery of light, photography allows us to hold fast to one fleeting, ever so precious, moment in time.

~ Howard Simmons. Photographer

Photographing beautiful places in nature in beautiful light has been a passion of mine all my life. These photographs capture a precious moment in time, and my brain, my emotions, also somehow capture moments in time that I did not intend to keep. They may have been hurtful. I may have misjudged people. I may have broken a meaningful relationship. And those memories are still in my mind. They are not precious.

Today, as I think back on the people I may have hurt unjustly, I also wonder whether I can repair that now. What does it mean to be a lifelong friend if I am kicking people to the curb, as if they were nothing to me then. How can I today, years later, harness the power of love—Oneness—in my heart and head?

Perhaps I can look back at those moments with different lenses or filters on my eyes? Perhaps I can change the Lighting of memories that are captured in my head and heart? Perhaps I can edit or post-process or transform the image I have of them, and forgive them, forgive myself?

Perhaps I can recreate the love between us that we used to have.

A river can stop flowing or be rerouted if we allow the stones to accumulate in it instead of working to move them out of the way.  The following quote helps me to remember this, to speak about a conflict from a perspective of authenticity and compassion, even though I want to avoid conflict. 

I felt angry toward my friend.

I told my wrath. My wrath did end.

I felt angry toward my foe. 

I told him not. My wrath did grow.

~ William Blake

Is my former friend really a foe, or did my silence make him so?

Today’s set of photos are about bridges. Bridges as a metaphor of how I can travel on them or construct them in my heart and head, to call that former friend I have left behind. 

I believe making a phone call is not a bridge too far.

Mountains in Chicago?

I love seeing mountains!

Growing up in Illinois, I felt the skyscrapers of downtown Chicago were mountains for me. I would stare up at them when I rode the EL downtown on Saturdays to pick up mail from my father’s office. Those experiences planted in me the seeds of wanting to be an architect as I pondered where my college degree would bring me.

But that never happened. I became a structural engineer instead. I chose that as a course of study Northwestern University as a way to stay local (Evanston), rather than going to University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign, living at a distance too far away from a woman who wanted me to stay by her side.

As I moved to the suburbs of Chicago after college, I found that landfills were my new mountains. I could drive to the top of a landfill in Naperville—called Mount Trashmore—and see on the eastern horizon the tiny skyscrapers of Chicago!!

But really! Let’s face it, I needed to travel somewhere else to see mountains. The first ones I saw were in California. So today I’m going to share with you some of my mountain pictures from California and the Canadian Rockies.

Enjoy!

Click on any image for full-screen lightbox.

For more mountains, visit these portfolios! Canadian Rockies Eastern Sierra

The Beauty of an Ukranian Church

SVOC Colors & Curves
SVOC Colors & Curves

Saints Volodymyr and Olha Church is a beautiful church in Chicago’s Ukranian Village.  Photographing from the choir loft, I was able to create unique compositions such as this one. It captures the dramatic curve of the choir loft railing and still includes the beautiful view of the church windows, arches, and a huge radiant chandelier.

This church is an architectural symbol of the artistry and religious devotion of the Ukranian people. Let us pray for all those suffering in Ukraine.

You can also view these photos in my flickr album.

The Milwaukee Art Museum was designed by Santiago Calatrava. It is a stunning white curvy and lacy building that offers a multitude of perspectives to shoot, inside and out. The images below were shot on a on a sunny cloudless afternoon, only from the outside.

The Calatrava

The Calatrava

The Calatrava

The Calatrava

The Calatrava

The Calatrava

The Calatrava

The Calatrava

When you visit there, have fun coming up with compositions that delight YOU!

Chicago Cultural Center

Chicago Cultural Center

Chicago Cultural Center

The Chicago Cultural Center has two spectacular stained glass domes, two  beautiful mosaic and marble staircases, glass-block flooring that emits light UP, and the huge Grand Army of the Republic Memorial Room.  Here’s a description of the building from the website:

Designed by the Boston firm of Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge as the first home of the Chicago Public Library, the Chicago Cultural Center was completed in 1897. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 31, 1972, and was designated a Chicago Landmark by the City Council on November 15, 1976.

The Beaux Arts style was influenced by the buildings of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. The building’s interior features rooms modeled on the Doge’s Palace in Venice, the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, and the Acropolis in Athens. Its lush ornamentation includes two stained-glass domes, rare marbles inlaid with sparkling mosaics, and intricate, coffered ceilings.

What inspires me are the curves, the arches, the twinkling glass and gold leaf pieces in the mosaic inlays.  And the lights in the floor are an unusual and dramatic sight.  The glass block in the floor was originally there to allow light from the second floor domed rotunda to illuminate the first floor. Now the light direction is reversed!

What specific photo skills could you develop at the Cultural Center?

First, the skill of composition.  Get high, get low, get left, get right, get tilted, get in the corner, get in the middle.  Moving your viewpoint around until you see something dramatic or symmetric or diagonal or colorful.  Playing with the bottom lighting.  Getting Escher-like with the staircases.

Secondly, setting exposure to handle available light.  This is primarily an indoor photo venue, and the existing lighting is set up for people, not necessarily for photography.  It is far from uniform.  On-camera flash is too harsh, so the key is using the available light with a vision to what you are creating in the frame.  This means longer shutter speeds on a tripod, and that brings in the light hidden in the shadows.

I think you’ll be amazed at the beauty of the place, and delighted with the compositions to be created there.

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