Deja View

Part of the joy of travel for me is taking photos of the places I go. I realize that the world really doesn't need any more shots of the Eiffel Tower and that mine stands no chance of being better in any discernible way from what professional photographers with far better equipment than I have done.

But there is still an air of creativity I like to linger on to. My shots may not be original but they are original to me.

An artist named Corrine Vionnet has turned other people's photos into art. She has rummaged through photobanks like Flickr and collaged pictures of world landmarks in a unique way. She superimposes hundreds of photos over each other. The results are hazy dreamlike montages. She takes concrete images and turns them into impressionistic memories.

A series of 23 of her images can be found here. I haven't been to every place in her gallery but I was shocked with how many I have. And how do my photos stack up against the collective soul of the photo taking public? Here are some examples:




We nearly missed the Brandenburg Gate on our visit to Germany last summer. Our tour guide had some last minute disruptions and asked us what we still wanted to see. We ended up taking a nice leisurely stroll along the path of the former Wall to arrive at the gate. It was the day of a World Cup match and the locals were streaming to an outdoor festival with video screens. The streets were alive with a united Berlin and I cannot imagine events that would force a scar down the center of such a beautiful city for so long.




The Colosseum in Rome is an amazing contradiction because of both how much of it is left and how much is gone. I was amazed to learn that after the fall of Rome, the ancient monuments of the city were used as an open air quarry for centuries. many of the gorgeous Christian churches have this ancient center of lavish entertainment in their roots.



There is no more iconic geological formation representing the American West than the Mittens in Monument Valley. But I imagine only the hardest core of fans of old westerns know where they are. Part of my trip last year to Arizona was planned to deliberately brush into Utah to see this area. The local Navajo tribes have done a wonderful job of making this remote area accessible while still letting its natural grandeur speak for itself.






Tienanmen Square is fraught with symbolism, both for Chinese Communists who are the current stewards to this enormous palace in the center of what was once the largest city on Earth as well as the freedom advocating protesters who have used this center to bring attention to their own struggle. Now the plaza is regularly patrolled for demonstrations, but unrest may someday return.



Every time I see the Golden Gate Bridge I marvel at how such a utilitarian piece of engineering can blend in so well with the surrounding natural beauty. The sheer challenge of such a structure demands awe and appreciation.



London has so many iconic views, but perhaps Big Ben is the best emblem of a Victorian sense of monumentalism and lavishness of detail which may never return.



Even older than the ruins of Rome or the pyramids of Egypt is Stonehenge which shows that our combined eagerness to build things and to look at the heavens predates the written history to explain what fascinates us so.



And finally, the Eiffel Tower is perhaps the most iconic structure in the world. There is a certain majesty which demands attention.

I guess my humble takes pale against the weight of thousands of others. But these photos are my memories of what I have found graceful and beautiful And if others have taken inspiration of the same views from the same locales so be it.

Indecently Exposed

One of the podcasts I listen to regularly is Indecent Exposure. While that title sure does sound like it's up my alley, it's not quite what it sounds like. The subtitle is "C-Net's Digital Imaging Podcast" and it's about cameras and photography. The hosts, Lori Grunin and Matt Fitzgerald, are professional photographers that dispense camera news and reviews, answer listener questions, and run a weekly photo contest.

I rarely enter the contests because I often listen to the podcast well past the deadline or just don't have anything that fits the category they announce. Also, the people that enter are really, really good photographers and it's a little intimidating, especially if you look at a few entries beforehand.

But last week's topic was 'architecture' which is what I do a lot of. I like architecture because you don't need to cajole a building to stand still, or look into the camera, or not get mad over how many pictures you are taking.

The picture I chose was of the PPG Place in downtown Pittsburgh with a parking deck in the foreground. PPG Place (which I miscalled PPG Plaza in the picture title) is the post-modernist Johnson and Burgee designed skyscraper which looks like a castle made of glass since PPG was originally called Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company.

As I was wandering through downtown trying to find my hotel, I stumbled onto a view of the building with a parking deck in the foreground. The upper railings of the parking deck mimicked the turrets of the building. While my picture didn't win or even merit an honorable mention, here are some excerpts of some of the kind things Lori and Matt had to say about it (all errors in transcription, spelling and grammar are mine).

Lori: [PPG Place] looks as if somebody had built Superman's Fortress of Solitude out of plastic. ... And it looks sort of like a crown on this parking plaza rail. It's very difficult to describe. You need to take a look at it. That is a completely interesting angle to shoot the building from instead of just going straight at the building.

Matt: Very well framed and composed. I personally really liked it because it's my personal favorite buildings. The first thing I think of what architecture is is that building.

So here is the more traditional view of the top of the building:



The one odd encounter of the weekend in Pittsburgh was when my wife and I were taking pictures of the fiberglass dinosaurs in the central plaza. A security guard came up and told us that while some pictures were okay, we couldn't take pictures of the entire building for security reasons. He explained that the plaza was private property and they could make up any rules they wanted.

I shrugged my shoulders since I had already taken some photos of the full building, but I worry about the post 9-11 paranoia that has been used to restrict the rights of photographers. It's all petty posturing and phony protection. While I would hate to have anything happen to this architectural icon, I can't imagine terrorists using my Flickr site as a planning tool.

Nevertheless, I am flattered to finally get noticed amongst such talented entrants and it just spurs me to try harder. This week's topic is 'decay.' Hmmm, I regularly ride my bike past some abandoned buildings along the Patapsco River. We'll see what happens.

Duffing About Duffy Square

Last weekend, my wife and I took the Megabus up to New York to see Blithe Spirit with the ever sexy Angela Lansbury. We took the early 7:30 bus which got us up there in time to have a leisurely lunch with sangria and still have an hour to kill before we had to mosey over to the theater. Since it was a beautiful Spring day we decided to hang out on the Duffy Square steps to nowhere they have built over the TKTS booth.

This is a near perfect people watching place. To kill the time I decided to discreetly take candid shots of the other tourists hanging around with me. As always, I've made a Flickr set, but here are some of my favorites with some additional commentary.



The primary purpose of being in Duffy Square is to buy the half price tickets at the TKTS booth. Here two girls are reading the list of what is available "on the board." If you were there on Saturday you could have seen the Off-Broadway production of Rooms, which we saw in DC a few months ago.



If you can't decide what you want to see, there are usually some hawkers handing out fliers for some of the older shows. There were two girls in red tights and bowler hats pimping Chicago. I don't know how well they were selling the show, but the girls were very popular as lots of folks just wanted to have their picture taken with them.



The great thing about Times Square is that wandering around holding a camera is seen as perfectly natural. One of my meta-quirks is that I like taking pictures of people taking pictures. I snapped these guys just as their flash went off, creating that cool flare look. If you look at the full size version, you can see where I photoshopped out somebody's hand.



And I was hardly the only person taking pictures of random strangers. These two had some serious gear. Here they are watching the Chicago girls posing with the guy in the picture above. And they weren't the only ones with serious camera equipment. Both photo and video.



And where there are cameras, there are buskers, none more famous than the Naked Cowboy (first mentioned by me here) who stands around posing with people's wives, mothers, girlfriends, and teenage daughters while groping their asses and getting paid for it. But he has a rare gift. A boxer in red underoos and a Statue of Liberty lady were doing terrible business.



And while lots of people are gawking or socializing or picnicking, some others just want to rest and read and catch up on their required geek-lit before seeing the film.



And if you get tired of reading, the top of the stairs makes for the best place around to take a nap.



The cutest kid in Times Square was in no need of a nap. This little toddler ran his mom and dad ragged as he climbed up and down the steps while they tried to keep an eye out on him while snapping photos of him looking adorable.



Most everybody ignored me as I took their picture but this woman on the Duffy Square steps kept eying me suspiciously. I think she was just worried about some creepy stranger approaching her. Hey, what's the fun of having a camera if you can't take pictures of beautiful women?

BlatantCommentWhoring™: Where is your favorite people-watching place?

Carolina Blues

The Georgia Tech – North Carolina game that I went to this weekend quickly turned sour for the Jackets and I began to turn to other ways to amuse myself while the Tarheels had the ball, which was frequently. I turned to a philosophical question that had bugged me since I pulled into a parking lot full of people dressed in every variation of light blue regalia: Did God so love North Carolina that he made the sky Carolina Blue.

While a casual scoping out of the stands on this cloudless afternoon sure made it seem so, I decided I needed some photographic evidence to examine. For example, this photo of the east stands has a beautiful gradiant colored sky that would let you pick about any shade of blue you wanted.



Part of this effect is due to the polarizing filter I had on my normal lens that really makes the sky “pop” out under the right conditions. For example, the sky in the background of this picture of GT Pep Band (my son is completely obscured, so no use trying to spot him) is so dark it looks like a storm is brewing. And this one is even darker.



One of the Photoshop Elements features that I have become enamored with is the photostitch function that makes panoramas from groups of pictures. Here is my wide angle double picture of the stadium.



I did my best to keep the exposures exactly the same but there is still a fringe of tone change in the sky right where the two pictures overlap. The picture on the left was at 1/200 second and the one on the right was 1/250 second and you wouldn't think it makes that much difference but it does. I’m sure someone with madder skilz than me could blur and sponge and gradient that right out, but it still shows that the shade of the sky is rather subjective.

To better isolate the colors, I switched to my telephoto lens and took the filter off. Here is a close-up of the flag flying at the north end of the stadium. As you can see, the foliage on this fine Fall day was just blazing with color of its own.

Thanks to the miracle of Photoshop, I can take that flag out of the trees and put it right against the sky.

And while I hate to give credit to a rival ACC team, I have to admit to the fidelity of that particular shade of light blue. If the sky isn’t Carolina Blue, then it ought to be.

BlatantCommentWhoring™: What color is the sky in your world?