architecture

Vinoy Renaissance Hotel Mahaffey Theater The Pier St Petersburg Landmarks at twilight

in

Vinoy Renaissance Hotel east view - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 3-exposure HDR handheld

Through my DSLR Photography teaching I am often out with students around various St. Petersburg landmarks.  Each of the three photographs in this post were made on different days while out on a lesson in the evening time.  

The HDR image above is of the Vinoy Renaissance Hotel & Resort looking at it from the east along 5th Ave North.  At this time the setting sun was sidelighting the hotel and the tall palm trees in front of it.  The lighting is what made me stop and suggest to the student I was with that she photograph it from this angle.  I made my own shot of the hotel.  I knew HDR would produce the best results so even though I did not have my tripod with me I steadied my shooting position and fired off a 3-bracket exposure.  

Mahaffey Theater east view - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 7-exposure HDR tripod mountedThe Mahaffey Theater was not the primary subject matter during this particular photography lesson, the new Dali Museum was, but I had always liked the architecture of the Mahaffey even when it had this area all to itself.  The sky was a fantastic purple that evening.  

The Pier at twilight south view - Nikon D300 Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D @ f/8 ISO 200 1/80th handheldThe Pier is by far the most well known landmark of St. Petersburg, and perhaps the one with the least amount of life left as three new designs to replace the inverted pyramid have just been finalized by the city.  This landmark is most often photographed from the north and west, so I was glad to have a unique chance to photograph it from the south from a restricted access point at a marina I was able to get access to thanks to the photography student's mom having a boat docked there.  

Tokyo Japan Skyscrapers - Roppongi Hills Tokyo Midtown Tokyo Tower

in ,

Tokyo Tower (center) Tokyo Midtown skyscraper (right) - Nikon D300 with Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 1/50th single exposure (not HDR)

Yesterday I was going through my photography archives searching for a shot (daytime beach) that might be usable for a potential client when I came across these shots of the Tokyo skyline.  They were made from the balcony of a Russian photographer friend who had an amazing condo in central Tokyo.  All these shots are the views he gets to enjoy everyday!  If I recall, his condo was on about the 22nd floor.  The time was around 4:30pm in February of 2009, when the sun sets not so long after 5pm, which is why it already looks like dusk on this overcast day.  None of these shots are HDR, which was just starting to get popular again around 2009.  It is possible to get vivid detail and color without HDR if shooting during the best light of day.

Tokyo Tower (left) Tokyo Midtown skyscraper (2nd from left) Roppongi Hills skyscraper (center-right) - Nikon D300 f/11 ISO 400 1/250th single exposure (not HDR)Just as my photography career was starting to take off in Japan, I was set to move back to Florida.  This was the last time I visited with my Russian photographer friend.  

Tokyo Midtown is the middle skyscraper in the above shot and at the time was the newest mega-office-entertainment-shopping building.  The shops on the lower floors were great, if you had at least $500 for the cheapest item seemingly.  Roppongi Hills is the right-most skyscraper, and was the previous title holder of newest mega-office-entertainment-shopping building.  Roppongi Hills remained the far more interesting architecturally, and is home to the best movie theater I have ever been to.  

Roppongi Hills in detail from up high - Nikon D300 with Nikkor AF ED 80-200mm f/2.8D lens @ f/11 ISO 400 1/160th single exposure (not HDR)I am glad to have these photographs to remind me of my last visit with a friend I am probably never going to see again.  I still follow his work on flickr (Vladimir Zakharov) as he never ceases to find new roof top views to photograph.

New Salvador Dali Museum St. Petersburg Florida

in ,

The new Salvador Dali Museum of St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 with Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/11 ISO 200 7-bracket HDR with partial blend of a single image on Induro CT214 tripod with cable releaseThe appearance of any new piece of architecture within a photographer's city is an opportunity to create a defining shot of it.  I am far from the first local photographer to make photos of the new Salvador Dali Museum here in St. Petersburg, Florida, and even farther from producing the defining shot.  Moris Moreno has already made those shots (view here).  When I did a search to see what photos of the museum already existed, finding and viewing Moreno's shots were humbling.  

I finally photographed the new Dali Museum mostly because a commercial client wanted a shot of it to use for cross promotional purposes.  They required only a single shot which is the above.  I then went back on another occasion to use the museum grounds as the site of a DSLR Photography Lesson and made a few more shots during that time.

The above shot represents the culmination of all my HDR shooting skills, plus my increasing use of masking.  I will describe this editing technique in detail in an upcoming post.  It also helps now that I am using a professional level tripod, an Induro CT214 with Induro BDH2 ballhead.  Again, a review of those sticks will be coming soon.

The glass waterfall of the new St. Petersburg Salvador Dali Museum - Nikon D300 with Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens @ f/11 ISO 200 7-bracket HDR with partial blend of a singe image on Induro CT214 tripod with cable releaseThe main architectural flair of the museum exterior is a so-called waterfall of glass flowing narrowly from the east facing roof of the building to a wider flow along ground level wrapping around the north side.  Using an HDR technique to photograph the triangular glass panels up close allows for being able to see inside the glass while keeping the sky correctly exposed.

The Mahaffey Theater (right) has a new neighbor in the Salvador Dali Museum - Nikon D300 with Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/11 ISO 200 1/250th 3-shot panorama on Induro CT214 tripod with cable releaseI always liked the Mahaffey Theater's glass architecture feature, and now it is complemented with the glass waterfall of the Dali Museum.  The buildings are not exactly in a popular area of downtown St. Petersburg, more on the outskirts of it.  The only times I passed this area in the past were on exploratory cycling trips.  The roads are wide, smooth and empty in this area, great for cycling.

Melting Time bench at new Salvador Dali Museum St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 with Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D lens @ f/11 ISO 200 1/400th single frame handheldThe grounds of the museum before the glass waterfall contain a well landscaped garden inlcuding a melting time bench reminding one that they are still in the world of Dali.  It is details like that, an extra expense no doubt, that add a lot to the visiting experience.  I did not sit on the bench myself, for time already moves in strange ways for me.  I did not want to risk any further altered perceptions.

Handwritten note adorning a tree at the new Dali Museum in St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 with Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D lens @ f/2.8 ISO 200 1/8000th single frame handheldAnother great feature of the Dali garden was a tree adorned with long green streamers to which people afixed handwritten notes with clothespins.  Some just tied their entrance wristbands to the streamers.  Whoever thought of this came up with a really great idea to give a visitor a sense of what other people experienced and felt on their visits.  No matter how good digital communication gets, the power of the handwritten note/letter/document just cannot be denied.  Penmanship is just as much a representation of a person's character as anything else.  When I formally go to the museum as a visitor, I will take the time to add my own handwritten remembrence.

St Petersburg Downtown Sky View Architecture & Panoramas

in ,

Signature St Petersburg Condo skyscraper - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/11 ISO 200 5-bracket HDR (handheld)I had been thinking a lot the past few days how long it had been since I went out and just shot for fun, for myself.  Last week photography friend Wade suggested we join NPPF's meetup in downtown St. Petersburg.  I said sure, let's do it.  Then when one NPPF member said we can shoot from the top of the condo building he lives in, equivalent to the 28th floor, I thought wow, can get some new shots of an area I have photographed already almost every which way.  

Downtown St. Petersburg waterfront 6-shot panorama - click to view LARGEI had also been wanting to give Photoshop CS5's great Photomerge action another try, but one cannot just easily create a compelling panorama just anywhere.  However, an open wraparound viewing area twenty-eight stories up is certainly a compelling area.  

Nikon D300 with Tamron XR Di II 17-50mm f/2.8 lens @ f/11 ISO 200 5-bracket HDR (handheld)The rooftop we were on was adjacent to downtown St. Petersburg's newest skyline addition, Signature St. Petersburg, a very aggressive modern condo skyscraper that dominated our southern view, and thus received a lot of lens attention from myself and everyone else in the group.  I taught a DSLR Photography Lesson on architecture back in March using the skyscraper as a subject matter.

South of Downtown St. Petersburg 6-shot panorama - click to view LARGEI like having a high view.  For four years in Tokyo I lived on the 11th floor of a building with views of downtown Shinjuku and the sunset.  I liked being able to step out onto my balcony and survey all the land before me.  There is nothing quite like having a sweeping, bird's eye view.

Nikon D300 with Nikkor AF-S 105mm VR micro f/2.8G lens @ f/16 ISO 200This was the second time in a week of being high up in a condo with a view of downtown St. Petersburg after never being more than a few stories off the ground in a year and a half.  Beholding such a view is starting to feel contagious, although living so high up with a thirsty puppy needing half a dozen bathroom breaks a day would not be so convenient.  

5th DSLR Photography Lesson with Rosa - Architecture

in

Rosa using her Canon T1i to photograph some of the modern architecture in downtown St Petersburg

My longest tenured DSLR Photography Lesson student, Rosa, just took her 5th lesson on Sunday (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th).  Thank you Rosa for your continued interest in photography lessons!  We have already covered many topics, including using external flash for portraits, photographing your children playing sports, as well as shooting in low light.  For our 5th lesson we focused on architecture, and briefly on macro, one of the most challenging forms of photography.  As is often the case, downtown St. Petersburg served as the backdrop.  

I like to have foreground objects when photographing architecture whenever possible.

Of course, as with most forms of outdoor photography, the best time to photography architecture is during the golden hours around sunrise and sunset.  Given that our lesson was from 10am to 12pm, we focused more on what I think is the other key to architecture photography besides the light, that is, angles.  The angles you can find in any given structure of interest are what I usually focus on first, then the next angle is the angle I will compose my photograph from.  

Rosa started to find her own interesting angles as our lesson went on, which to me is the goal of these lessons - to point the student in the right direction then let them go where their own creativity takes them.  

Thanks again to Rosa and I look forward to even more lessons on into 2010.

Bank of America Tower St. Petersburg Florida

in

The tallest building in St. Petersburg, Florida - Bank of America TowerI photographed an event in Bank of America Tower in downtown Saint Petersburg last week.  At the time I did not know it was the tallest building around.  Having lived in Tokyo though, it is not exactly a tower to me.  The inside is actually more impressive than the outside.  I really liked the late afternoon light filtering through the glass-walled lobby.  I have a shot of that I will put in a future Photo Story post.

For post processing on this shot I did my most advanced cloning work yet.  There was a street lamp right in the middle of the lower building.  Can you tell where?  I also used one of Aperture 3's new brushes, the dodge brush, to lighten up the building's face.  

I like doing architecture photography, but do not often make the time for it.  

Roppongi Hills Skyscraper Architecture at Night

in

Because of its changing lights, you may never photograph Roppongi Hills at night the same way twice.

I was doing a little cleaning house in my photography archives when I came across this image I made in December 2008.  I was still living in Tokyo.  The center skyscraper is Roppongi Hills, home to an art museum and the best movie theater in the whole metropolis.  This was not so long after I first got the Tamron XR Di II 17-50mm lens.  This image was made handheld at f/2.8.  In my current photographic mind I cannot help but think, "you should have shot at f/8 and used a tripod!"  

The structures at the foot of Roppongi Hills form a fun labyrinth to find all kinds of angles and perspectives to photograph architecture from.  Roppongi Hills itself pulses different lights almost every night, if not different in color then different in pattern.  The lights travel up the sides of the building floor by floor, like the belly of a snake as it flexes a continuing muscle.

It is always crowded closer to the Roppongi Hills building itself (where in Tokyo isn't?), but the structures at its base are largely untraveled so that a photographer may work in peace.  

If you have any shots of Roppongi Hills at night, please share them in the comments below.