Hard Rock Hotel at the Carbide and Carbon Building, Chicago, USA

weekly update 004 - 2016-11-07 - Up close and personal with Chicago's Architecture

November 7, 2016

This week we are up close with the extraordinary architecture that characterises the downtown area of Chicago. With a mixture of modern steel and glass skyscrapers, stone gothic facades and wonderful art-deco details, it makes for great images for all architecture enthusiasts. The raised lines of the "L" train give a different view of the streets and buildings, by elevating us above the normal viewpoint of the buildings facade at ground level. As the picture above illustrates, this city is a must for all lovers of art-deco, with the Carbide and Carbon Building being just one of the many, beautifully preserved, examples of that style present in the city. Hope to stay there next time, and see what it looks like on the inside.

This marks my last post focused on Chicago, and next week I'll move on to show the wonders of the last leg of the USA trip of 2015, the historical city of Boston, Massachusetts. The days spent in Chicago left me with the need to come back and delve deeper into the history and architecture of the Windy City, of the three cities it was the one that inspired me the most.

I'll leave today with one of my favourite shots from those few days in Chicago, taken under a viaduct that connects to the Navy Pier. Street art and derelict spaces are always attractive and make for great subjects. Here the tricky light made it even more compelling, giving it an almost ethereal vibe to the street grime.
Until next week,
APN

Chi.Town Green Dragon & Cubs Geixa, Chicago, USA

#project365 year1 [day 014] up the stairs

June 14, 2016

External fire escape stairs always fascinated me, maybe because they are such an uncommon sight in european architecture. So when I was in the US I took lots of photos of early 20th century buildings with external metal staircases. This example is from Chicago city center.

-- Gear
Fujifilm X-T1
Fujifilm XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6R LM OIS WR
-- Post
Lightroom : Initial tone and final crop.
Photoshop: Clean up and sharpening.
NikCollection Color Efex Pro 4: Toning and Detail extraction.

#project365 year1 [day 001] Dailies from Scotland

June 1, 2016

Starting off the Year 1 of my #project365 with the dailies from my trip through Scotland. First stop the beautiful Edinburgh, and the art-deco/brutalist building of the Scottish Government.

-- Gear
Fujifilm X-T1
FUJINON XF18-135mm F3.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR

-- Post
Lightroom : Initial toning and levels
Nik's Silver Efex Pro : B&W conversion

#project365 [day 63] 1 Wall Street

November 2, 2015

In the most well known street of Lower Manhattan, New York City, you can find this great example of Art-Deco Architecture. Not that it is hard to find Art-Deco examples all over NYC. But on the narrow Wall Street this one stands out. Known as the BNY Mellon building since 2007, is was originally built in 1931 for the Irving Trust Company and designed by Ralph Walker. Standing fifty stories high and 199m tall, has a steel skeleton with limestone covering the facade.

-- Gear
Fujifilm X-T1
Fujifilm XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6R LM OIS WR
-- Post
Lightroom : Initial tone, final crop and vignette
Photoshop: Minor clean up and sharpening.
NikCollection Color Efex Pro 4: Toning and Detail extraction

#project365[day 55] 745 Fifth Avenue, NYC

October 25, 2015

Located close to the southeast corner of Central Park is a Art Deco masterpiece. 745 Fifth Av. is a stereotypical Art Deco office building skyscraper, designed by Buchman & Kahn and finished by 1931, that is 34 stories high. The entrance is a brass and brushed nickel grille with intersecting vertical and horizontal lines reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright's glasswork.
This building could easily be the inspiration for a city hall, a police headquarters, or a private detective's office in any number of pre-World War Two comic books.

-- Gear
Fujifilm X-T1
Fujifilm XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6R LM OIS WR
-- Post
Lightroom : Initial tone, final crop and vignette
Photoshop: Minor clean up and sharpening.
NikCollection Color Efex Pro 4: Toning and Detail extraction

#project365 [day 52] Rockefeller Center Atlas

October 22, 2015

The largest sculpture in the Art Deco haven that is the Rockefeller Center in midtown Manhattan, NYC, depicts the Ancient Greek Titan Atlas. Weighing in at 7 tonnes, this bronze statue is 14m tall, that's about as high as a four-story building. It was created by sculptor Lee Lawrie and was installed in 1937 to some strange controversy, it apparently resembled the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini who as in power at the time. The statue is located on the Fifth Avenue, just in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral. It's gothic facade is clearly visible on the reflections in the glass, although somewhat more deconstructed that what it is in reality.
I decided to crop this down to a 6 by 7 format, not only because it reminds me of my trusted old Mamiya RB67, but it also makes for a more formal view giving more weight to the statue in the frame

-- Gear
Fujifilm X-T1
Fujifilm XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6R LM OIS WR
-- Post
Lightroom : Initial tone, final crop and vignette
Photoshop: Minor clean up and sharpening.
NikCollection Color Efex Pro 4: Toning and Detail extraction

#project365 [day 35] Departments of Health, Hospitals and Sanitation

October 5, 2015

In lower Manhattan there is an area dominated by public service buildings, in a few blocks you can find the City Hall, Tweed Courthouse, Court of International Trade, Supreme Court and the Department of Health, Hospitals and Sanitation.

Huge monolithic buildings, mostly made of stone and largely in the Art Deco style. This facade has a wonderful weathered stone and some very intricate metal detailing. I couldn't find any information on the building itself, would be interesting to find out who designed it and when it was built.

-- Gear
Fujifilm X-T1
Fujifilm XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6R LM OIS WR
-- Post
Lightroom : Crop, tone and vignette
Photoshop: Sharpening and clean up
NikCollection Color Efex Pro 4: Toning and Detail extraction

#project365 [day 32] Metal Rats of NYC’s Grand Central

October 2, 2015

On the canopy above the entrance to the Grand Central Station near the corner of 43rd St and Lexington Avenue are three cast metal rats just below the rat guards on the support rods. Evidently the architects (Sloan and Robertson) of the building had done prior buildings with a nautical theme; but I couldn’t find any explanation for their presence in this building.

A wonderful and enigmatic detail that most commuters, and tourists, pass under daily without noticing.

One of the great advantages of carrying a long zoom lens, 18-135mm [27-203] in my case, is that it allows me to capture small details that a standard zoom wouldn’t isolate. This has become my default lens when travelling and in most walkabouts around town, since these days the f5.6 max aperture doesn’t really hinder me that much.

-- Gear
Fujifilm X-T1
Fujifilm XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6R LM OIS WR
-- Post
Lightroom : Initial toning and final crop
Photoshop: Sharpening and clean up
NikCollection Color Efex Pro 4: Toning and Detail extraction