Postcards from the Creative Journey

Last Man Out

 

Well, here’s the last square peg photograph from the Hastings Building. The show went down on Wednesday so there is no reason to promote the exhibit any longer. This photograph was the last photograph not to be included in “The Edge of Forgotten.” Sadly, a rejection is a rejection whether or not you are the first or last rejected. I liked this image because it had several shapes and textures working together showing the detailed craftsmanship put into this building. It lost out to the very last photograph in the “The Edge of Forgotten” folio. That image also showed the detail of the railing and wainscoting and also included a partially open door. It was that extra element of the door that made this photograph a square peg instead of being in the folio.

Not seeing with the camera's eye

 

I really liked the way this image set up with a whole host of tall rectangular shapes. There are great, tones, textures and the gloves left on the floor. (Really they were left there, I didn’t put them there.) And that’s what I saw. I didn’t see that nice rectangular window on the right side of the frame. Well, I saw it, and I didn’t see it how the camera would see it. That is the lesson learned here. To see as the camera sees, that is important when you are composing. Not how you see, not how you want to see, but how your camera sees. If I was really smart, I would have made a second exposure favoring a view of Puget Sound through the window and made some HDR mishmash out of this. I forgot about that too. That’s why this photograph is in the square peg blog and not part of the final project.

Y'all come back - and make more photographs

 

This is a nice photograph, framing the scene in a vertical rectangle. It begins in the upper left corner with water stains that go down the wall and then picks up ascending groups of vertical rectangles which end with a large window on the right side of the image. A lost chandelier holds down the blank space at the top of the image. This would be a great image if I did not come back the next day and make two others that were better than this one. The thought to remember is the more time you spend in an area, the more time you spend looking, the better your photographs will be. Minor White said something along the lines that you should be still until the object reveals itself to you. Don’t be in a hurry to move. Don’t be afraid to come back and take more photographs. You will see better the second or third time you look at something.

Lobby of the Hastings Building

 

The third consecutive photograph of the Hastings Building emphasizes the sixteen foot ceilings and a second floor atrium. While spectacular, this feature reduced the rentable space and doomed the building as a commercial success. I am fond of saying the only two things important in photography are where you stand and when you press the shutter. In this photograph, the vantage point is very close to the floor and looking up. This allowed me to include the floor to ceiling view and the relatively wide angle lens distortion played well into the low camera position.

Informally formal arrangements

 

Week two of outtakes from the Hastings Building puts us in one of the repurposed kitchens in the building. While the conversion of an office building to apartments means many compromises in the design and function of the building that does not excuse the photographer from making sure the images are composed properly. A very formal geometric pattern is set up with the rectangular shape of the sink and shelves. The regular geometrics of the wallpaper continue the theme of rectangles. The jumble of curves on the stacked chairs and the stylishly dated floral pattern provides the counterpoint to the regular geometry of the scene. All of these found objects don’t mean much until they are light with wonderful directional light filtered through grime covered windows and softened by twenty feet of unoccupied room.