inspired photography with just enough perspective
In St. Augustine at the Lightner Museum there is a cafe built inside a pool. The pool was build in 1889 as part of the Hotel Alcazar and in it’s time was the largest indoor pool in the world. It’s an unusual sight to be sure and on the day we arrived at the peak of the season we didn’t have a reservation. However, from what I could see there are few cafes that can compete with the ambiance as you are surrounded by priceless artifacts from the museum. Swim suits not required.
There is a building in Vancouver that has a waterfall over a hallway leading from the lobby. On several occasions I’ve tried to capture it but I think the night exposure conveys the feeling of it best. It really does look like something out of this world, or perhaps something you might see at a Disney resort. In any case, I’m sure I’m not the first photographer to be captivated by this, …or the last.
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Walking around Vancouver you can be forgiven if you become a little blase at the overflow of outstanding architecture. This is just one more lobby that I’ll walk by from time to time. Coming from a small town in Florida, I never get tired of this, it’s so unlike anything I normally see on a daily basis.
Follow link to purchase a limited edition print of this photo.
This particular shot was taken at night, and as normally the case with these I press the button and the camera starts about its work which can take a minute or two. I’ll usually just daydream or look the other way and wait for the clicking to stop. Right after I pressed the button on this I heard a woman yell and I immediately thought I was doing something wrong, perhaps taking pictures of someone’s private Cherry Blossoms? I had no idea. It turns out there was a man walking a dog and the dog was, well, answering the call of nature on this grass in front of the lady’s house and she was yelling at the man. The dog was oblivious, the man was embarrassed, and the lady continued to yell. So while all this was going on I was stuck there waiting for my camera to finish this HDR exposure. Let’s just say it was a long sixty seconds after which I quickly picked up my camera and tripod and headed off. (Note to self: always carry poop bags when walking my own dogs).
North Vancouver city hall and civic center are designed with a minimalist theme that evokes the modern designs of someplace in Scandinavia. To get here I crossed the Vancouver Harbour in a ferry and trekked up the hill for about a kilometer or so. Turning around I had a panoramic view of Vancouver across the bay and jagged rocky peaks at my back, it’s hard to imagine a more scenic location in a cosmopolitain setting. These are my impressions of the architecture at the North Vancouver city hall.
I almost ruined our mini-vacation by booking a hotel room about 90 miles away from our destination. It was a good thing I checked out the drive using the hotel address on Google maps the day before we left. When reality sunk in I begged and pleaded my way into the last hotel room at our original destination. Not knowing the town I didn’t know what to expect, however this is the first thing we saw when we approached the check-in desk. I came back to take this photo early the next day when the lobby was empty. This is the lobby of the Casa Monica in St. Augustine, Florida.
This is what happens when you focus the lens in the wrong direction. Actually, at the base of this building is a colorful sculpture that I was determined to capture, but instead focused up as I was captivated by this building. (Hey, I’m from a small town.) My mind wanders from time to time, and sometimes I just gotta go with it. You know, that whole right brain, left brain thing…
In Florida where I live it seems that a lot of small banks have been purchased by big Canadian banks. They’ll put up a new sign and logo which I then recognize as Canadian. Other than the new logo, the buildings are fairly nondescript as many local banks tend to be. However, when I walked by the same bank on a busy street in Vancouver, well, there’s something to look at. In any case, here’s to the architecture of Canadian banks…, in Canada.
It was with these words that our guide (an upperclassman two weeks away from graduation) introduced us to the dining hall at Flagler College, a four year liberal arts school with the distinction of having some of the most impressive architecture in Florida. The college was built as the Ponce de Leon hotel for the well to do back in the gilded era. Imagine eating your tacos before class surrounded by priceless Tiffany widows and fourteen carrot gold chandeliers. From the looks on some of the faces at lunch when we dropped in, they couldn’t have cared less.
This is the entrance to Castillo de San Marcos in St Augustine, Florida. I got here for this shot just after sunrise. For a couple of hundred years this draw bridge was a crucial link to the outside, and for weeks it would be raised as the fort was under siege. Possession of the fort has changed six times through various treaties over the centuries, yet it was never defeated in battle. However, if you come here a couple hours after sunrise, you just might be defeated by the tens of thousands that visit this sturdy bastion daily. I wonder if the Spanish had that in mind when they built it.
