There is a office/retail complex plaza in Pasadena, California just behind the City Hall on E. Union St. and N. Los Robles Ave. that has walls of these art tiles on display.  Plaza las Fuentes is very nicely laid out to blend old Episcopal church and city hall with new office, hotel and retail space.  But the photo opportunity here are these tile walls.  I did not have my tripod with me when I came across them and would have preferred to have used one to have captured the various tiled wall sections straight on and more level.  But regardless this is a great Pasadena photography spot to capture some beautiful colors and shapes.

Phoenix Storm Cloud Photography

These images were taken from the campus of Point Loma Nazarene University which sits atop cliffs over looking the Pacific Ocean.  I started out going to Cabrillo National Monument to take sunset photos, but that closes at 5 pm, long before the sun sets in summer.  So a road side sign pointed to a “coastal view” and voila.  All of these images are HDR composites of 5 different exposures.

I wrote about Photographing a Theme to Beat Photographer’s Block a while back and I have been having fun with approaching my photography with a theme in mind.  My latest theme photo shoot was metal.   The great thing about doing a shoot like this is you  are only limited by your imagination.  A theme of metal does not need to limit you to only the obvious metal object.  Once you start shooting you may end up going down a different path or interpret your theme in a way you hadn’t thought of originally.  But that is the whole point, to get your creativity flowing, so go with wherever it takes you.

In the case of my metal theme, beside obvious metal objects, I looked at things like shadows created by metal objects, the contrast between metal and its surroundings, and pattern in metal.

This photo collection was taken at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, AZ on a moon lit night.  I used a light painting technique where you shine the outer edge of a flashlight beam (not the full center light) on to  your subject for about 1/3rd of your exposure time.  So for the 15 second exposure you leave the flashlight on for about 5 seconds.  Then you turn the light off and continue with the exposure.  This provides enough light to highlight the subject without making it appear as though it was day light.  These photographs had the advantage of a full moon night so there was an additional source of light that a moonless night would not provide.  In addition, the garden is in the city so the ambient light was brighter than it would be in an isolated or rural area.  You will need to keep the other sources of light in mind when deciding how long to leave the flashlight on the subject.  The 1/3rd is just a guideline, not a rule.  Experiment with different exposures and amounts of time you leave the flashlight on to see what works best for your subject and lighting conditions.

You can see more architectural photography at the Getty Center in yesterday’s post.

The Getty Center sits atop a hill in the Santa Monica Mountains just outside of Los Angeles.  The center is made up of several buildings, gardens and open spaces that sit on a 110 acre site.  You enter into a subterranean parking garage and ascend to the white hilltop structure via tram, emerging onto a plaza with expansive views.  Designed by Richard Meier the Getty Center strays a bit from his traditional white structures.  Although there is plenty of white the  1.2 million square feet of Italian travertine dominate the design.  Glass also plans an important role in the Getty Center.  It is used in abundance and fills the interior spaces with natural light.  The architecture alone is worth a visit then there is the bonus of these buildings being filled with beautiful works of art.

It is free to get into the center itself, but there is a $15 charge to park.  But parking is free after 5 pm and on Saturdays they are open until 9 pm.

Check back tomorrow for more images from the Getty Center.