Tag Archives: reflection

Országház

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The Hungarian parliament building — seen on a river cruise through Budapest, Hungary:

Országház

This striking building was built between 1885 and 1904, and as you can see, bears a strong resemblance to the Palace of Westminster (seat of the U.K. parliament) in London. This was no accident, as Hungarian reformers of the time looked to Britain as their political role model. Accordingly, the Hungarians also wanted to make their parliament building *just a little bigger* than the British model — but ironically, slight construction errors added up, and the end result was slightly smaller than Westminster.

In any event, it’s still a beautiful sight at night, reflected in the waves of the Danube river.

EXIF:
OM System OM-1 camera, M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro II lens
ISO 2000, 12mm, f/3.5, 1/30 sec, 2-photo panorama

Beanrise

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So it just now occurred to me that I took a huge number of photos on a trip to Chicago a few years back, and somehow neglected to get more than a handful out on the internet to date.

That being said, here’s a shot I took of a Chicago sunrise, partially reflected in the Cloud Gate sculpture (a.k.a. “the bean”) in Millennium Park:

Beanrise

For those interested in visiting, I’ll be writing up a post in the next week or so with tips on photography of and with Cloud Gate; as public sculpture goes, it’s a particularly fun object to work with photographically.

Enter the Bean

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I almost titled this one “Self-portrait of Tripod,” given that I made this shot on self-timer so I wouldn’t be in it.  As a result, though, you can see over a dozen reflections of my camera on its tripod.

Enter the Bean

The reflector in this case is, of course, the “Cloud Gate” sculpture (a.k.a. “The Bean”) in Chicago’s Millennium Park.  This is taken from under the middle of it (officially called the omphalos, Greek for “navel”).  You can also get distorted shots of the weather and local architecture by using Cloud Gate’s exterior reflections.

Loads of fun, but you need to get there early unless you want to make photographs with lots of people in them.  Remind me to do a full writeup on photography of / with The Bean some day…

Morning comes to Flores

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Sunrise in Flores, Guatemala:

Morning comes to Flores

We didn’t get to spend much time in Flores on our autumn trip to the Yucatan — really, just a night sandwiched between the ruins of Tikal and our flight east to Belize.  But we had a great night on the island, and were greeted in the morning by this amazing sunrise.

The original part of Flores (where we stayed) is an island in Lake Peten Itza — it was once the last Maya holdout (from the conquistadors) in the Yucatan peninsula.  Now the island is connected to the mainland by a causeway, and the town of Flores covers more ground there than on the island.

Frosty mirror

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A few nights ago, we took advantage of a warmer night to check out the “Blossoms of Light” display at the Denver Botanic Gardens.  They put on a nice show, as always, and it hasn’t been as warm since — so, fortunate timing.

Frosty mirror

I took this shot toward the north end of the gardens; with the lens closed down to f/22, a nice long exposure erased the slow parade of other viewers along the path…

Bubbles in the grass

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Another quick reminder to be open to images even when / where you weren’t expecting them:

Bubbles in the grass

I caught this image when my daughter and I were walking around looking at the balloons at this year’s Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. One of the trinkets on sale at the fiesta’s concession booths was a battery-powered bubble blower. Here, a kid had just run past blowing bubbles — thanks to an overnight rain, the grass was still wet, so the bubbles didn’t pop on contact with the ground.

The technicolor reflections make for a fun (semi-abstract) shadow self-portrait…