Fotoeins Fotografie

location bifurcation, place & home

Posts tagged ‘downtown’

Arnott's advertisement, Museum station, Sydney, Australia, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: Arnott’s in the Museum (Sydney)

This post is the fourth of five Fotoeins Fridays in June, all from Australia’s most populous city, Sydney.

When I was working as an astronomer in Chile, I discovered from Australian colleagues the delectable Tim Tam biscuit by Arnott’s; the ‘classic’ caramel is my downfall. I questioned how I had gone so long without having had the beaut of a Tim Tam. For a company with long traditions in region and country, it’s fitting the advertisement shown here is mounted on the wall of a historical urban rail station in Sydney’s CBD/downtown.

I made the photo above on 2 April 2013 with the Canon 450D, 18-55 kit-glass, and the following settings: 1/6-sec, f/3.5, ISO400, and 18mm focal length (29mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie on fotoeins.com at https://wp.me/p1BIdT-bGb.

Australia Square, Curtin Place, Sydney CBD, Sydney, Australia, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: metro dash, afternoon rush in Sydney’s CBD

This post is the first of five Fotoeins Fridays in June, all from Australia’s most populous city, Sydney.

On my second visit to Sydney, I’ve been slowly walking the streets of the city’s CBD (central business district or downtown area). It’s been warm here with temperatures in the low +20s C (70s F) during the first week of spring. I’ve just departed the Museum of Sydney and when I’ve reached Australia Square, the sun is setting directly in front of me at Curtin Place. With manual settings to the smallest aperture and long exposures, I raise my camera as a city bus races down the street.

I made the photo above on 29 September 2010 with the Canon 450D, 18-55 kit-glass, and the following settings: 3-sec, f/29, ISO800, and 49mm focal length (78mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins.com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-5qZ.

The Spheres, Amazon Spheres, 6th and Lenora, Amazon, Denny Regrade, Denny Triangle, Seattle, Washington, fotoeins.com

My Seattle: curious glowing Amazon Spheres

Above: (A) The Spheres, northeast from 6th Avenue and Lenora Street (HL).

Glowing glass forms appear around the corner as if they’ve risen suddenly from the ground, eliciting odd looks and interested inquiries from passersby.

On Amazon’s urban campus at the feet of towers Day One and Doppler, The Spheres are located in downtown Seattle on Lenora Street between 6th Avenue and 7th Avenue. The futuristic structures provide a highly visible centre of attention for the electronic-commerce and -computing company. Three intersecting glass and steel half-spheres will contain a botanic garden to include exotic plants, waterfalls, and treehouses, and workspaces to further cultivate creativity by and collaboration among Amazon employees. The grand opening is scheduled for 18 January 2018.

The construction development projects are part of the joint efforts by NBBJ and Amazon to regenerate the Denny Regrade area with ample office space for the world headquarters of Amazon, and additional space for retail and public facilities.

The Spheres, Amazon Spheres, 7th and Lenora, Amazon, Denny Regrade, Denny Triangle, Seattle, Washington, fotoeins.com

(B) The Spheres, northwest from 7th and Lenora (HL).

Seattle Municipal Archives, item no. 4011

(C) Seattle Municipal Archives, item no. 4011.

Denny Hill was regraded and removed in multiple phases between 1898 and 1931. In the 1930 picture above (C), the 2017 Spheres in image (B) would be located to the right of the utility pole between the two cars in the foreground and the digging excavator in the background.

I made photos (A) and (B) above on 10 December 2017. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins.com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-aVe.

Restless, Hebrú Brantley, street art, downtown Seattle, Seattle, USA, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: “I C U” (Seattle)

It’s about a matter of preparation, vision, and patience. If you’re lucky, maybe all three will converge into something that amounts to something like a special pluck out of the continuous time-stream of things that happen all around us at every single moment of the day.

Created and painted by Hebrú Brantley, this wonderfully dynamic and engaging art piece is called “Restless,” located in downtown Seattle on James Street between 3rd and 4th Avenue.

I made the photo above on 6 January 2017 with the Canon EOS6D, 50mm-prime, and the following settings: 1/400s, f/10, and ISO500. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins.com as http://wp.me/p1BIdT-9uQ.

Cinerama, movie theater, Star Wars, Seattle, WA, USA, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: Seattle Cinerama, “star wars”

The Cinerama movie theatre in downtown Seattle is owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. After a fourth round of renovations in the theatre’s history, Cinerama reopened with big upgrades. The single-screen theatre features 4k laser projectors, a booming sound system, and large comfortable seats with leg room. The theatre can screen films in 3-D, 70-mm, and three-panel Cinerama formats.

The exterior wall painted with science-fiction movie themes is a good match with the debut of Star Wars’ Rogue One at the time I made this shot. And of course, there’s that tower again, which is also a great match …

I made the photo above on 6 January 2017 with the Canon EOS6D, 50mm-prime, and the following settings: 1/4-sec, f/22, and ISO10000. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotopress at fotoeins.com as http://wp.me/p1BIdT-9nF.

Home eye: a return to Vancouver streets (2013-2014)

What is “street photography”? How is street photography defined? Should it be defined? Who, if any, has the authority to define and maintain the definition? I presently subscribe to Eric Kim’s definition, but it’s important for people to photograph as they wish and desire. Whatever people think in terms of their streets is entirely up to them.

When I returned to my hometown for an extended period, I returned to the streets to became familiar with them again. Street names have remained unchanged for the most part, although many buildings have long since been demolished and replaced by something else. When I first picked up a camera, I rarely turned the lens onto people. It’s been a slow evolving process to shift my camera onto scenes with people. With that in mind, I’m fortunate to have some shots with people in decent scenes mixed with good timing.

( Click here for images and more )

dawn, downtown, Vancouver, BC, Canada, New Year's Day, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: “Green park, 2016.001”

•   Foggy start to New Year’s Day 2016 in Vancouver.
•   Photo on 8am PST, 1 January 2016, at 696 West Cordova Street.
•   With 2016 as leap year, 8am on the first day of the year is expressed as 2016.001 in 3 decimal places; see details below.
•   The question this picture asks is: what will emerge from my head fog under first light.

366 days in a leap year multiplied by 23.934 hours per day gives 8760.017 hours in the 2016 calendar year. For the 8th hour on the first day, this is expressed as 8/8760.017 = 0.0009. This means 8am on 1 January 2016 can be expressed as 2016.001 to three decimal places. I made the photo above; this post appears on Fotoeins Fotopress at fotoeins.com as http://wp.me/p1BIdT-7HT.

Granville and West Georgia, downtown, CBD, Vancouver, BC, Canada, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: Tall geography in Vancouver’s CBD

These buildings all cluster around the highest point in the downtown (CBD1) peninsula of Vancouver on Canada’s west coast2. With the ground here at an elevation of over 30 metres (100 feet) above sea-level, these towers are a familiar sight to those who frequent the city centre, although there are other much taller buildings in the area. The buildings from left-to-right are, respectively: 701 West Georgia (formerly IBM Tower), Scotia Tower, Vancouver Block (with the clock tower), and Nordstrom.

1 CBD, central business district
2 also known as “The Left Coast”, the Pacific Northwest, or as I like to call it, the Canadian Southwest.

I made the photo above on 7 August 2015 with the Canon EOS 6D camera, EF 24-105 f/4L IS USM zoom-lens, and the following settings: 1/200s, f/16, ISO400, and 24mm focal length. The photo above is corrected for a slight rotation (less than 2 degrees), for slight dodge-and-burn, and cropped slightly to place the “S” tower at the centre; the photo is not corrected for spherical or geometric distortion. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotopress at fotoeins.com as http://wp.me/p1BIdT-76V.

Thurlow, between Comox and Pendrell: from St. Paul's Hospital - 31 Jul 2014, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: pointing to the spot

Almost 52 weeks to the day of this very post.

A full year since Dad slipped away into the morning light.

Out of agony comes moments of serendipity and inner splendour, where all the pieces fit together in a single moment’s notice.

On the top floor of St. Paul’s Hospital the view of Vancouver’s downtown peninsula stretches over multiple towers and beyond to forested hills and mountains of the North Shore. Looking down anticipates a convergence at the right time of day, where ideal geometry and illumination conditions unite into a moment of fortune, humour, and beauty.

I made the photo in Vancouver, BC, Canada on 31 July 2014 with the Canon EOS6D, EF 24-105 f/4L zoom-lens, and the following settings: 1/320s, f/16, ISO400, and 92mm focal length. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotopress at fotoeins.com as http://wp.me/p1BIdT-5ud.

Palliative Care Unit, St. Paul's Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: “Dear Dad, can you see me now?”

This is my favourite photo of 2014.

It is a picture of a dying man: this man is my father.

He looks terrible as cancer has consumed all the good things in his body on the road to destruction. The ugly bruise over his left eye is from a fall which has led him here to the hospital. He’ll stay for 3 weeks and eventually wind up top-side in the Palliative Care unit. He will never return to the house of 38 years he and Mum bought for us, or to the neighbourhood of over 40 years. He will never see home again.

I remember telling mum at the beginning of 2014 he won’t survive the year, and as weeks progress into months, I also sense that slow creep, that sensation of something big about to happen. That awareness hovers for months, but I guess I’ve been preparing for his death for almost a full year.

The best part of this picture is his smile, and I can clearly see the recognition in his eyes, that I’m his son. This picture will likely always have the power to make me weep.

The day after I make this picture he slips into a waking coma; his spirit departs but his body remains behind.

Days later, I photograph the light of dusk over Vancouver; how was I to know it’d be his last?

Next morning, the phone rings. The call is short and the woman on the other end of the line is gentle but to the point: he’s taken his last breath. I remember saying “thank you for all you’ve done” and “goodbye”. I finish the call. I close my eyes. I’m tired. I hear the rising tide of white noise, steadily increasing in volume. I open my eyes. The noise stops. It’s a little after 615am, well into the light of an August summer morning. Time to begin the remaining time without Dad.

Father’s Day this year is Sunday, which coincidentally is also the summer solstice. Had he survived this far, Dad would have celebrated his 83rd birthday on Tuesday.

I made the photo above on 2 August 2014 at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, BC. I posted a version of this photo on Instagram. The title is from “Release”, written by Gossard, Ament, Krusen, McCready, & Vedder; the final blurb-quote is mine. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotopress at fotoeins.com as http://wp.me/p1BIdT-6UT.

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