Shutter View

Building:  DPT Parking
Location:  Des Moines, IA
Time:  1:17pm
Composition:  Composed using the rule of thirds.  I kept the 2/3 of the image uncovered by the louver so that a better understanding of what was on the other side could be observed.
Process:  None
Meta Data:  18mm     f/4     SS: 1/2000s     ISO: 100

Glowing Wall

Building:  Davis Brown Tower
Location:  Des Moines, IA
Time:  1:11pm
Composition:  By taking the photo from the second level, I was able to capture the relationship between the the balcony and the entrance lobby.
Process:  None
Meta Data:  12mm     f/4     SS: 1/50s     ISO: 100

Broken Wall

Building:  Meredith Corporation Garden
Location:  Des Moines, IA
Time:  12:55pm
Composition:  Elevation view of the break between the wall that divides the public walkway from the garden.
Process:  None
Meta Data:  16mm     f/8     SS: 1/320s     ISO: 100

Curved Seating

Building:  Meredith Corporation Campus
Location:  Des Moines, IA
Time:  12:49pm
Composition:  I stood on the curving bench, which gives the appearance that the entire black curve is raised, until the far end of the curve is seen and then it becomes clear the blck curve is raising and lowering.
Process:  None
Meta Data:  12mm     f/8     SS: 1/250s     ISO: 100

Axial Approach

Building:  Saint Aquinas Catholic Church
Location:  Indianola, IA
Time:  10:48am
Composition:  On axis with the alter of the church.  Because of the axial requirements of Christianity, usually the most interesting views of a church interior are when you are on the central axis of the church.
Process:  Because of the darkness of the space, and because I did not use a tripod, I had to increase the sharpness of the image a lot to get rid of the soft edges
Meta Data:  12mm     f/8     SS: 1/4s     ISO: 100

Two Collumns

Building:  Home Connections Campus
Location:  Cedar Falls, IA
Time:  12:11 pm
Composition:  I saw this detail from across a parking lot and was confused as to how the two columns were completely illuminated when they appear to be holding up the eave of the roof.  When I got closer I realized the columns stop short of the roof and sit under the whole in the roof so that the sun can illuminate them.
Process:  None
Meta Data:  22mm     f/8     SS: 1/320s     ISO: 100

Towering Atrium

Building:  Adler Mass Communication Building
Location:  Iowa City, IA
Time:  10:14am
Composition:  Zoomed in on the structural support and louvers of the atrium of the building.  I decided to leave the top of the tree in the image because I felt that it grounded the image and made the building feel more monolithic than it is (in comparison to a tree).  Also by having the building extend from the bottom through the top of the image, the building looks even larger.
Process:  None
Meta Data:  55mm     f/8     SS: 1/500s     ISO: 100

Prayer Space

Building:  Nazareth lutheran Church
Location:  Cedar Falls, IA
Time:  12:18pm
Composition:  I took the image from the side of the space so that I could show the relationship between the alter, seating, and balcony.
Process:  None
Meta Data:  12mm     f/8     SS: 1/4s     ISO: 100

Frozen Time-Lapse

Building:  River Renaissance Pavilion
Location:  Waterloo, IA
Time:  8:10-9:30pm
Composition:  When I decided to do a time-lapse of the pavilion, I wanted to get the sunset in it but a building was blocking the sun.  I decided to set the pavilion on the left third of the image and capture the river and site context in the rest of the image.
Process:  I took a different approach in assembling the time-lapse.  Rather than a video, I overlapped all of the images (350).  I used the final image of the time-lapse as a base image and stacked all of the other images on top of it.  Finally I used the lighten blending mode on all of the stacked image.  The lighten blending mode replaces dark pixels with the lightest pixel from the same location on any image from the stack.  What resulted is a sky that appears to be smeared across the photograph.
Meta Data:  24mm     f/8     SS: Aperture Priority every 10 seconds    ISO: 100

Ice Rink

Building:   Young Arena
Location:  Waterloo, IA
Time:  10:30am
Composition:  On axis with the centerline of the ice rink.
Process:  None
Meta Data:  12mm     f/8     SS: 1/20s     ISO: 100

Brick Extension

Building:  Pathways Mental Rehabilitation Clinic
Location:  Waterloo, IA
Time:  2:59pm
Composition:  I composed the image so that 1/4 was brick and the other 3/4 were sky.  To create balance in the photo, I included a small area of sky in the brick quadrant of the photograph so that a greater balance existed.
Process:  None
Meta Data:  55mm     f/8     SS: 1/500s     ISO: 100

Laminated Beams

Building:  First Presbyterian Church LCL Center
Location:  Fort Dodge, IA
Time:  11:20am
Composition:  I zoomed in to capture the layers of wood used to make the beam.  I cropped the photo so that part of the window was visible and diagonally opposite of the window I cropped the steel connection plate to mimic the crop of the window to create better symmetry in the photograph.
Process:  None
Meta Data:

"Last Breath"

Building:  Last Breath installation at Principal Financial Corp 2
Location:  Des Moines, IA
Time:  1:13pm
Composition:  This is the view of the installation when people enter the installation room (minus the person).  The red rectangle appears to be a two-dimensional image in the dark room but closer inspection reveals that it has a very large depth to it.  I used a person in the image to break the solid boarder of the rectangle.
Process:  None
Meta Data:  12mm     f/8     SS: 30s     ISO: 100

Nurse Station

Building:  Great River Medical Center
Location:  West Burlington, IA
Time:  12:39pm
Composition:  I used a wide angle lens for this shot so I could include patient rooms on both sides of the nurse station, as nurses need quick access to all patient rooms.  I also wanted to include where each pathway went.
Process:  None
Meta Data:  12mm     f/4     SS: 1/4s     ISO: 100

Layers of Brick

Building:  Meta Bank
Location:  Urbandale
Time:  10:51am
Composition:  I used the break in the brick wall to frame the windows and the strong diagonal shadow on the facade.  I did a landscape shot because I wanted to capture the different depths of the facade.
Process:  None
Meta Data:  14mm     f/8     SS: 1/400s     ISO: 100

Converging Lines

Building:  Medical Office Building B
Location:  Burlington, IA
Time:  11:00am
Composition:  Taking advantage of the distortion caused by a wide angle lens, I took the photo so that a series of parallel lines guided the eye from the edge of the photo into the center.
Process:  None
Meta Data:  12mm     f/8     SS: 1/2000s     ISO: 100

Accessibility Ramp

Building:  Great River Cancer Center
Location:  West Burlington, IA
Time:  10:30am
Composition:  I stood on axis with the dividing wall between the accessibility ramp and the stair way, allowing for a visual difference between the two levels.  The wide-angle lens distorted the dividing wall giving it the appearance that it is longer than it actually is.
Process:  None
Meta Data:  18mm     f/8     SS: 1/100s     ISO: 100

Helicopter Garage

Building:  Medical Ambulance and Helicopter Garage
Location:  West Burlington, IA
Time:  10:02am
Composition:  In the photograph, I wanted to capture the relationship of the helipad to the garage.  The distance from where the image is taken and the location of the helicopter is the distance it must be carted each time it is needed to take of for an emergency.  I also wanted to capture the skewed angle of the pivot garage door.  While the door raises on a pivot, the door in relationship to the helipad is somewhat awkward on site.
Process:  I had a lot of trouble white balancing the shot because half is in shade and half is in direct sunlight.  Needless to say, when doing post production, for the final image, I will have to work on bringing two different white balanced images together
Meta Data:  20mm     f/8     SS: 1/500s     ISO: 100

Corporate Shading

Building:  Corporate 4
Location:  Des Moines, IA
Time:  5:28pm
Composition:  I zoomed in on the underside of the shading structure.  The texture created by the shade and semi frosted windows creates an abstract texture.
Process:  Fixed verticals in Photoshop.
Meta Data:  55mm     f/5.6     SS: 1/500s     ISO: 100

Perforated Wall

Building:  Principal Financial Corporate Campus
Location:  Des Moines, IA
Time:  5:27pm
Composition:  I did a tight crop so that the perforated wall appears as large as possible.  Be taking a picture with a person on the other side, I wanted to show how the perforations can blur what is on the other side.
Process:  None
Meta Data:  24mm     f/4.5     SS: 1/125s     ISO: 100

Frosted Glass Door

Building:  Oliver Law Firm
Location:  Windsor Heights, IA
Time:  8:58am
Composition:  I set up the composition so that the narrow hallways act as a frame for the frosted glass.  By backlighting the room, the person at the door appears to be a silhouette and the colors of her clothes do not create a distraction from the very yellow hallways.
Process:  Reduced the saturation of the inage because the yellow interior was very overwhelming in the photograph.
Meta Data:  12mm     f/8     SS: 1/8s     ISO: 100

Vodka Bottle

Building:  EMC Insurance and Dart Bus
Location:  Des Moines, IA
Time:  9:43pm
Composition:  I composed the image so that the column structure extruding from the Dart terminal would lead up to the EMC Building.  Unfortunately, the EMC building is no longer illuminated with colored lights, thus slightly diminishing the vodka bottle image that the facade creates.  After burning the ground in photoshop, I noticed that dark ground acts as a base for the image to rest on, similar to how one would draw an elevation or section with a bold line at ground level.
Process:  Burnt the ground in the foreground as it was not important and was the distraction to the architecture
Meta Data:  24mm     f/8     SS: 1.6s     ISO: 100

Dark Meditation

Building:  Oreon E. Scott Chapel
Location:  Des Moines, IA
Time:  5:46
Composition:  Because the seating is not on axis with the skylight details, I chose to to burn the background of the image so that the seats and storage space were barely visible.  This gave the benefit of putting more emphasis on the skylight and its relationship to the alter.  I also decided to leave the railing for the seats visible as it acts as a separation barrier between the alter space and the seating area that was designed to be darker than the alter space.
Process:  Used the Burn tool to darken the background where the seats are
Meta Data:  12mm     f/8     SS: 15s     ISO: 100

Jewel Box

Building:  Merchant's National Bank
Location:  Grinnell, IA
Time:  5:26pm
Composition:  On axis with the decorated entry of the building.  Because of the overcast day, I chose to up the contrast of the image to accentuate the detail of the image.  Had there been direct sun, shadows would have naturally shown the intricate detail of the entry.
Process:  None
Meta Data:  24mm     f/4     SS: 1/500s     ISO: 100

Farnsworth Logo

Building:  Farnsworth House
Location:  Aurora, IL
Time:  11:28am
Composition:  With this photograph I wanted to recreate the marketing logo of the house with actual architecture.  I cropped the image just below the top of the lower deck because the architectural concept for the lower deck was that it was floating below the house.  Had the whole deck been shown, the floating feeling would be lessened.  I also decided to crop the left side of the house to emphasize the horizontality of the roof and floor.
Process:  Cropped the image from a portrait to landscape orientation
Meta Data:  12mm     f/4     SS: 1/2,000s     ISO: 100

Bright Alter Space

Building:  Unity Temple
Location:  Oak Park, IL
Time:  2:55pm
Composition:  On axis with the center of the alter.  One of the architectural concepts I was trying to capture with this image was how the architect designed the main prayer space to be full of light and the hallways leading to the chapel to be dark.  By going from a restricted dark space to a larger and brighter space, the eyes have to adjust, creating an illusion that the brightly lit space is larger and brighter than it actually is.
Process:  None
Meta Data:  14mm     f/8     SS: 1/6s     ISO: 100

Pre-Prairie Style

Building:  Winslow House
Location:  Oak Park, IL
Time:  3:56pm
Composition:  I took this photo from about ten feet off the ground so that the curvature of the hedge could be read from the "elevation" view.  Unfortunately, due to the time of day, the integrate terracotta working on the facade is not legible due to the shadow on the facade.  The design of this building is an early concept of the Praire Style that FLW used in his later part of his career.
Process:  None
Meta Data:  12mm     f/4     SS: 1/2,000s     ISO: 100

Chicago Fireworks

Building:  Downtown Chicago and Navy Pier
Location:  Chicago, IL
Time:  9:18pm
Composition:  With the photograph I wanted to get the Chicago skyline with the fireworks.  Without the fireworks, the photograph is very left heavy.  With the fireworks in the image, the photograph is more balanced and adds interest to the entire photograph, by keeping the eye moving from one side of the photograph to the other.
Process:  I combined three images together to make this panorama.  The first two images I took were of the city right before the first firework launched.  This allowed me to edit the city separately without need to photoshop out smoke from the fireworks and allowed me to properly expose the city without washing out the fireworks.  Finally, I chose the best fireworks image I took and blended it into the skyline panorama.
Meta Data:  24mm     f/4     SS: 1.6s     ISO: 100

Tower at the End of the Road

Building:  Trump Tower
Location:  Chicago, IL
Time:  4:46pm
Composition:  I liked this shot because it shows how the architect used the current location of the L (raised train track) and streets to lead up to what is now one of the tallest buildings in Chicago.  While the building is located in the foreground, I composed the image so that the vanishing point is at the base of the tower, leading the eyes towards it.
Process:  None
Meta Data:  24mm     f/4.5     SS: 1/320s     ISO: 100

Concrete Levels

Building:  Marina City
Location:  Chicago, IL
Time:  3:32pm
Composition:  A problem with photographing in cities is that it's hard to shoot an entire building without getting a lot of distortion or cluttering the image with surrounding buildings.  By zooming in on an element, the photograph becomes more isolated from the surroundings.  In this image I zoomed in on the underside of concrete platforms which express the formwork that was used to pour each floor.
Process:  None
Meta Data:  165mm     f/8     SS: 1/80s     ISO: 100

Glass House Apartments

Building:  860-880 Lakeshore Drive Apartments
Location:  Chicago, IL
Time:  1:54pm
Composition:  These two buildings are considered as the birth of the international style.  It was interesting to see buildings by Mies use steel mullions as he is famous for his "less is more" architecture that typically features as few details as possible.
Process:  None
Meta Data:  22mm     f/8     SS: 1/320s     ISO: 100