Black and White HDR Night Photography...at the Museum!

Hi everyone! On our way back through Kansas City after visiting the Ozarks this past week, we spent some time with my family exploring some of the cool stuff that "KC" has to offer. One such thing was the incredible Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. This free art museum is absolutely massive and I had the privilege of visiting it twice: once, during the morning and early afternoon exploring the exhibits, and later on returning once the sun had set to photograph the "Modern Art" wing of the museum after dark. This stunning building has an extraordinary facade not unlike portions of the University of Minnesota's own Rapson Hall (where I basically live during the school year). 

These images are a bit different than what I normally shoot as they are 1. Black and White, and 2. High Dynamic Range. Both of these factors play into interesting images that I feel helps bring out the character that the stunning building had over the surrounding landscape. HDR Photography entails taking several images of the same composition, each at different exposures. Merging these images together later on in the post-processing stage allows for most everything in a photo to be properly exposed, rather than just the focal point of an image. I will do a post just on HDR Photography later on. Thanks for looking!

Ionic Light

Okay, so I do not "nerd out" about architecture and design enough with all of you! This past week I have been out late at night shooting on my home campus of the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. It has been a unique experience; capturing such a large campus in the quiet hours of night. In this series, I was exploring the Ionic Columns which line the front of the prized Northrop Auditorium building. Playing with the light and how it interacted with the columns was a blast, however the -16 degree windchill (fahrenheit) just about froze me! Thankfully I think that I got some quality images.

What do you think? Which image(s) are your favorite? Also, below is a picture of me while I was shooting (a big thank you goes to my girlfriend who willingly comes with on my photo adventures even when its blisteringly cold out!).

Sunset over Minneapolis

The At&t Tower (left) and the Target Tower (right)

Earlier this week I spent a portion of my evening in the observation deck atop the Foshay Tower in downtown Minneapolis. As the sun began to drop closer and closer to the horizon line, I managed to capture some of the effects that it had on the surrounding buildings. 

The IDS Center rises into the sky, reflecting the sunset in its deep-blue glass.

A view from within the observation deck. The tallest building on the right is the Capella Tower. 

The setting sun casts the shadow of an American flag on the glass facade of the IDS Center.