Olympia Capitol Building

coscorrosa

Two weeks ago I visited the Olympia Capitol Building in Washington State (I was also there for nefarious political purposes, but figured I'd make the most of an opportunity and brought along the camera gear). It was bright and sunny when I was there, so I tried to make the most of the shadows and big sun, it didn't affect the interior stuff as much though.

The building is crazy! It's completely decadent and over the top, in other words, perfect

It would cost over $1 billion in labor and materials to construct today.

Here are some of my favorites, the entire gallery is at:

http://photos.coscorrosa.com/gallery/4487974_TdX3u

(Not sure if this belongs in Landscapes, but I've seen architecture stuff in here before, and none of the other galleries seems more appropriate, please move if this is the wrong spot, thanks!)

Tee Why

think I like the last shot the most
interesting and warm sky and the flare adds a sense of forced depth

schmoo

Wow, lovely! The first one look ominous with the dramatic shadows. I like it.

The last is particularly nice as well, I think, again with the dramatic shadows. I like the way the statue is reaching for the sun.

coscorrosa

schmoo wrote:

Wow, lovely! The first one look ominous with the dramatic shadows. I like it.

The last is particularly nice as well, I think, again with the dramatic shadows. I like the way the statue is reaching for the sun.

Thanks! That's one good feature of Live View/Preview: the ability to shoot right into the sun. I can't look through the view-finder, but I can look at the LCD (I only *wish* my LCD was bright enough to blind me, it's not there yet). I've done a few straight at the sun shots (bracketed) and I think the results are interesting, and at least I can see afterward.

ChrisJ

coscorrosa wrote:

the ability to shoot right into the sun. I can't look through the view-finder

If the sun is unfiltered, be verrrry careful with that... you will fry your sensor eventually.

I really like the first one, I wish you'd been a few feet further back to get left column fully in view. But it's still cool and ominous. I think #3 would be stronger if it was more symmetrical and straight up... breaking the rules I know, just MHO.

Still overall very nice, and the last one is .

coscorrosa

ChrisJ wrote:

If the sun is unfiltered, be verrrry careful with that... you will fry your sensor eventually.

I really like the first one, I wish you'd been a few feet further back to get left column fully in view. But it's still cool and ominous. I think #3 would be stronger if it was more symmetrical and straight up... breaking the rules I know, just MHO.

Still overall very nice, and the last one is .

That's what insurance is for I know I'm taking a risk, and it'll bite me eventually, until then, I'm going to act like an idiot, which doesn't require much acting.

As for your comments, I agree completely on the left column thing, unfortunately, if I was any further back, distracting foreground elements would have crept into the frame (which I could have removed later with a crop I guess).

And for #3, you're actually not allowed to shoot straight in the middle, they have it roped off because there's a big (brass?) engraving with the seal of the state of Washington that they don't want sullied with footprints (or tripod prints), so the best you can do is off to the side (otherwise I would have done the middle composition, as I like symmetry in architectural shots). I could have removed the column of my tripod and made it horizontal hanging over the rope, but there's no way I would have been able to see the resulting composition without some contorting in such a way that I'd fall over and land on the seal, and probably get kicked out. Maybe I should have saved that composition for the end.

That being said, I kind of like the off center part of the middle of the frame too.