Architecture as Parallel Reality – An analysis of my image Fluid Time I

Chicago – Jay Pritzker Pavilion (Architect Frank Gehry) & Aon Center (Architect Edward Durell)

T/S LE = Tilt + Shift + Long Exposure

Shot with Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II – maximum tilt & shift, needed to maximize the OOFE (out of focus effect) and to keep the entire Aon Center in the frame, using the Hitech ProStop IRND filter kit, the best ND filters and processed using extensively BW Effects 2 by Topaz Labs ,  ReMask & Detail 3 + PS CS6 & LR5

PHOTOGRAPHY AS A PROFESSION

Almost 2 months since my last architectural image, you might wonder if I’m still doing photography. Well, the answer is YES, more than ever, but now that I’m doing it professionally I’m spending time doing a lot more than just working on my images (which I still love more than everything else). Not that I don’t like the whole process, it’s so very exciting and it suits me like a glove, but you have to know, doing photography as a business is much more than shooting and processing your photos, So much more!! And you have just one choice, if you want to do your job at a top level, you have to spend time doing all the things around it. That’s what I do in all my activities, be they teaching, mentoring or else.

AN IMAGE FROM THE CHICAGO WORKSHOP

This is the first image I’m posting from the Chicago workshop, a workshop I did as a collaboration with the Vision Explorers team and that is still the architectural event of the year. Chicago is an amazing place not only for photography but also as a city, from architectural and urban point of view, and has won a big place in my heart. As Frank Lloyd Wright says: “Eventually, I think Chicago will be the most beautiful great city left in the world…” He is right and I’m already looking forward to the moment I’ll be back there!

ANALYZING THE PHOTOGRAPH

Now a few words about my vision behind this image.

Time, space …they are just conventions. Living inside them can be just as easy as living outside them and the reality of living outside them can be just as real as the one of relating to them. If you need a proof just try to dream. Who says that dreaming is not a reality? Just as imagination can be reality as well. Who says that the world needs to have a material shape to be real?
Who says that we have to always relate to the same constants that are time and space and not create different times and different spaces that will cover different realities?…
Different from what you were used from me lately, more in line with my older architectural work, it’s been a long time since I’ve shown an entire building in a frame, let alone 5 buildings, but I was thinking for a long time to make a series as the one I’m starting today.

If you know me you know I love long exposure, I love motion blur and any kind of blur that can give me the freedom to bypass reality and go where no one else has been. I love the freedom these ways of seeing the world give to my imagination and now I also have a lens that will help me with putting in practice what my mind has already seen a long time ago: The Queen of the Lenses, Her Majesty The T/S Lens.

A NEW DIRECTION IN MY FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY

This image is the beginning of a direction I wanted to explore for a long time, architecture as a parallel reality. What I’m always looking for in my architectural images is to find the dream in architecture, in essence, to find the soul of the building I’m photographing. I think now I’m closer than ever to this soul and I’ll show it to you too over the months to come.

TECHNICAL DATA

Exposure and EXIF

141.0 sec. @ f/11, ISO 100,

Equipment

Camera: Canon 5D MK3

Lens: Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II,

ND Filters: 10+3 stops Hitech ProStop IRND filters.

Black and white processing – Photography Drawing (PhtD)

LR5 + PS CS6 + Topaz B&W Effects  (B&W Effects extensive review) + Topaz DeNoise + Topaz Detail + DxO View Point

TOPAZ LABS 15% DISCOUNT FOR MY STUDENTS AND FOLLOWERS

Topaz Labs was so kind to not only feature my work so many times and participate in my workshops, but they also gave me a discount code for my students and followers who are reading this blog and want to use the best software available in their post-processing work. You can use my special code JULIAG  to get  15% discount for any of the Topaz plugins, separately or the whole collection. You can use the code by ordering at this link. Enjoy!