One Door Two Ways

Doors are fascinating to me.  Not only are many doors beautiful and/or interesting from an architectural design perspective, all doors have a certain cache.  All the comings and goings.  The historical aspects.  The people who enter and depart.  When I see doorways, I am so tempted to knock, ring, go in!  Especially entrances to buildings that are wonderfully conceived.  From rustic weathered wooden barns to concrete loading dock's metal doors with rivets to wrought iron swirled stained-glass mansion's portals each holds mysteries and charm for me.   Here is a door that I shot from straight on and its side.  The limestone home on Manhattan's Upper East Side is for sale...........

Art genre: Sepia architectural detail art photograph

Photography tip: Shoot in RGB and then explore the range of sepias; there are many.

Location: Upper East Side, NYC

Brooklyn College Tour

Yesterday I gave a photo tour of the Brooklyn College Campus.  It took me back to my undergrad days!  The campus was alive with students who were enjoying the beautiful spring weather.  The plantings: tulips, cherry blossoms, daffodils and other colorful flowering plants are also thriving on the beautiful quad.  And provided marvelous counterpoint to the magnificent Brooklyn College buildings.
The photo tour group first convened in a classroom to look at my handout (check my web site next week under Insights).  We discussed architectural photography, composition, line, form and the thrill of picture taking.  Then we took photographs on campus.  Each member of the tour had different ideas about photographing the available sights and these were encouraged.  One loves to take shots of flowers; one wanted to shoot the architecture.  Every photographer perceives surroundings through a different artistic orientation and that's one of the greatest things about photography.  I got a truly wonderful compliment when one photographer said to me: "After taking this tour, I see the world through new eyes.  Everything is more fascinating!"

Lily Pond: Brooklyn College

Library: Brooklyn College

Brooklyn College Photo Tour

 

 

 Classes Beginning This Week

Thursday, April 25th, 2013

·        Photographing the Brooklyn College Campus –12:15-2, 3154 Boylan

Bring your camera or even a picture-taking cell phone.

New Faculty Starting This Week

--> ·   Photographer Ellen Fisch: 

“Photographing the Brooklyn College Campus”    
Ellen is an architectural photographer who gives workshop shoots and subsequent critiques. She has previously shared her expertise with us, first through a show of her stunning Wall Street photos in IRPE’s Gallery 3160 last year and then in a very well-received Intellectual Life lecture about architectural art photography in the fall semester. Those who have heard her speak have been impressed by  her

--> artistic and technical aptitude.    

Around the Campus

Monday, April 22

·        conTEMPO1, student musical performances - 7-9PM, studio 312, Roosevelt extension

Tuesday, April 23

·        Conservatory Guitar Ensemble - 7-8PM, studio 312, Roosevelt extension

Wednesday, April 24

·        Conservatory Brass Ensemble, 5-6PM studio 312, Roosevelt extension

·        MFA Intergenre Reading Series with Timothy Donnelly and Elizabeth Strout 6-7:30PM, 2231 Boylan Hall

Program Changes

Monday

·        The Short Story: American and International – Add 4/22, 29 & 5/6

Wednesday

·        At Trip Thru Life Via the Short Story – Course Cancelled

·        Spanish Conversation – Add 4/24, 5/1 & 5/8

·        The Classical Piano Concerto Performed Live on Film – Add 4/24, Cancel 5/1

Coming Soon

I've been invited to give a Photo Tour of the Brooklyn College Campus by IRPE: Institute for Retirees in Pursuit of Education.  In preparation for the tour I went back to my Alma Mater to take photos for a handout I'm preparing for the group of every photographic skill level.  This preparatory visit  was a wonderful day for me to connect with my time on the Brooklyn College Campus as a student in the late 1960's.  A rush of memories filled the afternoon with wonderful thoughts of days when I was learning about photography and everything was new and exciting.  I still am!  It still is!
www.ellenfisch.com

Brooklyn College: Brooklyn, NY

Oz

I have been traveling to Manhattan ever since I was a small child.  First I took the subway from Brooklyn; then from the Bronx.  Now I am a Long Island Rail Road commuter.  Each time I have crossed a bridge, gone through a tunnel or, once in a while, flown over Manhattan Island, I think of Oz: the place of my dreams.  The City is crowded, noisy and not always sparklingly clean, but I have loved it all my life.  It is filled with enchantments, marvels, wonders.  I chanced upon the Empire State Building on a recent night walk.  Oz!
 www.ellenfisch.com

Oz: Manhattan, NY

Time Gone By

Time gone by in our culture has as many meanings/interpretations as the word time itself.  The past calls up different memories and relationships for almost everyone.  Of course, time gone by can be an associative memory that may be held by many individuals.  I think that New Yorkers and those familiar with NYC, when considering time gone by as far as the physical City goes, can connect with the iconic images that were presented as paintings (Childe Hassam's wonderful street scenes of NYC) or photographs (the construction workers atop a beam or the sailor kissing the nurse in Times Square).  Of course each of us has a recollection of the past look of NYC's ever evolving facade.  I recall the care with which everyday buildings were constructed.  Warehouses; service entrances and loading docks all received some ornamentation to create architectural appeal.  This notion of making places and spaces beautiful is mostly of time gone by.  Functionality and cost now dictate the look.
Walking on an industrial street in midtown Manhattan I chanced upon such a delightful example of a functional structure that was beautified for the sake of architectural creativity and charm during a time gone by.  I stood among the smokers and the delivery people happily snapping pix of a world that I remember existed on every block. www.ellenfisch.com

Delivery Entrance: NYC

Architectural Embellishment of Time Gone By