Bridge at dawn

We have been fascinated with the Margaret Hunt Hill bridge, especially since our recent visit a week ago.  We decided to spend more time exploring the bridge and the area near it. Our thinking is that once the bridge opens, we won’t have the level of access that is available right now.

So at 4:00 AM on Saturday morning the alarm clock sounded.  After I pealed myself off the ceiling, we got about the business of loading the car and were on site by 5:30.  Maybe I should have checked the weather.  The wind felt like it could blow you off the bridge. 

It was really interesting to see the construction progress made in just one week.  Once we had daylight we drove around and found access to the under the bridge and the levee. We saw more great views and new areas in various degrees of renewal.

Here are few more shots, Russ experimenting with HDR and Elena using a faux HDR.

You may see more pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/elka-igolka/sets/72157629094906303/

Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge

This week, while at the Plano Arts Association exhibition, we saw a really nice Margaret Hunt Hill bridge photo taken by Gaby Pruit.  By the way, if you haven’t visited the Plano Arts Association on 18^th in Plano, look it up and check it out.

On Sunday, inspired by Gaby Pruit’s image, we decided to check the progress of the bridge construction.  The bridge is accessible on foot only.  We had the bridge to ourselves!  We could set up our tripods right in the middle lane.  Wow!  This meant we had the freedom to walk back and forth to find that perfect angle.  An added bonus was we had an unfettered view of the Dallas skyline from the bridge. 

We arrived in the late afternoon so we had rapidly changing lighting conditions.  That was fun because we had the room to lay out our equipment to take advantage of every opportunity.  Once in awhile we would encounter another pedestrian or a photographer who like us, was amazed by the shared good luck.

Now we want to go back in the predawn hours to catch some night lighting and then dawn lighting.  We also want to return in about 9 days in the evening to catch a full moon rise over the city through the bridge.  This is a once in lifetime opportunity and we are excited.  We hope it is reflected in our pictures.

Enjoy our 1^st cut.

Dallas downtown skyline, view from the bridge

You may see more pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/elka-igolka/sets/72157629094906303/

Elena & Russ were out on a date

Yes folks, we went out and did two things.  First we visited the Mercantile Coffee Shop for the opening of Liz London’s creative works.  If you get a chance, swing by, have a coffee and check out Liz London’s really cool works.  If you can’t get by before February 12^th, visit her gallery at www.lizlondon.com. If you do get a chance to visit, look for a piece titled, “Automatic Recall.” 

Since it was opening night, Ms London was present which was a delight for Elena.  Liz was one of Elena’s first Dallas based art mentors.  


Liz London and her work

Then we swung by the DMA to see the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibit.  Man what a crowd!  Man what an exhibit!  The exhibit is beautifully staged and the exhibits are exquisite &mind blowing.  I enjoyed watching the other attendee’s reactions as they moved from room to room.  Now I have to do some research to see if it was Gaultier who was responsible for the amazing mannequins.  I’ve never seen anything like them but then I have led a sheltered life.  This exhibit ends February 12^th also.

Classic cars

Elena found this wonderful location that restores and sells classic and customized cars.  We had some time and decided to visit the place to discover the challenges of photographic reflective surfaces such as cars. 

We learned rather quickly that challenges were a bit of an understatement. We ran into hot spots, color casts, reflections of the camera or worse…the photographer.  Detailed pictures revealed dust, paint chips and those damn reflections.  Overview pictures revealed cluttered backgrounds, unflattering juxtapositions, emphasized our location was in landscape bowl. 

Elena truly created lemonade from lemons and I made a gin & tonic. 

Coupe de Ville badge

Really cool pin striping

Heat sink

VW Beetle running light

What happened to “Don’t mess with Texas”?

The Art of Numbers

Most of my life as a scientist, the job of numbers was to measure subtle changes in our theories.  I never gave much thought to the symbol itself. Numbers were written with little thought other than what is represented. I never took the time to think, “Wow, those numbers are pretty.”

Now that I’m exploring the creative side of expression, I see the beauty in numbers. Sometimes a number is a flowing image with flourishes and color, other times it is ultra modern in its monochromatic simplicity.  All the time, it still represents a finite value….Marvelous!  Maybe even “Cool!”

Numbers are recognized everywhere.  Do we ever stop to think about how many different ways numbers impact our lives? Perhaps the thought of “stop and think about a number” will be the artistic equivalent to “stop and smell the roses.” 

Recently Tonya Davenport from CREATE MIXED MEDIA blog invited mixed media artists to create seven days’ worth of numbers sets for the project “The Week as Art”. I was honored to participate in this project on the week of January 15-21.

My numbers are photomontages created in Photoshop. I use my photographs as the ingredients for photomontages. Numbers and letters are my special interest, I photograph them a lot. As for backgrounds and textures, I often photograph things that the majority of people in their right mind would never consider noticing (pieces of paper, scratches on metal, paint splotches etc.). I love the process of building my photomontages by layering and blending together all the pieces until I get the desired result.

Here are the numbers for this week.

Doors

As I become more involved into photography, I thought this is the right time to make an inventory of my shots to learn what and why I’m photographing more often.

The first object that comes to mind is a door. The door is a well-known symbol of opening, passage from one state or world to another, entrance to new life and liberation. I see doors as objects with a lot of character – they tell a story, keep secrets, invite you to open them to find what’s behind them.

Warehouse close to Farmers Market, Santa Fe, NM

Art Gallery, Madrid, NM

Downtown, Santa Fe, NM

These two doors are from Cedars - a district in Dallas, TX

emerging as a new home for artists

And if the door is a symbol of opportunity, I believe that there are:



You may see the whole Door Collection here: http://www.flickr.com//photos/elka-igolka/sets/72157629064490357/show/

Just our little mistake!

We ran across a bunch of duplicate Picasa files and deleted them.  Oops, that was the photo database for our blog.  We are working on the restoration and hope to be back to 100% soon.