ABC Wednesday: M is for Marble Statues

When my sister and I went to visit the Metropolitan of Art of New York in August, other than to photograph the amazing architecture of interior, one of the objectives was to photograph the amazing collection of marble statues.

It was almost like going back to the art lesson when I was in the primary school.  We were taught to use charcoal to draw statues made of plaster.  The marble statues in the museum have perfect pose and perfect natural lighting.  It is up to us to find the best way of photographing them.

I have fully anticipated the exercise and brought with me the 70-300mm VR lens for long shots, 20 mm mainly for the architecture and 85mm f1.4 for taking portraits of the statues in available light.  No flash is allowed in the museum and tripod needs special permission.  As a hind-thought, I should bring the 135mm f2 which should give me better prospective for portraits.

In addition to all the lenses, I have also paid attention to what I wore.  I have all my camera equipments in my camera beg, but I also wore a photographer's vest.  I had to check in my beg and put all the equipments in the vest to bring them into the museum.

The museum not only paid attention to the lighting of the statues, but also paid attention to the background.  It was just up to us to find the best angle to isolate our object.

She is often figured in the museum promotional materials.  It is hard to imagine the marble can be transparent too.

This statue is called "Cold".  She is even more sensational when you realize she is wearing nothing under her shawl.   No wonder she feels cold.

She was laying right in front of the elevator.  I was sure that the museum hung the 18th century wall carpet behind her in order for us to have a perfect background.  I finally got the shot by laying down also, on the floor.

One of my favorite!  I climbed to the second floor of the American Wing and photographed downwards.  The two ladies gazed at each other over a separation of over 2000 years.

This is probably my best shot of the whole exercise.

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ABC Wednesday: L is for Lighthouse

 This was  the second time that I specially went to photograph the Nobska Lighthouse.  It is located at Woods Hole on Cape Cod.  It is sitting right on the division of Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound.  I went there during the last day of my visit to our Cape Cod home at the end of last August.

 It was first built in 1828, then rebuilt in 1876.  The lighthouse is fully automated in 1985.  Since then, the station is the home of the commander of US Cost Guard Sector Southeastern New England.

 Here is a better view of the lighthouse and the home of the Cost Guard Commander.  I think the beacon behind is now the real modern lighthouse!!

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