Week 10: sculpture & Monuments, Reflections, Paint

Roxy Paine, Askew-  a 43-foot tall hand-wrought, stainless steel tree

       In week 10 of my 52 week challenge, I tried to tackle three subjects and kind of succeeded at tackling one--  Sculpture and monuments. To be honest, I didn't have a lot of free time to focus on the three topics, but at the same time,... I kept forgetting what the other two topics were. So,.. its kind of hard to  plan a picture or even run across a good 'shootable' scene based on a topic that you can't remember.

Wondering why this picture is shaped funny? it's a poor attempt at a panoramic shot

Ursula von Rydingsvard, Ogromna - a 19 foot tall
vessel shaped cedar and graphite sculpture

I also learned something in this week:  that "kit-lenses" may get a bad rap, but they have their place in a photographer's tool-kit. I love shooting with my nifty 50mm, but it didn't fit on this job. The 50 is great for close ups, portraits or macro shots... but in a many cases, I missed a good shot, because I couldn't back up far enough to get the whole sculpture in the frame. The kit lens, which is a 18 -55mm sits in a pretty good range -- if and only if you want to capture a sculpture person, car or whatever from top to bottom.

      My first stop was the NC Museum of Art because I knew I could find some interesting sculpture there.

  

    Then I wanted to look at monuments at night. The one that I found on the Governor's mansion grounds almost seemed to be moving in the dark of night or in some cases protecting their castle.
 

     And finally I smartened up and switched to my kit lens and got some pretty cool long exposure shots of the Raleigh convention Center. I look at the mural on the outside of the building as a piece of sculpture. I'm not sure who created it. but it's made of stainless steel that has little pieces that move, shift and blow with the wind... making it look like the leaves on the tree are actually moving.

     Right now, the only reason I can think of to upgrade the kit lens is for sharpness,.. and low light sensitivity. I guess then I'd want to upgrade the actual camera to a full frame sensor.  UGH!
     Do you see this endless cycle that I'm stuck in.