Friday, September 28, 2012

The Thinker by Rodin on The Benfranklin Parkway Philadelphia

Probably 1 of the best known sculptures ever made: The Thinker

This is located in front of The Rodin Museum on The Ben Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia on the outskirts of Center City in Fairmount Park, literally down the street from The Philadelphia Museum of Art, and not far from my old apartment, down the street.

Ben Franklin Parkways a very lovely! Let me show you!

Walking towards the Art Museum, away from Center City, on the right hand side of the parkway, after the Barnes Foundation, you will wander along the sidewalk path... like this:


This was in September, it was very hot, and I liked the angle of the sunlight at the time I shot this.

 It's a really lovely park. You keep forgetting it's a park, or even in a City sometimes, because it's so vast!

It's really nice! You will always see people jogging, pushing baby strollers, walking dogs, and sometimes even someone on horseback, usually a cop.

Then, off to the side here, if you take notice, you'll start to notice a building structure... with columns.

You probably won;t notice the statue, yet, but it's there...

So, as you continue walking, you will come across a path which leads to the buidling gates to the courtyard of the Rodin Museum...

But, before you would even be so bold as to enter, you will notice HIM: THE THINKER


As I stood there, trying to find great angles, many times other folks would seem to pop up out of no where and stand there for a looooong time just gazing at him.
This is typical of ART... I would know, I'm an artist...
So, I would wait for them to go, so I could continue shooting... but, also this was a popular cellphone photo shooting place! ben Franklin Parkways is LOADED with popular places where you will see tourusts or locals shooting pix on their smartphones!
















Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Tone Mapping n stuffs...??? In PA...

So... my friend gave me a Pro version of this program... 1 of the typical programs, for the HDR stuffs...

I have no idea WHAT THE HECK I'm doing... the Pro version is unlike the evaluation versions... and, I am entirely clueless as to how to do a batch in Photoshop... I also don't always like the results people get with the Photoshop stuffs...

Er... um... sorry if these suck.... or if you hate 'em....

Anyways, it was still fun to play with the program... which also crashed my comp multiple times.

Um... so, here's my stinky tone mapping, and other such stuffs.... I guess:



 A lot of these it took me hours to tweek. I'd shot so many exposures, but because my tripod is SO friggin' OLD, and my remote at the time was on a short wire/chord there was a wobble. So, many of my exposures were just out right useless, and went into THE TRASH! Sometimes, as much as 30 frames, just TRASHED!





 I did 2 major photo shoots behind The Philadelphia Art Museum. On the day I shot the ones above, I really started to chocke the life out of that battery... it was already dying, but, man, I seriously tortures it for my art!

Something I often complain about is the OVER USE of certain filters, usually I see most folks OVER USE the UV filter... and ALSO the Polarized Filter...

That's me speaking as AN ARTIST... since Photographers of the college degree sort have entirely different opinions of Photography than ARTISTS, or Film Makers do... But, in my opinion the the UV filter doesn't necessarily "give you better colors" like the packaging on virtually ALL UV Filters claim/allege...

Having said (or written) that, if CAN give you better BLUE color exposure in MID DAY, especially in THE SUMMER even if you're shooting on a Landscape aperture... and... um... yeah... I gotta admit that NOT ONLY do I have a TENDENCY to UNDER USE the UV Filter, because I TEND to have a HATEFUL BIAS towards it...

In which case.... in retrospect, I think this shoot would've benefited a LOT more if I'd actually used the UV Filter....
And, in further conclusion... hence the reason why THESE SUCK! 


Marcus Hook somewhere... some abandoned factory... I actually shot SOOOOO many frames of these... I haven;t even played with them all... but, the program seems to want to "match the clouds" more than "matching the features"... which screws up the batches... It's weird because I've done clouds/sunset batches before in a lesser sophisticated program by the same company... without ANY problems... 

Also, these batches crash my comp alot.

I got more... but, haven;t played with them yet...





What's great about HDR stuffs, is how you can see stuff you wouldn't even notice in the regular photos... Like, in these, the graffiti is just SO noticeable!

Anyways... sorry they suck...

*dies*

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Barnes Water Tablet Fountain Photographic Study on the Ben Franklin Parkway Philadelphia




I have a specific style for a number of things, artistically. I just know what I like. Sure, I can be thoughtful, but I also like to FEEL. It shows in all of my art, writing, costume making, and photo/video...

I, just like many folks, am very curious, and just like when I 1st started sketching, I liked to draw shiny things, like water & reflection, but I also like color! 

So, something I'm often very curious to go find, explore, paint, draw, or photograph are things like waterfalls, and water fountains. It's my style! For years, I would search to find local waterfalls or water fountains where I lived in Greater Boston, but also where I lived in Philadelphia. 

I have always been inclined to explore & find unknown, and unseen, places that just don;t come to mind, as well as the very well known fountains or waterfalls.

So, When I found photos that other folks has taken of waterfalls on the Wissahickon, naturally, I wanted to go shoot some of my very own. To explore, and to experience... 

I photographed a whole set on Chestnut Street Center City/Rittenhouse of the fountain in the Collins Park. But, I shot the usual Logan Square swan fountain, the LOVE Park/JFK Plaza Fountain, and I did a photo shoot at Sun Set behind the Art Museum of the Schuylkill River and the gazebos in front of the Waterworks near Boathouse Row. 

I'd been dreaming of doing these things for years, and I'd googled the heck out of all of them, searched Flickr, and the usual places to find photographs of specific places of interest...

Little did I know, that by publishing my photographic art work this summer, I would inspire several people to find the very same places. Sure I tagged my stuff, lots of tags... But, I also did ALL that hard work trying to find those places, and capturing these things at JUST the right times! 

Not ONLY did I notice that people visit these places I went, but actual pro photographers would go and shoot the same places I went. Places I'd gotten published on Yahoo Weather App for Project Weather. I noticed some photos literally used the EXACT same filters I used! And, I didn't even write the filter I used in my descriptions! So, I'm pretty flattered! 

Anyways, I wanted to make the most of my time in Philadelphia. It's NOT just some city to me. It's PHILADELPHIA! I am photographing what I see, the way I see it! Because I LOVE Philadelphia! And, I wanted to share it's beauty with the whole world as well! 


So, I figure since people ARE searching things like "Philadelphia" and "water fountain", the let me share with something truly beautiful which I have YET to see ANY photographer do it any justice! 

You won't find ANY descent photographs of it ANYWHERE else... UNTIL TONIGHT! 
So, I'm gonna call it! It's September 19th, 2012, and I, Kandice Kathleen Zimbleman-Wang (Black UniGryphon), will be THE 1st, and THE ONLY person, as of this point in time, to show you literally from my very own vision! 






This fountain is located by the Barnes Museum on the Ben Franklin Parkway. If you blink you will miss it!

I've been up & down the Parkway several times and had NEVER even noticed it, especially since I generally tend to walk on the opposite side... The Parktown Place Side... It's BEFORE the Rodin Museum... So, if you get to "The Thinker" (statue) then you've passed it...

I actually stumbled across this... I mean I almost literally tripped and fell into it... 

I was walking down the Ben Franklin Parkway, looking for things to photograph, and I thought the trees along the Parkway looked nice... so, I was shooting... 


Can you see it here??? 









 Can you see it yet???


It's definitely there!
But, you probably won't even hear  it yet either....

But, here it is! 

I just kept calling it The Water tablet Fountain... I forget what it's actually called... 

But, that's the Barnes Foundation Museum behind it... 







So, I devoted a very large chunk of time on a photographic study of this fountain. 
Let me share with you something beautiful from the city I love, The Great City of Philadelphia!






 It's quite long.











 Fog filter




 Multi filters





 Macro studies








 I shot from both ends...