photo sharing and upload picture albums photo forums search pictures popular photos photography help login
Type your message and click Add Comment
It is best to login or register first but you may post as a guest.
Enter an optional name and contact email address. Name
Name Email
help private comment
Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Fourteen: Expressing the meaning of buildings and structures > Stairwell, State Capitol Museum, Phoenix, Arizona, 2009
previous | next
11-JUN-2009

Stairwell, State Capitol Museum, Phoenix, Arizona, 2009

The early 20th century iron staircase still serves visitors to this museum, which occupies the structure that was once the territorial and state capitol of Arizona. Most visitors would never see this sight – the base of the stairwell is hidden away in a storage room. However the door to the storage room was left open, making it possible for me to make this image. I used a new wideangle zoom lens for this image, set at its widest focal length: 7mm, which is equivalent to 14mm in 35mm terms on my camera. This superwide focal length expands the field of view to cover not only the staircase, but also some empty storage shelves at its base, which anchor the image. The ornate iron railings that lead the eye through the image define the character of the building itself, and the wide 14mm field of view intensifies the dizzying impact of the scene.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1
1/40s f/4.0 at 7.0mm iso800 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
share
Phil Douglis28-Jun-2009 07:03
The scene composed itself, Alina. All I had to do was to recognize and frame it
Alina15-Jun-2009 00:34
Beautiful composition
Phil Douglis13-Jun-2009 03:08
You are right, Tim. Escher made us look at the world in unexpected ways. He toys with the way we see, mixing two and three dimension objects and changing both our perspective and our perception. And that, in a small way, is what I am trying to do here.
Phil Douglis13-Jun-2009 02:57
A shot this wide screams for an anchor, Carol. And that is what the storage shelves do for us here. They are not as lovely to look at as the old iron staircase, but they orient us by separating up from down, and they give the eye a place to begin its journey. It is a dizzying, neck-bending trip upwards, carrying us, as you note, right up into square hole just below the building's ceiling. My new lens, the Panasonic 7-14mm wideangle zoom, offers me the 35mm equivalent of 14-28mm. It is a superb tool, a seamless complement to my Panasonic G1's 28-90mm (equivalent) kit lens, and the 90-400mm telephoto zoom (equivalent). I must take great care when aligning the angle of this extreme wideangle lens with the subject -- the slightest tilt can create powerful distortions. In this case, it worked perfectly with my idea.
Tim May13-Jun-2009 02:52
Very Escher-like.
Carol E Sandgren13-Jun-2009 02:22
The storage shelves at bottom and left are really the only clue that we are looking UP rather than down the staircase. I'm dizzy! Your new wide angle seems to be serving you well. Beautiful lines drawing my eye into the "hole".
Type your message and click Add Comment
It is best to login or register first but you may post as a guest.
Enter an optional name and contact email address. Name
Name Email
help private comment