HDR Photography
Though even April doesn’t guarantee and escape from blizzards in New England, I’m nonetheless cathartically purging myself of wintery aesthetics, like I.M. Pei’s Bushnell Tower standing proud at the edge of Hartford’s downtown.
Legend has it that the southern face of Bushnell Tower is nearly windowless because it was meant to closely face a mirror twin of the building (never constructed); now it remains a mysterious facade that adds character to the historic structure.
Can you spot the Moon hiding in the clouds behind Travelers Tower? Blue hour images like this one used to be a long effort on my part to find my way into and climb to the top of some building… Now, they’re the result of nearly trivial efforts on the part of my drone. Architecture photography really has changed.
Bushnell tower sits at one edge of the cluster of tall buildings that is Hartford’s downtown. It was originally meant to be accompanied by a partner adjacent to it that was never constructed—so instead, we get a view of the State Capitol.
Something about the texture of autumn trees in a city park during the blue hour makes the perfect compliment for the rough-hewn stones of a big monument.
I recently moved into a new office with a huge, boring, blank wall totally ready for a huge, interesting, dramatic landscape. That naturally meant returning to one of my favorite land/cityscapes, this view of Oakland, Berkeley, San Francisco, and Marin from sabbatical in 2017. For an image I expect to stare at for years to come, I really pulled out the stops in terms of producing the best possible image. Click through to Flickr to zoom in and get all of the details!
Windmill, bicycle paths, boats… This is an extremely Dutch picture.
A blue hour expanse in the Netherlands with everything expected of the location: steeples, windmills, bike paths, fields of grasses, and… A beach? Given the sub-15ºC weather, this felt particularly charming but out of place.
The streets outside The Bushnell are a lot quieter and emptier on summer evenings when no show is happening, but the few automobiles present still provide a sense of scale to its dramatic structure.
The summer sun in the Netherlands is still scattering through the sky well after 10:00 PM, providing a companion to the reflection of this tin soldier museum on the grassy banks of the Vechte River.
The highest hill in Hartford is the site of the State Capitol… in 2024. But before being relocated, this was once the home of Trinity College.
I’ve long been interested in visualizing gradients between different levels of density in housing and construction; here in Hartford, Bushnell Tower is the sort of final edge point between the tall structures of downtown and the medium-rise buildings in the rest of the city. Bushnell Park in the foreground acts as a counterpoint to both.
This image of Dublin’s Custom House presents some delightful contrasts—not only between the House itself and its more modern neighboring structures, but also between the silhouetted lamp whose bulb was conveniently out and its nearby glowing peers.
Bridges over the River Liffey shift from the historical to the more modern in pace with the architecture.
A rainbow of colors extend across the earth and into the sky during blue hour above Empire Polo Club.
Decaseconds 