HDR Photography
A mixture of wide-angle lens distortion and “impossible” aerial drone viewpoint make for brain-twisting images of already strange and transient phenomena, like the chairs and stage of Trinity College’s Commencement Ceremony arrayed on the quad.
Final exam week is winding down, which means we can finally emerge from our Neo-Gothic cocoons and enjoy Trinity’s perfect spring campus.
Trinity is technically an arboretum and spring brings out the photosynthesis in some of my favorite trees—with, of course, some great chairs in which to sit and enjoy them.
Looking back through years of photographs, I find that my late-winter/early-spring seasonal photos are nearly empty. The bland pre-bloom colors have a lot to do with that, so I thought I would lean into it with a B&W approach that says, “You didn’t want to see the colors, anyway.”
Cool Rayleigh-scattered blue light, warm also-Rayleigh-scattered sunset light, clean white LEDs reflecting off of snow, deep orange sodium lights—there’s every option visible from above Trinity College’s campus.
Like most infrastructure, a roof is something one generally ignores so long as it is functioning as expected. A heavy melt of snow, however, might call all of that into question. At least the view is good from up here.
White covers Trinity’s campus and accents the Neo-Gothic architecture, but the modernist skyline of Hartford in the distance perpetually suggests what else might architecturally be. Though I love twentieth century architecture, there’s little argument that it would have been the wrong choice for a small liberal arts college. It wasn’t until recently that I came to realize that many of these old-looking buildings are less than 100 years old; in essence, they were built to be old-fashioned from the start. Most east-coast schools are a sort of academic Disneyland—one constructed long enough ago that we forgot about the artifice and now see only authenticity.
Snow swept in over the weekend, accompanying the final exam preparations with a highly distracting winter aesthetic.
When peak foliage arrives at Trinity, there’s a perfect moment to capture it and I’m happy to say that I think I timed it perfectly in this particular case.
The warm sodium glow of Trinity College’s campus by night—Clement Chemistry Building and Raether Library in the foreground, the chapel and the Hartford skyline in the background—highlights (in a literal, X-marks-the-spot manner) the contrast between being a student and a faculty member here. Though the same institution, the same general campus, I spend my time now in completely different places than I once did. A prime example is the X-marked courtyard between the two buildings—a place I walked through perhaps 10 times total as a student, but where I now pause for coffee with my colleagues nearly every morning.
Summer nights on Trinity College’s campus are quiet but the paths and buildings remain as effulgent as ever. There’s a luminous quality to this aerial view that really captures the sensory experience of exploring the quads by night.
After the stress of final exams tapers away, seniors have a week to kill time before graduating—and where better to spend it than catching rays on the quad?
Red bricks match red leaves on every tree—except for those elms that stubbornly refuse to turn until months later.
Continuing my recent display of discoveries from my college camera rolls, this picture of a friend reading in the open window of my dorm is fairly perfect. The motion blue of passing students outside further highlights her stillness and the open quad highlights the profile.
The end of the semester (and some final-exam stress) nears but for now, relaxing on the quad on a warm and sunny spring day could be the move.
Decaseconds 