JUXTAPOSED

If one looks "Juxtaposed" up in the dictionary there should be a copy of this image there... this shot was done for the designer of a building on the campus at DUKE university. If you have ever been to DUKE it is almost completely a "Gothic design" campus almost all of the buildings there were built in this Gothic style ..... until fairly recently. This Modern building  - the Penn Pavillion was designed by Shepley BulFinch Architects headquartered in Boston. It is a truly extraordinary building .... it takes a bit of time to look at it and sort of accept it's placement .... it is truly juxtaposed. There is a movement now to integrate other styles at DUKE.

Perhaps even more importantly the fact that all of the original Gothic buildings on the Duke Campus were designed by an African American Architect 37 years before he could have enrolled as a student on Duke's campus ..... unreal. Julian F. Abele was an incredibly gifted Architect working in Pennsylvania. He was born in 1881, graduated from University of Pennsylvania in 1902 as the first Black graduate in Architecture in 1902 .... it was 1942 before he was accepted into the AIA.       History is amazing.

Whatever it takes .......

A commercial realtor called us again ( which is always great ) it means were doing something right. They had a property in Columbia they wanted to market for their client and they want to show what could be done with a wonderful older building "renovated" as a selling point .

What it means is taking photographs of the property and in some of them enhancing the photographs of the spaces to show a "before - after" scenario. We completed several shots and thru creative subtraction/addition we managed to show what the space could look like remodeled. 

They also wanted a twilight shot that would be dramatic and perhaps show the property in it's best  .... "light or lack of light" as is the case here. There are many processes to use to accomplish the task and one of those is to lock the camera down very firmly and then to take exposures at intervals that will allow proper exposure on different points on the subject. We then use specialized software to bring the pieces all back together for an amazing image that still looks " Natural ". It also allows us to de-emphasize the points that may not show the property in it's best light.

There is another process that is a "quick and dirty" way to do this but the images are rendered like those "velvet Elvis's" you used to see being sold by a van on the side of the road ... coming back from the beach in the '70's. Our  process is a hand process rather than a software "does it automatically" process. We don't do HDR "processed" images .... but we do like those Velvet Elvis's .

And some folks think it's  just about showing up with a camera .... someone once said, and I agree ... "it's not about the camera , stupid ".  Whatever it takes ...

1869 the Ghost of Mr. Brennen

1869 was an extraordinary year. I am sure it was for Mr. Michael Brennen because he finally  began to build on Main Street across from the Capital. He bought the property on Main the year the Civil War began and after Sherman burned Columbia  and his property along with it ... Brennen began to build a new building in it's place. Unfortunately he also died that same year .... some say his "ghost" still haunts the property.

Speed ahead to 2013 and First Citizens bought the building and hired Studio 2LR to bring it back to life and "building code". Hood Construction did a great job handling the re-construction. The building is now home to First Citizens Bank - Offices upstairs, First Citizens Cafe lower right side and now BOURBON resides in the the lower left portion - street level.

Many of the original details were saved and reinstalled , other parts were re-created to maintain the original feeling of the building. Bringing a Historic Building back to life is a major undertaking in preserving the details that make it Historic. In walking through the building you get a feeling of what it must have been like over a hundred years ago.

We can't forget that this was also the home to the "infamous" Capital Cafe which was an institution for decades ... ask anyone from Columbia and they likely have a story from the "Capital" ... not all of them "G" rated.

We were moved by History as well on one of our photo sessions to re-create what it must have been like for Mr. Brennen to return to work one evening  "afta suppah"  ...... or perhaps that really was the ghost of old Michael himself ! ?

Also, if you look closely you may also see the original version of a "Palmetto Moon". The moon really was just like this that night.

CLEAN WATER IN NC

... they call it the "caustic room" ... I wasn't wild about going in it to begin with and we weren't supposed to without an escort so we shot it with the doors open at a distance ..... love those zoom lenses. We shot  Dempsey Water Purification Plant in North Carolina  in May and learned how awful water is made drinkable.... by noon it was too much information. We shot this for a specialty construction company that builds these very specialized facilities. It is amazing what goes into ( and out of for that matter ) making clean water. 

I don't leave myself in images typically but we had 2 cameras operating to get 2 slightly different perspectives for the client to choose from .... what an extraordinary night ! The rep from the company was a great guy to work with and we really had a great time documenting this project for them.

a night at the SC STATE MUSEUM

In February we completed a project at the SC STATE MUSEUM for the 2 Architectural Firms that have since won AIA Awards for the Design. Watson Tate Savory and Clark Patterson Lee shared the planning duties on this wonderful project. If you live in Columbia and have not been to the Museum since the completion of this addition/renovation... GO. You really should stop by and see the incredible things that have been added. Gilbane Construction has also been awarded for their construction work.

A new Planetarium, a 4D theater and the Boeing Observatory are the main features of the work completed . It is an amazing addition to Columbia. We are thrilled to have been able to help these firms share and celebrate their wonderful work. When you enter the main front doors you will walk thru the legs of the tripod that holds and isolates the telescope residing on the 3rd floor ... the support which goes down to bedrock to isolate and stabilize the view from the telescope. 

One evening whilst shooting there I could have sworn I saw  ..... Oh never mind ......