Queens Public Library, Elmhurst
I’ve been surprised lately at the number of images I find in my apple Photos archive that have me thinking “Oh, that’s a nice photo - oh, wait, I shot that?”
Frequently, I took these as quick snap shots, reminders to come back at a later date with a bigger camera to make a ‘better’ photo. But now with years of separation between shot and viewing, I can enjoy them without overthinking them.
Sure, I with the highlights were a little less clipped, and I actually have another version of this that is properly exposed, but I’m on a my iPad right now and I am not feeling compelled to photoshop them together.
Maybe I should get around to picking up that Affinity Photo app so I can give that a go without having to go up to my office to do it.
I’m also really enjoying all of these photos that are focused so much on lighting design, before I even realized how much I love it and want to make it the focus of my architecture photography career. But now that they’re cropping up, and I’m constantly loving them, it’s a fun reminder that this has been a part of me all long.
Having just been to the NY Build expo and meeting a ton of folks in building materials construction, I now wonder who made the glass, metal, light fixtures, stone work, and every other material and component you see here. I would dig into it, but this is many years old now, and I’m sure all of those vendors have photos of it by now.
But maybe not, who knows? Maybe I’ll get in touch with the right firms and find out.
Speaking of which, here’s who I could find that was involved in the build:
Architectural Firm: Marpillero Pollak Architects
Other Design Team Members: Severud Associates, ADS Engineers, and Steven Winter Associates
Project Context: The library was commissioned by New York's Department of Design and Construction (DDC).
Construction Contractor: Stalco Construction
Cost: $32.4 million
This is closer the light level I like on my bright areas of a night image. But even the downstairs area is a little ‘hot’ for my taste.
This image is another iPad Photo Shuffle find, which I’ve been really loving lately. It picks out images from my camera roll, and almost every day it’s serving up a photo that make me think “Oh man, that photo is great. Oh wait, did I take that?”
Which is a pretty nice feeling in a lot of ways. Makes me feel like maybe, just maybe, I am actually the photographer other people say I am.
I hear this self doubt / imposter syndrome is par for the course of being an artist. Seems like everyone has this feeling, but it’s nice to see evidence to the contrary.
Also, seeing these photos years later and not knowing that I shot them with the iPhone (X, in this case), I am able to free myself from my unfair bias of “the iPhone isn’t a real camera”, which is a stupid belief that I obviously should have let go of a decade ago.
iPad chose the version where the highlights in the cube are blown out, but it’s the most even exposure. Hence the need for exposure merging.