Flat Iron in SF. How to shoot?

[wxwax]

I was captivated by a green, flat iron-style building in San Francisco. But I confess to being befuddled about how best to capture it.

This is my best version. What could I have done differently?

Thanks for your feedback, please be as honest as you can, it's the only way to improve. :nod

http://wxwax.smugmug.com/photos/59497782-L.jpg

[Andy]

What could I have done differently?

Gotten right under it and done a reverse-SidSquat, and used the 10-22 or a fish.

[wxwax]

Gotten right under it and done a reverse-SidSquat, and used the 10-22 or a fish.
Thanks. :thumb

I thought about that, then kept remembering our Yosemite pro's mantra about getting in all the scene. So I kept trying to incorporate the neighborhood. My first instinct was to do what you suggested. I should have at least tried it, dagnabit!

[Richard]

This is my best version. What could I have done differently?



Well, a break in the traffic would have helped, for starters. :wink

Seriously, the problem with shooting this building is that even though it is very cool, the Transamerica Pyramid tends to overpower it. The best I have come was to get closer and keep the pyramid out of the frame altogether, but unfortunately you lose the sense of thinness a bit that way. Maybe somebody in the Bay Area has a better idea.

Oh yeah, and did I mention the bus? :rofl

Cheers,

[wxwax]

Well, a break in the traffic would have helped, for starters. :wink

Seriously, the problem with shooting this building is that even though it is very cool, the Transamerica Pyramid tends to overpower it. The best I have come was to get closer and keep the pyramid out of the frame altogether, but unfortunately you lose the sense of thinness a bit that way. Maybe somebody in the Bay Area has a better idea.

Oh yeah, and did I mention the bus? :rofl

Cheers,

Thanks, mate. :thumb

As I picture what you and Andy are saying, I see a wide angle shot with the building bisecting it down the middle. Then lunch at the Stinking Rose. :lol3

My secret is that I have many shots without the bus, but I thought the road looked barren without a bit of life. So I deliberately chose a piccie with the traffic filling the road. In fact, I was kicking myself for not having introduced a bit of blur to the vehicles, thinking that might have made them more interesting.

Just goes to show you, eh? :1drink

[Antonio Correia]

I agree with Andy about using a wide angle lens, though my english is not enough to understand the whole sentence... But no, not under - on the contrary - but from another level, more elevated.
I would try a shot a little more to the left side of this one, without loosing the right facade, with one difference:
I would ask to go to the, say 3.rd floor and take the picture from there.
See what I mean ? The photographer more "elevated". (this is not the word but I think you will understand).
More to the left and up than this shot .:):
If you can you might try the 3.rd floor, the 5.th, the 7th. etc. Even the top. Like a "plongée".
This way you would capture both the traffic and the buildings. They are both part of the city and one enhances the other.
I think this building is from Loyd Wright is it not ? Or Sullivan ?
Hope to see the "corrected" pictures ...
Never been to S. Francisco... Sorry. Not yet.:D
Try the 4.th and the floor at the same level which corresponds to the top of the old building without seeing the roof.
30m later and after my gymnastics, using the KISS principle:
Level yourself with the 3.rd floor using (or not) the same lens.

[wxwax]

Antonio, I love the "plongée" idea! I can see that shot very clearly. :thumb

[Cliff Photo]

Antonio, I love the "plongée" idea! I can see that shot very clearly. :thumb

Until recently I lived in SF, one of my favorite shots is just across the street from where you stood, at night I had my tripod very low and looked straight down the street towards the pyramid. I used long exposure to streak the cars lights. The low vantage point gave emphasis to the flatiron, making it more prominent than the pyramid. I desaturated everything but the reds from the taillight trails...I used it as my Christmas card this year!

:thumb

[gefillmore]

sid-

regardless all the comments, which I do not necessarily not disagree with (is that a quad negative if you look at regardless and disagree?)(hey, it's 5am, waddya want),
I like your photo-

go bw to bring out the structures-

go bw and select the green and red on the flatiron to bring it out-

george

[wxwax]

sid-

regardless all the comments, which I do not neccessarily not disagree with (is that a quad negative if you look at regardless and disagree?)(hey, it's 5am, waddya want),
I like your photo-

go bw to bring out the structures-

go bw and select the green and red on the flatiron to bring it out-

george
Hey, that might be fun. I'll give it a try, see how it looks.

[wxwax]

Until recently I lived in SF, one of my favorite shots is just across the street from where you stood, at night I had my tripod very low and looked straight down the street towards the pyramid. I used long exposure to streak the cars lights. The low vantage point gave emphasis to the flatiron, making it more prominent than the pyramid. I desaturated everything but the reds from the taillight trails...I used it as my Christmas card this year!

:thumb
Cool. You have that posted anywhere where we can see it? If you have a link, you can post it here. :nod

[Steve Cavigliano]

Wow a ton of great ideas :clap

I'm with Andy regarding using an UW or fish. But, that would probably require you to do the Sid Squat in an intersection, which may endanger your equipment (not to mention your squatter) :uhoh "Hey!! I'm shooting here".....lol

I like the shooting down approach, as well as the "lowdown" perspective too :thumb

Your pic is really nice, but I know what you mean about being "not quite satisfied" with what you captured. I guess it's a photographer's version of Monday morning quarterbacking....lol


Steve

[Cliff Photo]

Just got my new computer yesterday...Let me try and dig it up

[Cliff Photo]

I may get my hand slapped for posting it here though..... :hide

[DavidTO]

I may get my hand slapped for posting it here though..... :hide


No hand slapping, I just moved it to here (http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=30885).

[wxwax]

I may get my hand slapped for posting it here though..... :hide
Great, I'm glad you dug it up. It's great to see an entirely different perspective.

[Cantfeelmyfingers]

alrighty.. i dont know this building or city at all.. but i think if you found an angle, which didn't catch that tall modern type looking building... and maybe had it at a point in the day where there was a lot of sunlight directly on it.. i'm thinking shadows and colour lol.. hmm a break in traffic would be nice as well.. . anyway I love the building though, and I definately understand wanting to capture it.. keep trying and you'll succeed! jamie. .. plus i'd really like to see what you can do with it!

[wxwax]

alrighty.. i dont know this building or city at all.. but i think if you found an angle, which didn't catch that tall modern type looking building... and maybe had it at a point in the day where there was a lot of sunlight directly on it.. i'm thinking shadows and colour lol.. hmm a break in traffic would be nice as well.. . anyway I love the building though, and I definately understand wanting to capture it.. keep trying and you'll succeed! jamie. .. plus i'd really like to see what you can do with it!
Thanks, Fingers. Your sure dug this one up from the back pages! I think the consensus is that the bus is a distraction, not an enhancement. Oh well!

[Justiceiro]

Andy's idea is interesting. I would very much like to see someone doing something that might be described as plongee.

But I have to disagree with some of the other comments about the "weak" points of this photo. I think Andy's idea would be a good photo, but a very different photo with a very different meaning. Let me tell you what I think of when I see this photo (here comes the LitCrit!)

I like the traffic. This is actually a very dynamic photo, with a great deal of movement energy, particularly for a building shot. Too many building shots leave me with a "wow, another picture of the [insert landmark here]. That's well done. yawn" feeling.

I like the fact that the transamerica overpowers the older building. This photo, to me, speaks about how the old envelopes, surrounds, and overflows the old, but does not obliterate it, or even reduce its power. The buses rush past, the transamerica thrusts upward, but the flatiron sits among them in a sort of tranquility- "the past is not dead... it's not even past."

One of my favorite literary quotations is this one-


"It has been my view for some years that a new System of the World is being created around us. I used to suppose that it would drive out and annihilate any older Systems. But things I have seen recently . . . have convinced me that new Systems never replace old ones, but only surround and encapsulate them. . . . And so I say that Alchemy shall not vanish, as I always hoped. Rather, it shall be encapsulated within the new System of the World."

I think this photo illustrates that point rather well.

[wxwax]

"And so I say that Alchemy shall not vanish, as I always hoped. Rather, it shall be encapsulated within the new System of the World."

I think this photo illustrates that point rather well.

Thanks, that's what I was going for.

:uhoh

:lol3

Thanks Justiciero, I surely wish I approached photography with a philosophy, I think it would produce very interesting images. Whether or not people understand the message, the fact that there is a message always makes a piece more interesting. Same with movies.

[photodoug]

Until recently I lived in SF, one of my favorite shots is just across the street from where you stood, at night I had my tripod very low and looked straight down the street towards the pyramid. I used long exposure to streak the cars lights. The low vantage point gave emphasis to the flatiron, making it more prominent than the pyramid. I desaturated everything but the reds from the taillight trails...I used it as my Christmas card this year!

:thumb

and until recently I worked near the pyramid and I often found myself across from that same building...at House of Hunan. Some of the best the city offers. Oh yea, that building houses Francis Ford Coppola's restaurant...we'd see him and Sophia sipping glasses during our lunch.