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Wordless Wednesday - First Light

On Wordless Wednesday, you tell the story...

The Oregon Hotel

Canon 5D Mark II, 35mm F/1.4, f/8, 1/250, iso 500

I was browsing one of my favorite forums this morning and a poster was inquiring about the Painted Hills in Oregon. I thought I'd revisit my images from my one evening there. I posted one image a while back.

I found this image I had taken of the Oregon Hotel sign and it appealed to me. (The only hotel in the closest town, Mitchell.) I tried a few Lightroom presets and chose one called Steller Guru GreenGold 2. What a name! I then added some fill light, and a minor vibrance adjustment.

Love classy old neon!

Golden Glow

Canon 20D, 70-200 F/4.0, f/6.3 1/1250, iso 200

San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, being so often photographed, doesn't hold a lot of appeal to me.  But looking through some of my older images, I came across this one, and realized that in over two years of blogging, I had never shown an image of the bridge. So what the heck, let's do it.

Tower Bridge

Canon 1D Mark III, 16-35 F/2.8, f/8, 2.5 sec, iso 320

It's looking like I will have a little project featuring Sacramento scenes. So I was reviewing a previous shoot and noticed this nice one of our Tower Bridge. One of Sacramento's most prominent landmarks.

Probably already been photographed a time or two, eh?

Fonthill Week, Day Six

Canon 5D Mark II, 35mm F/1.4, multiple exposures processed with NIK HDR Efex

I like this particular POV because it includes so many of the architectural forms used at Fonthill. Understand that this house was not built like others. Each floor was built as a series of "forms."  Like making a sand mold or wax mold if you have ever done any casting.

Sand would then be placed into the forms, then the tile pieces, then concrete. When the concrete cured, the forms would be removed, the sand washed away, and then you have what is seen here.  All this happening around 1910, 100 years ago. Amazing, isn't it?

Fonthill Week, Day Five

Canon 5D Mark II, 14mm F/1.4, multiple exposures processed with NIK HDR Efex

I mentioned a few days ago that Mercer disliked symmetry and went out of his way to have his architectural elements not line up or be similar. He also seems to have had quite the sense of humor, as evidenced by this "stup up to my window" portion of a room.

Besides the fun of seeing this design, again we have more of his amazing tile work. Having always enjoyed glass and tile works myself, this place was a lot of fun for me.

Fonthill Week, Day Four

 

Canon 5D Mark II, 14mm F/1.4, f/3.5, 1/40, iso 800

As mentioned yesterday, the ceiling of the Columbus room is beyond compare. Mercer and his artisans tell the story of Columbus journey, along with what happened when they arrived in the new world, all through the tiles in the ceiling. It's a wonder to behold. Maybe not the Sistine Chapel, but some darn fine work.

Click on the continue link and I'll give you a closeup view...

Fonthill Week, Day Three

Canon 5D Mark II, 14mm F/1.4, multiple exposures processed with Nik HDR EFEX

This was my favorite room at Fonthill. Called the Columbus room because of the amazing ceiling, which tells the story of Columbus journey and subsequent time in the new world.

Here you can see nearly all of Mercer's obsessions at one time. The tiles, obviously. The concrete. Books and photographs.  Note too that the columns are not lined up? Mercer disliked symmetry, and thus all the rooms have odd shapes, and any time he could create drama by misaligning elements of the home he did so. Note that the windows at left and right are not the same. People would never do that in a house today.

What glorious tile work! Tomorrow we will check out the ceiling. Imagine me going from this position to laying down on that floor right there, with my camera pointed straight up...

 

Fonthill Week, Day Two

Canon 5D Mark II, 14mm F/1.4, multiple exposures processed with Nik HDR EFEX

Henry Mercer, builder of Fonthill, was quite the bookworm. As an anthropologist, he collected books on a wide variety of subjects. I believe the number of books at Fonthill numbers around 7,000. The docents told us that nearly any book they open up contains hand written notes, so they believe Mercer read all of them.

He also had desks in many rooms. I suppose he enjoyed the different rooms, perhaps at different times of day for the natural light.

At the upper left you see some clay pots. He has pots from the first century BC. Quite a place!

Fonthill Week, Day One

 

Canon 5D Mark II, 14mm F/2.8, Multiple exposures processed with Nik HDR

It's been a while since I have done a series. I have had these images "in the can," waiting to use them for my photo group's "Obsession" assignment. We got the assignment back in August, and as you know I went to Philly in September. We had a couple of delays with this assignment, but finally had this meeting a week ago. Time to share them with my blog readers.

So we'll have a Fonthill week!

You may recall I have put up a couple of other Fonthill images, including several Topaz Tuesday's. (use the search box at right, entering "fonthill" and you'll find them).

Henry Mercer, creator of Fonthill, had numerous passions/obsessions. First, tiles. Both designing and manufacturing. And concrete. Photography. Books. Artifacts. An altogether fascinating guy (read more at the Fonthill website.)

Every room and space in Fonthill is unique. I found this particular one fascinating and my 14mm lens was just right to capture it in a dramatic way.