Quigley's 1/2 Irish Pub

I've taken to walking to work via Portland Street lately. It's a nice residential street, lined with brick rowhouses that were nicely renovated some years ago.

I don't know what the "1/2 Irish" part is all about, but Quigley's is a nice place with good food and service.

Eklof & Co.

An old side-of-the-building advertisement on Portland St., just west of Oriole Stadium at Camden Park.

National Aquarium at Twilight

The Australia Wing of the National Aquarium in Baltimore is a nightime gem on the Inner Harbor waterfront.

As usual with "night" photography of buildings and skylines, it's often best to take a photo like this before the sky gets completely black. During the winter in Baltimore, I find that about one-half hour after sundown works out best. Check sunset time in your area and be ready about 15 minutes after sunset - then start shooting and keep shooting for the next half-hour or so - you'll be able to pick a favorite from somewhere in that time frame.

Superman!

I stopped by Geppi's Enertainment Museum in downtown Baltimore yesterday to scope it out for a photo assignment this weekend - I'll be shooting the bar-mitzvah dinner and party there Saturday evening. It was the first time I'd been there, and I was gobsmacked by the amazing display of popular culture. Geppi's displays and artifacts go back to colonial times and continue through the era of radio, the early days of TV (Howdy Doody anyone?) and up to the present.

The thing that attracted me the most yesterday was this slightly larger-than-life statue of Superman. I grew up with the old Superman TV series. Superman, airing for a half-hour about 4pm, was the only thing I was allowed to watch on TV when I got home prior to getting my homework done.

I was nine when George Reeves killed himself, ending the old TV series. In 1978, I heard about a new Superman movie, starring Christopher Reeve. The screenwriting was pretty awful, but Reeve was just right as Superman. For me, at age 28 and still a kid at heart, he became Superman, and remained so until his death at age 52 in 2004.

Background to the Fore

Here's a trick that I often find useful - find some scene that I like - then using it as a background or backdrop, wait for someone to walk into the scene. You need something photogenic to use for the backdrop... a handsome or unusual building, as in this case, a colorful, graffiti-covered wall, or a path in a park during autumn.

This kind of thing is an example of the whole being more than the sum of the parts. The building, wall, or whatever may be attractive, but by itself, will seem too static. On the other hand, a person walking by an uninteresting, distracting, or ugly background probably won't be an image worth a second look. But combine an engaging background with passerby, and you often get something compelling.

Water Meter

Bedrock Billiards in Bank Building in Baltimore

Pardon the alliteration - I can't help myself.

Now that I'm working on the West Side of downtown Baltimore, I'm discovering new things to photograph. Having worke for some years near the Inner Harbor, on the East Side, this area has been terra incognita to me. But as it turns out, there be no dragons here, nor, for that matter, nearly as many architectural turkeys as on the East Side.

This fin de siècle bank building, its bank long defunct, now houses Bedrock Billiards. I haven't been inside, but I understand it's basically a bar-and-grill/catering place with pool tables, dart boards, and even two shuffleboard courts.

This photo looks manipulated, as if I desaturated everything but the sign. But in fact, this is pretty much the way I saw it on a gray morning last week. The contrast between semi-cheesy, colorful sign and the elegant gray stone carvings is what attracted me as I ambled up West Baltimore Street.

To set this photo in its context, here is a photo I found on Flickr.com that shows the Little Bank that Was.

West Baltimore Street - Hippodrome Hatters

When I was a small child in the 50's, nearly all gentlemen wore hats. President Kennedy, unintentionally but single-handedly, put an end to that. I don't remember ever seeing JFK in a hat, and in the 45 years since his death, I haven't even found a photo of him in one. So since 1961, it's been a rough road for haberdashers.

Flying against these headwinds, Lou A. Boulmetis, owner of the euphoniously-named Hippdrome Hatters, runs a nice business on West Baltimore Street. Mr. Boulmetis' store is an outgrowth of the business his grandfather, Louis, started 78 years ago.

To put it mildly, West Baltimore Street is not the most fashionable part of town, but Mr. Boulmetis's and his store provide a spot of elegance.

Ginkgo Fan

Yes, you could say I'm a ginkgo fan.

I never really noticed their elegant, fan-shaped leaves until I worked in Towson some years ago on a three-month contract. It was fall, and Pennsylvania Avenue in greater downtown Towson is graced with quite a few ginkgo trees. Even then, I didn't notice the leaves until they started to turn color and fall.

The ginkgo tree, Ginkgo biloba, is itself quite intersting. Among plants, it is sui generis, being the only species in the genus Ginkgo, which is the only member of the family Ginkgoaceae, in turn the only family in the order Ginkgoaceae, itself the only member of the class Ginkgoopsida, which is, you guessed it, the only member of the phylum Ginkgophyta.

Even among trees, ginkgos are especially long-lived and have been around longer than any other species - over 200 million years.

For this photo, I made use of a photographic axiom I learned years ago:

"Get close... then get closer."

The macro mode of my digicam (Canon A620) let me "get closer," and some nice late-afternoon sidelighting contributed to make a dramatic image.

Fallen Ginkgo

These ginkgo leaves actually fell a few feet away onto some unattractive concrete pavement. I thought they'd look much better on this nice brick-paved portion of the sidewalk.

I waited until the sun was low in the western sky, grabbed a handful of ginkgo, and dropped them on the brick.

Gravity and air resistance did a pretty nice job of arranging them. All I had to do was compose and snap.

West Side Story

I started a new job last week at University of Maryland (Baltimore) in the Department of Psychiatry. My wife is tickled pink, because she says that's exactly where I belong.

After three years of walking eastward from the Light Rail stop at Batlimore Convention Center, I now walk west from that same stop. No more Inner Harbor, but of course, you can find good photo opportunites anywhere.

If you look for it, you'll see that here's what morning sunshine does to the Pratt Street side of UMB's Medical School parking garage.

Full disclosure: Although the brown metal fascia at upper left looks fine in real life, I wasn't crazy about it for this abstract, so I used the color replacer function in Photoshop to make it red.

Election Day 2008

It's been a fascinating - and very long - election season, but it all ends today. And we're the ones who end it. This is the only poll that counts.

I'm going to be an election judge tomorrow at a precinct nearby that's not my own, so I've already voted by absentee ballot (poll workers can't leave the polling place for the duration.) If your election precinct tomorrow is at St. Margaret’s Episcopal in the St. Margaret’s section of Annapolis, please look me up and say hello!

Be sure to vote - it's one of the easiest yet most important responsibilities we have as American citizens.

Cast Iron Baltimore

In the second part of the nineteenth century, Baltimore had several foundries producing cast-iron building fronts, making the city a critical supplier of this new construction technique for new buildings around the world. In New York City, you'll find the now-chic Soho area full of cast-iron buildings.

Baltimore had more than 100 of these cast-iron fronted buiding by 1900, but all but a few were either destroyed the the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904 or torn down during redvelopment. The Wilkins Building in the photo here is one of the few remaining.

Constellation Duck

The corner of Harborplace formed by the two main pavilions is a hangout for these dabbling ducks. They're always looking for a handout from us humans, and they're worth it, as they provide a lot of free entertainment.

This one didn't seem bothered by me at all as I took over a dozen photos up close and personal, down on the deck with my Canon A620 - the articulated LCD is great for this sort of thing.

The green in the background is the historic frigate USS Constellation.

By the way, I can't quite figure this duck out. It looks like a female Mallard, but the beak is yellow, rather than orange and black, and I didn't think the females had any green on their heads. If you know from ducks, please enlighten me.

Night Photo - 250 W Pratt

How many times can I photograph the same building? A lot, if it's a good one, like 250 W Pratt. Since it's caddy-corner to my Light Rail stop, I go past it twice a day every workday.

Architecturally speaking, crossing the street each morning as I step off the Light Rail is a nice lift, as the Convention Center is on my right hand and 250 W Pratt on my left. In the photo above, you can see the new pedestrian bridge from the Convention Center crossing Howard Street. Unfortunately, this is Baltimore's new Bridge to Architectural Nowhere, as where it connects to is the architecturally-challenged Hilton Baltimore

250 W Pratt - Abstract

When it comes to skyscrapers, Baltimore is an architecturally impaired city, but there are a few exceptions. This is one of them, one of my favorites in Baltimore, 250 W Pratt Street.

This 1986-vintage, 24-floor building was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. It's 360 feet tall (110 m), and its half-ziggurat profile and handsome banding make it a real standout any city would be proud the call its own.

Impulse Photography with a Digicam

One of the great things about having a good-quality little camera is that you can do impulse photography. Sure, you've heard of impulse buying - well this is the same thing, but with taking photos. You can't impulse buy unless you have money, or more likely a credit card, on you. Likewise, you can't impulse-photograph unless you've got a camera on you.

And this has been the absolute best thing about my digicam, (a 2006-vintage Canon A620) as far as I'm concerned. It's small enough that I take it with me pretty much everywhere, and when the mood strikes, I'm ready to shoot.

I was in Annapolis this morning - not scenic Annapolis, but a few blocks away in the nothing-doing-nothing-interesting part. After my business there was over, though, I remembered seeing a nice photo the other day taken at Acton Cove, which was only a few minutes drive away. Acton Cove is on picturesque Spa Creek, and I had my Canon A620 in my jacket pocket, so there you go.

No big deal - just a few photos on an impulse. Little time expended and little risk involved. If I end up with nothing good, who will know?

The little punt that was tied up at the small public dock at Acton Cove had a nice shape, and with a little Photoshop to compensate for the flat lighting, I ended up with a pretty nice impulse photo.

Before I headed home, I needed a sheet of black mat board, so I headed over to Art Things, which was right on the way. They always have some sort of nice display on their porch, and this time, what caught my eye was a container full of different-colored, retractable Sharpies.

Out came the Canon A620, and I took a quick photo. Whoops, I got that little shakey-camera icon on the LCD, and sure enough, the shot looked a little blurry. A few button presses, and I switched from ISO 50 to ISO 200. Picture taken, problem solved.

Impulse satisfied.

Otakon Preview

I'm chargin' up my battery and formatin' my card so I'll be ready for the lively scene tomorrow at this year's Otakon at the Baltimore Convention Center.

I'll let Wikipedia tell you what Otakon is all about:

Otakon is a fan convention in the United States focusing on East Asian popular culture (primarily animé, manga, music, and cinema) and its fandom. The name is a portmanteau derived from convention and the Japanese word otaku. Otakon is traditionally held on a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in late summer at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland's Inner Harbor district. It is considered the second largest and one of the longest-running Anime conventions in the United States.

There was a line, which had been there since morning, wrapped around the Center, with people waiting to pre-register. I saw this young man tonight on my way back to the Light Rail station, just across the street from the Convention Center, and he was gracious enough to pose for me.

Now to badly paraphrase Justice Potter Stewart,I don't know much about animé or manga, but I know a great costume when I see one.

Charles Center South Reflections

I thought I'd check out the other side of Charles Center South, so I walked into Charles Center Plaza and up a ramp that took me around the Federal Building.

As you can see, the view is quite nice at about 6pm, with great reflections of the M&T Bank Building (1973) and Baltimore's original skyscraper, the Bank of America Building (1929.)

A federal security officer came by to check me out - his concern was that I not take photos of the Federal Building (which, unfortunately, is not a very good-looking building.) I showed him what I was doing on the LCD screen of my digicam, and it turns out that he's a photographer himself. We chatted a bit, and he invited me to stop by again to talk photography!

Urban Geometry

I've griped before about the dearth of decent modern architecture in Baltimore, but here's an edifice I may have overlooked - Charles Center South.

I haven't quite made up my mind, but at first glance, this 25-story curtain-wall black glass building stands out from its contemporaries as being more elegant. The tower stands at the nothwest corner of Charles and Lombard, a block away from my normal daily trek from Light Rail to work. For most of my walk, other buildings block the view.

Designed by the very fine Baltimore architectural firm RTKL Associates, Charles Center South was completed in 1975. The irregular hexagonal plan of the building gives it a more faceted appearance, especially in comparison to the foursquare 1973 Legg Mason building, the one reflected in this photo.

I decided to give Charles Center South a quick once-over last Friday on the way home, walking west on Lombard Street rather than Pratt. I snapped a few photos and moved on, but then looking back, I saw this composition of diagonals and triangles.