ARCHITECTURE AS PARALLEL REALITY – AN ANALYSIS OF FLUID TIME I
Architecture as Parallel Reality – An analysis of my image Fluid Time I
Chicago – Jay Pritzker Pavilion (Architect Frank Gehry) & Aon Center (Architect Edward Durell)
T/S LE = Tilt + Shift + Long Exposure
Shot with Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II – maximum tilt & shift, needed to maximize the OOFE (out of focus effect) and to keep the entire Aon Center in the frame, using the Hitech ProStop IRND filter kit, the best ND filters and processed using extensively BW Effects 2 by Topaz Labs , ReMask & Detail 3 + PS CS6 & LR5
PHOTOGRAPHY AS A PROFESSION
Almost 2 months since my last architectural image, you might wonder if I’m still doing photography. Well, the answer is YES, more than ever, but now that I’m doing it professionally I’m spending time doing a lot more than just working on my images (which I still love more than everything else). Not that I don’t like the whole process, it’s so very exciting and it suits me like a glove, but you have to know, doing photography as a business is much more than shooting and processing your photos, So much more!! And you have just one choice, if you want to do your job at a top level, you have to spend time doing all the things around it. That’s what I do in all my activities, be they teaching, mentoring or else.
AN IMAGE FROM THE CHICAGO WORKSHOP
This is the first image I’m posting from the Chicago workshop, a workshop I did as a collaboration with the Vision Explorers team and that is still the architectural event of the year. Chicago is an amazing place not only for photography but also as a city, from architectural and urban point of view, and has won a big place in my heart. As Frank Lloyd Wright says: “Eventually, I think Chicago will be the most beautiful great city left in the world…” He is right and I’m already looking forward to the moment I’ll be back there!
ANALYZING THE PHOTOGRAPH
Now a few words about my vision behind this image.
Time, space …they are just conventions. Living inside them can be just as easy as living outside them and the reality of living outside them can be just as real as the one of relating to them. If you need a proof just try to dream. Who says that dreaming is not a reality? Just as imagination can be reality as well. Who says that the world needs to have a material shape to be real?
Who says that we have to always relate to the same constants that are time and space and not create different times and different spaces that will cover different realities?…
Different from what you were used from me lately, more in line with my older architectural work, it’s been a long time since I’ve shown an entire building in a frame, let alone 5 buildings, but I was thinking for a long time to make a series as the one I’m starting today.
If you know me you know I love long exposure, I love motion blur and any kind of blur that can give me the freedom to bypass reality and go where no one else has been. I love the freedom these ways of seeing the world give to my imagination and now I also have a lens that will help me with putting in practice what my mind has already seen a long time ago: The Queen of the Lenses, Her Majesty The T/S Lens.
A NEW DIRECTION IN MY FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY
This image is the beginning of a direction I wanted to explore for a long time, architecture as a parallel reality. What I’m always looking for in my architectural images is to find the dream in architecture, in essence, to find the soul of the building I’m photographing. I think now I’m closer than ever to this soul and I’ll show it to you too over the months to come.
TECHNICAL DATA
Exposure and EXIF
141.0 sec. @ f/11, ISO 100,
Equipment
Camera: Canon 5D MK3
Lens: Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II,
ND Filters: 10+3 stops Hitech ProStop IRND filters.
Black and white processing – Photography Drawing (PhtD)
LR5 + PS CS6 + Topaz B&W Effects (B&W Effects extensive review) + Topaz DeNoise + Topaz Detail + DxO View Point
TOPAZ LABS 15% DISCOUNT FOR MY STUDENTS AND FOLLOWERS
Topaz Labs was so kind to not only feature my work so many times and participate in my workshops, but they also gave me a discount code for my students and followers who are reading this blog and want to use the best software available in their post-processing work. You can use my special code JULIAG to get 15% discount for any of the Topaz plugins, separately or the whole collection. You can use the code by ordering at this link. Enjoy!
FURTHER STUDY RESOURCES
FINE ART BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY, ARCHITECTURE PHOTOGRAPHY, LONG EXPOSURE PHOTOGRAPHY
Find more resources about fine art black and white photography, (en)Visionography, long exposure photography and architecture photography in Julia Anna Gospodarou’s extensive collection of photography tutorials. To receive free future tutorials, you can subscribe here.
Learn more about how to create fine art photography, from vision to processing and the final image in Julia’s video course From Vision to Final Image – Mastering Black and White Photography Processing, in the video tutorial Long Exposure, Architecture, Fine Art Photography – Creating (en)Visionography, and the book From Basics to Fine Art – Black and White Photography, or by attending one of her highly appreciated workshops.
Find Julia’s recommendation for the best software and gear to create fine art photography and curated deals and discounts for these tools.
To study with Julia Anna Gospodarou personally, find out about our
Support our mission for quality photography education. Donate!
We believe in knowledge, education, and the freedom of spirit that creates great art. We believe in art and artists.
Please donate to help us continue sharing free quality photography education and inspiration.
For more than one and a half decades, we have been sharing free content on fine art photography, black and white photography, architecture photography, long exposure photography, as well as our original concepts of “(en)Visionography” and “Photography Drawing”.
Thousands of photographers started their journey in fine art photography here and found inspiration and practical resources that empowered them. Many have won awards for their work and are making a career in photography based on knowledge acquired from our free tutorials, books, courses, and workshops.
This makes us incredibly proud of our work.
To empower even more photographers to reach their dreams, we want to keep this resource free forever so every new or advanced photographer can have access to knowledge, quality photography education, and inspiration.
To help us in our efforts, please consider becoming a patron of this cause with your recurring donations.
You will be part of a generous effort by other exquisite art and photography-loving patrons, and you can be proud of being a supporter of art and artists like the famous Maecenas of the past. Art and artists need your support, as always in the history of art and photography.
Thank you!
Julia Anna Gospodarou – Founder – (en)Visionographer
Founder of (en)Visionography™ and creator of Photography Drawing™, internationally acclaimed fine art photographer, architect, educator, and best-selling author, with 25+ years experience in photography and architecture, Julia Anna Gospodarou is a leader in modern fine art photography who shaped with her work the way architecture fine art photography looks today.
Awarded more than 100 times in the most important photography competitions worldwide, two-time International Photography Awards IPA Photographer of the Year, World Photography Awards SWPA, and Hasselblad Masters Finalist, her work was widely exhibited and published internationally.
With a passion for the world’s civilizations and speaking five languages, Julia was always in the avant-garde of thinking as an architect and a photographer, constantly pushing the limits of what is possible, constantly reinventing herself as an artist and an individual. Her huge love for travel and discoveries and her passion for teaching, art, and photography led her to become in the past one and a half decades one of the world’s top-rated fine art photography educators and workshop organizers.
