--Mike--
Scene02_The_Bean_Before_Dawn
Cloud Gate, a public sculpture by Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor, is the centerpiece of the AT&T Plaza in Millennium Park within the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States.
The sculpture is nicknamed "The Bean" because of its bean-like shape. Made up of 168 stainless steel plates welded together, its highly polished exterior has no visible seams. The sculpture was finally completed on August 28, 2005, and officially unveiled on May 15, 2006. The cost for the piece was first estimated at $6 million; this had escalated to $11.5 million by the time the park opened in 2004, with the final figure standing at $23 million in 2006.
"What I wanted to do in Millennium Park is make something that would engage the Chicago skyline ... so that one will see the clouds kind of floating in, with those very tall buildings reflected in the work. And then, since it is in the form of a gate, the participant, the viewer, will be able to enter into this very deep chamber that does, in a way, the same thing to one's reflection as the exterior of the piece is doing to the reflection of the city around." — Anish Kapoor
-wiki
My story about this photo -
I got up extra early and took the 05:00 train into Chicago with the idea of getting some good sunrise photos of the bean. I was surprised to find that the park doesn't open until 6AM, fortunately it was still in the "golden hour" far enough to get this photo.
I used a tripod, bracketed, merged into HDR using Hugin, then pushed the saturation as far as GIMP would let it go.
Comments and faves
Tim L Lowe (9 months ago | reply)
Nice shots but too much bean.
rockysan added this photo to his favorites. (8 months ago)
Viejito (8 months ago | reply)
You can never have too much bean...;-)
Viejito added this photo to their favorites. (8 months ago)
M Reza Faisal (8 months ago | reply)
nice compositiion...great work
M Reza Faisal added this photo to his favorites. (8 months ago)