--Mike--
Cloud Gate reflects Chicago
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 -
My Nikon D40 has died, so I'm now using a Coolpix L20 point and shoot for the duration. In "sports" mode, it keeps taking exposures in rapid succession, which is perfect for doing panoramas. I'm finding quite a bit of new things to try given this unplanned shift in gear, it's a bit frustrating, but quite rewarding.
A few days ago I saw this photo from Harold Hall, which is where I got the idea.
Having gotten used to the rapid fire movie mode on my L20, it was worth doing an experiment to see if I could get a good spherical panorama to match it. I think this qualifies as a success. You can see the reflection of me laying down taking the photos.
This is the photo after alignment pf the 196 source images and merging with Hugin, and conversion from TIFF to JPEG using GIMP.
Not bad for a $120 camera, eh?
Comments and faves
Tim L Lowe (7 months ago | reply)
I like to shoot this thing with a 6.5mm fisheye. Still. It IS the most over-photographed thing in Chicago and it's best to limit oneself to one shot / year.
This one is nice though.
--Mike-- (7 months ago | reply)
Harold's photo was from an angle I've never seen before... which, for the most over-photographed thing in Chicago is a rarity.
I've got a few more, but it takes a long, LONG time to stitch together more than 100 photos.
Cèsar Enric added this photo to his favorites. (6 months ago)