Hektor's Photos : Travel Photography : Museums

Museums Galleries

Gene Autry Museum of the American West : The Museum of the American West provides learning opportunities for all people by exploring the myths and realities of the American West and its diverse populations. The museum enhances the understanding of the present by collecting, preserving, and interpreting objects and art, making connections between people today and those who have shaped the past. (http://www.autrynationalcenter.org/) In this location, I used the Nikon D300 and the Nikon 14-24 f/2.8, an exceptional lens for low-light conditions and no flash.

How dark was it inside? There were some places where I could not see well enough to walk-around. How was this lens able to even take pictures? I have no idea. I know from my film days of 50mm f/1.4, that I could not take these pictures, in the dark, without resting the camera and even then, I felt very lucky if any pictures, other than black, came out. I was able to shoot all the pictures handheld and without any kind of support. The shoot also presented unique challenges – reflections from the acrylic type of “glass” from the displays. It reflected everything, but it was worse. Many of displays were next or facing each other. Therefore, they reproduced reflection of reflections of reflections…It was like having two mirrors facing each other and the infinite amount of reflections you get. The easy solution would have been to press the lens against the glass. However, that will never happen with the 14-24 with its exposed bulbous front element. One good thing, though. I did not have the same problems with noise as I did in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. I had some, but it was easily managed by Capture NX 2, Lightroom 2, or both – no Noise Ninja, this time.

Gene Autry Museum of the American West

Getty Museum : The Getty Center presents the Getty's collection of Western art from the Middle Ages to the present against a backdrop of dramatic architecture, beatiful gardens, and breathtaking views. Since opening in 1997, has quickly assumed its place in the L.A. landscape as the city's cultural acropolis. Headquarters for the Getty Trust's research, education, philanthropic, and conservation concerns, the postmodernist complex -- perched on a hillside in the Santa Monica mountains and swathed in Italian travertine marble -- is most frequently visited for the museum galleries displaying the Getty's enormous collection of Impressionist paintings, French furniture and decorative arts, fine illuminated manuscripts, contemporary photography, and European drawings. The area that's open to the public consists of five two-story pavilions set around an open courtyard, and each gallery within is specially designed to complement the works on display. (http://www.getty.edu/visit/)

In this location, I used the Nikon D40 and the Nikon AF 24mm f/2.8D and the AF 50mm f/1.8D.

Getty Villa : Oil magnate J. Paul Getty used some of his vast wealth to amass an incredible art and antiquities collection. In the early 70s, he had a Romanesque villa constructed next to his house to be a permanent museum for his collection. The Getty Villa, modeled after the partially excavated Villa dei Papiri in Italy, became the home of the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1974. After a nine-year, $275 million renovation and expansion the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Villa has re-opened as home to the Museum’s Antiquities Collection. In terms of pure grandeur, it puts most other art museums to shame. Only the Huntington Library & Gardens can rival the Getty Villa for the sheer beauty of its grounds and buildings. Perched atop a small hill overlooking Pacific Coast Highway and the ocean, the Getty Villa sits in all its elegance like some grand Roman villa of old. (http://www.getty.edu/visit/) In this location, I used the Nikon D40 and the Nikon AF-S 18-70 DX. The lens came through as with the San Juan Capistrano shoot.

Long Beach Museum of Art : The Long Beach Museum of Art is located overlooking the Long Beach Harbor and the Pacific Ocean. The campus includes the historic Elizabeth Milbank Anderson house and carriage house, now called the Miller Education Center (built in 1912), oceanfront gardens, and a new pavilion with two floors of expansive gallery space for changing exhibitions with the Museum Store in the Masterson Atrium. I am very glad I visited the museum because I took it off the "museums to visit" list: http://www.lbma.org/visit.html

I used the Nikon D700 and the Nikkor 14-24 f/2.8.

Long Beach Museum of Art

Los Angeles Maritime Museum : The Los Angeles Maritime Museum creates an awareness and appreciation of the maritime history of coastal California, with an emphasis on the people and institutions of the port city of Los Angeles. The Museum is located in the 1941 Municipal Ferry Terminal, now on the National Register of Historic Places. From 1941-1963, a ferry system transported thousands of passengers to the canneries and military bases on Terminal Island, where they could also make connections to neighboring cities and towns. http://www.lamaritimemuseum.org/

In this location, I used the Nikon D300 and the Nikon 14-24 F/2.8

Los Angeles Maritime Museum

Lomita Railway Museum : The Lomita Railroad Museum was the first of its kind west of Denver, Colorado. It was made possible through the generosity of Mrs. Irene Lewis who donated the Museum to the City of Lomita in honor of her late husband, Martin Lewis, in 1967. It was a rather natural thing for Mrs. Lewis to do since she had been a dedicated railroader and spent many years building Little Engines, a business devoted entirely to developing and manufacturing miniature steam operated locomotives which were sold all over the world. The museum proudly displays some of these locomotives. The Museum was built in 1966. Much research and study was given to depot structures before the final home the Museum was chosen. ( http://lomita-rr.org/Information.htm )

Lomita Railway Museum

Petersen Automotive Museum : The Petersen Automotive Museum is dedicated to the exploration and presentation of the automobile and its impact on American life and culture using Los Angeles as the prime example. Encompassing more than 300,000 square feet, its exhibits and lifelike dioramas feature more than 150 rare and classic cars, trucks and motorcycles. Covering four floors, the facility features permanent exhibits on the first floor that trace the history of the automobile. Visitors are invited to walk through, not by, exhibits and dioramas and experience settings of early Los Angeles where the world’s first shopping district was designed. The second floor presents five rotating galleries with state-of-the-art displays of racecars, classic cars, vintage motorcycles, concept cars, celebrity and movie cars, and auto design and technology. (http://www.petersen.org )

For this shoot I used the Nikon D700, the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8, and the Nikon Micro 105mm f/2.8 VR.

Petersen Automotive Museum

Norton Simon Museum : The Norton Simon Museum is known around the world as one of the most remarkable private art collections ever assembled. Over a thirty-year period 20th-century industrialist Norton Simon (1907–1993) amassed an astonishing collection of European art from the Renaissance to the 20th century and a stellar collection of South and Southeast Asian art spanning 2,000 years. Among the most celebrated works he collected are Branchini Madonna, 1427, by Giovanni di Paolo; Madonna and Child with Book, c. 1502-03, by Raphael; Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Rose, 1633, by Francisco de Zurbarán; Portrait of a Boy, c. 1655-60, by Rembrandt van Rijn; Mulberry Tre, 1889, by Vincent van Gogh; Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, 1878-81, by Edgar Degas; and Woman with a Book, 1932, by Pablo Picasso. Highlights from the Asian collection include the bronze sculptures Buddha Shakyamuni, c. 550, India: Bihar, Gupta period, and Shiva as King of Dance, c. 1000, India: Tamil Nadu; and the gilt bronze Indra 13th century, Nepal. ( http://www.nortonsimon.org/ )

For these shoots, I used the Nikon D700 + the Nikkor AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8G N and the Nikkor AF-S 105mm VR f/2.8G N.

Norton Simon Museum

Page Museum : On 16 September 2009, I visited the Page Museum located at the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits in the heart of Los Angeles. Rancho La Brea is one of the world’s most famous fossil localities, recognized for having the largest and most diverse assemblage of extinct Ice Age plants and animals in the world. Visitors can learn about Los Angeles as it was between 10,000 and 40,000 years ago, during the last Ice Age, when animals such as saber-toothed cats and mammoths roamed the Los Angeles Basin. Through windows at the Page Museum Laboratory, visitors can watch bones being cleaned and repaired. Outside the Museum, in Hancock Park, life-size replicas of several extinct mammals are featured. ( http://www.tarpits.org/ )

For this shoot I took the Nikon D700 and the Zeiss ZF Distagon 35mm f/2 and the Nikon Micro AF-S 105mm f/2.8G VR N. I made the mistake of shooting most of the pictures at ISO 3200, when it was not needed. I never used an ISO setting this high (1600 was my previous high) and I wanted to try it out. Good news and bad news. The D700 performed extremely well and very clean. However, ISO 3200 is so sensitive that many of highlights were blown because of the spot lighting reflecting on the subjects. The reflections were not that obvious. Now, I know.

Lacma-042408 : With 100,000 objects dating from ancient times to the present, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is the largest art museum in the western United States. LACMA’s seven-building complex is located on twenty acres in the heart of Los Angeles, halfway between the ocean and downtown. The campus is undergoing a ten-year expansion and renovation known as the Transformation. LACMA’s collections encompass the geographic world and virtually the entire history of art. Among the museum’s special strengths are its holdings of Asian art, Pavilion for Japanese Art; Latin American art, ranging from pre-Columbian masterpieces to works by leading modern and contemporary artists including Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and José Clemente Orozco, and Islamic art, of which LACMA hosts one of the most significant collections in the world. ( http://www.lacma.org/ ) In this location I used the Nikon D300 and the Nikon 14-24 f/2.8

Lacma-020410 : Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA.) For this shoot, I took the Nikon D5000 and the Nikon 10.5mm Fisheye f/2.8 + the Nikon AF-S 105mm f/2.8 Micro VR II or "Laurel & Hardy."

Lacma-040210 : Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA.) For this shoot, I took the Nikon D700 and the Nikon AF-S 16-35 f/4 VRII.

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