Thursday, May 30, 2013

View from the tour bus




Okay, okay, I had to swallow my pride. But it was for a good cause.

When I take photos to inspire my cityscapes, I like to have a different perspective. I look for opportunities to get an elevated viewpoint.

A friend suggested that I take a ride on one of the many double-decker buses that tours around Manhattan, and on Monday I did just that.




I didn't listen to any of the commentary, didn't even plug into the audio. I just concentrated on getting some interesting shots. There was no one else on the bus for the majority of the trip (it's a new company and I guess they're not well-known yet) so there were no heads in the way of my lens.

When I visited the show of Sargent watercolours at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the curator's text referred to the "fragmentary slices" of architecture that Sargent chose as his subjects, the "partial views" of landmarks. It was said that Sargent "characteristically bypassed the grander aspects of the setting". Those are the images I'm looking for.









Of course the images will need some cropping and other re-working, but on the whole I think I have some good material to work with.

And if you know about some Montreal perches that would provide a special viewpoint for a cityscape (nothing too high, just a few stories) please let me know.

If only we had these nifty water towers on the Montreal skyline!




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