Dining Terrace and Columns. The Getty Center, Los Angeles, California. December 30, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Visitors on the outdoor dining terrace among tall stone pillars with fog beyond – Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California.
I think this terrace is one of the most interesting places at the Getty Center for a variety of reasons. For one, these slender and tall columns seem to support a rather large part of the museum – being a virtual native Californian I can’t help but think about their seeming fragility here in earthquake country. But the space itself is a very interesting one. While protected from sun and rain (as on the day I made the photograph) it feels very open because of the unusually high “ceiling” and the fact that it is almost completely open along a good part of its edge. While the “back” wall is nondescript – and, in retrospect, I can’t even describe it – the front opens to the large gardens that are spread below.
Elements that attracted me to the scene on this visit included the gradual gradient from shadow at the lower right to much brighter light at the far edge of the terrace, the vertical length of the support columns and their relative placement, the very small figures of the visitors, and the diffuse and misty fog and rain beyond the terrace.
This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
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Thanks, Rajan.
It would be interesting to shoot this with a T/S, though I’d want to work from the tripod and I’d have to get permission from the Getty to do that – at least I think I would. However, in this case I think the converging perspective lines are part of what makes the shot work… :-)
Dan
Very well composed and exposed – a good deala of thinking has gone into this shot. I wonder if a Tilt-Shift lens would have given you more control over the verticals.