34. 1927 - February 2-8, 2014
Deron-
This is Los Angeles City Hall. On the left is the Criminal Courts Building (O.J. Simpson Murder trial) and in the background is the Roybal Federal Building and United States Courthouse.
Started in 1926, L.A. City Hall was built throughout the entire year of 1927 and completed early the following year. It's pretty cool to see the 1927 photos of its skeleton rising to the sky.
It was the first high-rise in Southern California, at 452 feet, and until 1964 the tallest building in Los Angeles. Originally designed only for gravity and wind loads, it has survived the earthquakes of 1933, 1971, 1987, and 1994. The seismic retrofit after the '94 quake included the largest base isolation project in Southern California. Interestingly, at least to me, the concrete in the tower was made with sand from each of California's 58 counties and water from its 21 historical missions.
Movies and television shows it has been featured in: Adventures of Superman, Alias, Dragnet (original and 2003), Perry Mason, LA Confidential, V, Adam-12 and others.
This is Los Angeles City Hall. On the left is the Criminal Courts Building (O.J. Simpson Murder trial) and in the background is the Roybal Federal Building and United States Courthouse.
Started in 1926, L.A. City Hall was built throughout the entire year of 1927 and completed early the following year. It's pretty cool to see the 1927 photos of its skeleton rising to the sky.
It was the first high-rise in Southern California, at 452 feet, and until 1964 the tallest building in Los Angeles. Originally designed only for gravity and wind loads, it has survived the earthquakes of 1933, 1971, 1987, and 1994. The seismic retrofit after the '94 quake included the largest base isolation project in Southern California. Interestingly, at least to me, the concrete in the tower was made with sand from each of California's 58 counties and water from its 21 historical missions.
Movies and television shows it has been featured in: Adventures of Superman, Alias, Dragnet (original and 2003), Perry Mason, LA Confidential, V, Adam-12 and others.
Paul-
I don’t put much credence—okay, none—in numerology, bible code, kabbalah or other unempirical pseudo-sciences that purport to make prophetic claims based on arrangements and/or subjective attributes of numbers. That said, I am fascinated with numbers, and this week’s theme was too good to pass up insofar as my favorite number: 19.
I’ll explain. Deon’s theme was: “1927.” However, he did not stipulate this had to be interpreted as a year. I immediately saw the chance to highlight 19—the sum of these four numbers.
So here we go…
On the corkboard (in no specific order) is a picture of Jackson Pollock’s painting “19.” You cereal historians may also remember Kellogg’s Product 19. The gun is a Glock Model 19. The official-looking document is my original birth certificate—I was born on the nineteenth (March). The brass object is a metal tag that cattlemen attach to steers in order to keep track of them. (An ex-girlfriend knowing my fondness for this number gave it to me for a birthday present. I‘m not sure I want to know how she came by it.) The two books deal with the ancient board game “GO.” Go is played on a board with a 19 x 19 grid. The vessel in the middle is, of course, a bottle of the famed 1919 root beer. The CD on the right is Steely Dan’s “Gaucho.” One of the songs on the album is “Hey Nineteen.” Finally, those are banana muffins you see. Bananas are high in potassium which is the 19th element on the Periodic Table.
Oh, and 19 is a prime number. (I really like prime numbers, too.)
Artistic license: As Kevin will attest, 1919 Root Beer does not come in bottles. To my knowledge, you can only get it in kegs and as a fountain drink. I bent the rules here a little because it seemed to fit so well.
The usual suspects: Olympus E500; 14.0mm-45.0mm (f3.5) lens at 14mm focal length; 2 sec. at f14; ISO 400; tripod used.
I don’t put much credence—okay, none—in numerology, bible code, kabbalah or other unempirical pseudo-sciences that purport to make prophetic claims based on arrangements and/or subjective attributes of numbers. That said, I am fascinated with numbers, and this week’s theme was too good to pass up insofar as my favorite number: 19.
I’ll explain. Deon’s theme was: “1927.” However, he did not stipulate this had to be interpreted as a year. I immediately saw the chance to highlight 19—the sum of these four numbers.
So here we go…
On the corkboard (in no specific order) is a picture of Jackson Pollock’s painting “19.” You cereal historians may also remember Kellogg’s Product 19. The gun is a Glock Model 19. The official-looking document is my original birth certificate—I was born on the nineteenth (March). The brass object is a metal tag that cattlemen attach to steers in order to keep track of them. (An ex-girlfriend knowing my fondness for this number gave it to me for a birthday present. I‘m not sure I want to know how she came by it.) The two books deal with the ancient board game “GO.” Go is played on a board with a 19 x 19 grid. The vessel in the middle is, of course, a bottle of the famed 1919 root beer. The CD on the right is Steely Dan’s “Gaucho.” One of the songs on the album is “Hey Nineteen.” Finally, those are banana muffins you see. Bananas are high in potassium which is the 19th element on the Periodic Table.
Oh, and 19 is a prime number. (I really like prime numbers, too.)
Artistic license: As Kevin will attest, 1919 Root Beer does not come in bottles. To my knowledge, you can only get it in kegs and as a fountain drink. I bent the rules here a little because it seemed to fit so well.
The usual suspects: Olympus E500; 14.0mm-45.0mm (f3.5) lens at 14mm focal length; 2 sec. at f14; ISO 400; tripod used.
Kevin-
On New Year’s Eve in 1927 the El Mirador Hotel and Tower grand opened in Palm Springs, California. This was a luxury hotel with (unusual in it’s day) a non-restrictive open-guest policy. People like the Marx Brothers, Al Jolson and Albert Einstein frequently stayed there. During the Great Depression the original investors were forced to sell the property to bond holders. Later the El Mirador reopened as a luxury resort. Then during WWII the property was purchased by the US government and it was converted into a military hospital. It remained a community hospital after the war. In 1952 it was purchased by new investors and made even more luxurious attracting US Presidents, movie stars, etc. as a luxury resort, though a portion remained a hospital. Then in 1979 the luxury resort closed and the remaining property was sold to the Desert Regional Medical Center. Unfortunately after all the other issues the building was destroyed in a fire in 1989. But by 1991 it had been rebuilt, still as a part of the hospital. The tower is actually one of the tallest structures in Palm Springs, (generally Palm Springs limits the height of structures based on earthquake concerns).
I walked around the building looking at different perspectives, finally deciding to start with the angle you see as I liked the mountains visible in the background. I set up my camera and tripod to frame and shoot this image, but then had a couple of security guards come by on a golf cart. The asked who I was and what I was doing and why. Try explaining the WPOTM to a couple of security guards! They radioed whomever; trying to see if I could get permission. Waiting for a while without an answer one of the the guards quietly told me that since I was set up I could go ahead and snap the shutter once. Fortunately I had already composed, focused and set the exposure so the only thing that I was perhaps going to was play around with the addition of a polarizing filter. Well, forget that! I snapped the shutter, took the camera off the tripod and put everything back in my camera bag. As I did word finally came to the guard on the radio that the answer was no, and that I should leave. So I did with this one image of a famous Palm Springs building that grand opened on December 31st, 1927 (whew, it just made it as a 1927 building!) then closed, opened, bought and sold many times, until it finally burned down and was rebuilt.
The ISO was 200. The camera was set to aperture priority at f/9. The shutter speed was 1/200th of a second. The lens was my Nikkor 24-70mm set to 29mm.
On New Year’s Eve in 1927 the El Mirador Hotel and Tower grand opened in Palm Springs, California. This was a luxury hotel with (unusual in it’s day) a non-restrictive open-guest policy. People like the Marx Brothers, Al Jolson and Albert Einstein frequently stayed there. During the Great Depression the original investors were forced to sell the property to bond holders. Later the El Mirador reopened as a luxury resort. Then during WWII the property was purchased by the US government and it was converted into a military hospital. It remained a community hospital after the war. In 1952 it was purchased by new investors and made even more luxurious attracting US Presidents, movie stars, etc. as a luxury resort, though a portion remained a hospital. Then in 1979 the luxury resort closed and the remaining property was sold to the Desert Regional Medical Center. Unfortunately after all the other issues the building was destroyed in a fire in 1989. But by 1991 it had been rebuilt, still as a part of the hospital. The tower is actually one of the tallest structures in Palm Springs, (generally Palm Springs limits the height of structures based on earthquake concerns).
I walked around the building looking at different perspectives, finally deciding to start with the angle you see as I liked the mountains visible in the background. I set up my camera and tripod to frame and shoot this image, but then had a couple of security guards come by on a golf cart. The asked who I was and what I was doing and why. Try explaining the WPOTM to a couple of security guards! They radioed whomever; trying to see if I could get permission. Waiting for a while without an answer one of the the guards quietly told me that since I was set up I could go ahead and snap the shutter once. Fortunately I had already composed, focused and set the exposure so the only thing that I was perhaps going to was play around with the addition of a polarizing filter. Well, forget that! I snapped the shutter, took the camera off the tripod and put everything back in my camera bag. As I did word finally came to the guard on the radio that the answer was no, and that I should leave. So I did with this one image of a famous Palm Springs building that grand opened on December 31st, 1927 (whew, it just made it as a 1927 building!) then closed, opened, bought and sold many times, until it finally burned down and was rebuilt.
The ISO was 200. The camera was set to aperture priority at f/9. The shutter speed was 1/200th of a second. The lens was my Nikkor 24-70mm set to 29mm.
Byron-
This is a photo of a 1927 Model T roadster. What I like about this car is the fact that it is designed to haul 2 people and not much more. Utility was not a priority. It is a predecessor to today's 2 seat cars. You might think that back in those days people would want to get the most bang for the buck. That came 2 years later with the depression. I hope the original owner was happy with his purchase even when times got tough.
This is a photo of a 1927 Model T roadster. What I like about this car is the fact that it is designed to haul 2 people and not much more. Utility was not a priority. It is a predecessor to today's 2 seat cars. You might think that back in those days people would want to get the most bang for the buck. That came 2 years later with the depression. I hope the original owner was happy with his purchase even when times got tough.