Vantage Point

This is why after 35 years, I still love my job. 
I was recently hired to photograph an office building adjacent to Boston City Hall. I determined a good vantage point would be from city hall about 5-6 stories up. Arrangements were made by my client and on Thursday evening a very helpful assistant to Mayor Walsh opened up a window with a special wrench and we climbed out onto an open deck. No railings, no insurance waiver, no hassles. Just a great spot from which to photograph my clients building, as well as an excellent views of the Custom House & Faneuil Hall, and the new Government Center T station.

Singapore

Functional, artificial trees at the Gardens by the Bay

This post is part of a series covering an international corporate assignment. For a brief introduction to this trip, click here

Singapore – The world’s only island city-state,  is located at the southernmost tip of continental Asia, directly below Malaysia and just one degree above the equator. I had been there in the early 90’s on a recreational visit and hardly recognized the place. Little is left of the small, funky, far East flavored neighborhoods. Instead there were modern high rises and glitzy hotels.  We had a needed day and half off in between shooting the two subjects and were able to do laundry, get in some R&R and a little sightseeing.  I especially enjoyed the Gardens By The Bay which included a large area of man made, 50 meter tall, functional Super Trees.  Sadly, Singapore had been under a thick cloud of haze for several weeks from some serious burning of forests on the Maylasian Peninsula.  Every day was hazy and gray and it was bad enough to irritate our eyes and ears.

Old Hill Street Police Station, now the MICA building

The Fullerton Hotel at Collyer Quay

Hot tub refraction fun

Children's decorated box at the Esplanade

Marina Bay Sands Hotel

Infinity pool at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel

Civilian War Memorial

Detail of Marina Bay Sands Hotel

Super Tree Grove at Gardens by the Bay

Palm Frond at Gardens by the Bay

Lim Soo Chee - Senior Sales Consultant Engineer – Soo Chee was suffering from allergies and not feeling well the morning I had to photograph her in the Schnieder office.  Of course I had to be sympathetic to her situation, yet still needed to create good usable photographs for the Schneider home office.  Fortunately she was feeling better the next day when we video taped and photographed her leading her yoga class. She, and her students, were very cooperative and the session yielded some wonderful images.

Climbing the ladder . . .

I was recently hired by the Boston Convention and Marketing Center to photograph the Hynes Convention Center. The client and I had scouted several locations from which to get elevated views of the Boylston St facade. We found a couple of buildings on Boylston St that offered decent views, but it would mean shooting through glass.  Another vantage point was offered to me by the good fireman of Ladder Company 15. "We'll just pull the truck out and set up the ladder however you'd like" said the lieutenant.  And that's just what they did when we showed up a few days later.  It was steep, but fairly stable and was indeed a good vantage point. Generated some interest from passerby. The shoot was cut short when they had to answer a call. But I was able to get a good overview of the building. And partially fulfilled the "wanna be a fireman" dream most boys have.