Capital Building and Statues

I feel like I'm gypping you not breaking this into three posts. After work on Tuesday I sent to the Civic Center neighborhood. Why? To see how long I could be there without being stabbed. Answer: Six minutes. While there, I decided to grab some photos and, conveniently, the newest soon-to-be LEED Platinum building in San Francisco, the Public Utilities Commission building, was there to be photographed. It finished construction recently or is about to finish, so I decided to grab some shots of this pretty nifty building.


1/80, f8. Here you can see this building's most prominent feature -- the side-mounted windmills. The building's shape directs wind into the turbines, amplifying the natural air movement's effect. Pretty nifty, but I imagine those must make the view out of those windows somewhat limiting.


1/50th, f8. The windmills close-up.


1/125th, f5.6. An artsy-type shot from down below.

In addition to the new SFPUC building, I decided to grab some shots of the city hall and a couple nearby statues.


1/100th, f22. San Francisco's City Hall. Sunset. Lovely building.


1/125th, f16. Some city building. I saw the name of it and decided to remember it instead of writing it down. Then I forgot the name of it.


1/160th, f4.5. As you've probably guessed, I love photographing buildings. And the SF Public Library at Civic Center is a great building. This was shot almost wide-open (at 120mm, wide-open is f4.6). And on 400 ISO film. Nikon makes great gear. The N70 matches the 24-120 very well. This is helped by the fact that this is a fantastic lens. Of my Nikon lenses, it's probably the best.

We'll wrap up today with some shots of the statues around City Hall.


1/80, f11.


1/100th, f4.5


1/125th, f5.6


1/125th, f5. Ashurbanipal upskirt. Actually, this is a well thought and place statue.
Here, Ashurbanipal faces the library (he founded one, but not the San Francisco library, obviously) and stands out front of the Asian Art Museum.