Saturday, January 16, 2010

A Stiff Breeze

Actually, it felt more like a gale. Especially on the platform of the Cultural Education Center, which is lifted a couple of floors above the main plaza level of the state office building complex.

A flag atop 677 Broadway, Albany, New York.

Every flag that was flying on that Saturday morning was ripping toward the north, pushed by the hard south wind. This one is on top of the 677 Broadway building, about a half-mile away from where I was standing. The church spire is St. Peter's Episcopal Church on State Street which, I've since learned, is built in the French Decorated Gothic style. It's the third church on the site and was built in 1860. I need to go back the next time I'm there and take a closer look. It's strange how one can grow up passing these incredible buildings regularly and not even notice them.

I wasn't too thrilled with the original photo for a few reasons. First, the church steeple was a little blurry. Second, the flag is backwards. And third, the flag was kind of lost in the color image. So I worked on it in Photoshop to enhance the blur and mute the colors (except for the flag). I even flipped the photo so the flag was no longer backwards, but then the buildings were in the wrong place and that bothered me, so I flipped it back.

I'll have some more France photos starting tomorrow.

6 comments:

  1. Clearly, you should simply have ordered the wind to reverse direction, Walt--what were you thinking?

    I've been in the 677 building and got as much of a look as I could into the old and very grand Beaux Arts train station. Albany has more interesting architecture than I realized.

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  2. It's still a good picture even if our flag was going backwards. That happens- just as recently as our last decade.

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  3. Great photo, Walt. Nature front and back, and in between, a hundred-plus years of architecture.

    Evelyn, thanks for the chuckle.

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  4. As Will said, Albany sure does have some interesting architecture.

    I, for one, enjoy anything you blog about, with photos from France, Albany, Vermont, Spain, or whatever!

    Judy

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  5. It had to be a pretty strong wind for the flag to be standing straight out like that.

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  6. will, yes, the old Union Station is a gem. It's too bad that the city moved the station across the river then built that humongous interstate on the waterfront.

    evelyn, hehehe!

    carolyn, thanks! Albany's a small city so there's nice country very close.

    starman, it was really blowing that day!!

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