“Skyspace”
This week I decided to explore Rice University’s “James Turrell's Twilight Epiphany Skyspace”. I enjoy photographing unique architecture, and the Skyspace does not disappoint. Not only is it stunning in design but every sunset and sunrise, except on Tuesdays, there is a light show. Here is what their website has to say about it:
“Built in 2012, the pyramidal structure accommodates 120 people between two levels. Twilight Epiphany is acoustically engineered to host musical performances and to act as a laboratory for music school students on select days after sunset. Constructed of grass, concrete, stone and composite steel, the structure is equipped with an LED light sequence that projects onto the ceiling and through an aperture in the 72-foot square knife-edge roof just before sunrise and at sunset. Turrell's composition of light compliments the natural light present at twilight, and transforms the Skyspace into a locale for experiencing beauty and reflective interactions with the surrounding campus and the natural world.”
The morning light show is open to anyone with no reservations. However, for the evening show you must reserve a seat at their website: http://skyspace.rice.edu/cms/visit-skyspace/ . Parking is all you have to pay for and it's relatively inexpensive, for the 2 hours I was there I only paid 5 dollars.
It really is a must see place in the Houston area. However, please respect their rules and don't climb or take flash photography while the light event is happening for obvious reasons.
I showed up early in the morning to take my photo. I'm not an early bird, however neither is most of the population, and I have found that if you don’t want people around it is better to show up at sunrise. Also since I didn't have to make a reservation that meant I could show up last minute instead of planning it out.
There are several ways you can photograph the Skyspace, however as you already know I like symmetry. As I showed up the light event was already happening so I had to hurry a little. I was able to get set up fairly quickly and start shooting. Since it was still dark outside my first shots were very over exposed on the skyspakce itself. Believe it or not, the Skyspace puts off a lot of light so I was forced to bracket and blend it in post. I almost always blend in post at least to some extent in my work anyway, thats one of the ways I can make my images so clean.
By the time I had really got into the groove of my exposure settings the Skyspace had stopped changing colors and stayed an orange color for several minutes before turning white at the end. This was actually perfect because the sun remained hidden behind the clouds and it was a gorgeous blue hour, which contrasts perfectly with the orange.
In post I picked 3 images, one for the Skyspace, one for the sky and one for the grass and buildings. For the sky I used a directional blur filter to simulate a long exposure. For the Skyspace I blended it in and used a graduated filter to fade out the color on the grass to make it look natural. I also had to desaturate the Skyspace because it was too orange and it looked as if I had added too much saturation. For the grass and buildings layer I just tweaked a curves layer a little to pull down the highlights on the buildings. Once blended together, I used a curves layer on a midtones mask to blend them together better and straighten the crop just a little, then I added a high pass filter for sharpness.
I went back during the sunset and took the timelapse below. I hope you enjoy.
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