This morning as I was walking to my building I walked next to the McGraw Clock Tower. The Clock tower has 21 bells, and is played several times a day by Chime Masters. During the semester one of the daily concerts is at 7:45 AM every weekday morning. If the door is open you are allowed to go up, and listen/watch the concert. I had never been up in the tower, so I decided to go. I had an exclusive concert in that I was the only one in attendance this morning. Just before 8:00 he asked me if I would like to play the 8:00 AM chime. I agreed to play just the one bell 8 times that signifies 8:00 AM. It made my day.
After the concert I was allowed to walk up the last flight of stairs and could look at the 21 bells. I also had a great view of cayuga lake, and Cornell University. I wish I had my wide angle lens with me. I had my telephoto lens, and took a few photographs including this one looking at part of the Arts Quad. McGraw Hall is in the main portion of the photo.
Lessons Learned:
- If possible carry all of your camera equipment. I had my running clothing with me, so I was limited on what I could carry.
- Look for new opportunities to photograph. It's not only fun to photograph, but the opportunities are a lot of fun as well.
4 comments:
I know the desire is always to capture a big view with a wide, but there are many benefits to using a telephoto on a scene like this. I like the balance of the tower on the left and the path on the right without the distortion you would surely get had you shot with wide. Beautiful scene. Did you use a polarizer? The sky looks... well, like Ithaca! ha ha ha! ;) I find polarizers help tremendously in cutting down on haze and glare. Don't get linear, get circular (linear polarizers will confuse your focusing sensors).
I do have a circular polarizer, but I didn't have it with me on this day.
Thanks for the memories, Steve. Both my mother's parents worked at Cornell as I was growing up. I use to go over there all the time. Now, I am there for an occasional hockey game (Oct 30th I believe). I also grew up down the street from a church with a bell tower. Something makes me think there were 24 bells but I could be wrong. I have played those bells many times. I hadn't really thought about that in years. :)
Nicki, I know that they worked on the tower a few years ago, so maybe they reduced the number of bells. I'm impressed that you played them. It seems like it would be difficult to me, but I have very limited musical talent. It's such a cool place.
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