Last Saturday I was in town for a visit of the Dubuque Museum of Art, which hosts at the moment three photography exhibitions. The most remarkable is “Remnants of the West”, photography by Edward S. Curtis and Mark James, but I can recommend the other two, “Dimensions of Photography: Dubuque Camera Club 5th Annual Exhibition”, and “Curious Constructions”, photography by Les Allen, as well.
While killing some time before the opening hour of the museum, I discovered that downtown Dubuque has a new attraction. A variety of colorful murals has been painted by several artists on the sides of old buildings this summer. The project is called “Voices” and didn’t just impress only me. Several people took pictures with their phone cameras or DSLR.
I like to keep as many distracting elements out of the frame as possible, without producing a ‘mural-art-only’ photo. Too many cars parked in front of the mural can be very distracting and can take away from the subject. And don’t get me started on wires and power lines hanging between buildings! To say it mildly, the power grids in many cities here in the US are very old fashioned and fragile in comparison to other parts of the world. For photographers it means that many cityscapes and interesting views the architects had in mind are spoiled up to some degree. And maybe that’s the real challenge, coming back with a decent image despite all the distractions?
Nikon D750, Nikkor 16-35mm / f4, @ 35 mm, 1/1000s, f/5, ISO 100