Scenes from the Blanton Museum of Art – Austin, Texas
Last week, when I was at the Blanton Museum of Art to see “The Open Road”, a collection of photographs by top photographers. I did a quick walk through of the rest of the museum. Honesty, I was there more to take photos, rather than seeing the rest of the non-photographs. For whatever reason, I enjoy making images in these places. Not necessarily of the artwork, but of the visitors interacting in the space.
Often, museums have nice architecture, which is also an interest of mine. So the combination of worthy spaces, artwork on the walls and creative enthusiasts make for fun shooting. I was there with my small new camera, the Canon G7X Mark II. A handy little device to capture images that captured my visual interest.
The 24mm to 100mm equivalent focal length works well. It more than covers my usual preferred focal lengths. The photo above is at 100mm equivalent and I was able to take it from the other side of the central foyer. The one with the arches is with the 24mm equivalent.
I most often use 24-50mm but my sweet spot is either 35mm or 50mm. Until recently, with years of shooting with the Fujifilm X100S and 17mm f1.8 on the Olympus, 35mm was my favorite. Now a days, I’m using my 50mm equivalent a lot more.
I have to admit that I’m not very knowledgable about art history. I’ve always preferred the modern pop art, photography and graphic design to the old European masters.
A final reminder, the photography exhibit “The Open Road: Photography and the American Road Trip”, will be closing on January 7, 2018. If you go there on Thursday, there is free admission. I highly recommend photographers in Central Texas to go visit before it closes this weekend, especially if you like street photography.
Please support this blog by clicking on my Amazon Link before buying anything.
atmtx photo blog 
Thanks for the reminder, I made it by today. The background for Winogrand’s display made me think of you: “Winogrand’s visual appetite was prodigious. He felt his life was not really happening if he was not shooting it. Even by his own prolific standards, he shot an enormous amount of film on this trip, half of it in Texas and California. Five hundred and fifty rolls of 35mm film went through his Leica cameras.”
Maybe someday we’ll be looking at the ATMTX exhibit at the Blanton.
Ha, thanks. That would be a dream come true. Alas, I don’t know if any of my stuff is good enough or original enough to be showcased like that. But, at least I like shooting and making images. And, more and more, writing stories about them.
Glad you made the show. There are some photographers I liked a lot. Others, I still don’t know what the big deal is about.