A while back Community Impact News wanted me to shoot the new Hays County Government Center.
There was a tour scheduled and a small gathering of press cycled through the building to take a look at the new facility. I’ve been on these kinds of tours many times and every time I do my best to break away from the group to try and get something a little different than everyone else.
This was a government building and as a whole, government buildings can be fairly boring to look at, so instead of forcing an interesting shot, I tried to use the symmetry and clean lines to my advantage.
When shooting new buildings, or old buildings for that matter, a lot of times people end up shooting empty rooms because at the time of the tour, the empty room was interesting for one reason or another. Then, when they look at the photos later, they realize they just have a shot of an empty room and the interesting story about the room is gone.
This time, instead of the building itself, I concentrated on the people in the building. There was plenty of activity with employees moving in, construction workers finishing up, cleaning crews, things like that. Even in the shot above, there’s a security guard leaning up against the back wall. A human element almost always makes the shot better.
The most important part of this assignment was to get a nice outdoor shot of the building. I was picturing a wide shot with clear blue skies and maybe a judge in the foreground, but, as usual, my plan didn’t work out. It was pouring down rain the whole day. I got a shot of the judge inside and I grabbed this shot of the building on my way out, but I thought I could do better.
I went back a few days later with my 11-18mm after sunset and got a night shot. The building was already lit up and everything looked shiny and new. Plus, I know a trick about my camera that helps night shots look a little more spectacular. Here’s the shot and I’ll explain after you see it.
That star effect on the lights is something that happens in-camera on most digital Nikon cameras. The trick is that you can’t use any kind of filter. I keep UV filters on most of my lenses, so I had to remove it for these shots.
Community Impact used the night shot at the top of the post to go with their story. Click here to read the story.