Out at the Library, getting some knowledge

Its not much of a secret.  I like libraries.  I like I can find pretty much anything I want to read there.  I also like I only need to find a place to keep the book for 3 - 6 weeks.  Stuff has a way of piling of up for most of us, and the library helps me keep my shelves from becoming bookmonsters.

I also like that most of the ones I have been to, find some way to be aesthetically pleasing.  I had this in mind the last time we went to the library.  The weather was nice and I wanted to see how it might work out as a location for quick portraits.  Obviously, if I was doing this with lighting it would be with a helper, and we wouldn't be there long.  Public places don't like stuff like elaborate photo shoots happening on them.  They tend to attract public servants to ask you to leave.  This is probably as it should be.

In any event, I tried two places around the building.  I only brought a camera and lens, no lights, no reflector, no nothing.

 

  

These were taken in the front near the entrance.  I think the lines of the planter could be used to good effect.  It does require I get above my subjects to eliminate the poop background of the parking lot.  A little extra pop from a flash would help polish anything I did here.  Direct sunlight was blocked at the time I made these.

 

Around the other side of the library is a high, huge, red wall.   Here I had some natural sidelight going on, if needed a flash mimicking that could be useful.  I'd like a rim light to outline the subject and separate them from the background.  Without it the rim, even with such bold color differences, the subject looks painted on the background.

I like pictures of a subject surrounded by vast amounts of almost nothingness. 

Inside the library I found the Bourne Identity book on CD.  Man, that book makes me feel completely inadequate.  The protagonist gets himself beat to the brink of death, but still manages to kick almost as much butt as Chuck Norris.