Amazing Union Station
Today I made a trip to the Train station in my hometown of Utica NY.
The station was built with the Italianate style. Inside is a restaurant and a barber shop, one of the few barber shops in a train station today. The 15,000-square-foot (1,400 m2) waiting room's 47-foot (14 m) high vaulted ceiling is supported by 34 marble columns. The station's blueprints called for the importing of columns that originally adorned Grand Central Station in New York City. Eight large benches are heated with steam pipes and vents. -From Wikipidia.
The locomotive above I attempted to simulate "lomography". In the 80's, there was this really cheap camera called a Lomo that when you cross processed the slide film as 35mm, it would give these really nostalgic, unique colors. It works best on still objects rather than landscapes, so I thought I'd give it a try here on this train, hope you like it, I may do more of it in the future.
Here is the inside of Utica's incredible train station. These marble columns are one piece, and the ceiling goes almost 50 feet high! Everything is just covered in marble, it is absolutely incredible. It's cool too when you see the old time barbershop that still runs, although it was too dark to photo clearly. The picture above I converted to black and white, but I tried introducing a little bit of color back in and it gave it such a nice white appearance, I decided to leave it.
This is an HDR shot (above). I kept the nice gold colorcast because even though it all is actually white, It does look gold when you are in there from the lights. 
I was a little upset I couldn't get this shot of the ceiling looking down as sharp as I wanted, but it still looked cool so I kept it :)Below are two shots of some hallways that go out to the trains, one below and one above. The second is an HDR.
I hope you enjoyed these, and I hope you appreciated the time I put into getting the colors where I hoped they would work best.
24 comments:
More great photos Mr.C. Loved the one looking down from the ceiling and the Lomo one. I actually bought Lady Hem a Lomo style camera for her birthday one year. It was a new, old style pinhole camera. Takes great, old fashioned photos but you have to have somewhere steady to stand it. You can create some great effects though.
Great photos!
The second picture of the interior of the station looks best with the lighting!
And the "lomography" is interesting!
:)
Hey tennyson, thanks for liking them :)
That's awesome you guys have a lomo! Let's see some pics!
@sreya: aw thanks, I wasn't sure how you guys would like the lomography
They're all great pics, and my favs are the train station (both, but I'm partial to the HDR) and the lights from the ceiling. The colors are so vibrant!
Absolutely stunning Mr. C
Brings back memories...
Ok, ok, these photographs are really exciting. And I am sure not only to historians like me. Old buildings/structures captured with finesse on film are fine things indeed. You, Mr. C, have done just this. The shot of the ceiling looking down, it almost looks like you could have been in an old church.
ooh thanks for the memories. I went there 11 yrs ago and I had completely forgetten about it until I saw your amazing pics as always. I'm sure when I went there was a cafe?..or did I imagine it?
The one from the ceiling is breath takingly gorgeous. Your pictures never cease to amaze me.
How did you do the color of the first one? I've been working on my photoshopping skills and still have no idea what I'm doing.
@JJ: thanks JJ, I like the hdr myself hah, it just is sometimes difficult to work with.
@Mega: memories of a train station? I love any place with people traveling.
@Maisie: so you are into history and old buildings? You're lucky to be in england, where things go past 250 years old unlike here! Thanks for the very nice words, I'm glad you liked the pics.
@Natalie: thank you, I really appreciate the support. Do you mean the colors on the locomotive?
To get that nostalgic look, I made a vignette, then put some strong contrast with a nice S curve, and then a layer of black set to "hue" blend mode and brought that opacity to like 40 or something.
In case you don't know how to make a vignette or use curves, I can help you further should you need it.
My main areas of expertise are Tudor/Stuart social history, and women's history. I am extremely lucky to live where I do, though little survived the great fire, therefore little from my period. There is only one wooden building which survived, it is still there to this day. The George pub in Fleet Street.
I like these! My favorite is the one which was black & white & then you put some color back in.
I saw a tutorial about creating lomo style somewhere, I think it was Smashing Magazine's website?
Hey S&C thanks!
Yep there are only a few tutorials for lomo stuff out there. I think the smashing one I didn't care for as much, but I can't remember why.
Its actually really easy to do, try it!
The problem I have is that I don't normally take pictures of still objects (which it works best on).
@Miss H: somehow I missed your comment :(
I'm ashamed to disrespect anyone from the 'nham like that!
As far as I know there isn't a cafe, there is a restaurant but we could be meaning the same thing heh.
There's a town my grandfather used to take me to with an old run-down train station and 2 old trains. Very spooky but it absolutely fascinated me.
Love that last one. It's amazing! Good job on all the pics. They're great.
In 1993/1994 visited the General Electric Plant located in Utica, NewYork along with business personnel! As it was a one day trip Im not sure if we saw the locomotive train, etc. Is 'photography' your career or just a hobby?
Im leaving a comment here for your 8/22 post about food items - how does the grocery store feel about you snapping pictures of their shelves? Too, too funny!
oh my God! i never knew that Utica owned such a beautiful piece of architecture. amazing pictures!
Gorgeous. The second one in particular is stunning.
@Maisie: tell me more about the great fire!
@Mega: ooh that sounds fascinating, is it still there?
@Ms Salti: thanks! I think you need a good pic of mine to put on your new homes wall!
@Christina: aw too bad you didn't see it, GE is actually now the headquarters of a medical device company (ConMed). I hope the grocery store appreciates the added exposure hah.
@Lauren: hah its pretty neat huh? I try to find cool stuff amidst the muck.
@Hezabelle: thanks! I really appreciate the support :)
i love these. i have a thing for trains, so especially love the first one!
I'm sure it's still there... haven't been there in about 4 years though. Mmmmm... ROADTRIP!!! Hehe!
The black and white one is really cool! I made it my desktop background.
I wish I could give constructive criticism but there's really not much I would change about any of your pics.
@Claire: hah I plan to get more, because I like them too?
@Mega: Oh please take pics mega! Did you get my email?
@Amandasaurus: oh that's awesome you chose to use it as your desktop, If it looks fuzzy blown up I'm sorry, I have the full resolution photos on my pc, but I only upload them on here at about 1/4 size. Thanks for liking them, I appreciate it a lot.
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