Contrasting Lines

• Egidio Leitao
Austin City Hall
Austin City Hall

— Completed in 2004, the Austin City Hall building was designed by architect Antoine Predock. The building has several distinctive features, including a copper-clad roof, a glass-enclosed lobby, and sustainable materials used in its construction. One other feature, perhaps the most obvious to an observer, is all the sharp lines, angles, and contrasts, as seen in the first photo here. That is what attracts me to the building’s design. It is a wonderful place for photography as it offers many alternatives to varied compositions.

Walking around and outside the building, a visitor can enjoy the contrasting lines created by the interplay of light and shadows and the building’s own structure. Take a look at these next three photos.

Grid reflection on ground

The metal open awning and the glass on the wall create a strong contrast with the limestone walls.

Take a closer look at this photo and you see the glass reflection creating contrasting lines of light and shadow in a pleasing diagonal pattern.

Black and white contrasting lines

Here’s another example of contrasting lines created by nearby structures in juxtaposition with the natural limestone vertical placement. The lines and textures create a pleasing and intricate pattern to the eye.

These last two photos are my favorites. If you look at the first photo I posted, on its right side you can see the slanted structure on the right side of the frame. That is what I feature here. With the late afternoon sun, the shadows and contrasting lines are accentuated in a myriad of textures and shapes. I cannot decide whether the color or black-and-white edit is better. What do you think? As always, clicking on each image will open a larger version of it.

Grids and reflections Black and white light and shadows

Thanks to Amy for this very inviting Lens-Artists’ challenge about contrasts. Also, some information used here was obtained from Wikipedia.

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34 thoughts on “Contrasting Lines”

  4. I’m in awe, Egidio! What a selection of the contrasts of the architecture. beautiful photos focus on lines, shadows, and reflections. The last two are just stunning, love the angle you took!

  5. A marvelous study of architecture Egidio. The the light, the lines and the angles are perfect for the week’s challenge. I surprised myself by preferring the color version of your final image. I thought for sure it would be best in B&W but I preferred the other because of the additional contrast.

  7. Interesting take. When I think of contrast it typically means light and shade or contrasting colors. Lines provide a great angle (no pun intended). 😊

  9. Amy, thank you for the feedback and kind words. For the last two shots, I got my camera really low on the ground and used a super wide-angle lens. Glad you liked them.

  26. Wow – these lines and structures are exceptionally vividly photographed and give us a feeling we are inside them.! A wonderful take on, Egidio.

  29. Thank you so much for the feedback. Sorry for the late reply. I don’t know why your comment here and in the other post were waiting in the spam section.

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