Destination: Brasília

• Egidio Leitao

Lens-Artists Challenge #284: Day & Night

Brasília – Day & Night

For this week’s Lens-Artists challenge, Sofia suggests celebrating the “Yin/Yang of our everyday life” with day and night and “the beauty of each one of them.” I initially thought I would struggle with the challenge. I envisioned searching my catalog for photos of the same location during the day and night. I thought that would better illustrate the day cycles. Soon, I realized that when I travel, I like seeing those destinations during the day and night. I picked one location to feature here: Brasília (Brazil‘s capital).

Having found the location, the main problem was that the photos I have from our trip there were captured in 2005 with a 1.9 MP camera. Can we say low quality and not enough resolution? Thanks to advancements in photography software in recent years, I noticed the photos could be rescued to an acceptable level of quality. I will let you be the judge of that. If you want to skip reading and see a slide show, click on the first photo and take it from there. That will also show the photo in full size.

The first stop is at the Supreme Court (STF or Supremo Tribunal Federal, in Portuguese) complex, the country’s highest court of law. Besides the building’s architecture, another interesting fact about Brazil’s Supreme Court, according to Wikipedia, is that “all judicial and administrative meetings of the STF have been broadcast live on television since 2002. The court is open for the public to watch the meetings.”


The next stop is the National Congress complex. The towers house offices for bureaucrats, senators, and deputies. The two saucers are the Senate (right-side up) and the Chamber of Deputies (upside-down saucer). Those are functional buildings with chambers for those branches of government.


We now proceed to the Itamaraty Palace (Palácio do Itamaraty), which houses the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Bruno Giorgi designed the marble sculpture “Meteor” in the reflecting pool.


Finally, we reach the National Cathedral. In the daytime photo, you can see the 66-foot (20-m) tall bell tower. The nighttime image shows the four Evangelist statues created by sculptors Alfredo Ceschiatti and Dante Croce. Each bronze statue is 9.8 ft (3 m) tall.


All the main buildings in Brasília are the brainchild of renowned Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer (Dec. 15, 1907 – Dec. 5, 2012, Rio de Janeiro). For more photos and information about Brasília, visit the links here.

I hope you enjoyed last week’s challenge. Ann-Christine gave us plenty to think about when using quotes along with our photos. Next week, I will host a new challenge: “Warm Colors.” Please leave a comment on Sofia’s original challenge post, and make sure you use the hashtag “lens-artists” in your post. We look forward to your joining this and future challenges. Please see this page to learn more about the Lens-Artists Challenge and its history.

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58 thoughts on “Destination: Brasília”

  4. hello egidio,

    a wonderful and interesting mix of architecture that you have chosen for the challenge i like them all,
    especially the 1st and 5th, i like the perspective.

    best regards robert

  6. A marvelous view of day and night Egidio. I was stunned by the beautiful architecture which is equally spectacular at both times. They have surely mastered the art of lighting to perfection. Your images came alive with your updating technology – well done!

  11. Tina, I am so thankful for your feedback. I was going to include another image, but the “restoration” process was not good. I agree about the lighting. They created it to enhance the building’s view at night. It’s a marvel indeed. Thanks for your comments.

  12. You’ve done a brilliant job rescuing those photos. How amazing that they all look so different during the night. Great selection

  15. What a great idea for tackling the challenge, Egidio. And fantastic images of the “rescues”. It is amazing what we can do with old photos now. I especially loved the National Cathedral.

  16. What a great take on this challenge Egidio. I liked that you showed us the same buildings as viewed in daylight and at night. The architecture is stunning. I will say that I’m partial to the night images because of the way the buildings are lit. Just beautiful!

  17. A photographer’s dream, Egídio! For someone that doesn’t do night photography, you’re doing rather well 😀
    I love the way you organised your photos in pairs. The architecture is obviously amazing but you had a great eye for how to capture it.

  21. I would have loved to spend time in this beautiful city, Egidio! My time in Brazil was short and confined to coastal cities.

    Nice work on the day and night photos. I will have trouble finding similar perspectives at different times of the day. Great response to the challenge!

  22. great selection, Egídio. Initially I had the same idea for this challenge and put day and night images of the same subject side by side. But, I decided otherwise. When I was kid, I was very astonished about what’s possible with concrete when I saw images of Brasilia. So, thanks for sharing your view! 👍👍👍

  26. Anne, many thanks for the feedback. I was glad I was able to find similar photos of the same location. Brasília’s architecture is impressive. Everything was planned from the moment the government decided to build the city. I’m sure the lighting was part of the deal.

  31. John, thanks for your feedback. Yes, I must admit I was lucky to have taken similar shots. I was not thinking about that when I was in Brasília 19 years ago.

  32. André, I’m pleased you liked the selections. The city’s architecture was really advanced when the city was built from scratch. Thank you for the feedback.

  33. Dan, I used to think the city did not have traffic lights. Actually, the planned portion remains true to the initial plan. Cities merge into others using traffic circles. It’s fascinating. Thanks for your kind words and feedback.

  37. Terrific post, Egidio. I thought of organizing my post this way, but I didn’t have enough day/night pairs of images. You’ve shown us beautiful examples at both times of day. Wonderful images! I love the contrast. Most of the time, I enjoyed the night image as much or more than the day.

  39. Patti, thanks for the feedback. Like you, I also ended up liking the nighttime images better. I think I need to remember that whenever I travel to other places.

  42. Well, you managed excellently to find both day and night images of the same place! I tried to organize my post the same way, but hade to give up finding photos for it.
    And the restoration you did went perfect. I remember as a child beeing fascinated by pictures of buildings in Brasilia. Extravagant architechture. So glad you chose pictures from your capital.

  44. Ann-Christine, I was not sure I would be able to do that. I certainly was not thinking about it when I made those photos almost twenty years ago. Thank you so much for your kind words and feedback.

  47. oh wow, that Itamarany night shot is absolutely gorgeous. the grand scale and warm colors give out such an engaging presence.

    it must have been a joy to take these shots at both times of the day. thank you sharing these Egidio!

    Archer

  48. Thanks for showcasing the image in the day and then at night.
    I never thought of doing the same photo that way. I learned something.
    I enjoyed seeing your choices. It looks like there are many wonderful
    plcaes to visit.

  50. Archer, many thanks for your compliment and feedback. Itamaraty is indeed a beautiful building. I must confess that it had been my intention to capture both day and night. I just happened to be in the area at both times of the day.

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