Photo Assignment: Sculpture Park
On a business trip to SoCal, I found a couple of nice sculpture parks and shot 'em up.
On various business trips, I’ve found some interesting things to photograph, and one I took last week had me looking for something to aim my lens toward. My wife suggested a sculpture park, so I found some near where I was staying.
The first one took me to Irvine, and following the GPS, I wound up at the University of California Irvine, where thousands of students trooped around in pairs, single groups, with and without backpacks and more. I was trying to find a small sculpture park but had no idea what it might contain. I inquired about it with the young woman who took my parking money (only $2 for 30 minutes!), but she hadn’t heard of it. It took less than ten minutes to find a small group of sculptures that, according to the signage, had been installed in 2005, thanks to the Frank and Catherine Jao and Family. The four sculptures were of the poet Li Bai from the 8th century AD, the Tang Dynasty; Magu, the Goddess of Longevity in ancient Chinese tradition; an early Chinese statesman Qu Yuan (340 - 278 BC); and author Lau Zi, who is regarded as the author of Yin-Yang philosophy:
With plenty of daylight and nothing on my calendar but time, I tracked down another sculpture park at the Newport Beach City Hall, which was quite enjoyable and very photogenic. Frankly, a single-word description drew me to the park: BunnyHenge. Huh? I had to see it, and it didn’t take too long to find. I spoke to another visitor who had been walking their dog, and she told me that they were looking for a sculpture that was no longer there. I learned that the city swaps out sculptures every couple of years, so if you visit in a couple more years, it’s likely to have a different lineup.
Here’s another set:
These are in no particular order, and I did minimal cropping. I did do a little work in Lightroom to bring out some of the colors more, as sundown was approaching. Here’s a final gallery.
This was certainly a fun assignment, I hope you enjoyed the images, too!
Love, love, love all the photos. These might be your best collection yet Tim.