The final Milwaukee post from last weekend’s bus tour with Out of Chicago Photography. It was a very blustery, cold day but we had some pretty great clouds and a surprisingly vivid sunset.
As you know by now we spent a fair amount of time at the Santiago Calatrava designed Milwaukee Art Museum, both inside and out. I even managed to get some less abstract shots of the museum…I know, quite shocking!
Unfortunately the “wings” of the museum were closed since we had such high winds. The “wings”, technically called the Burke Brise Soleil, have sensors in their tips which constantly monitor wind speeds. They automatically close anytime winds exceed 23mph for 3 seconds or more. On calmer days they open at 10am, close and reopen at noon and then close for the day at 5pm. For all the airplane enthusiasts out there the museum’s wingspan is comparable to the Boeing 747-400…wow! Moving architecture is pretty cool, don’t you think?
Let’s start with some daytime shots…this first image was made from the Milwaukee War Memorial looking south toward the MAM. A little bit of layering and geometry for a different perspective on the museum.

Looking east toward the museum from the pedestrian bridge.

I can’t completely escape the more abstracted shots!

A little interlude with that beautiful sunset. The foreground was really distracting and cluttered to me so my intent was to focus on the cotton-candy-like clouds. Another of my favorite subjects to photograph…I really do like photographing things other than architecture from time to time.

And back to the MAM for some night photography; probably my favorite shots in this post. Because of the long exposure and high winds, the clouds made some nice wispy streaks adding to the drama. A little back and forth between the more abstracted shots and documentary-like wider frames.



Then we wandered down the riverwalk, such a nice reprieve after the wind at the lakefront! Rumor has it this boat is haunted.

Then over to the recently restored Pabst Brewery. It’s now referred to as “Best Place” in reference to the brewery’s founders Jacob and Phillip Best. The renovated space is comprised of residential, office and retail space. To get shots of the brewery and Milwaukee skyline we photographed from the top of a nearby parking garage…definitely some nice views from up there.


As usual there are other images of the MAM here and Milwaukee in general here.