Bismarck, North Dakota

Shane Francescut, this week’s guest host of the Weekly Photo Challenge is asking us to photograph a stationary subject from three different angles. You can read the details of the challenge here. As Mr. Francescut points out, by taking the time to look your subject over, sampling the target from multiple angles, “…your results might just go from ordinary and uninteresting to original and inspiring.”

The subject of my challenge entry is the State Capitol Building for my great state of North Dakota. I believe that one of the reasons I am happy with any given photo session is that I can find at least one image of the several I’ve taken that stands out in some way. A couple of weeks ago, regular readers will recall, my wife and I made a trip across our state. Of course, I captured photos along the way. One stop we made was at the Bismarck State Capitol where I took about a dozen photos. My three favorites are featured here, and in the accompanying gallery, I also included almost every image I captured that morning.

Our state Capitol Building was built in the 1930s and was, for a long time, not only the tallest building in the state, it was the only skyscraper in the state. Small by today’s standards at only 19 stories, the building rises just over 248 feet (75.6 m) above the prairie. Built in 1934 to replace the original capitol building destroyed by fire in 1930, the building is a classic example of art deco architecture, popular in the 1930s.

Feel free to leave a comment about these images and let me know which image you feel is best for whatever reason. The next time you go somewhere to photograph an iconic object, don’t just click that shutter on your cellphone once… walk around a bit and waste a few megapixels trying different angles. You can always delete the excess to recover the memory space and you will have a favorite image to share with people. That’s always more fun that one where you just “clicked and left the scene.” The gallery below contains all but two of the thirteen photos I captured that morning. The two left out were similar to two of those included here, so much so they could be considered duplicates. Click on an image to enlarge it and to scroll through the gallery.

John Steiner