Rubble: statue / sculpture

Showing posts with label statue / sculpture. Show all posts

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Our Lady of the Rockies

Our Lady of the Rockies
Shot from the Berkeley Pit. Butte, Oregon. July 30, 2014.
Copyright © 2014 A. F. Litt, All Rights Reserved

Today’s photo isn’t technically great, since it’s shot on the P510 with the super zoom cranked to the max, but it is interesting. We were staring at the large quarry lake that has filled the Berkeley Pit in Butte, Montana since the last time I was there and we noticed some statue or something up on the mountain to the east of us. Turns out that it is an enormous statue of the Virgin Mary and the second tallest statue in the United States after the Statue of Liberty. Built in 1985, it wasn’t there the last time I was through Montana. The statue is 90 feet tall, but is still easily missed since it is way up on top of a 8,500 foot mountain, 3,500 feet above the town.

For more information and some interesting pictures, follow the links below:

http://www.ourladyoftherockies.net/

The Story: "The base of the statue was poured with 400 tons of concrete in September of 1985. December 17, 1985, a Nevada Air National Guard team lifted the statue in four sections with a CHAR Sikorsky Sky Crane. Supported by the Montana National Guard, the U.S. Army Reserve from Butte, and teams of civilian workers, the final head - section was place atop the statue, while thousands watched."

Our Lady of the Rockies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Our Lady of the Rockies is a 90-foot (27 m) statue, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, that sits atop the Continental Divide overlooking Butte, Montana. It is the second tallest statue in the United States after The Statue of Liberty. The statue was built by volunteers using donated materials to honor women everywhere, especially mothers. The base is 8,510 feet above sea level and 3,500 feet above the town. The statue is lit and visible at night."

Butte's iconic Our Lady of the Rockies celebrates 25 years: "In 1979, Bob O'Bill wanted to build a 5-foot statue of the Virgin Mary to celebrate his wife's recovery from serious illness. He thought maybe it would be placed in a city park. But plans began to snowball and area engineers were soon picking out a suitable spot — the 8,500-foot Saddle Rock high on the Continental Divide — for the placement of a 90-foot statue. From head to toe, it would be as big as the Statue of Liberty and it would become the second largest statue in the country. It still holds that honor."

Supreme Court reverses Our Lady decision: "Supreme Court reverses Our Lady decision ROAD PLANNED FOR TRAM IS NOT PUBLIC, COURT SAYS"

On aflitt.com: http://www.aflitt.com/p294127468/e1858f599

On 500px: http://500px.com/photo/80548801/our-lady-of-the-rockies-by-a-f-litt

On Panoramio / Google Earth: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/110789605

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Friday, August 15, 2014

Re-launching my “photo of the day” with the 2014 vacation photos…

A. F. Litt: Washington &emdash; Kennewick 9/11 Memorial

Kennewick 9/11 Memorial
Kennewick, Washington. July 29, 2014
Copyright © 2014 A. F. Litt, All Rights Reserved

I’ve been thinking about starting up the photo of the day again, and since I have over 3,000 new photos from our family vacation this summer, it seems like a good time to start.

I’ve been thinking about this for awhile, since I feel like I am not working on much photography these days. Sure, I’ve spent the summer running through a bunch of event photos, and I’ve been slogging through hundreds of photos for the Recreating the Historic Columbia River Highway documentary project, but these are not really what I would consider artistic, fine arts style photos, which is what I want to focus on a little more with the resumed photo of the day.

I feel like I’ve been neglecting my photography a bit and I think trying to take a few minutes to publish one decent, somewhat artistic photo every day would help keep focused on my photography a bit more than I have been for the last six months or so.

This is not to say that I haven’t been taking lots of pictures, but it is to say that most of the pictures I’ve been taking have been quick and dirty shots from events, or the survey style work on the old highway, and the focus on the art of photography is sacrificed somewhat in those environments.

Today, I am posting two pictures. I decided to start with Yellowstone and threw one up of Riverside Geyser earlier, but then I decided to start with one photo from each day of the trip.

Neither of these are among the best shots from the two week trek across the country, but I like the one below for sentimental reasons and the one above is probably the best shot from the only location I took pictures of on the 29th, which was a travel day.

The monument is built with steel from the WTC. It is partially melted and this memorial is pretty amazing. It’s the first time I’ve seen anything like this in person, and we hit it at a nice time of day, too. I’ll probably throw a picture up later on showing more detail, but I wanted to start with the wide view of the whole thing.

Like I said, not that exciting of a photo, but was an interesting and touching place to start off our trip with…