Reflection Pool, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

Copyright © 2011 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

To see this large click anywhere in the photo.

Anyone who has taken a class in painting, drawing, or photography has heard the rule about not putting your subject in the center of the frame. It’s an immature artist that puts the subject dead center, but there are times when you might want to break that rule/guideline. With this photograph I chose to put the pool in the center of the frame so I wouldn’t lose the shape of the pool or all the cloud reflections that were being mirrored in it. I think the center pool is unique and beautiful enough to be front and center.

For the history buffs:

The Ruins
Beyond the striking location and colorful history, it’s especially remarkable for such a place to exist in a country where few structures past their best days survive.

It’s allowed to be harrowing and wild in a time and place where shampoos carry warnings and most interesting things are cordoned off for your protection. Here’s the playground for those who love crumbling stone clubhouses, jutting pipe monkeybars, stairways that lead you off cliffs and shifting sandboxes that get swallowed by surf.

The GGNRA includes the Marin Headlands, Point Reyes National Seashore, Angel Island, Alcatraz, and other sensory feasts.

The Baths
Sutro Baths opened March 14, 1896 with a $1 million pricetag — an extravagant public bathhouse envisioned and developed by the eccentric one-time mayor of San Francisco, Adolph Sutro. After working its way through its many lives (Playland, 1960s ice rink, etc..)— burned down while being demolished on June 26, 1966. In 1980 the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) bought the land for $5,500,000.

~SutroBaths.com

Nikon D300s| Nikkor 17-35mm@ 17mm| f9| 1/4 second| ISO 160| Manual Mode| On a Tripod| Triggered with Remote Release Cable-Intervelometer