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Taking shape in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, right across from the Herzog & de Meuron’s fabulous de Young Museum, is the California Academy of Sciences by Renzo Piano Building Workshop.

Slated to open in September 2008, many of the exhibit spaces are in final stages of construction. Including the Californian Coastal Tank, Tropical Rainforest and Swamp Tank shown below.

The exteriors are mostly complete although the landscaping, particularly the other-worldly living roof, will no doubt benefit from some Spring growth.

Just this week, Renzo Piano was announced as the recipient of the American Institute of Architects’ Gold Medal for 2008.

While recently sorting through some older files, I came across a hand written shot list from a healthcare shoot I’d done a few years ago. As I recall, we had a just a few days clear access into the facility before it opened to the public. So there was some pressure to cover as many of the spaces as possible.

After a brief scout on Friday morning, we got straight into it, shooting until midnight or so. Starting at 6.30am, this list covers the first twelve hours of Saturday with around twenty views and an ominous looking arrow.

We finished shooting at 2.30am.

Oh, and did I mention it was my birthday that day?

Managed a week off around New Year, visiting some of the great natural wonders in the South West.The south rim of the Grand Canyon was near freezing with icy winds blowing up the cliff faces from the valleys below. From the rim itself, the lack of fall on the Alpa SWA became frustrating as everything you wanted to look at was below the horizon.

Once into Monument Valley and then Valley of the Gods (just north of Mexican Hat) it felt like we were inhabiting a Road Runner cartoon.

Restricted myself to taking only one camera and a few lenses for my first foray into shooting landscape. It was a holiday after all. I must say, nothing prepared me for the vastness of the scenery. Putting wide lenses on just pushed everything too far away. Yet going back to longer lenses narrowed down the field too much. My answer at the time was to stay with the longer lens and stitch a few frames together. Of course using the Alpa / P45 to stitch five or so frames together (to produce a 1.2Gb file) was possibly, just possibly taking things a little too far.

Final visit on New Years Day was to Canyonlands National Park and then Dead Horse Point State Park for the last rays of afternoon sun. Simply amazing views with very little to really give you a sense of scale.