Visiting the Getty

Yesterday my family visited the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.  We're down in Irvine, staying with my grandparents, and we had never been before, so we went.  My dad being a great enthusiast of museums also facilitated this trip.

I brought along my camera and new lens (Nikon D40 and Rokinon 14mm 2.8).  I also brought a 35mm prime lens for the pictures, since the Getty's website said non-flash photography was permissible and I wanted pictures of the artwork inside.

I had never seen the museum itself, and honestly I would have been happy walking around the outside and on the grounds for the entire day.  The museum is situated at the top of a hill overlooking Los Angeles, and is a very modern-looking, artsy building.

I got a lot of pictures of just the building with my new lens.  My mom was rather unimpressed with the shots...

35mm

35mm

35mm

35mm

35mm

14mm

The lines are clean and the building looks amazing from basically every angle.

The views of Los Angeles were really good as well.  All of these were taken with the 14mm.

From the back of the Getty, looking out at the city.  Mmm, smog.  

Walking back down.  We could all see where the fire burned.  Didn't look like any houses got burned!

And of course, the art was why we came in the first place.

I took a lot of pictures, but didn't take pictures of the artist name/context for the work...

What I do remember is my favorite one, Renoir's La Promenade.

Renoir's La Promenade.

At the time he painted it, he was studying with Monet, so his paintings took on a more impressionist feeling.  Which was a perfect way to express the dappled light, I think.

And there were a few Monets.

Haystacks!  I think the caption called them Wheatstacks though.  

A classically Monet painting -- haystacks.  These were in the light of a winter morning, I think.

We also ate lunch in the museum cafe.  It was very, very expensive.  The upstairs restaurant charged about $35 per plate of food, and just an appetizer was $15.  The cafe downstairs was cheaper, but still exorbitant for the food you got.

Unfortunately I was hungry from a small breakfast and four hours of walking and photographing and I needed to eat there...  My brother waited till we went to Chik Fil A and got about the same amount of food for less than half the price!