642 - Grand Hyatt
Today I got caught in a drive-by shooting.
That’s a fancy way of saying I was walking by the Grand Hyatt in DC and ended up staying for an hour to take photos. And the only reason I didn’t get kicked out within five minutes is because there was a convention happening at the same time.
These fancy-ass hotels do not like pro photographers just wandering around snapping to their heart’s content. Just read my post at The Beekman in New York and you’ll find out why. But today I had an opportunity to blend into the horde, so I snagged the opportunity like an apple from the tree of life.
The only catch was that I had to aim up… Which wasn’t a problem when you consider the fact that the atrium is the best part of this architecture anomaly:
It looks like a freaking spider web. That 12-24mm G lens is underrated. Massively underrated.
I kept walking the frenzy and eventually landed down at the basement, where I was able to grab an angle that featured the grand staircase. I’m not sure how it was physically possible, but I somehow managed to snag this shot of it completely empty:
“Grand Staircase, Grand Hyatt”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Sony 12-24mm f/4 G
[ISO 1600 ~ 12mm ~ f/14 ~ 1/640s]
After that, I hitched a ride to the top floor because the view from above was calling my name. But unfortunately, the massive chandelier thing that’s centered in the first photo blocked the entire public view from upper decks. Unless you had a room with a window, there was no way you were looking down with a clear view. Boooooooo.
I decided to call it a day at this point, because I’d pushed my luck far enough and felt like there was nothing left to see. But one last tunnel was calling my name. One last…
It was the entrance to the Metro Center. I walked through the glass doors, which effectively exited me from the Grand Hyatt lobby and dumped me into the lobby of another corporate building. Lobby-ception.
Imagine if I just kept exiting and ending up in another lobby. My heart dropped the moment I looked up:
How do these places go completely unnoticed? I’ve never seen a pic of this beauty in my life. The world may never know. I zoomed in and caught a more surreal interpretation:
Honestly, that's my favorite photo of the set. Mainly because it feels like some sort of futuristic robot tunnel. Transformers vibes.
And that’s about it for this session folks. On to the next one.
