Rodin Museum in Philadelphia

In July, our friend visited from California, and during her stay we visited the Rodin Museum, just down the road from our place, off of Benjamin Franklin Parkway. I'm embarrassed to say that despite its close proximity to our condo, it was the first time I'd been inside, and my oh my, is it a treat. And if you're into photography, :o) there's plenty to keep you busy.

Above is the reflecting pond just inside the front gate and outside the main building. I shot this image on the way in - it didn't exactly turn out the way I wanted, but the people weren't cooperating, and this is the best one of the few I took at the pond. I wish I'd shot this one vertical. Oh well, I'll return when I get a chance to take another run at it.

This is one of my favorites that I took from the museum. I love going to museums and shooting heads, figures and decorative sculptures. The Rodin Museum is one of my new favorite places to capture images like the one above - I love this head belching out water, & I also love the detail of him.

The contours and lines on this statue makes it one of my favorite statues inside the museum. The sculpture is of Father Pierre-Julien Eymard, and trust me, this picture doesn't do it justice.

This statue, The Age of Bronze, is in the West Wing, and like all of the sculptures at Rodin, it has excellent detail. It seems as though these statues get better as they age, without question. As a bonus, they are displayed inside, away from Philadelphia's nasty yearly weather swings.

This head is part of the biggest sculpture in the main gallery, The Burghers of Calais. I find his eyes almost haunting, but that's the wonder of Rodin's works - the emotions they evoke in their viewers.

This is my favorite picture of the bunch - Rodin's world-famous Thinker, and this is my favorite picture that I've taken so far at Rodin. This is easily the best photo I've taken with my Canon 100-400L IS lens. And this picture is also a reason to not always pay attention to all of the equipment reviews you can find on the Internet. I've read lots of so-so reviews that nitpick this lens to death, and I haven't found one of them to be true. The bokeh (background blur) of this lens isn't the best, but as you can see above, it's more than acceptable.