Norton Simon Museum

This past Sunday, 6 September 2009, I took my D700 and the Nikon 14-24 to the Norton Simon Museum. The Museum is very well known as one of the most remarkable private art collections. Over a thirty-year period industrialist Norton Simon (1907–1993) amassed a collection of European art from the Renaissance to the 20th. century and a stellar collection of South and Southeast Asian art spanning 2,000 years.

Among the most celebrated works he collected are Branchini Madonna, 1427, by Giovanni dide Zurbarán; Portrait of a Boy, c. 1655-60, by Rembrandt van Rijn; Mulberry Tre, 1889, by Vincent van Gogh; Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, 1878-81, by Edgar Degas; and Woman with a Book, 1932, by Pablo Picasso. Highlights from the Asian collection include the bronze sculptures Buddha Shakyamuni, c. 550, India: Bihar, Gupta period, and Shiva as King of Dance, c. 1000, India: Tamil Nadu; and the gilt bronze Indra 13th century, Nepal.

I always take my lens cleaning kit with me, but not this time; I never use it. It never fails; I needed it. The 14-24 front element was very dirty with some substance. I guess that when I visited the Lomita Railroad Museum, the locomotive might have dispersed something in the air, when they were simulating it running. There is no way I could have dirty the lens the way I take care of them. If some of the photos seem to have like a film, they did - the lens did. I should have checked the lens before I left. ( Norton Simon Museum Photos. )

Update: I visited the Norton Simon Museum, the following Sunday, 13 September 2009, with the D700 + the Nikon Micro 105mm VR f/2.8G N. I have merged the two sets of photographs in the "Norton Simon Museum" gallery; the link to the gallery is above.