Categories
Landscape Photos Urban

Arrr..

Categories
Architecture Fisheye Photos Urban

Eyes to the Sky

Strolling around the financial district amidst the canyons of concrete, one couldn’t help but feel amazed and stand rapt in awe. This is me gazing up from the middle of One Chase Manhattan Plaza.

Categories
Architecture Photos Urban

Higop

Categories
Landscape Photos Urban

Sutton Place

I’ll let you in on a little secret. If ever you run out of places to go to, just pick up one of the many local newspapers and you might find something that piques your interest. I dig amNY, it’s my source for free stuff /events & places to go / do / eat.

Today’s trip brought me to Sutton Place, it’s bounded by the East River to the east, 2nd Ave to the west, the 59th St Bridge to the north, and 53rd St to the south. From some of the parks overlooking the East River, there is a nice view of the Quensborough Bridge. It’s a nice place to eat your lunch (if the weather permits).

Categories
Indoor People Photos Urban

Devotion

Nothing special today, just woke up later than usual & missed the morning mass we usually go to. Went to St. Patrick instead & tried out Sezzy’s prime lens. Fast, sharp & affordable, I might as well get one too. (Bokeh bokeh bokeh bokeh bokeh bokeh bokeh) =)

Categories
Architecture Landscape Nightscape Panorama Photos Urban

Cloverfield

Cold days like this make you want to cower in the warmth of your bed or in our case, surf movies in our local theater. We were planning to watch Cloverfield but got tickets for Mad Money instead to qualify for the “early bird” rate (yeah, we’re cheapskates). It was a good thing that the former didn’t go first, lest we suffered dizziness & headaches throughout the day – my temples are still throbbing while writing this. I mean, really, it was a poor judgement on our part not to read about the movie before hand. Honestly, it was crap. The remedy for our headache may have been the next movie, Meet the Spartans, which was totally hilarious. I highly recommend this.

The nightscape pano above was taken at DUMBO last December. On the movie Cloverfield, they obliterated the Brooklyn Bridge. Watching a monster rampage around Manhattan feels kind of weird because the setting is so familiar. It makes you wonder what to do if you were in their (the characters) place. It still doesn’t change the fact that the “shaky camera” style sucked big time.

Categories
Architecture Nightscape Photos Urban

Tudor

Categories
Automobile Photos

Vintage

Shiny, happy tech news! Canon released the successor to the 400D, the 450D. It’s all out in the web so just Google it for more info. Not so good news for me because the value of the 400D is going to drop. Not so big an issue though, because the 400D spews out good looking photos like that vintage car up there. =P

Categories
Landscape Nature Photos

Division

Categories
Landscape Photos Urban

Fluffy

Breaking News! Heath Ledger is dead! Sounds like your daily dose of TMZ right? Just joining the bandwagon.. hehe.. I’m just setting the mood for today’s photo – fluffy, gloomy clouds. A sad day, indeed. But the weather eventually cleared up. On to more showbiz news.. I actually got to see & meet Lisa Loeb up close! Woohoo!

Categories
Architecture Indoor Photos

Pipes

Categories
Architecture Nightscape Photos Urban

Brooklyn’s Eiffel Tower

Today’s travels brought me back to Coney Island. I’ve always wanted to get a shot of the sunset with no crowd so now was the best time. The weather was crisp & clear but the only thing going against me was the freezing temperature. Properly layered clothing nearly eliminated that issue. Since I got there a bit early and the sun was still up, I just walked around aimlessly, looking for a nice scene to shoot. What surprised me was in spite of the bitter temps, there were still a handful of people there doing their thing. Strolling along the boardwalk, jogging, fishing, tourists (like me) taking pictures and there were also 2 photogs stalking the sunset. (both had “L-type” lenses..) I’ll be posting those sunset shots in later posts. Today’s shot is taken from the west end of West 8 subway station. This is the Parachute Jump which was originally an amusement park ride where you get hoisted up 190 feet into the air and dropped down using guy-wired parachutes. It was opened in the 1939 New York World’s Fair & has since been closed on 1968.

Categories
Architecture Landscape Photos Urban

Fork

Before arriving here, I’ve read a bit about the city and it’s said to be very diverse. A great way to experience this feeling is when you get off at an unfamiliar subway station. I feel that each station in every borough feels different, from the surroundings, the culture, the people.. etc. Well, I got that feeling again when I got out of the Wall St. station today. I’ve been planning to go there for a while now but I also have been putting it off. I was supposed to go after the downtown skyscrapers but when I saw the ominous tower of Trinity Church and the graveyard, I stayed put & spent 3-4 hours circling the area. It was a bit early so there weren’t that many people around. That, and the frigid climate worked well to keep most of the tourists away, as noticed on the photo above which was pretty much desolate.

Categories
Architecture Landscape Photos Urban

Snaky Road

Categories
Automobile Photos Urban

Excess

Categories
People Photos

Legolized Tourists

Categories
Photos Sculptures

Stoic

Ack. A three-letter word that brought me relief today. I was accidentally billed for my hosting and my reaction looked like that guy above. It’s a good thing my host realized their mistake and retracted the previous billing notice. The first word in their email.. Ack!

Categories
Architecture Landscape Photos

Toho

Well, after about a week long hiatus I’m back again. I’ll just be doing the usual retro posting of the previous days I’ve missed.

Here’s a lighthouse overlooking Lake Tohopekaliga (Lake Toho, West Lake or Toho for short) near Kissimmee Park in Osceola county.

Categories
Fisheye Indoor Photos Sculptures

Hieroglyphs

Categories
Automobile Photos

Coronet

Categories
Architecture Fisheye Nightscape Photos Urban

Regurgitating Steel

Categories
Architecture Fisheye Nightscape Photos Urban

Soldiers & Sailors

Categories
Fisheye Photos Urban

Floored

Categories
Fisheye Indoor Photos

Plateau

Categories
Architecture Photos Urban

Steel Embrace

What visit to NY wouldn’t be complete without visiting or gazing at the Brooklyn Bridge? It’s just so pretty to look at. It’s like a gothic eye candy. lol. This bridge is one of the oldest steel suspension bridge and used to hold the record for being the longest. The seeming mediocrity of this shot is spawned from thousands of shots taken at this spot. (Manhattan side) Try googling it and you’ll see what I mean. Basically everyone who has been here with a camera shoots the exact same thing.

Categories
Architecture Fisheye Photos Urban

St. Paul’s Chapel

Why so somber a photo for today? Did my day suck? Of course not.. Was the weather bad? Not really, not if 55°F on a winter day makes you feel bad. Nah, nothing horrible happened. I just felt like posting this one for today. A gloomy photo to complement this fine day I had. What happened? Nothing major.. I was just part of the live audience today at a David Letterman taping. Woohoo!!!

Categories
Indoor Photos Urban

Cul-de-sac

Categories
Landscape Photos Urban

Sodom & Gomorrah

This day has been a series of fortunate events.. We just got out in time for the bus – no waiting in the bitter cold. Not that the weather sucked, on the contrary, the weather didn’t quite suck that much at all.. 😀 I also chanced upon a religious pamphlet on the seat I was about to take, and being the curious type, instead of just swatting it away from the seat, I got it and started to read it just to pass the time. But when I opened it, guess who was staring at me right in the face, it was my good friend Jackson! I just got me 20 bucks! Woohoo! And it got me a “free pass” to the Empire State building. Yep, this shot was taken from the Empire State, these pigeons just decided to pose for the shot. And to finish the day, it’s off to Serendipity 3 for dessert. Not that I expected to get in ‘coz that place almost always had a line at the door. But Lady Luck bared her pearly whites for us and we were soon gorging on gorgeous confections. Yummy! Now if only I could taste the $1000 dessert they’re offering, this day would be perfect. lol.

01/11/08 Update

I’m looking at this photo & it reminds me of the nuke explosion on Heroes. Isaac Mendez’ view from his apartment?

02/16/08 Update

Doing some bit of organization & I happened to find the pamphlet I was talking about. Looky here –> Pamphlet

Categories
Architecture Fisheye Photos Urban

Ford

New York’s best building of the 1960s, the Ford Foundation Building was built for the country’s largest philanthropic organization. Supported by an exposed steel structure, the building takes the form of a glass box enclosing an interior atrium which rises the full height of the building to a skylight. Offices are located around this central court with a view into the atrium garden which also serves as a public space. The layout of buildings around atrium spaces or winter gardens would later become popularized in the shopping mall and numerous skyscrapers of the 1980s.

Ford Facade

Ford Sign

Categories
Architecture Fisheye Nightscape Photos Urban

The Alley

Wherever I May Roam. That’s a Metallica song that I dig. It’s today’s topic. The itch to shoot definitely pushes you to wander around or you’ll end up shooting the same thing over and over again. A good comfortable shoe is a must for the habitual stroll around the city. Explore corners unfamiliar to you. Experiment. Who knows what you might see. The street you’re traversing might be boring as hell but turn a corner, climb a flight of stairs and boom! Just be careful you don’t get mugged. Keep a pepper spray just to be cautious. hehe..

Categories
Architecture Fisheye Nightscape Photos Urban

Woolworth

There’s nothing worth watching on the boob tube now especially since all the writers are still on strike. Haven’t watched Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert for quite a while. But they’ll be coming back next week! Goody.. Some late night talk show hosts got back on air this week too. And to top of the new year, I got tickets to see David Letterman! Sa-weeet!!

My recent wanderings brought me downtown to City Hall, this is the Woolworth Building. Neo-Gothic, Art Deco building constructed by Cass Gilbert from 1911-1913. It was the tallest building in the world for 17 years until the construction of 40 Wall Street. Read more about it.

Categories
Nightscape Photos

Boom.. boom.. boom!

Being used to the abundance of fireworks & firecrackers at home, the new year celebration here is a bit tame. Well, if you factor in the partying that goes on after midnight then forget about the pyrotechnics, this is the place to be! Not that we partied along, well, we tried to. It’s our first new year here so we went to Times Square to witness the ball drop but the closest we got was at 52nd street.. and the ball was nowhere in sight. Bummer. It was time for Plan B. That photo was Plan B. Fireworks @ Prospect Park.

Categories
Indoor People Photos

Happy 2008

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! *insert firecracker sounds here*

Yippee!! I’ve been reserving January 1, 2008’s post for a group photo to try out a technique I’ve learned through the internet called slow-sync. Well, the light trails weren’t that good so obviously a “bit” of post processing was done. To cap it off, this was actually taken in the future! =0 Shocking, no?! January 23, 2008 to be exact. What happened was, after watching the fireworks @ Prospect Park & commuting in the cold to get home, we were so conked out on New Year’s Eve so I totally forgot about it. So, the days passed and I was thinking of what to post on New Year’s Day, when BOOM! I thought of a group shot, but of course, an ordinary group shot wouldn’t do. But I needed 4 people to complete 2008. 01/23/08 was the day we got together again.. so at 3AM in the morning, here’s the result of our impromptu photo shoot.