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Photos Urban

superman hq

..from the lobby of the News Building..

From 1929 to 1995, The News was based in the landmark skyscraper at 220 East 42nd Street near Second Avenue, designed by John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood. The paper moved to 33rd Street in the mid-1990s, but the 42nd Street location is still known as The News Building and still features a giant globe and weather instruments in its lobby. (It was the model for the Daily Planet building of the first two Superman movies). Former News subsidiary WPIX-TV remains in the building, although it now partners with Newsday, another Tribune property.

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Landscape passing strange Photos series Urban

passing strange: fifth avenue 03

..i feel so lazy..

Categories
Nightscape passing strange Photos series Urban

passing strange: fifth avenue 02

..i think oversleeping causes headaches..

Categories
Architecture Nightscape Photos Urban

gone streaking

..it’s a loong weekend! i’m gonna sleep the whoole day.. 🙂

..taken while taking a break beside flatiron building..

Categories
Nightscape passing strange Photos

passing strange: fifth avenue 01

..after shooting some moleman series shots at The Rock, while i was waiting for wifey.. i decided to set up the tripod, focus on something and just mashed that shutter button.. call it an offshoot of the moleman series or what not, so here’s another series of shots that came out from a few minutes of boredom..

..Passing Strange is a broadway show.. i haven’t seen it yet, i just pulled that title out of nowhere, maybe because i’ve been seeing the ad everyday on my daily commute..

Categories
Architecture Fisheye moleman series Photos series Urban

moleman series: herald square

..remember the “daffy” building in old fart reflections? i finally got to know what it’s called, as seen in the photo, it’s called the One Herald Center..

Categories
Landscape Nightscape Photos

twilight

..i’m a big fan of anne rice’s vampire chronicles and have even read bram stoker’s dracula (who hasn’t?).. so, i’ve read a bunch of stuff in a gossip blog (gawker.com) about this new vampire book series (twilight) that has been generating a lot of buzz and selling like hotcakes.. the film adaptation of the first book was even a blockbuster this weekend, so despite the bad reviews, i decided to read the books first.. one gawker’s take on the movie was a bit close to what i thought it was (some excerpts below) but i’m already halfway through the series, so i might as well finish it..

Let’s get the obvious, probably-the-cold-bare-truth one out of the way. There’s nothing new about young people, young women especially, going apeshit bananas over something that brings a fierce yet chaste smolder to their loins—be it the cherubic young matinee idols like Romeo + Juliet-era Leonardo DiCaprio, the crotch-twirling “baby come back” antics of a boy band (from Beatles to Backstreet), or, you know, the dark brooding eternal prick tease of sexless vampire love (Buffy! And now, sigh, Twilight!). While most boys just hairy palm their way past longings for love and post-in/out/in/out intimacy, many girls get snared and tangled in that brambly bush of idol worship, and any conduit through which they can explore and advance these tinglings is.. read more here

..okay, shooting startrails.. google would be a good start, that’s what i did.. here‘s a nice one.. compared to my last post, this was 38 (4 minute exposures) with a 2 second interval, totaling 2 hrs & 32 mins in 28 degrees temperature.. probably getting a dc adapter / extra batteries would have me shooting more and posting some later but for now, this is as far as my battery would go..

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Photos

feed the gators

..this is from the lake i was talking about yesterday, obviously we don’t have gators but this sign piqued my curiousity.. turns out, the only wildlife we had to worry about are 2 ducks, several turtles, some birds, some fishies and the occasional possum / hedgehog / rabbit.. 🙂

Categories
Nature

duck trails

..i’m not sure if this show is still airing but when i was a kid, i liked watching disney’s ducktales (or any cartoon for that matter)..

..for today, here’s a duck coming right at me from my backyard’s lake..

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Architecture Fisheye Indoor moleman series Photos series Urban

moleman series: rockefeller vortex

..today was supposed to be a follow-up to yesterday’s experimental shot.. well, since it’s all new to me, there’s some chance it’ll fail, and fail it did.. let me play around with this first and i’ll share some nitty gritty details about it later.. 😀

..anyhoo, the moleman’s back and he’d like to give a shoutout to michael paulison for writing about this series.. i’m glad he liked it as much as i did, i hope you do too..

..taken from the same spot where i got this, and this..

Categories
Landscape Nightscape Photos

polaris

..here’s the story about the botched job that i was talking about yesterday.. just got bored and tried shooting stars last night, after seeing the first long exposure (5 mins), polaris was right smack in the middle of the frame! whee!! so i tried tweaking the settings and did a 50 minute exposure.. that didn’t turn out too well, in fact, it sucked (because of light pollution) so i decided to try plan B tonight.. after two tries, here’s what 184 exposures looks like in 82 minutes.. overkill? i think not, i was gunning for 400 shots, but my battery gave out.. i know the foreground’s not interesting but, heck, it’s 47 degrees outside, i didn’t wanna risk having my already inflamed sinuses out in that kind of climate.. but i admit, shooting star trails is fun!! 😀

Categories
abstract Black n White Landscape Photos

delta

..a botched effort forced me to post this one instead.. looks like a river delta (minus the river) when viewed from an airplane.. well, that’s how it seemed to me.. it’s still from alabama, but nothing to give you the “big picture” of what it’s like out here.. maybe some other time.. 🙂

Categories
Black n White Landscape Photos

daphne

..finally got out of my burrow and shot some local scenery.. almost got lost, but we were able to get to our destination.. this here’s one of the several piers at bluff park in daphne, alabama..

Categories
abstract Fisheye moleman series Photos Sculptures series Urban

moleman series: noguchi cube

..have you ever wondered how Pikachu feels like when being sucked into that red pokeball..? my guess is that it somehow looked like this.. pikachuuuu.. 😀

..excerpt’s credit goes to nyclovesnyc.blogspot.com, as taken from blueofthesky.com

..you can find more about Isamu Noguchi and his art here..

The bright red painted steel of Isamu Noguchi‘s Red Cube stands out in strong contrast to the blacks, browns, and whites of the buildings and sidewalks around the sculpture. Located to one side of a small plaza in front of the BROTHERS HARRIMAN (previously HSBC) building on Broadway, Red Cube is surrounded on three sides by skyscrapers, the height of which draw a viewer’s eye upwards. The sculpture itself adds to this upward pull, as it balances on one corner, the opposite corner reaching towards the sky. Despite its title, the sculpture is not actually a cube, but instead seems as though it has been stretched along its vertical axis. (this one looks like it was stretched in all axes)

Aside from it’s striking color, Red Cube also stands out from the surrounding architecture in that all of its lines are diagonals, whereas the buildings are made up of horizontal and vertical lines. Additionally, the sculpture is balanced somewhat precariously on one corner, while the buildings, by contrast, and solidly placed.

Through the center of the cube there is a cylindrical hole, revealing an inner surface of gray with evenly-spaced lines moving from one opening of the hole to the other. Looking through this hole, the viewer’s gaze is directed towards the building behind, tying the sculpture and the architecture together.

Categories
Photos Urban

tri-blurry bridge

..sharpness is overrated..(?)

..another slow day.. so i’ve been surfing the net and went to dpreview.com.. dpreview has this nifty tool in their lens reviews that gauges lens IQ.. and in order to understand the terminologies & methods they used to obtain their results, i went to their forums and spent some hours reading.. and now i think i’m having a headache.. yep, it was informative, but i think some brain cells died in the process.. just kidding.. 😀 it’s a great source of information.. (lots of geekspeak)

..so here’s a blurry shot for today.. the triborough bridge (aka Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Bridge) read about it here

Categories
abstract Nature Urban

solar flare

..well, what do you know.. yellow leaves.. how original.. lol.. as mundane as this may seems, the reason i posted this one is because it reminded me of a solar flare..

Categories
Architecture Fisheye Nightscape Photos series Urban

moleman series: columbus circle (night)

..very much like Grover saying.. “this is near, this is far.. this is near, this is far”.. now, listen to the Moleman say to you “this is night, this is day.. this is night, this is day

..as the title says, this is the night shot of the day shot i posted awhile back.. makes sense? good..

..*spoiler alert* i wouldn’t click those last links if i were you.. they’re just the same links as the ones before them.. 😀

Categories
Black n White People Photos

mortal marionette

..who’s pulling your strings?

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Architecture Fisheye moleman series Photos series Urban

moleman series: rockefeller center (reprise)

..i’ve been looking at Peter Lik’s site and got curious about film.. since i haven’t the time & resources to try it out, i went for the next best thing.. since i’ve had my grubby hands on a “film” plug-in that i haven’t tried out yet, i decided to play around with it on my “digital darkroom”.. two-strip(ped) or two-color(ed) and GAF 500.. i wasn’t able to gather any info as to what GAF 500 is, but i like how it turned out.. 😀

..taken in Rockefeller Center, closer to the GE building, there’s the skating rink down south..

Categories
Photos Urban

scrubbing the main deck

..don’t know much about boats or ships, all i know was that this one was undergoing repair back when i was in philly, volunteers were restoring this ship.. doesn’t look seaworthy yet.. maybe riverworthy..

..i’ve been doing some major surfing this weekend, and i happened to click on Peter Lik’s website.. to me, he strikes me as the Steve Irwin of landscape photography.. lol.. check it out and let his awesome photos speak for itself..

Categories
abstract Architecture Black n White Fisheye moleman series Photos series Urban

moleman series: brooklyn bridge

11/09/2008 10:00 PM

..i’m a bit bleary-eyed from the buffet i ate.. *burp* i think i see a pentagram.. hmm.. better get to sleep..

..this one was obviously taken at the brooklyn bridge.. early morning too, so i was among the few pesky tourists around the area..

Categories
Panorama Photos Urban

5pointz pano

..here’s the premier concrete canvas in long island city, 5pointz

..from wikipedia..

5 Pointz: The Insitute of Higher Burnin’ is an industrial building in Long Island City, Queens, where graffiti has been allowed.John Roleke of About.com writes: “5 Pointz is a living collage of graffiti art covering a converted warehouse full of artist studios”. 5 Pointz is known worldwide, and taggers or graffiti artists from all over the world have come there paint graffiti. 5 Pointz has been the subject of articles in newspapers such as The Christian Science Monitor, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, and the International Herald Tribune.

As The Christian Science Monitor puts it: “The Gatekeeper of New York’s ‘graffiti mecca’ is Meres who decides who paints – and how long it stays.” Jonathan Cohen, or “Meres,” has been in charge of the 5 Pointz graffiti museum since 2002.

It is suggested to e-mail Cohen to get his permission before painting at 5 Pointz. If he is not familiar with an artist, Cohen will ask for a sample of their work; if it is a mural, he will ask for a layout as well.

The name “5 Pointz” represents the five boroughs of New York City. One of the first graffiti there was a portrait of Jam Master J, an important member of the early hip hop musical style.

..click here for a larger view..

5Pointz

Categories
abstract Nature Photos

scribbles

..oh snap, this looks like crap..taken months back from some swamp in philly..if i were a kid, i’d jump right in and explore this place..but since i’m not, i did the next best thing..took a picture and played around with it until it looked funky enough to post..scribbles & scratches from nature..

..finally started on getting that portfolio part built, this weekend’s gonna be edit, edit, edit..

Categories
Photos

in memoriam

..the phrase i used yesterday-“photo haunt”-reminded me of one of my photo walks (alone).. in the calvary cemetery in queens.. hehe..

..in memoriam a.h.h. is a long poem by the english poet alfred, lord tennyson, completed in 1849. it is a requiem for the poet’s cambridge friend arthur henry hallam, who died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage in vienna in 1833, but it is also much more. written over a period of 17 years, it can be seen as reflective of victorian society at the time, and the poem discusses many of the issues that were beginning to be questioned. it is the work in which tennyson reaches his highest musical peaks and his poetic experience comes full circle. it is regarded as one of the greatest poems of the 19th century..

I hold it true, whate’er befall;
I feel it when I sorrow most;
‘Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

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Architecture Fisheye moleman series Photos series

moleman series: itt building

..the first fisheye photo i’ve seen that impressed me most was a shot of this place.. ever since then, i’ve also wanted to shoot it with a fisheye, but i just can’t remember where it was.. turns out, it was close by one of my photo haunts.. on broad & south william street (financial district).. so here it is..

..the international telephone and telegraph (itt) building, a 35-story, 433-foot high tower, was built by buchman & kahn for garment district developer abraham lefcourt as the lefcourt exchange building in 1928. it was almost immedately bought out by itt, who commissioned louis s. weeks to add an addition that dominated the entire block. the southwestern entrance has a mosaic dome depicting commerce uniting the hemispheres with electricity..

Categories
Architecture Landscape Photos Urban

a new day

..nuff said.. 😉

..manhattan from queens..

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Architecture Fisheye moleman series Photos Sculptures series Urban

moleman series: african burial ground

..a memorial at the african burial ground national monument honors the memories of the estimated 15,000 africans buried at the approximately seven-acre site in the 17th and 18th centuries.. created by haitian-american Rodney Leon, the noticeable structure is a highly polished wall of granite which is called an “ancestral libation chamber”, which serves to physically, spiritually, rituistically and psychologically define the location where the historic re-internment of remains and artifacts of 419 africans has taken place.. it’ll also serve to acknowledge the site as a “sacred place” where thousands of africans are currently buried..

For all those who were lost
For all those who were stolen
For all those who were left behind
For all those who were not forgotten

**that’s my “snout” at the bottom part of the frame, i didn’t bother removing it as proof that i was “in” the shot.. 😀

Categories
Fisheye moleman series Photos Sculptures series Urban

moleman series: charging bull

..saw this on the frontpage of amNY, “Bullish or Foolish?”.. the article that accompanied that headline  pertained to people still investing in stocks even though the market was down..

Charging Bull (sometimes called the Wall Street Bull or the Bowling Green Bull) is a 3,200?kg (7,000 pound) bronze sculpture by Arturo Di Modica that sits in Bowling Green park near Wall Street in New York City.

The sculpture depicts a bull, the symbol of aggressive financial optimism and prosperity, leaning back on its haunches and with its head lowered as if ready to charge.

The sculpture, one of the city’s most photographed artworks, has become a tourist destination in the Financial District. It has also come to be an unofficial symbol of the Financial District itself, and it often appears in the local news media to punctuate stories about optimism in the financial market.

Categories
Architecture Photos Urban

monolithic

..monolithic, the word that comes to mind when seeing this building..

The Williams Tower (formerly the Transco Tower) is a skyscraper located in the Uptown District of Houston. It was designed by architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee, in association with Houston-based Morris-Aubry Architects, and erected in 1983. The tower is among Houston’s most visible buildings. The building is the 4th-tallest in Texas and the 23rd-tallest in the United States. When it was built, in 1983, it stood as the tallest skyscraper located outside a city’s central business district.

..shot alongside this one..

Categories
Photos Urban

at the pier

..despite elaine’s psycho tune blaring through my speakers, no trick or treaters this time around.. lol..

..shot on a chilly, cloudy afternoon somewhere along the piers at west manhattan..