..i guess if you want to experience “the city that never sleeps“, swing by during the holidays and walk down fifth avenue or anywhere for that matter..
..today i fly back to mobile.. join me in reminiscing christmas in the next few days here.. lol..
..wow, my first post for 2009.. i’m pretty bleary-eyed and sleepy from last night.. so in the meantime, here’s the place where some blokes freezed their asses of watching jonas brothers.. lol..
..the times square ball will be dropped down the same time tomorrow as i post this image now.. referencing a clock face, it’ll be at the building located at six o’ clock.. the One Times Square Building.. and the stage where the performers would be is where i stood while taking this shot.. dunno if we’ll be standing there freezing our asses off / watching fireworks somewhere / boozing at a bar / wolfing foodies / sleeping soundly.. i just wish everyone out there a HAPPY NEW YEAR!! 😀
..well, i took a friend out for a stroll around manhattan’s tourist traps so i wasn’t able to get some good shots today.. also, i can’t keep my hands out of my pocket for long periods of time because of the cold.. and so.. (har har) the moleman’s back from the grave..
..this here’s the helmsley building at park avenue.. i passed by this place a while ago and saw that one side of it was under renovation so i thought about posting it here now.. 😀
..some factoids from wikipedia:
Located at 230 Park Avenue the Helmsley Building is a 35-story building straddling Park Avenue. Before the erection of the Pan Am Building, now the MetLife Building, this building was the city’s dowager queen, lording over the city’s second most prestigious avenue and marking the elegant heart of the city as it was the tallest structure in the great “Terminal City” complex around Grand Central Terminal designed by Warren & Wetmore. The building was designated a New York City Landmark in 1987.
**btw, those aren’t dust spots – or dust bunnies, as i’d like to call them.. they’re just flares from the street lights etc..
..i’m running out of titles for this one, it’s just as well because this’ll be the last of it’s kind posted here.. unless i’m fortunate enough to be at the right place at the right time.. oddly enough, i was standing in the middle of a railroad track while composing this one.. lol.. 🙂
..i’m off to nyc again to spend the holidays there with families and friends.. i still hope to be active in visiting your sites as well too, and thanks for visiting here as well.. for the meantime, enjoy the rest of the day.. see you in a few clicks.. 😉
..shot at the corner of dauphin street and royal street..
..planned on shooting some local street life in what i guessed was the busiest street in downtown (dauphin) but ended up with nothing.. they were all in the mall shopping.. my timing was off, so i let my eyes gaze upwards like they always do..
..still from government street..
..the library..
..back to government street.. here’s a church named ‘the bee hive’..
The congregation of Government Street United Methodist Church, Methodism’s Mother Church in Mobile, began in 1826 on Franklin Street. Called “The Bee Hive” because of it’s activity, it sent “swarms” throughout the city to form new congregations. A brick structure replaced the original wooden church in 1848-49. The move to this corner was accomplished with the dedication of a Gothic structure in 1890. The remodeling to Spanish Colonial architecture was begun in 1906 and completed in 1917. Architect was Mobilian George B. Rogers, and Harry E. Goodhue of Boston created the stained glass windows.
..can’t go wrong with a picture perfect backdrop.. here’s a couple of cranes (is that what they’re called?) while taking a break at the pier.
..got off work early after our company’s christmas luncheon so i’m in a good mood, so here’s another take on the RSA Battle House Tower and the swirly clouds.. 🙂
..the Chrysler is much prettier though.. 😉
..okay, i’ll get back to those old houses later.. my interest fades when i post in succession anyways.. so for now i’ll be jumping straight to downtown Mobile..
..while walking the empty streets of downtown Mobile, the wind from the gulf created these interesting cloud formations.. the backdrop just looks so interesting i can’t help but post more of these.. well, maybe.. we’ll see.. it all depends on my mood..
..from wikipedia
The RSA Battle House Tower is located in Mobile, Alabama and is Alabama’s tallest building. The building is owned by the Retirement Systems of Alabama (RSA). It is the tallest on the Gulf Coast of the United States outside of Houston, Texas. It replaces the Wachovia Building in Birmingham as the tallest building in Alabama and the AmSouth Bank Building as the tallest in Mobile. The building is named for the neighboring Battle House Hotel, which is now part of the tower complex. The Battle House Hotel was restored and renovated as part of the the tower project.
..sustaining the mood from yesterday’s post, i’ve amplified it (a bit?).. intentionally skewing the shot & adding some funky processing.. apologies to the helmers if i made their home (a bit) spooky.. 😀
..but still, living alone in this house is not a good idea.. lol..
..still along Government Street, a few blocks down from yesterday’s post.. here’s one of those southern homes that still stands proud..
..walking down the sidewalk with nary a soul in sight and surrounded by these southern houses got me thinking about scenes of Anne Rice’s ‘Witching Hour’.. as curious as i am about these houses, i just stuck to the sidewalk for fear of Lasher, the pervy antagonist in Anne Rice’s book.. 😀
*.. and here’s the link to the bikers from last saturday.. check it out if you’re into bikes and all that.. and you could probably help me identifying what models they are too..
..a particular stretch of road leading into downtown Mobile is Government Street.. it’s lined on both sides with **okay, get ready for this** “antebellum architectural examples of Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Italianate, Creole cottage, various Victorian types, shotgun types, Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival, Beaux-Arts and many others..” **whew, that’s a mouthful.. got that from wikipedia**
..one such specimen is the Blacksher Hall.. (from their website)
Blacksher Hall is a beautiful example of Edwardian Neo-Classical architecture,
providing exquisite grandeur to Government Street and the Historic Garden District of Mobile.Blacksher Hall is complemented with period furnishings and set in park-like surroundings.
It is one of the most sought-after private party venues in Mobile, and continues
to host special events for individuals and corporations including:
- Weddings and Receptions
- Extravagant Cocktail Parties
- Elegant Fundraising Events
- Seated Dinners
The family owned and operated mansion features elegant touches such as
a 60 foot wide classical front porch, grand mahogany entrance with beveled glass
leading to a 2 story entrance hall, a spectacular mahogany main staircase,
stained glass skylights and jeweled windows, a ballroom with grand piano,
and lovely antique furnishings and paintings throughout.
..this is an eye catching piece of architecture from the southern tip of manhattan.. it’s odd that i haven’t posted anything about it yet.. 😀
17 State Street is a 42-story building in the Financial District of Manhattan. Completed in 1988, the building rises to 542 ft (165 m). It was designed by Emery Roth and Sons, and it is most noted for its distinct curved facade.
The bottom floors of the skyscraper are home to New York Unearthed, an urban archaeology museum with approximately two million artifacts from local excavation sites. The museum was originally included as a concession to the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission, who had been unable to perform an archaeological survey of the site before construction began. They believed that the lot had contained artifacts from the early 18th century, although a lawyer for the construction firm claimed to be “absolutely certain that no archeological material was lost”.
*applied a velvia 50 (film filter) on it and lowered opacity to 60%.. still looks a bit saturated, ain’t it?
..ah, monday.. it seems i’ve been sleeping a lot during the past four days (hence the headaches).. i’m not built for the ‘bum’ life and i wasn’t the slacker i used to be.. hm.. i’m getting old..
..same place where i shot this..
A chapel of the Parish of Trinity Church, St. Paul’s was built on land granted by Queen Anne of Great Britain, and Andrew Gautier served as the master craftsman. Upon completion in 1766, it stood in a field some distance from the growing port city to the south. It was built as a “chapel-of-ease” for parishioners who lived far from the Mother Church.
Built of Manhattan mica-schist with brownstone quoins, St. Paul’s has the classical portico, boxy proportions and domestic details that are characteristic of Georgian churches such as James Gibbs’ London church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, after which it was modelled. Its octagonal tower rises from a square base and is topped by a replica of the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates (c. 335 BC).
Inside, the chapel’s simple elegant hall has the pale colors, flat ceiling and cut glass chandeliers reminiscent of contemporary domestic interiors. In contrast to the awe-inspiring interior of Trinity Church, this hall and its ample gallery were endowed with a cozy and comfortable character in order to encourage attendance. (more)
..it’s a loong weekend! i’m gonna sleep the whoole day.. 🙂
..taken while taking a break beside flatiron building..
..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..
..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..
..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.. 😀
..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..
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..
..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..
..nuff said.. 😉
..manhattan from queens..
..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.. 😀
..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..
..the moleman is back with new fun stuff..
..i really had fun playing around with this lens, it’s a challenge too because you get to see things in a wider, different perspective.. of course i planned what i wanted to shoot but i had to look around & turn around to see if it’ll look good, most of the time i had the camera stuck to my face as i did that weird dance to see firsthand what the effect would be.. of course i got weird looks from people around me but that’s what i like about nyc, most people don’t give a s**t..
..this here’s grand central terminal, shot from the west entrance..
..if you’ve been to the Top of the Rock, then you’d know that this is the “bottom” of the rock.. this is where you shell out $$ to pay for a great view.. the view’s better than Empire State’s though..
..this is where i got this..
..and it’s monday again, i’m pretty much recharged, slept most of the time this weekend, i’m raring to go..go back to work, that is.. 🙂
..here’s another from this fishy series, shot from the 59th Street subway exit, underneath the Trump International Hotel & Tower’s Globe.. and that’s the Time Warner Center up the stairs..
..looks like the inside of a crater..shot on my last visit to Houston..
The Williams Waterwall is a gorgeous piece of architecture located right next to the Williams Tower in the Uptown District. The 60+ ft. tall structure is in the shape of a semi-circle, with water that cascades down over it and down a series of steps towards the bottom. When you stand in front of it, especially at night when it is illuminated by lights from beneath the water, it is really a spectacular sight. It is situated at the end of a lovely little park surrounded by oak trees, and is a favorite photo opportunity for locals and visitors alike in Houston.
..walking down the middle of Park Avenue amidst these skyscrapers, the untrained eye would most definitely wander around these buildings..
..if you’ve been watching Gossip Girl on the CW, by looking at this you would know that this is the hotel where Serena Van Der Woodsen (Blake Lively’s character) stayed when their UES apartment was under renovation..
..not familiar with that show? then here’s a better explanation.. 🙂
..this is the NY Palace Hotel’s facade, previously called the Villard Houses, bought by Harry Helmsley in the 1970s and was declared a landmark by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, both wings belong to non-profit organizations and to read more click here..
..shot in the unholy hours of the morning, when tourists and workers flock around & walk the hallowed canyons of manhattan.. here’s the ‘morning version’ of this shot..
..flip off a switch and voila, no lights! magick!
..to start off with the “moleman” series, here’s Fifth Avenue, shot from “below” Atlas, a 45 feet sculpture created by Lee Lawrie, a famous architectural sculptor..
..i’m in the mood for simple stuff..
..walking home with a tripod in hand.. how handy can that be.. lol..
..shot from across the 9 West 57 building, a reflection of the Crown Building ( as seen by wifey 😀 )
..i’ve been up there, down here and now i went around.. ALL around.. 🙂
..well, have a great weekend, i’m off to somewhere and it’s time for me to hit the skies again..
..nothing to see here.. just some old buildings..
..20 minutes digging through the internet gave me this..
..here’s to the weekend that passed..
For the rest of us there is always sunday
The day of the week that reeks of rest but all we do is catch our breath so we can wade naked into the bloody pool and place our hand on the big black book
To watch the knives zigzag between our aching fingers– Stone Sour (Omega)
..and here’s a municipal pier from philly.. um, what gives? how are they related? *shrugs* i dunno..
..it’s a nice day, why not sit back and relax..
..info here..
..remeber this one? well this is it’s brother / sister (whichever you prefer)..
..it’s called the WR Grace building and this is where the chase between the human torch & silver surfer started on the movie Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer..
..again, on a sidenote.. 😀 ..if you’re planning to purchase this new dslr, then the raw clips from the new Canon 5DMkII are now available at Vincent Laforet’s blog..
..i’ve showed in the previous posts what the exterior of Trinity Church looks like, now let’s delve deeper.. as deep as where Nicholas Cage went (and possibly afford a Ferrari when i surface the catacombs).. lol.. yep, this is the Trinity Church as referenced by the movie National Treasure.. i poked around and couldn’t find an entrance to the treasure trove.. don’t tell me it ain’t true.. *shock*
..on a sidenote, turns out, letterman’s still funny. hehe..
..my mind is a tabula rasa..
..can i eet ur buildingz..
..all series must come to an end…not this day though.. 😀
..still from yesterday’s post, this is one of the three(?) entrances to the AIG building, shot from across the street. i was actually shooting at the entrance when a security guy told me it’s prohibited to shoot there, he told me to cross the street and shoot from there (less than 10 meters away).. what’s the point? it’s early saturday morning & it’s not like i’m blocking anyone.. it’s not like me to complain so i just happily smashed the shutter repeatedly..
MAJOR BUMMER.. my web hosting is experiencing hiccups.. well, it’s not like i’m running a charity here so what the heck..
..to start off the week, and to continue the “fishy” financial district series, here’s the American International Building, owned of the AIG Insurance company.. i kept the liquor sign there for a reason.. according to gawker.com:
“Vodka and scotch sales are up, there’s no question about that,†said Chris Adams, executive vice president of Sherry-Lehmann Wines & Spirits, on 59th Street. He says that traffic in his store has increased this month—over the counter sales are up 23%, and delivery volume is up about 18%, compared to last year.
i posted something about this building a few weeks ago.. this perspective i think is to give you a sense of ‘being there’.. and for more, here’s an excerpt from nyc-architecture.com:
Built in 1930-1932 for the Cities Service Company.
This 289.5-metre, Gothic-like, spire-topped skyscraper was the tallest building in the Downtown area until the completion of the World Trade Center. It also was to be the last skyscraper to be built in Financial District in the pre-WW II years. It took until 1961 that another tall skyscraper rose to the area, in the form of the Chase Manhattan Bank.
..which i think will be tomorrow’s post.. 😀
..going for that empty, desolate, urban look in a bustling city like manhattan?
..shoot in the wee hours of winter..
..third part of the finance district series that’ll end whenever i deem it mundane..
..still haunting the same place from the previous two posts..
..technically, this isn’t a chapel but i got this title from Slayer…
..and while i’m at it, why not do a series on the financial district?
..here’s a massive tombstone(?) at the trinity church cemetery