Category: Fisheye

Categories
Enfuse Fisheye moleman series Nightscape Photos series Urban

moleman series: wollman rink

..for those of you who are familiar with this place then no explanation necessary.. for those who aren’t (including me.. lol), here’s a wiki excerpt:

Wollman Skating Rink is a public ice rink in the southern part of Central Park, Manhattan, New York City. The rink was opened in 1949 with funds donated by Kate Wollman. Historically, the rink has been open for ice skating from October to April and in the summer seasons is transformed into a venue for other purposes.

The Rink has been used as the venue for several summer concerts. The first annual summer music festival at there was sponsored by Rheingold beer company and opened on July 1, 1966. The Rheingold Central Park Music Festival also took place during the summer of 1967. The first annual Schaefer Music Festival opened on June 27, 1968 and ran each summer through 1976. The first annual Dr. Pepper Music Festival opened on July 6, 1977 and ran annually through the summer of 1980 (the 15th, and last annual music festival held at the Wollman Rink).
Summertime

The venue no longer hosts concerts, but it is still used for public ice skating in the winter and in the summer it houses the Victorian Gardens Amusement Park.

Wollman Rink has also been featured in several movies, including Love Story.

Wollman Rink is currently operated by the Trump organization, and is today known as the Trump Wollman Skating Rink. Donald Trump leased the rink from 1987 to 1991. From 1991 to 2001 George Makkos from The Makkos Organization of M&T Preztle, operated Wollman Rink. Since 2001, Wollman Rink has been operated by a joint venture between Trump Organization and Rink Management Services of Mechanicsville VA. Trump completely rebuilt the Rink.

..btw, i’ve recently heard of Enfuse and tried it out with this image.. it’s like HDR but just not quite HDR.. have a go at it if you’ve got time.. it’s pretty cool.. (it stripped my exif data though)

Categories
Architecture Fisheye Urban

tilting the blues

..well, i’ve nothing much to say so, have fun with these specs..

City of New York
Manhattan Bridge
1901 – 1910

Total Length of Bridge
6855 Feet
Length of Main Span
1470 Feet
Length of Each Side Span
725 Feet
Width of Bridge
120 Feet
Height of Towers, M.H.W. To Center Of Cables
324.4 Feet
Depth of Trusses
24 Feet
Diameter of Cables
21 1/4 Feet
Breaking Strength of Each Cable
30000 Tons
Weight of Steel Towers
12340 Tons
Weight of Steel Cables
8000 Tons
Weight of Steel Suspended Spans
20000 Tons
Weight of Steel Approaches
16600 Tons
Masonry-Tower Foundations
78000 Cu. Yards
Masonry-Anchorages
230000 Cu. Yards
Masonry-Approaches
32700 Cu. Yards
Weight of Bridge Per Linear Foot
24000 Pounds
Weight of Each Anchorage
232000 Tons
Categories
Architecture Fisheye Indoor moleman series Photos series Urban

moleman series: st patrick’s cathedral

..ahh, monday…

..for those of you who haven’t ventured inside the st. patrick’s cathedral on fifth avenue, here’s what it looks like..

Categories
Architecture Fisheye HDR moleman series People Photos series street Urban

moleman series: wall street

..money makes the world go round, the world go round.. la la la..

..here‘s something funny to watch this monday (and educational too.. i promise.. all that stuff about photographer’s rights etc. etc.)

Categories
Architecture Fisheye Nightscape Photos Urban

hooligans

..taken at the bethesda terrace at central park the same place and time i got this one..

..in the right place, graffiti looks nice.. but “tagging” this place?! that’s just downright stupid & cruel.. yep, vandals spray painted this place.. read about it here..

Categories
Fisheye Indoor moleman series People Photos series Urban

moleman series: time warner center

..ah, monday.. wouldn’t it be nice if you were at the mall now? 🙂

Categories
Architecture Fisheye moleman series Photos series Urban

moleman series: zuccotti park

..whee! the “moleman” won a photo contest.. well, technically, i didn’t win it, someone else did.. but the photo that won the competition was “moleman-ey” / “moleman-esque” (or so i’d like to call it..) check out page 42 of popphoto’s january 2009 magazine.. if you don’t have it, then check it out here.. looks familiar? yep, leslie wargo noticed it a while ago too.. it’s the first and second photos of the “moleman series” taken last october.. and alex’s photo won the grand prize! whee! to alex’s credit, he took this shot last july so he had this idea before i did.. i was just a few months late.. wah!

..and while we’re on the topic of talking about the “moleman”, i’d say my main inspiration for starting the series goes out to archie from whateverland.com whose fishtown photo totally blew my mind and had me looking at NYC thru a fisheye.. 😀

..now on to the image, taken from lower manhattan’s zuccotti park, this here’s mark di suvero’s 70-foot-tall red steel sculpture Joie de Vivre, which anchors the park’s southeast corner.. it’s northwest corner is decorated by j. seward johnson’s Double Check, a dark bronze sculpture of a man with a briefcase, which sat in the original park for early 20 years and was relocated after 9/11.. i guess i was subconsciously thinking of archie’s spokes & legs shot when i saw this sculpture.. 😀

Categories
Architecture Fisheye moleman series Nightscape Photos series Urban

moleman series: one times square building

..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..

Categories
Architecture Event Fisheye moleman series Nightscape Photos series

moleman series: times square

..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!! 😀

Categories
Architecture Fisheye moleman series Nightscape Photos series Urban

moleman series: helmsley building

..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..

Categories
Fisheye Photos Sculptures Urban

cheeky

..two sides of the coin, the opposite of this one..

..shot from just 4(?) feet away, i honestly didn’t want to look like an ass shooting this one but when finding a tourist attraction like this, sans the mob, i took advantage of the opportunity and shot all angles.. even this one.. 😀 ..and yeah, most of the time i find people taking pictures of and with both ends of this structure.. funny, right? some pranksters even had the guts to paint the ‘nuts’ blue when the financial crisis started..

Categories
Architecture Fisheye moleman series Photos series Urban

moleman series: st. paul’s chapel

..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)

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
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
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
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
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
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
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 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
Fisheye Indoor Photos things Urban

bunny man: jappy jalloween

..that’s me (donnie darko) stalking the aisles for candy.. i seem to be lost.. hmm.. and no, there’s nothing wrong with my keyboard, this is today’s title..

Categories
Architecture Fisheye Indoor moleman series Photos series Urban

moleman series: grand central terminal

..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..

Categories
Architecture Fisheye Indoor moleman series Photos series Urban

moleman series: bottom of the rock

..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..

Categories
Architecture Fisheye moleman series Photos series Urban

moleman series: columbus circle

..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..

Categories
Architecture Fisheye moleman series Photos series

moleman series: park avenue

..walking down the middle of Park Avenue amidst these skyscrapers, the untrained eye would most definitely wander around these buildings..

  • 8 o’clock – 277 Park Avenue – current home of J.P. Morgan & Co. Investment Bank

    Categories
    Architecture Fisheye moleman series Photos series

    moleman series: villard houses

    ..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..

    Categories
    Fisheye moleman series Photos Sculptures Urban

    moleman series: liberty

    ..it’s funny that i’ve been posting images of NYC but have nothing about the Statue of Liberty..

    ..up until now.. here ya go..

    Categories
    Architecture Fisheye moleman series Photos Urban

    moleman series: rockefeller center

    ..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..

    Categories
    Architecture Fisheye moleman series Nightscape Photos Urban

    moleman series: fifth avenue (night mode)

    ..flip off a switch and voila, no lights! magick!

    Categories
    Architecture Fisheye moleman series Photos Urban

    moleman series: fifth avenue

    ..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..

    Categories
    Architecture Fisheye Nightscape Photos Urban

    weed?

    ..i’m in the mood for simple stuff..

    Categories
    Architecture Fisheye Photos Urban

    all around the rock

    ..i’ve been up there, down here and now i went around.. ALL around.. 🙂

    Categories
    Architecture Fisheye Photos Urban

    amazing grace

    ..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..

    Categories
    Architecture Fisheye Indoor Photos Urban

    innards

    ..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..

    Categories
    Architecture Black n White Fisheye Photos Urban

    shoo

    ..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..

    Categories
    Architecture Fisheye Photos Urban

    AIG.. augh..

    ..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.. 😀

    Categories
    Architecture Fisheye Photos Urban

    emptier still

    ..going for that empty, desolate, urban look in a bustling city like manhattan?

    ..shoot in the wee hours of winter..

    Categories
    Architecture Fisheye Landscape Photos Sculptures Urban

    haunting the chapel

    ..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…

    Categories
    Architecture Fisheye Photos Urban

    implosion

    ..yesterday was a typical “s**t hit the fan” day.. i don’t tend to read the wall street journal nor do i care about stocks and all that bull (not that bull.. this bull).. but all that talk in the media got me thinking.. where was that imploding new york stock exchange (NYSE) shot i had before.. i know it would come in handy in times like this.. tsk3..

    01/19/2008

    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
    Fisheye Indoor Photos Sculptures

    Hieroglyphs

    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 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
    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.