Categories
Landscape Photos

Cooped Up

We’ve nothing better to do today so we cleaned up our mess at home.. well, it was mostly mine.. After taking a brief breather, I noticed that it was getting dark and got to catch this golden sky from the window (undefiled & un-PP’ed).. And, it was back to work again.. hehe..

Categories
Landscape Photos Urban

Merging Point

Categories
Architecture Landscape Panorama Photos

Blackwell

Today’s expedition brought me to a lighthouse at Roosevelt Island’s northern tip. Here’s a brief history of the lighthouse I got from lighthousefriends.com:

This 50-foot-tall, gray gneiss, Gothic-style lighthouse was built in 1872. It is not an official Coast Guard lighthouse, but it was commissioned by the city. The lighthouse’s purpose was to “effectually light” the nearby New York City Insane Asylum for boats navigating the treacherous Hell Gate waters. It was designed by architect James Renwick, Jr., whose other works include Smallpox Hospital and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Inmate labor was probably used in the city-run project, but to elaborate much on its construction is to explore legend.

The legendary mysteries are the names of Asylum inmate(s?) John McCarthy and Thomas Maxey and whether these two names refer to one person, two people or even existent people. Supposedly, before the lighthouse was built, McCarthy (or Maxey), fearing a British invasion, was constructing a four-foot-high clay fort on this site. Asylum officials let him finish the fort because, during his adrenaline-rushed work, he reclaimed significant areas of marsh. (They even gave him old Civil War cannons as encouragement.) When the city wanted to build the Lighthouse, officials bribed or persuaded McCarthy either to give up or to demolish the fort.

Whether McCarthy complied or not is the choice of the storyteller, but the fort did come down. Then, supposedly, another Asylum patient was summoned to build the Lighthouse. This inmate styled himself “Thomas Maxey, Esq., architect, mason, carpenter, civil engineer, philosopher, and philanthropist.” The lighthouse was built, though adherence to Renwick’s blueprint is questionable. Despite Thomas Maxey’s supposed labor, John McCarthy’s name was credited on a plaque that remained at the Lighthouse’s base until its mysterious disappearance in the 1960s:

This work
was done by
John McCarty
who built the light
house from the bottom to the
top all ye who do pass by may
pray for his soul when he dies.

The Lighthouse was decommissioned in the 1940s, designated a city landmark in 1975, and partially restored the following year. In 1998 an anonymous grant of $120,000 funded complete restoration (including internal lamps).

Categories
Landscape Photos Urban

i-Shnoww

The first thing I thought of shooting when I got into this hobby is The Mall on Central Park on a winter time. Of course that wasn’t possible back then because it was still early spring. And today was the first “major” snow fall this winter. So off I went, but before I got to The Mall, it was already dark.. (and I got a li’l bit lost..) ..so as usual, I walked around aimlessly.

Categories
Landscape Nature Photos

Here fishy fishy

What’s the newest exercise fad you can think of right now..? Yoga, pilates, cardioboink-boink(okay, I made that up).. the list goes on and on and on (like the Energizer bunny). For me, I guess my latest hobby (shutterbug) would be my “exercise fad” right now. Given the option of running (or jogging) outside or being a couch potato, eating chips while watching dvds all day long, which would you choose? I guess you’ll pick couch potato, am I right? I would, but nooo, I chose to get out in the freezing cold & walk miles & miles & miles, like the Energizer bunny (see the trend here?) just to shoot some birds. They weren’t really my objective, actually, I really didn’t have an objective. I just decided on a place (Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn) and wandered around the neighborhood, shooting like mad (just kidding).

Categories
Landscape People Photos Urban

Simply Balmy

Categories
Landscape Photos Urban

Uprooted

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Landscape Photos Urban

Arrr..

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
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
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 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
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
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
Landscape Photos Urban

Into the Sun

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Architecture Landscape Photos Urban

Layers

Categories
Landscape Nature Photos

Shedding

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Landscape Nature Photos

Hello, Autumn

Categories
Landscape Photos Urban

Harlem

Still OHNY weekend, a few blocks north of manhattan and the weather cleared up considerably for us. From atop the Highbridge Water Tower, this is the view of Harlem River. You could see the tower’s shadow in the lower right corner. The bridges are the Alexander Hamilton Bridge and George Washington Bridge.

Categories
Architecture Landscape Panorama People Photos Urban

where’s the parade?

It’s the first day of OHNY 2007, and the first time for us to join, unlucky for us the weather was a bit overcast and gloomy. To the left is St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the view was fantastic not unlike viewing St. Patrick’s from below we had a different perspective of the cathedral along with fifth avenue. To top it off, peering over Rockefeller Center Rooftop Garden there was a parade going on so the short wait was worth it.

In a few months, the building in the middle (Saks Fifth Avenue) will be adorned with lights for the holidays.

Categories
Landscape Nature Photos

the path

Categories
Architecture Landscape Photos Urban

coney island

Categories
Landscape Photos Urban

bridge amidst foliage

Categories
Landscape Photos Urban

Urban Cordillera

This is my rendition of an urban mountain range.