..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.. 🙂
..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..
..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..
..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!! 😀
..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.. 🙂
..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..
..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.
..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
..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..
..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.. 😀
..who’s pulling your strings?
..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..
..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..
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..
..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..
..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..
..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.
..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.. 😀
..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.
..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..
..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..
..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..
..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..
..shot at the same place where i got this.. straight out of the camera.. too lazy to postprocess.. it’s cooold.. i’d off to bed now.. brrrrrr.. time to crank up the heater..
..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.
..one word to describe the coming weekend.. 😀
..on the other hand, i get to bum around and do nothing..
..this one’s taken from a beach chair in ‘bama.. 😉
..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..
..not that kind of peep show.. 😛
..tip of downtown manhattan taken off of the liberty island..
..this here is Pier A, a Victorian-era, three-story brick wonder that welcomed the likes of Amelia Earhart, the Queen of England, and several heads of states.. now it’s just a landmark stuck in red tape.. here’s to bureaucracy..
..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..
..made a beeline for the mall in central park and instead saw a group of guys playing football amidst the dirt, dust & fallen leaves.. the scene was further accentuated by the low lying sunlight peering through the trees and hitting the disturbed dust, bathing them in the golden, dusty glow of fall.. too bad this photo doesn’t do justice to what i actually saw.. oh well, i guess this will do for today.. 🙂
..and i finally got my vfxy approved.. if you wanna give me some lovin’, now’s the time to do it.. lol..
..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.. 🙂
..yesterday was up there, now i’m down here.. 🙂
..just some random guy doing random stuff at a concert at a park.. 🙂
..well, have a great weekend, i’m off to somewhere and it’s time for me to hit the skies again..
..a few weeks back i worked late and decided to walk from the office going home and take some shots while i’m at it.. it was just 2.6mi so i thought it wasn’t that far.. i didn’t notice that the sun went down faster than it normally should so all i got was this shot.. and a dark, silent walk along the grassy “sidewalks” of alabama..
..also, i recently googled “venomous snakes alabama” and this is what i got.. haha..
..hmm, what? expecting something else? sorry to disappoint you.. hehe..
..aaaand monday’s over.. and so, to offset monday’s anti-happy-happy-joy-joy post and for something totally different, since it’s tuesday and the spanish translation of tuesday is martes.. here’s marta.. get it?
..this is just one of the many shots i’ve been meaning to fix & organize but can’t seem to find the time to do so.. and when that time comes, i’ll be sure to send these out to them.. 😀
..oh, and do you know who the 2nd most beautiful woman in NYC is? hit THIS one to find out.. lol..
..it seems it’s that time of the week again..
..need i say more?
..yeah, i know..
..a little bit early for halloween..
..to get a phone signal after getting off of the subway, this is what you should do.. lol..