..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.
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rsa battle house tower (reprise)
..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.. 😉
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rsa battle house tower
..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.
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the helmers
..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..
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lasher
..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..
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blacksher hall
..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.
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mobile bikers
..never had the time (or motivation) to walk around and observe my surroundings here in Mobile.. so yesterday, i went out for a walk and just after 5 minutes walking, i heard loud, throbbing roars coming from 150-200 big bikes passing by the road.. i thought to myself, ” man, how lucky can i be.. 😀 “.. i easily filled up 2gigs+ worth of raw photos.. i’ll be posting them in the gallery today and put the link up tomorrow.. now, i don’t know what the event was nor what those bikes are called but they sure look nice.. 😀
*..i’ve tweaked the display size for portrait-oriented images so load times will take sometime because they’re HUGE.. 🙂
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big moon
..well, here i am gazing up at the dark skies again.. 😀 wifey *mwah* told me about this (read below) around 10PM last night so i hunkered out in the cold to get some shots.. ’twas pretty fun.. 🙂
..from yahoo
The full moon Friday night will be the biggest one of the year as Earth’s natural satellite reaches its closest point to our planet.
Earth, the moon and the sun are all bound together by gravity, which keeps us going around the sun and keeps the moon going around us as it goes through phases. The moon makes a trip around Earth every 29.5 days. But the orbit is not a perfect circle.
The moon’s average distance from us is about 238,855 miles (384,400 km). Friday night it will be just 221,560 miles (356,567 km) away. It will be 14 percent bigger in our sky and 30 percent brighter than some other full moons during the year, according to NASA.
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life’s a ball
..and this here’s a beach ball.. a giant beach ball.. if you happen to pass by here and seem to be lost, just look for the big beach ball on a pole with the words ‘Pensacola Beach’..
*i love polarizers.. 😀
..still from last weekend’s trip to pensacola..
..obviously the pier was also meant for fishing so it was cool to find this bait on the planks.. not that i’m into fishing or anything like that but the funny thing was that i haven’t seen or touched a bait like this yet (i just used worms & various bugs).. it’s consistency felt so real, lifelike and like sashimi.. it’s good i had the presence of mind not to munch on it.. 😀
..hmm, i just thought that it was odd for me to post beach photos when it’s already winter.. oh well, anything goes..
..these ones belong to those kids from yesterday’s post..
..and here’s some funny stuff to brighten up your day.. 😀 –> Hitler rants about D3x
..there was a family shoot going on under the pier, here are some kids taking a break while their parents pose for the camera.. the view from up there was awesome, however, there weren’t any interesting subjects to shoot.. maybe on summer.. 😉
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pensacola beach gulf pier
..my friends & i jumped the border and went on a road trip to florida to get some lottery tickets.. but we first made a beeline to pensacola beach and walked around a bit.. this here’s the ‘longest & friendliest pier in the gulf of mexico’ as taken from this website.. the beach was great buuut if it has sharks..
Stretching out across the emerald green waters beyond 2 sand bars the Pensacola Beach Fishing Pier has some of the most exciting fishing and sights any pier Florida has to offer. And did we forget to say, “the most friendly pier around!” The Pensacola Beach Gulf Pier is here for everyone to enjoy. Whether you are a seasoned fisherman or a beginner you will be right at home on our pier. We also have everything you need to fish, bait, tackle, rental rods, coolers and carts as well as food and drinks in our new restaurant.
From our pier we see many kinds of marine life from dolphins, manatees, brown and cow rays, different types of sharks, crabs. In addition, there are many types of fish swimming around the pier as well as marine birds. Watching the activities of these species around the pier has become a favorite for some of our local schools which we host here at the pier.
*oh, and yesterday’s snow/sandman was just a discovery.. some kids probably made it.. 🙂
..down here in the south, you have to work with what you have.. since there isn’t any of that cold, fluffy, white stuff lying around.. white, powdery sand will do.. 🙂
..it’s the weekend.. time to slow things down for a bit..
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17 state street
..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?
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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..
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conjunction
..well, i guess i was lucky.. 🙂 if i heard about this earlier, i might’ve been able to catch them forming a smiley face too.. oh well, since this won’t happen until 2044, i’m content.. and because tee shirt & jogging pants don’t go well in 35+ degrees i also didn’t bother taking better shots.. hehe..
..according to the news.. venus, mars & the moon would be visible in the sky this evening (12/01/08).. too bad i missed it.. but looks like tomorrow’s (12/02/08) showing some promise..
December 1, 2008
Two brilliant planets line up to the lower right of the crescent Moon this evening. The brighter of the two, and the closest to the Moon, is Venus. Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, is a little to the right of Venus.December 2, 2008
Venus and Jupiter line up side by side early this evening, low in the southwest. Venus is the brighter of the two, with Jupiter to its right. The crescent Moon is a fair distance to their upper left.
..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)
..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.
..i feel so lazy..
..i think oversleeping causes headaches..
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gone streaking
..it’s a loong weekend! i’m gonna sleep the whoole day.. 🙂
..taken while taking a break beside flatiron building..
..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..
..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..
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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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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.. 🙂
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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..
..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..
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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!! 😀
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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.. 🙂
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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..
..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.. 😀
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mortal marionette
..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..
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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.
..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..
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a new day
..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.
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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..
..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..