very narrow venice alley

It's been over a year since our big trip abroad and I'm still stumbling across pictures that I enjoy. This was the narrowist alley I've ever seen. It was sprinkeled with little grafitti stickers everywhere, but you might not be able to see them at 500 pixels wide.

flaw in chemistry

This was taken very close to this one during a street fair. If you are really, really know Manhattan well, you might be able to tell me the closest cross street based on one clue in the picture.

golden gate

What photo site is complete without a nice, warm sunrise shot of the Golden Gate Bridge? None, I say. I risked a pretty hefty parking ticket to get this one.

narrow canal

I like this photo because it looks so old. I'm not sure if that is a good reason to put it up, but I've been a little short on time lately. Looking through old photos is fun but time consuming.

where the synagogue used to be

This is part of the empty lot where this synagogue was once located.

Venice Canal and Courtyard

Venice was unbelievable. By unbelievable, I mean that it doesn't look real. It looks like a place made by someone at Disney that was hired to make something that looked very much like Venice.

This effect was heightened this particular day by the fact that the cloudy sky was almost completely white. I grew up with skies like this, and the effect it sometimes has is that the world looks fake - everything stops at the sky, and the sky really isn't a sky at all, but a flat white canvas that hasn't been finished yet. Venice seems like that in this picture, a painting someone started but left incomplete.

depth of barb

Amazing. An empty lot in the West Village.

round building

This roundish building is on Marble Hill (<---click this link to find out why Marble Hill is technically in Manhattan though it appears to be part of the Bronx). I've always liked it, and just wish I had a wide enough angle lense to get the whole thing. Note all the shoes on the wire.

happy pillar

This was taken right outside a crepe shop in San Francisco, somewhere north of Geary Street and west of Union Square.

empire state from far west

Taken from 10th or 11th Ave.

A friend of mine has sent me a photo program for me to try for post processing. My goal is to learn how to do it this summer.

where's empire?

Can you find the Empire State Building?

It's a good thing that I didn't make a new years resolution to put up one photo a day because I would feel like a failure.

dark city

South Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty (squint!), and New Jersey - all in noir style. I've gotten a bit out of habit of putting these up once a day, but it's tough to find the time to go through the photos I take. Then, I'll invariably go back a year or two and find ones that are pretty good that I've forgotten about.

trash and girders

Taken beneath the tracks of the Highline.

tenderloin bug

Taken near Post St in San Francisco. I forgot about this batch of photos.

looking south in st kitts

Here is another photo from St. Kitts. I really enjoyed being there; the whole country has about the same population as my home town. At this point I had hiked to the top of a hill and was standing among cacti and strange droppings which I finally determined to be made by wild goats.

So, thanks to the commenter on a past post, I downloaded Gimp, but I realize I don't have the foggiest idea how to use a photo post processing program, so don't hold your breath waiting to see retouched wonders.

coconut

Hey, look, a color photo! There are times that I wish I had Photoshop or some kind of photo post processing software, and this is one of these times. Some of the photos I took in this last trip could be improved by some fiddling, because they didn't turn out as beautiful as the actual sights that I saw. Of course, on the other hand, this way you know that if you see something you like on this site it's a result of careful composing and either accidental or purposefully setting of the exposure to get a pleasing result, rather than someone recreating an image on the computer. I still want Photoshop, though.

back door view

This was taken while rehearsing at Ripley Grier Studios. I've taken alot of shots out of studio windows there.

I've got a huge backlog of photos that I'd like to post, which is a good thing because I've not had much time to shoot lately. I'll be taking some shots in a very warm climate in the next few days that I'll add to pile of future posts.

building layers

I know I need to mix these up a bit, but here is another one from my neighborhood, looking down from the steps above 238th Street, just south and also up the hill from Manhattan College.

hurt? injured?

Taken while waiting at the 231st St for the 1 Train. I love my neighborhood and could take pictures here forever.

ernie young

Looking north toward Times Square on 7th Avenue, I think.

meeting of the top brass

There is a bothersome tangent in this photo which I will forgive because I like other things about it. In addition, I'm a little pressed for time. I can look up and see this view everyday right before I cross the street and cut through Greeley square.

kingsbridge holiday

This was taken back near Christmas. If you look carefully you can see the 231st subway station behind the lights. I took this on the way home from work.

Blogger photo posting is working again! Very good. I'm travelling a lot this month, but I'm going to try to preload a bunch of photos so I can post them from the road. We'll see how that goes.

abstract grazing

Taken while speeding around in New Zealand. I think we were on our way to Akaroa.

under tracks

This is back in Inwood, under the tracks near Broadway and 218th Streets. They were doing work under here for the longest time. Covering up the brick was an aesthetic step back, but I'm sure the cars appreciated it.

ornate inwood

We walk back down to Inwood to go to the park, which is the thing we miss the most from living there. This is the top of a building on Broadway.

winter light

Southerly, stark winter light and a street on the lower east side.

new zealand beach

This was taken on a lovely beach in gorgeous New Zealand. I've given up any kind of chronological accuracy from our trip back in September.

kiama rocks and surf

Back in September we spent some time with my bosses in Australia and had a great time. One one day we visited Kiama and the famous blowhole. Unfortunately the tide wasn't high enough to get any shots of geysers of water coming through the rocks. This shot was taken nearby.

silvery trees

I took another picture of this with a better composition, but I was really taken by the way the winter light was hitting these trees and branches and the other shot cut off too much of the sky. This is the northeast corner of the downtown NYC library, taken on our way to the Bryant Park Christmas Fair.

shell

From Hermosa Beach, CA

please be quiet

Taken on the lower east side.

venice alley

Another picture from our trip to Italy. We went other places, but I haven't had the chance to go through the photos yet. I love this one, from our rainy first day in Venice.

light and chrysler

I think the reason that like this image is the repetition of the verticles but also the contrasts and details. Took it while at the Bryant Park Holiday market.

fountain in faenza

In the never-ending quest for Italian ceramics, Sandy and I made our way down one evening from where we were staying in Ravenna to Faenza, a city of which I had never heard. We arrived just in time to dash about before the 7pm closing time and ended up buying two pretty amazing clocks. More amazing was how well Sandy spoke Italian to the shop owners. I shot a picture of this fountain on the way to find Madge (our car).

tenements

On Christmas Eve we toured the lower east side tenement museum. Very interesting. Afterwards we went to my sister's favorite, Teany. This was taken on the way there.

inside out

Another one from my day on the empty floor. See the Chrysler building?
Nikon D80

empire state shadow

The floor above mine is empty. It's been empty for a few months, after they kicked the last tenant out. Ever since, I've been itching to get up there for a 360 view. The morning I finally got up there and had some decent light I was lucky enough to see the Empire State's shadow falling against the side of a building to the northwest.
Nikon D80

la jungle

I took this photo off the top of a shopping center in Century City, CA.

two more from como

Ok, I didn't have the patience to post one a day. Two more from our wild ride up Lake Como.
Sony Cybershot DSC-P31

photos from lake como

The next three days I'll post photos from a portion of our trip to Italy. These aren't the best shots, but they were taken on a really memorable trip driving up the west side of Lake Como. It was fun to share the stereotypical thin thread of road with ragingly fast Italian drivers. On at least two occasions we had to bend in the side mirrors of our mammoth Volvo to make it possible to pass between another vehicle and a sheer rock wall or building. Because of all the impatient cars breathing down our necks we didn't have the chance to stop and take a photo as often as we would have liked.
Sony Cybershot DSC-P31

aosta hotel

This is another shot from our long trip a few months ago. This was our first night in Italy, in a town called Aosta. This hotel was really gorgeous and run by some very nice people. I asked about the history of the building and they said it had been around for 10 years, but shortly after it was built the owners went bankrupt and it sat empty until just recently. Hard to believe. Not a really great quality photo, but it's nice to remember being there.
Sony Cybershot DSC-P31

hong kong street

The sign builders in Hong Kong are faced with increasing pressure to make sure their sign isn't blocked by the others, so in the end the view of the sky just has to go. [again, having problems getting photos to post - have patience]
Sony Cybershot DSC-P31

manhattan skyline

As seen from the River Cafe.
Nikon D80

new yorker

Nice windy day, as I remember.
Nikon D80

venetian gondola

Venice is almost beauty overload. It almost looks like something created to look like Venice. It's kind of Disney perfect. Too many souvenir stands, though.
Sony Cybershot DSC-P31

looking down from victoria peak

Another one from Hong Kong. We took a train at an impossibly steep angle to the top of Victoria's Peak, which is on the island. You can see across the harbor to Kowloon, which is where we stayed while we were there. Breathtaking view, for sure.
Nikon Coolpix 5600.

hong kong veggies

I loved walking around Hong Kong's many street markets. The farmer's market was our favorite.
Sony Cybershot DSC-P31.

garment district

I like the way these moody buildings look like they are leaning over the street. I know that's a distortion of the lense, but it works for me here.
Nikon D80

italian countryside

Taken while driving through Lombardy in our diesel Volvo wagon with the lovely GPS system we fondly named Maggie.

ravenna church

In Ravenna, Italy. I got to see some of my favorite mosaics in this church, but none of the photos of Justian and Friends turned out.

susa square

Taken from our table on the balcony of a restaurant in Susa, Italy.

scooter

Taken while in Lake Como, IT.

how do you like your city?

I take pictures out of my office window constantly. The view of the city changes all the time; it is really amazing. For example, see the photos below, all of basically identical views. I didn't manipulate these pictures at all - just took them at different times.


This first one was taken last Friday, on the clearest day I can remember.


This one was taken at dusk on a much less clear day.


This, after sundown on a foggy day. I think I used a long exposure setting of some kind.

something old, something new

engrish sampring

These are a few shots from my trip to Japan. I didn't have time to take many photos, and then there was the problem with the batteries that take 13 hours to charge, so... all my Tokyo shots have a decidedly snapshotty feel to them.


This is the first thing I saw at baggage claim. The second thing I should have seen was my luggage, but I didn't for about 36 hours.


This store is tough but friendly!


That's what I call a niche market.


Click on this so you can read the poetic description of a gambling joint.

tokyo temple

the 1 and metal spaghetti

I love this picture.

very small rain storm

Builders squirting water off the top of a building on 33rd and 5th.

hourdrsx

Taken on Canal. I've take this same picture many times, but never got one that I liked. I've always been fascinated by the watertower and the top of that building. This one I like better than past attempts.

views from my office window

Our office is 40 stories up in the Empire State building, so we get some good views when the days are clear. Here are a couple of photos I shot about 2 weeks ago at the end of the day.

collapsed synagogue

This is one of the strangest pictures I've ever taken. This was taken with about 2 seconds of exposure through a hole in a piece of plywood that formed the wall around a building in the lower East Side that is being demolished. The way it was told to me by the waitress at Teany's, the roof just fell in one day and that further investigation found the building to be so unstable that it couldn't be repaired.

Anyway, the post nuclear attack look of the whole thing is probably due to the light from the street from behind me, because the lot itself had no direct light. I didn't mess with it at all after I took the picture. I should also tell you that almost every shot on this blog is taken with a little Sony Cybershot DSC-P31.

street light

This isn't a terrific picture, but it's got a neat light in it and I like it. Please keep coming back, because I'm going to start making this more and more of a photo diary, with the pictures reflecting where I've been and what I've done. Of course, I reserve the right to put in blasts from the past that I like.

Today's picture is from about a month ago, but me and Sandy and my sister were down in this neighborhood today.

be very careful

This was taken in a park near our apartment in the Bronx. This path is not a point of no return. It actually leads you down to the road that runs beside the Hudson River. Nice and quite around there. Had to get some green in for March 17th.

eyen park

I hesitate to put this picture up, because there isn't really much going on, but I think you'll agree the colors are nice. Again, all these look better bigger.

famiglia

sky above 215th st

I took this when walking south through my old neighborhood, Inwood.

again

8th St. and Third Ave. Near Chickpea.

church downtown

I'm wracking my brain, but I can't remember where this church is. It's between 8th and 10th St. but I can't remember the Ave. Near the East Village.

empire state

This is the Empire State Building from the south.

henry hudson bridge

This was take under the Henry Hudson Bridge the morning of the MTA strike, when I had to take the Metro North to work. Later that night I would crack my head on the 40th floor of the Empire State building when I fainted. What a day!

yellow tree

Same day in Central Park.

fall in nyc

Sandy (left) walking down the Central Park Mall.

time warner towers

Half finished Time-Warner towers at Columbus Circle. They've been done for awhile now.

under the 1

There were some creapy views near the subway in our old neighborhood.

snowflake

Sandy loves the snowflake they put up at Christmas on 5th Ave.

action sparks

I always liked to watch the train go over this one section of track in my old neighbhorhood because it always showers sparks. This was taken in long exposure.

bouquet special

Off of 8th Ave. in the 40's.

brooklyn bridge

Guess when it was built.

seaman ave

Taken out of Sandy's studio window in our old neighbhorhood.

a tree grow here

Somewhere in Brooklyn Heights.

another inwood view

This is close to the giant stone arch with marks the old entrance to the Seaman Estate, back when this neighborhood was divided into large manors and farms.

foggy inwood day

A foggy day in our old neighborhood of Inwood.

1 train approach

1 Train coming into the 215th station.

empire state, et al

lafayette stop in brooklyn

This is one of my favorite subway pictures. Was waiting for the train after singing as a ringer in a small church concert in Brooklyn back in 2002.

times square in the morning