New Yorkers 3

When I am done at the Met, I always walk the 20 blocks from the museum down Fifth Avenue to the Subway at 59th street.  I always see so many interesting things on my walk.  At some point the other day, I noticed this woman's hair.  If I recall correctly, I noticed her ahead of me, and so speeded up my walk. When I got to about ten feet behind her, I set my lens at its max focal length of 70mm which starts to be a telephoto.  I stayed ten feet behind her for perhaps one block or two.  When the scene in front of her wasn't busy with too many people, I would lift my camera up, snap one shot and then put the camera down.  I think I did about a dozen photographs.  I just love how pretty her hair is in the late afternoon light.  That's the only reason I shot this.  Admiring things of beauty around me, I guess.  Please be sure and click on the image to see a more detailed version.  The colors of light and dark in her hair are really quite beautiful.  "MOM that creepy guy with the camera is following me again!"  :-)

 

New Yorkers 2

I took the Lexington Avenue subway up from Grand Central Station - more on that later.  I got off at 86th street and walked west, toward Central Park because I was headed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  I think it was at a street corner that I ended up following this young woman and the three dogs she was walking.  There are lots of dog walkers in New York and sometimes I have seen seven or eight dogs being walked by one person!  So I followed her discretely, taking photographs all the way.  What attracted me to this scene were the dogs.  This is not the perfect arrangement of the three, but there were so many other things in the background which could be distracting, so that's why I picked this photograph.

 

New Yorkers 1

I went to the city today to see a couple of things, which I will eventually tell you about.  I took a lot of photographs. Maybe some of them just might be worth looking at.  But...  Before we get to that, I will say that walking to some of the locations, I found interesting photographs of some New Yorkers going about their day.  These two scaffold workers were the first ones I photographed.  And that was because of the message on the back of the sweatshirt of the worker in orange!  I thought that was worth sharing.  So there will be a couple of more New Yorkers, so stay tuned.  Then you get to see the good stuff!

 

Hieroglyphics

I thought that the title "Hieroglyphics" would be appropriate for this street marking.  But I thought I would check, because I know you are all watching me and pity poor me if I make a mistake!   :-)

Anyhow I looked it up and this is a short definition: "enigmatic or incomprehensible symbols or writing" and that sounds perfect. I do happen to know that this symbol means there is a gas main running right under this symbol, and they mark the street when there is going to be someone excavating the street, so no one will break a gas main with a back hoe!  Anyhow, I love this image as something artistic, even though it is technical.   Something about the bright yellow paint on the black macadam and the gentle sunlight raking across the surface.  what I don't know is what the smaller text means.  If I ever find out, I will be sure and let you know.

 

Rain and Drizzle

I have stayed indoors now for, what is it, 5 days of drizzle and rain.  Well, it was time I grabbed a camera and went out in the drizzle to look for a photograph.  OK, so I lied a little bit.  It is Tuesday and so we were at the beach with coffee and donuts, sitting in the car having breakfast when this man cast his line into the harbor from the beach in front of us.  No sooner had he reeled his line in, that he moved up the beach to the right maybe 75 feet, and cast again. I thought, "I better get out there and get a shot quick!"  No sooner had he cast then he reeled it in again and moved another 75 feet up the beach, where I couldn't see him.  Oh well, there went my shot.  Then I saw him walk out on the tip of the park to the north, and I ran to where I could get a good angle with my 400mm lens.  I did two slightly different compositions in less than a minute.  In he other view, the fisherman is to the right of the foggy tip of land in the distance.  This view is better.  And after a minute of shooting, he reeled his line in again, and was gone!

 

The New Ceiling at Penn

I have had this picture in my collection to post since I shot this on September 7, the last time I was in New York.  After they demolished much of the Long Island Railroad concourse to rebuild the station, gradually they started putting things back together. What was cool was to see the new ceiling which consisted of white panels of plastic which diffused the light and it was pretty cool.  Well, recently when I arrived at Penn I was stunned to notice that now the white panels have color in them, and it is beautiful!  What a surprise.  So I took the time to photograph the ceiling on this trip.

 

Fortunately I have a post on the blog showing the white ceiling, and it does not look bad at all, but how much nicer to have all the color!

 

A Fast Mover!

I was surprised to find this aircraft parked right outside the building I go to for my flying, at Brookhaven Airport.  I am guessing that the pilot was just visiting.  I haven't seen it before.  Strange looking airplane, don't you think?  It is the brilliant work of an incredible aircraft designer Burt Rutan.  It would take my whole blog to list all the famous aircraft he has designed!  Two of the aircraft are Space Ship One, and the aircraft that carries it from the ground up to where it is launched, called White Knight One.  Please look them up in Wikipedia.  This aircraft is homebuilt and was first made in 1975.  They stopped selling plans for it in 1985.  What is astounding about this airplane is that its cruise speed is 165 MPH and it has a 100 Horsepower engine.  The Cessna 172 I fly has a 160 horsepower engine and only flies at 140 MPH!  Oh, I forgot to tell you what it is called - this is the Rutan Vari-Eze.  It is of composite construction and is a high performance aircraft.  I believe the Eze "easy" refers to the ease of construction. 

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