From the school of “what the hell is this?” I’ll give the Tony Snow explanation — its a matter open to interpretation. Or, I am unnaturally attracted to shiny objects. Which would make me a cat or our current president.
Author: nataliar77
You can live in a place your entire life and never see it all
What is this you ask?
A mural in the entryway to a Barclay Rex building on Wall Street.
The internets, circa 1920. The glorious start of being able to read in a online German newspaper about the ‘splosion in front of your job in New York ten minutes after it happens, subtitled video of cats asking questions of presidential candidates and being able to watch Tim Gunn telling Wendy Pepper not to defending the shoe to him in a Swedish hotel room and of course, making the disappearance of Paris Hilton’s dog worldwide news.
Thanks International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation. Paris Hilton appreciates all of what you have done for her.
All joking aside, I loved this window into what people in the 1920s and 1930s thought the future would like.
I kind of noticed that this mural kinds of looks like this other iconic symbol of power:
Anyway, here’s the rest of Mr. Lightening Bolts:
Globes cover up his bits. Like I said, different places, different attitudes. Globes here, full frontal male nudity in Scandinavia. Globes covering up the jewels here. Neither is better or worse. These things are just different.
This one for once doesn’t get some long-ass explanation
For those of the view who wrongly believe there are too many of those up in here.
This was just something I loved:
I love how the flower suddenly, with a little manipulation, sparkles.
And to think, it started out life as a run of the mill macro flower shot:
Fried Onions
You can’t capture a smell on film, but I wish I could have today. In the aftermath of the ‘splosion, the air conditioning in the Graybar building was turned off. Middle of summer in New York, which, as I said, resembles Ghana is temperature, and we have no air conditioning.
And you know what? I LOVED IT. Yeah, the office smelled like fried onions for most of the day, more so where it was hotter in the office, but we got to open the windows and I got to do something I have wanted to do since I’ve been living in New York — basically, swing out of a window and take photos.
I’m afraid of everything in life. Whenever I fly, I have to tell myself “you have more of a chance of hitting the lotto than dying in a plane crash,” but then I am white knuckled when I hear any sound the plane makes. “Turbulence is normal, Turbulence is normal.”
Don’t even get me started on my whole fear of snakes.
But for some reason, heights do not scare me. I saw these open windows, braced myself as well as possible and took the following photos. Again, NOT ARTISTIC AND NOT INTENDED TO BE. But this was a lot of fun.
Here goes:
Remember, this is what the Chrysler Building looks like from the street:
Here’s what it looks like out the window of my office, with almost no zooming required. The CEO of our company has the corner office with the window and the amazing view, of course. Me, I gotta swing out of a 25th floor window to see this. Whatever. Here are the pictures:
Yeah, I know, I’ve taken the sun bursts on the top before, so I know this is kind of boring. But it was amazing to be so close to the building.
Here are the ones that I’d probably never again get to photograph:
In these next two, the brown brick is actually the brick of the building I work in. I didn’t notice it until I took another look at the photos. I don’t know why I am mentioning this. I just liked it.
Here’s more stuff:
Here are some more views:
YES, not the most artistic work in the world, but the best I could do with about 7-10 minutes to shoot, my boss and I trying to finish our afternoon work and of course, the higher ups probably wondering why in god’s name I was doing. All in a day’s work in the greatest city in the world.
People things, part II
I still think the lack of people things comments are unwarranted, but here is an experiment I’ve done. I’ve taken photos already posted here, cropped the rest of the photo out and picked selected people in the photos and altered them. The sepia hides how grainy the photos are. These are not, repeat not, finished work. I just wanted to see what these people looked like close up and in their natural state, unposed and unaware they were being photographed.
Here goes with the results. Again, just throwing a couple of ideas out there. As with other photos on this thing, you gotta click on them for the full effect.
Weird and grainy I know, but there was something sort of scary about the guy’s expression:
I liked the old tyme feel of this one:
Completely, I repeat completely on the fence with this one. Half of me said “eh, boring portrait, but the other half said “something here intrigues me:
Ok, yeah, pixilated and totally weird looking, but this girl looks kind of ethereal to me:
This one also had a very strangely ethereal quality to me. I kept it in color because what was already there was very interesting:
Last, but not least, this that gave me the initial idea for this whole thing:
I know these are not the world’s best portraits, but I’m taking a stab at something a little bit different.
The story of the ‘splosion
What a nice day I had yesterday. First, I got awoken at 7:03, a full 17 minutes before I was supposed to, by some of the loudest thunder I have ever heard. I got soaked on the way to work and waited an hour for the train.
But that was only the beginning. Regular day at battle-stations private equity, but then I get home and I see that there was some sort of explosion in mid-town Manhattan. Didn’t pay attention, because as my mother says, everything is always about me. Everything.
I thought “mid-town, I work in mid-town.” I wonder if it was anywhere near work.
Near work? NEAR WORK? More like at work. A steam pipe burst at 43rd and Lexington Avenue. I work between 42st and 43rd and Lexington. So, the ‘splosion was pretty much in front of my building.
I didn’t see the ‘splosion, but of course I got to feel the after-effects. Our air conditioning was turned off, making the air in the office pretty much stand still. My boss said I could go home.
I went out to run what turned out to be a completely futile errand, total waste of time, but of course, as usual the consolation prize for my aching feet was the opportunity to take some photos. THESE ARE NOT ARTISTIC PHOTOS. They are just kind of a chronology of what I saw.
There were cops EVERYWHERE. They were cops for ten blocks in each direction from Grand Central. Therefore, any photos of the ‘splosion were limited to these:
And another:
Ready for more? I thought so:
New York’s Finest wearing this great masks. The whole area was still covered in dust. After 9-11, the city has really gotten strict about what these guys who run into the fire, rather than away from it breathe in. So, here’s some of the boys in blue in their gas masks:
And, the city, that is usually a zoo was completely empty. I’ve never been able to see as far on these streets that I could after this unfortunate occurrence:
Utterly empty. You can’t usually see this far on these streets. They are usually totally blocked with traffic. I’ve never seen this before.
Not to mention the scene in front of my beloved Grand Central:
Usually this place is insanely thick with traffic. Insanely. It was weird seeing it without a bunch of cabs that go off duty at 5:30, when everyone needs them.
Also, here are some left-over residue from the ‘splosion:
And because this really isn’t related to the ‘splosion, a herd of people stuck in the rain, trudging their way to Grand Central. Yes, its a mediocre photo. No doubt, but you can also see the raindrops:
Well, there you have it. Just your typical day on Lexington Avenue. Thanks steam pipe built in 1928. If the air conditioning is still off in my building tomorrow, I am finding Mayor Bloomberg and making him sit in my Ghana temperatured office. Just for kicks.
The title of this thing is “some new stuff” because I can’t think of a better one
I don’t even know what to call this set over here. I went on a little weekend trip over to Washington and Baltimore to hang out, go to Target, watch my friend get cable and to dive into a pool for the first time in 10+ years.
Oh and I took some photos, of course.
First, some fine Ansel Adams-esque work. This was well conceived and thought out work, and by that I mean I pointed the camera out the window of the speeding bus I was on and as usual, hoped for the best.
Here are the fantabulous results:
And now onto work that I find is hard to categorize. It usually has less to do with capturing something that is special and more to do with me learning how to photograph it.
I love the moving people ghost kind of photos, in case those of you who tune into the place didn’t know. Well, anyway, here is the latest attempt at that particular brand of photography:
This was taken in Washington’s “Chinatown” that has a Benetton and a CVS and a couple of god awful Chinese restaurants. They should call it “Big Chinese gate town.” But anyway, this is what I got from there.
Then, my friend and I took a little road trip to Baltimore (about an hour from DC). The locals call it “Balmer.” Here are some photos from this place called Fell’s Point:
Yeah, ok, its an alley, but to me, there is some magic in that. I love the lights and it reminds me of those Helmut Newton photos of alleys in Paris. Mine do not feature large Teutonic women in them. Unless I became the Teutonic woman in them. Not yet anyway.
This following photo was one of those contort yourself into all kinds of weird positions to take the photo. Also, the exposure time was really long, so the camera was resting on the ground. A minute long exposure time means the photo captures what you see, but you have to keep the camera completely still, or else the photography exercise ends in tears.
This one didn’t end in tears:
I took about 25 photos of this thing, but this one made the best impression of me. I loved the reflection of the light in the glassy looking water. Not like this didn’t take work, or whatever. But, of all this photos of this thing, this one really made an impression on me.
Remulak?
Remulak, a small town in France. Ah, the Coneheads, a personal favorite sketch from Saturday Night Live for good reason.
Because to return to the conehead’s home planet of Remulak, the coneheads had to use the Chrysler Building as their return vehicle.
Fortunate for us, the coneheads never came to get the sublime Chrysler Building and thank god, because it is a beautiful building. And, as most beautiful things, really freakin’ hard to photograph. Really hard.
Sure, I could take photographs like this one:
But these never look the way I want them to. The building is glinting off in the distance, but on film, it just doesn’t come across. It probably has to do with the limitations of the digital camera. Of course it also has to do with the limitations of my day, as I can’t stand there for an hour figuring out how to position the camera. My hands also shake like crazy, making taking these photographs all the more difficult.
However, I’ve always thought that the shots of the Chrysler building were amazing and the best thing to capture is the sun bursts on the top. The thing is 77 floors high and I haven’t mastered levitation yet, so I stand, trying to get the sun bursts with my beautiful zoom lens on the digital. Those things usually can zoom in pretty well but in the image window, what you want to photograph is totally blurry.
So, here are the results of all of that. And also, keep in mind that I tried to match the vertical lines of the building with the sides of image that the camera made. Just that slightest shift took the photo from blah to something that I hope looks that it is on its way to being semi-artistic.
Let’s have a look see:
(you have to click on the photos to get the full effect).
See anything you like?
People things
Ok, a lot of people have commented that there are no people things in any of my photos. Well, so, I’m posting some photos with some people things in them and then there will be an editorial comment on all the commentary. See, see what I did there?
Anyway, some photos of my favorite place with people things in them:
I mean those appear to be feet and calves and they appear to be attached to a person of some kind. That counts as a people thing, right?
Ok, you wanted more, so I’ll give it to you:
People things in all of these photos. All of them. Ah, you mean not random people things that wander into my shots. Truth be told, I want to photograph people, but I love taking photos of them doing natural things or contrasting against a background. This for example illustrates that:
I did a little cropping here, but you get the idea. People things. I meant these people no disrespect. Their dress and manner reminds me of another time and I liked the contrast between them and the modernity of the background. I turned around, snapped a photo and moved along.
Later, I saw the same family and whipped out the old digital and wanted to get a shot off. The woman in the photograph angrily admonished me about taking photos and she was right. I hadn’t asked permission and that group of people is probably subjected to many a strange stare from one and all.
It struck me though that my favorite photos are ones like this. Unposed people in what they call “captured moments.” Of course, getting such photos is extremely hard because the people you want to photograph are going about their casual lives, not wanting them invaded by a camera.
Photos don’t need people in them to capture a feeling of a place or an emotion. Trees can capture emotion and feeling as well as pictures of people. People though, they tend to talk back and not want their picture taken. This is one of the most annoying things about photography. People constantly telling me that they look fat in photographs or refusing to even be photographed. Maybe I’d have more photographs to put up here if people didn’t run in the other direction when I tried to take their photo. I don’t post posed photographs up here that have no context and aren’t interesting. This isn’t the MySpace of some college co-ed. This is my photography site for my ideas.
So, the complaining about the lack of people, it could stop. People, they tend not to want to be photographed. Trees tend not to mind. And, they don’t talk back or tell me they look fat.
An edgy cafe in Central Stockholm
Look at these hipsters at this edgy Stockholm cafe:
Wait, something is a little different about this cafe. Actually, there is a lot different.
Baby carrots? BABY CARROTS? I’m from America, Stockholm McDonalds employees with your perfect English. We’re lucky they don’t give us a deep fried block of fat with our meal. Oh, wait, the fries. My Swedish Big Mac, tasted like the Big Mac I had a couple of weeks ago in South Street Seaport, but the carrots, were, kind of, um, unbelievable. And, I got a Ramlosa to drink with it, aka a spring water.
The Golden Arches, there where you need them.
Of course, there is always the suck nearby:
But this I thought just looked really Swedish. Or, as my friend put it “yeah, Europe.” Yeah, I guess it is Europe, after all.
