Lost Aussie on the loose

Four Freedoms Park at Roosevelt Island, NYC

Today dawned chilly but sunny (for the first time in ages), so we hopped in the go-go mobile and headed for points west, specifically Roosevelt Island, to check out the  Four Freedoms scuplture park.

What a visual feast!  Poised at the southern most tip of Roosevelt Island the park, designed by Louis I Kahn, is simply perfection embodied in terms of symmetry and simplicity, with perspective and architectural lines that draw the eye in every direction, particularly if you have your camera in hand.

Although it was bright and sun shinny, I'd packed my tripod and ND filters in the hopes of snapping a few long exposure shots and was not disappointed.  There was plenty of wind to puff the few clouds along and 16 stops of ND did a good job of toning down all the bright lights....

Long exposure photography is not necessarily a favourite amongst chilly by standers as each capture can take 3 to 8 minutes and in my experience, the hangers on have less patience than the photographer... nevertheless I did manage about 5 decent shots before every one else's patience wore through.

Here's a few that I have worked on tonight.....the blog format does not really do them much justice as each image is around 20 inches wide....but you get the idea!!

and just in case you have no idea what the "Four Freedoms" are or what the park is a tribute to, I've posted and excerpt of Roosevelt's address for you.... courtesy of this website.

 

The "Four Freedoms"
Franklin D. Roosevelt's Address to Congress January 6, 1941

 In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression -- everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way -- everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want -- which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants -- everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear -- which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor-- anywhere in the world.

That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.

To that new order we oppose the greater conception -- the moral order. A good society is able to face schemes of world domination and foreign revolutions alike without fear.

And what can you really say, but Amen to all that!!!!

Tomorrow I'll post some shots of the island and surrounds that I snapped using my fabbo new Fisheye!

In Search of Santa

Apparently 52% of the population believe in Santa, and if you were in any doubt that he exists, we found him in many guises last weekend traipsing around New York during Santacon ... and...in many shapes and sizes, so I guess you could just take your pick...

He even appeared on a skateboard ... along with another curious creature caught out in red....

And Then There Was Seven...

Our merry band of two sons and two girlfriends have been added to by way of another "mum"  from Australia joining the band to become a semi-permanent member of our Christmas gaggle! Tripping around NYC today we could have made for a grand photo-walk group, and probably did.

We started our day by heading down to Union Square Christmas Markets where I snapped some images and moments that caught my eye.....

and then one or two that were a little more "usual"

and then some that I just had to "wreck" in Photoshop.....starting with a Pop-Up-Shop window decoration...

and ending with....

A grand day out by all accounts and a few nice snaps to add to the collection! :-)

Catching Up

Since #2 son and his girlfriend arrived on Wednesday, we have enjoyed Thanksgiving with a fabulous and festive feast with  friends, done the grocery and laundry thing, walked Caumsett Park, peeked in at the Mall, had Brew Pub dinner and caught the latest Bond episode at the Movies, AND completed some leaf blowing, window washing chores around the house.

Tomorrow we are going into NYC to check out some of the Holiday sights and do the 'tourist' thing with our guests.

These snaps are from a recent visit to Bryant Park where the Winter markets and Ice Rink are in their full seasonal glory.

Even a week or so later since I took the pictures, it's much chillier and we are having to sift through the collection of gloves, coats and hats to kit out our less than "winterized" antipodean visitors!

North Eastern Chill is a whole new language as far as they are concerned!!

Be interesting to see if we can get them up on skates and who wobbles and who falls....

A Little Urban Grunge

I've been having fun this evening messing around with a few of my model shoot images and compositing them with some of the building images that I shot the weekend before.
It was rather interesting to play with two distinctly different styles of photographs and figure out a way to marry them together and arrive at a pleasing composition (to me at least anyway!).

On the home front, we are slowly sorting ourselves out post hurricane.  The tree loppers have been and gone once and need to come again to clear out round two of trees lost in the second storm.  There are still massive amounts of (cut) tree debris lining the streets and I hope the council gets their act together and comes to collect it soon.  And at last there are groceries back on the store shelves and petrol to be had at the gas stations!

Tomorrow #2 Son arrives (with girlfriend) from Australia for a lovely long visit until after the New Year.  His arrival will more or less herald the start of the "silly season" as it's the night before Thanksgiving and as we all know, doesn't really stop then until Jan 2nd!

#1 Son is currently flitting around the UK and Europe (with HIS girlfriend) and will arrive on the doorstep in the not too distant future as well!

HouseFULL indeed.... oh Yeah!

NYC Photo Model Shoot

Today I joined some 190 other camera happy folk to participate in a Photo Model Shoot down at Mercer St, in NYC.

It was a full day of happy snapping (and I use that term rather loosely) with a dozen or so professional models, changing wardrobe about every 20 mins or so, full lighting gear set up and a number of well known professional photographers there to help out with shooting and lighting tips.....

We had both male and female models to work with and a wealth of opportunities to craft some stellar pictures, working with both studio lighting and natural light through massive warehouse windows.....

I shot some 1300 pix,  lots of which will be destined for the trash can, but there were quite a number of good shots that will bear further work and post processing...

Quite a departure from last week's focus on Long Exposure and Buildings and two workshops in the space of a week rather leave my head rattling around at 6's and 7's...

Nonetheless, the model shoot has me jazzed.  I think perhaps the atmosphere and community of working with so many models and in the company of so many other phototgraphers...need I say more ...?

Lindsay Adler was a great speaker and had lots of tips to share, as was Kevin Ames, Mark Reis and Anthony Neste.  All of whom were on the floor and accessible to ask questions and get shooting tips and guides from.

Although this was a big and buzzy affair, I'd highly recommend this opportunity to shoot LOTS of models in a great location with fab studio lighting to anyone!!

You just don't need to be too shy and as one of the few "girls" amongst a hoard of guys.... you do need to be a bit bolshy and step up!!!!....

Cross Posting At Vision and Verb

The IAC Building, New York

I am hanging out over at Vision and Verb today ..... if you'd care to join me.

Grand Central and 6th Avenue

I capped off my 4 day workshop in NYC with a photo shoot at Grand Central Station.  We were fortunate enough to have gained permits which allowed us to use tripods to shoot in the station and enabled some long exposure shots.  Although we had permits, the restrictions that accompany them are quite tight and don't really leave much room to move about so the best shot were in fact to be had via terrace vantage points and from the balcony of the Apple Store (sans tripod).

The image above is a combination of 3 bracketed long exposures....hence the blurry movement bits.

You can, given enough time and the right exposure settings eliminate all the people altogether which I have done in some of the pictures that I shot, but I can't really see the point of an empty station.....

You can see bits of our Photog' group right there on the left to the side of the information booth!

And, I'll close with a few more B&W shots.... taken on the trip back to my hotel, strolling along The Avenue of Americas (6th Ave).

 

... and my thanks to all of you who have posted and emailed comments of late.  I've been rather remiss in my responses, a bit busy and out of touch, but I do appreciate your visits and comments always!!!!!!

Workshop Day #2

We started Day #2 of the workshop that I am doing in NYC with two hours of lectures on various subjects including the making of Cinemagraphs, which was quite fascinating and bears some further looking into....

From the classroom we stepped into a bright sun shinny day, clear cloudless sky, which is totally useless for long exposure stuff and so had to be creative in other respects.

We started off at the Flatiron Building, and again the sun was in quite the wrong spot so I contented myself with some more bracketed shots for processing in HDR.
From there we went to the new Cooper Union Building (see colored image below)...and from there to the IAC Building - which totally floated my boat!! (see image above).

Finally, as the sun was setting we tripped along the High Line and I snapped a shot of the New Jersey skyline.  Not quite as iconic as a New York skyline, but the colors were good nonetheless.

I'm getting the hang of the long exposure "thing".  Helped along by a "proper" set of ND filters which I have now learned how to use! (thanks Hitech)

At barely 11pm I am ready to hit the hay, totally and utterly exhausted...but in a good way.

Tomorrow, since we have two 7:30am starts so that we can go shoot in Grand Central Station I am going to stay overnight in the city.  It will take the pain out of the commute for at least one of the days and cut down on gas/travel as we STILL have petrol rationing going on here on LI..... and what the heck is up with THAT????

Anyway, stay tuned for Day #3......

 

Long Exposure and Fine Art B&W

I'm in and out of NYC for the next 4 days doing a workshop with some uber talented photographers, including Sharon, Joel, Mark and Armand  .  Shooting long exposures and fine art b&W architecture.

Day 1 was spent getting sorted out, some intro stuff and then a hike down to the Brooklyn Bridge Park to shoot across the water and use our ND filters and get some long exposure stuff working, Followed by a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and then stopping to photograph the Frank Gehry building by Fulton St.

I'm unfurling a few photographic mysteries, learning that my ND filters are not much good and need some new ones!  And generally enjoying the camerarderie of a fab bunch of like minds....!!!

The 6am roll call to circumvent the post hurricane transport nightmares is less than stellar and driving to the City is not really an option as we currently have gas rationing....so LIRR here I come!

Oddly I only shot 126 pix today .... thinking a lot more about compositon and what it is that I want the camera to do.  And since in the afternoon there were few clouds or much reason to shoot long exposures, opted for lots of bracketed shots some of which I've tinkered with using Nik HDR.

So, lots of fun..... and stay tuned for more!