Shades of Green

With only a few weeks left to go in Vancouver after a lovely summer spent here, this week I am doing all I can to appreciate the city's graceful green beauty.

Muted and subtle, mossy green creeps lazily over branches, tree stumps and sidewalks, as if suggesting that urbanization is only temporary and Mother Nature will soon reassert herself...in her own good time.

Bright and exuberant, verdant green leaves soak in the sun's rays under a blue summer sky.

Fanciful and mysterious, a shadowy green scatters the day's fading light, casting dappled patterns on pathways and people alike.

A Rainy Evening

There is something about the rain and the dusk and the yellow street lamps that creates a magical atmosphere on rainy evenings in New York City.


If you take the time to peek out from under your umbrella or over the high collar of your trench coat as you walk home in the chilly air, you will see everything you pass is laced with gold.

Is It Just Me?

Or has there been a whiff of Spring in the air this week? I thought I would add just a splash of pink to this space today, for the promise of flowers to come...

Just Can't Get Enough

We all know that there is loads of fun to be had with Flickr, but have you seen this website?

Be forewarned. It's a little addictive. One could easily while away an indecent amount of time experimenting with color combinations if she were so inclined.

These shots come from the magical mix of photos that Flickr spun out for me today.

Turquoise

1. Grass on turquoise, 2. Turquoise, 3. Mosaic in Turquoise and Rust, 4. Lady of Turquoise, 5. turquoise Cuff 2, 6. turquoise and cream, 7. Terra cotta - Turquoise, 8. Turquoise door - Albuquerque Old Town, 9. Turquoise Tunnel Silhouette, 10. Ma che vuole questa???, 11. Firstborn, 12. my new turquoise sidetable....., 13. turquoise and gold, 14. three leaves on turquoise, 15. Oxidation in Turquoise, 16. Turquoise Dream


There is just something about the color turquoise that makes me think of sunny skies, salty ocean breezes, the soft rustle of palm trees and a tall glass of something frosty.  

What about you?  What colors evoke a picture in your mind?

Mother Nature's Paintbrush

Beauty upon beauty. That was my weekend.

It is difficult to outshine the works of the world's great artists, but my visit to the Museum of Modern Art on Saturday may just have been topped by a trip to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden on Sunday.

Mother Nature has an incredible palette to work with.

Vegas, Baby, Vegas

Part Two of our holiday was a two-day excursion to Las Vegas, where Ash and I both have some family. My cousin took us out into the desert to Red Rock Canyon, just outside the city. It was a side of Las Vegas I did not know existed. (The "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" commercials do not cover this for some odd reason.)

Having just watched the Desert segment of BBC's Planet Earth, I knew that a keen eye can observe a surprising diversity of plants and little critters among the parched sand and rock of most of the world's deserts. I was not disappointed. In addition to the bright rock that gives the canyon its name, we saw bushes, flowers, cacti, grasses, crickets, lizards, and webs of some sort that I refused to approach because they may have contained spiders.

We stopped for a picnic lunch at midday and enjoyed the stunning views on all sides.

We did make the obligatory visit to the Las Vegas strip as well. We saw the fountain show in front of the Bellaggio Hotel, which was admittedly very impressive. (Ash asked me whether I would like to have the job of making the fountains perform to music. Yes, I think I would. How does one get into fountain choreography?) Then we cruised through the lobby of the hotel for a look at their indoor flower garden and the bazillion dollar ceiling of Chihuly glass sculptures.

Catching Up

This week has been so crazed that it is now Thursday and I am only just getting a chance to post this picture I took last Saturday. This little purse full of chocolates was a treat for each guest at my friend Jen's bridal shower last weekend. (And you'll know what I mean by a crazed week when I tell you that I haven't even had time to eat all of my chocolates yet. Usually those babies would be gone in an hour!)

The celebration took place at Rosa Mexicano, home of New York's best and freshest guacamole (made right at your table), as well as some pretty excellent other dishes.

Being at that shower reminded me how much I enjoy seeing a friend in a new context. Isn't it odd when you have only known someone as a colleage, and then all of a sudden you are meeting their parents, grandparents, cousins, and future in-laws? It gives you such insight into a person's life. I love that. And it's all the more enjoyable when you get to see what kinds of gifts other families give to one another on special occasions like these. Matching bride and groom teddy bears that sing I'm Getting Married in the Morning? I'm guessing Jen wasn't expecting that one.

Welcome to 2008

I rang in the new year in Montreal and took so many photos I haven't had a chance to properly sort them out yet. I will share a few in the next couple of posts. In the meantime, I thought I would begin 2008 with some lights!

While in Montreal I had a chance to try duplicating one of the photos that I liked on the Splendor-Solis photo blog a little while back. (Ian was kind enough to share his technique with me, which made it much easier. ) I love the surreal effect.

The Mysterious World of Photoshop

PHOTOSHOP: Has ever the name of a computer program suggested more mystery and possibility? Perhaps, but not to me. As far as I'm concerned, Photoshop is the ultimate mystifying miracle-worker. Rumor has it you can use it to change colors, textures, effects, backgrounds, and even (gasp) remove a person from a photo altogether.

I've long wished to venture into the uncharted universe of Photoshop, but frankly it has been a little daunting. I open up the screen and am overwhelmed and utterly confused by the options I am presented with. Despeckle? Mezzotint? Craquelure? Are those ways of manipulating photographs? The terms sound like they belong in A Standard Book of Spells: Grade Four by Miranda Goshawk.

Fortunately, when the need to tinker with a photo is truly desperate, Ashkon comes to my aid. That was the case with the picture above, which I took a couple of weeks ago on a rainy day in New Haven, Connecticut. The colors of the house, the tree, the leaves, were so vibrant in real life, but I just could not capture that in my picture. I was so disappointed. My polarizing filter, which I now invariably use to block the glare and deepen the color of my photos, had fallen out of its frame the week prior and was unusable.

I knew there had to be a fix for a washed-out, should-have-been-polarized photo. And I knew Photoshop had to have it somewhere. Rather than meander around trying out different things, Ash suggested Googling something along the lines of "photoshop AND tutorial AND polarizing filter." Lo and behold, we came up with something. And thank goodness, because it was absolutely the least intuitive series of steps you could ever imagine. But it worked! Amazing!

Perhaps I went just a tad bit overboard. In real life the leaves were not approaching fluorescent, bright though they were. Sorry, couldn't help myself; it was just so thrilling to figure out how to do something in Photoshop. The question is, could I ever duplicate it without the tutorial? We're not there yet... Next project: to figure out how to remove pesky things like power lines.

Autumn Leaves

This is the continuation of my "Fall" series, begun a couple of weekends ago. I had been hoping for a while to get some pictures of the leaves changing, but New York City sadly does not offer as many opportunities (or as many trees) for that as I would like. Fortunately I got my fix in Connecticut this past weekend. We went to New Haven to see a talk, visit a friend, and take a little break from the city. The vibrant fall colors were an unanticipated bonus, and I was absolutely thrilled to get out there with my camera--so much so that as I was walking home with friends, I fell so far behind that at one point I got up from crouching on the ground (taking pictures of fallen leaves) and realized I had lost my companions!


Fear not, I found them, and we passed the afternoon in cozy conversation after coming in from the crisp (and slightly wet) weather outside.


By the way friends, thank you for the outpouring of sympathy and support about my lost shoes. You'll be happy to know that the story did not end where I left off. I returned to the cobbler's the following week with a Negotiator (my husband), whose calm and collected tactics in the face of extreme duress finally got me a minute behind the counter to search for the shoes myself. Naturally I found them in about 30 seconds, bearing a *different* tag number from the one I had been given. Big surprise. No apologies from the shop-owner for yelling at me and accusing me of trying to steal shoes, however. Another big surprise.

Events of a Saturday Morning

I set out on Saturday morning in high spirits with a specific purpose in mind--to have an enjoyable morning of experimenting with my camera, such as I have not had in many weeks. I was hoping to shoot a particular scene in Manhattan, but sadly never made it that far.

As I left the apartment, tripod in hand, camera bag slung over my shoulder, I made a detour to pick up a pair of shoes that were being repaired at the cobbler's downstairs--bad idea. Turns out they *lost* my shoes! Yes! And they did not apologize! On the contrary, they implied that by presenting my ticket at the counter and insisting my shoes were still there, I was illegitimately trying to score ANOTHER pair of repaired shoes (whose, I can't imagine). Truly, I could not make this stuff up. The gentleman rifled through a shoebox full of dog-eared old tickets, found the match to my ticket, and proceeded to state it was proof-positive that the shoes had been picked up. The natural question was: why did I still have the companion ticket in my possession if I had indeed picked up the shoes already? You have to hand those in when you get your shoes, after all. Is it possible there had been a mistake? But of course such logic got no hearing in the ensuing discussion which, suffice it to say, was not pretty.

That pretty much ruined my carpediem mood for the morning, so I ended up leaving my tripod at home, canceling my ambitious plans to shoot in Manhattan, and deciding to take a walk around Brooklyn instead. I began at the farmers' market. Just looking at the pumpkins and smelling the apple tarts lifted my spirits. I didn't forget that I promised to blog some fall photos (pumpkins and such). Here's my first installment!

I passed by the Cadman Plaza field where I took a few shots of my husband and his friends playing soccer, and then I headed towards Boerum Hill, where I knew I would find doorways filled with Halloween decorations which might be fun to photograph. I was not disappointed. I loved the grouchy little pumpkin in the photo below. (In fact, that's just about the look I had on my face when I exited the shoe repair place a few hours before.)

Photogenic stoops were not the only find of the morning. While wandering around I happened across an adorable little place called Blue Ribbon General Store--basically a country general store for modern folks. They had a little bit of everything, and there was not a dull item to be found (even the laundry detergent and doggie biscuits looked like fun to have around the house). I picked up a couple of baby gifts for friends, and I saw many more gifts I would like to buy (just gotta decide who to give them to). I got into a conversation with the owner about our mutual enjoyment of Tintin (yes, they even have Tintin stuff!) and discovered the store only opened two weeks ago. I was so charmed by it all, I feel I have to pass on the word about this happy new addition to the neighborhood.

Hard to Miss

Someone got creative painting this doorway in Cobble Hill.
Gotta love it.

Vegetables and Voldemort

After a few months of using my new camera it has become clear to me that I actually do have a preferred subject for my photos: vegetables. Perhaps it's the summer season, or my love of farmers' markets, or the fact that the bright colors and textures virtually guarantee a nice photo, but there is no question that I gravitate to vegetable portraiture.


Today's veggies of choice came from the Union Square green market. I bought a bunch of the radishes below and munched on a particularly peppery one as I walked around admiring the other offerings.


The truly ubiquitous sight of the afternoon was the multitude of people sitting in Union Square Park reading the final Harry Potter book. I did not see any capes and broomsticks (in contrast to last night, when they were out in full force) but the Potter fans were everywhere. On the other hand I also saw someone holding up a sign saying "J.K. Rowling discriminates against dark wizards." Voldemort groupie or victim of a confundus charm? I couldn't be sure.

Patiently Waiting in Philly

We had a mini-reunion of family and friends in Philly this past weekend. In between the eating, Wii playing, and two great tennis matches (first Naisohn vs. some poor guy who never knew what hit him, and second Federer vs. Nadal) I managed to catch this classic scene-- a gentleman waiting for his lady to emerge from the fitting room.

Fourth of July

As you may have noticed, I have been doing a lot of reading on the Digital Photography School blog lately. A recent post gave tips on taking pictures of fireworks, and since 'twas the season, I had to give it a try. So I got myself a beginner's tripod and set it up on our rainy rooftop yesterday evening to try out some shots of the July 4th fireworks. I had to get there early to stake out a good spot, but got some decent shots in spite of the rain and slightly slanted rooftop.


All of these were taken at ISO 200 with shutter speeds varying from 1/2 a second (the last shot) to 10 seconds (the shot above). Though I experimented with some lower apertures, I found f8 served me best.

On Pacific Street

Someone with a more artistic eye than mine (who I happened to be walking home with this evening after some fabulous ceviche from Coco Roco) liked this photo because of the juxtaposition of the soft lines of the clothing against the severity of the concrete walls. Personally, I like the color contrast.

Blue Skies

Does anyone know the Irving Berlin song that goes:

Blue skies, smiling at me,
Nothing but blue skies do I see.
Bluebirds, singing a song,
Nothing but blue skies from now on.

This picture reminds me of those lyrics, but I can't figure out where I have heard the song recently! Film? Commercial? Soundtrack? The ladies who blast the radio next to my office?

Summertime

It's when the bikes come out. I found this red and blue pair resting against a lamppost outside our building while their owners ate Subway sandwiches on our stoop.

The Spice Market

We saw tin tubs of cinnamon and roses, big sacks of mushrooms and herbs, and towering pyramids of turmeric, paprika, cumin, and other savory seasonings.