Wide Angle Wednesday Holiday Sight Seeing

Bryant Park Rink and Christmas Tree
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/4, 1/50sec, 1250ISO, 11mm

Twas the night before Christmas, and my blog has been silent. Not a recent story had been posted. The pictures sat on the hard drive, all secure in their partitions. 

Patience Standing Guard
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/4, 1/50sec, 1600ISO, 11mm

A month has passed since the last post. The city has been transformed into a Christmas Wonderland. Tourists flood the streets to see the sights, and my family and I joined them over a couple of nights. 

Rockefeller Center
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/4, 1/50sec, 1600ISO, 11mm

It is a shame that the city isn't decorated with lights year round. I guess that is what makes this time of year special, is that the lights are only up for several weeks.

The Magic of Macy's
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/4, 1/40sec, 1600ISO, 11mm

Wide Angle Wednesday Post on Friday

Once again, life has gotten a little hectic, so I am late posting my Wide Angle Wednesday Post. I have been working since Sunday, and this coming Sunday will be my next day off. I am looking forward to the Thanksgiving break. 

Readers may remember this post of Grand Central Terminal. I had failed to clean the filter protecting my lens. So Sunday, after leaving the Waldorf Astoria, I walked by Grand Central Terminal and attempted a new long exposure of the iconic structure. 

This time, I was using a new tripod, the Joby GorillaPod. This little tripod has bendable legs. From the location I wanted to shoot, there was a police baricade, so I wrapped the legs around it and started framing my shot. I had to time it just right, as a couple of attempts started as the light turned red and the light trails were too short for my liking. 

Unfortunately, it started to rain, and I had no way of keeping the water off of the lens, leading to spots in the image. I packed up and headed to my train. The ideas I had for other locations will have to wait until another late night after work.

Looking Northwest
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/8, 13sec, 100ISO, 13mm

Wide Angle Wednesday Breakdown Edition

A week and a half ago, I was driving home from an event. The bolt that provides tension to the alternator belt had sheared off, and I was running on battery power. I made it 10 miles from the venue in Westchester, but still had 18 miles to go when the battery ran out of juice. I coasted to the shoulder of the Sprain Brook Parkway and dialed AAA. I was still in Westchester County.

Trouble with Trouble
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/8, 30sec, 100ISO, 16mm

I had plenty of time to wait, and I had my camera with me. I chose to take a couple of long exposures. As they say, when life hands you lemons, make lemonade! 

Everyone Zipping By But Me
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/8, 30sec, 100ISO, 16mm

Wide Angle Wednesday Work Edition

As I've stated before, I photograph the events my company produces. My tools are my trusty Canon 60D, a Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens, a MeFoTo tripod, and a cable release. Everything gets edited in Lightroom to ensure the color is accurate. I try to get photographs posted to our company Facebook page the following week of the event.

BizBash, an events industry publication and resource, holds their Event Style Awards every fall. This year, they made the awards national, as opposed to regional as it had been in the past.

We submitted some of our recent events this year for Lighting Design. I also entered one of our photographs for Best Event Photo. It was chosen as a finalist, one of three photographs. 

I attended the awards ceremony yesterday. We won!

Waldorf Astoria Wedding
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/10, 3.2sec, 100ISO, 11mm

Here is the BizBash announcement: http://www.bizbash.com/best-event-photo-waldorf-astoria-wedding-submitted-pegasus-productions-realizing-vendors/gallery/150071

More Autumn fun!

Orchard
Canon 60D, EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6, f/8, 1/200s, 200ISO, 53mm

This past weekend we visited Beardsley Orchard and Cider Mill and Jones Family Farms in Shelton, CT.

Beardsley
Canon 60D, EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6, f/8, 1/200s, 125ISO, 113mm

As I said previously, I love autumn and all of the activities, apple picking, leaf peeping, pumpkin picking, apple cider donuts...

Colors of Fall
Canon 60D, EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6, f/8, 1/800s, 800ISO, 50mm

This trip was planned over a month ago, and I had been looking forward to it ever since we picked a date.

Some Enterprising folks made off with all the non-rotten apples!
Canon 60D, EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6, f/8, 1/200s, 200ISO, 72mm

It was the last day of the apple season, so pickings were very slim. And by slim, I mean almost everything was gone. Plenty of rotten fruit, but hardly any worth picking. We left the orchard with the least amount of apples we've ever gotten. 

Barn
Canon 60D, EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6, f/8, 1/125s, 200ISO, 55mm

Beardsley has some great cider, and more importantly, one of the best cider donuts! So we did not leave disappointed.

Perfect Color for Fall!
Canon 60D, EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6, f/8, 1/250s, 200ISO, 62mm

We did get a pumpkin and take a hayride at Jones Pumpkin Seed Hill. 

Hayride View
Canon 60D, EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6, f/8, 1/160s, 200ISO, 18mm

Grape vines for the vineyard
Canon 60D, EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6, f/8, 1/160s, 200ISO, 44mm

Gorgeous Fall
Canon 60D, EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6, f/8, 1/200s, 200ISO, 55mm

Wide Angle Wednesday

Grace
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/8, 1/200sec, 640ISO, 11mm

A wide angle lens really helps me capture the soaring nature of the buidlings of Manhattan. These photographs were all taken not too far from the base of each of these buildings. The Grace Building looks even more massive when you compare the tiny people to the towering structure it appears to be in the above photograph.

Between A Rock and a Rink
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/4, 1/30sec, 1600ISO, 11mm

30 Rockefeller Center, above, is one of the sites in New York City that attracts visitors. The above photograph was captured one Saturday night in the beginning of August, right after the sunset and the sky was beginning to turn dark blue. The shadow of SplitRocker is visible as it was on display at the time.

Empire Views
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/2.8, 1/30sec, 6400ISO, 11mm

Empire State Building as captured across 34th Street. I had to set my ISO to almost the highest setting, so noise is very present in this image. Aperture was left wide open and I set it on the lowest shutter speed I could hand hold and get a crisp shot. If I had a tripod, I could have captured a lower noise image, but having a noisy image is better than none at all.

 

New York State Pavilion Open Gate on Opening Day 50th Anniversary

Springtime in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park
Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/8, 1/500sec, 100ISO, 40mm

Wednesday I posted photos from April 22nd of this year through the wide angle lens (World's Fair Wide Angle Wednesday). Today, I am adding some of the photos that were captured through my shorty forty (EF 40mm f/2.8 STM), and one from an old zoom lens I inherited (EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 USM). 

There is a Long Island Railroad station that serves Flushing-Meadows. It opened for the first World's Fair in 1939. When I first moved to Queens, it was the Shea Stadium stop, but now it is called Mets-Willets Point. This station is only operational during the US Open, and during Mets home games. Since the fall, the LIRR has been utilizing tracks 3 through 4 as a parking lot for some of the trains during the afternoons. 

Red Bird in the wild
Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/10, 1/500sec, 100ISO, 40mm

I spotted a Red Bird (9343) in the Corona Yard, the storage facility for the MTA's New York City Transit's 7 Trains. Though referred to as Red Birds, the R33 World's Fair cars were originally light turquoise and white. This car was delivered by the St. Louis Car Company in October of 1963. These cars were taken out of revenue service in November of 2003, so I did get a chance to ride the Red Birds after I moved to NYC. Some of them now serve as artificial reefs down the Atlantic Cost, a few are being preserved, and some, such as this one, serve as work cars.

Also visible in that photograph are the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, where the US Open is held, and the Unisphere, and the Observation Towers of the New York State Pavilion. The larger stadium is Arthur Ashe Stadium, which is the world's largest tennis specific stadium. It opened in 1997. The smaller stadium is Louis Armstrong Stadium, named after the jazz musician who lived close by in Corona, Queens. It served as the main stadium from 1978 until 1997 when Arthur Ashe Stadium opened.

Silver, silver, black and yellow
Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/8, 1/200sec, 100ISO, 40mm

I walked further south making my way to the Pavilion and took a quick shot of a work train at rest. It is never a good sign when you see one of these barreling through a station at night, so I prefer to observe a work train in these conditions.

Unisphere looking North towards Arthur Ashe Stadium in Springtime
Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/9, 1/250sec, 125ISO, 40mm

The Unisphere is one of the most iconic images of Queens, if not New York City as well. It was built on top of the Perisphere's foundation from the previous World's Fair, and was a gift from United States Steel Corporation. It features three rings, one to represent the orbit of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space (Russian Cosmonaut), John Glenn, the first American in space, and Telstar, the first active communications satellite. 

Dry Unisphere and Queens Museum
Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/8, 1/400sec, 320ISO, 40mm

The Unisphere is located just outside of the Queens Museum, where I spent some of the time waiting. The thing is massive! The people in the above photograph give you a sense of the scale. It is 140' tall, and weighs 700,000lbs with a 100ton inverted tripod. 

LGA, Riker's Island, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, College Point from the "air"
Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/3.5, 1/80sec, 1600ISO, 40mm

As I wrote previously, the Panorama of the City of New York is where I spent some of my time waiting. The following are some more detail shots, since they weren't taken with the wide angle lens. 

Flushing Meadows-Corona Park from the South looking North
Canon 60D, EF75-300mm f/4-5.6 USM, f/4.5, 1/320sec, 6400ISO, 40mm

When the Fair closed, the Panorama remained open to the public, and the map was updated regularly until 1970. It wasn't updated from 1970 until 1992, when 60,000 structures were added. Beginning in 2009, the Museum decided to try to keep it updated more regularly. People and organizations can donate money to adopt an accurate scale model of their building. The first updated model was the Mets' CitiField, which replaced Shea Stadium in 2009.

Downtown Manhattan
Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/3.5, 1/125sec, 1600ISO, 40mm

One of the buildings that no longer exist in the skyline, the World Trade Center's Twin Towers, still remain on the map. They will be replaced when construction at the site is finished and the new buildings are complete, rather than a hole in the map.

Waiting...
Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/5, 1/320sec, 125ISO, 40mm

After heading back to the gates of the Tent of Tomorrow, I waited outside for our number to be called. Hardhats were required once inside. I noticed they had placed blue decorative balls ontop of the rods just above the entrance, as it looked 50 years prior. And a flag was hung there as well.

Towers through the Tent
Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/8, 1/1000sec, 125ISO, 40mm

I finally made it inside! We were told we had 10 minutes, so I tried to make the most of it, capturing some images with my shorty forty and switching to the wide angle lens. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity for me.

West Entrance with Texaco
Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/8, 1/250sec, 125ISO, 40mm

They had restored some of the signage, such as the Texaco sign.

 

Planters
Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/8, 1/250sec, 125ISO, 40mm

And the Restaurant sign as well...

Stitched Together
Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/8, 1/250sec, 125ISO, 40mm

I took several photos and used Microsoft's Image Composite Editor to create this large image above. 15 images were combined to create the final product.

My time was up, I left and headed back to the LIRR to head home to Northeastern Queens. As I passed the Unisphere, I turned around and captured one final image of the Pavilion. One final image that day, as I have returned multiple times since April to the park and always seem to photograph it. 

Remnants of the World's Fair in Spring
Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/8, 1/400sec, 320ISO, 40mm