cm's | photo blog

NYC: File Under Casual

Carlos — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 19:28:30 +0000

So a sort of unplanned visit to Alfredo and Paula yielded a fun stop-over in NJ and a great view of the skyline from accross the river. When I saw it, I parked my car, hoped not to get a ticket and stitched a panorama using Panolab.

View from North Bergen, NJ

After a relaxing game of scrabble we spent some time in the city and headed to a favourite place: Mamoun’s. Here are some pictures from that night. The most interesting picture to me was something that always catches my attention: an urban scene that could tell a thousand stories by virtue of its time there. The ATM that was right outside Mamoun’s.

The other pictures were part of the night too. We parked a few blocks away near the NYU campus. We bought our Shawarma and ate it quite quickly (devoured it, rather) at Washington Square Park. This part of the city seemed removed from the endless lights and high rises of Times Square (of which I also took a picture below). Still, my favourite is of the ATM: roughed up and grungy, decorated by time and grimy but nevertheless with its own piece of NYC.

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A Red Moon

Carlos — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 17:46:19 +0000

Before- a clear view of the moon

Entering into the shadow

Every phase of the moon in one night!

Almost there

You can see the redness way before the full eclipse happens

A red moon

The Creek Behind my House

Carlos — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 23:17:54 +0000

Last week my dad told me of a path that’s perfect for running and it’s right behind my house. Little did I know that there was a creek running through this woodsy path and very tall trees are surrounding it. I went for a quick run that day but left with the feeling that I would return to take some pictures. My previous post was of very colorful trees from a drive by Needwood lake. By this next photo shoot I went to the path and most leaves had fallen but that certainly added to the creek’s allure. So I went today and took some pics of water, rocks, fallen leaves and the tall trees (30 ft.?). As you will see, I cropped and modified some pictures and used different filters on the pics with rocks. The others I mostly tweaked for lighting only.

I love the cloud pattern behind this tree

The foliage "canopy".

This is one of my favorites... a blurry creek and the leaves on a rock. (This pic was done with a lens filter and software filter!).

Leaves, hanging on or hanging out!

Chiseled rocks

Fallen Leaf

Carlos — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 05:51:58 +0000

Fall pictures are almost a requirement of any photographer. The changing seasons, the colors, the brisk air, the need for warmer foods are all in the air. Yet, what grabs our imagination is in the air, or the ground and mostly on trees. The wonderful, brief, and amazing changing of the leaves on trees. God’s imagination is on full display when trees go into hibernation and shed their summer clothing in time for winter; and for a moment’s time these trees we take for granted draw our attention to themselves by doing this transformation and by doing quite elegantly and beautifully. These few pictures are but a glimpse.

Walking in to the forest

The tree and the lampost

This pic is from a drive by of Needwood lake park

A closer view of this tree reveals amazingly saturated leaves and intricate branch patterns

A close up of leaves... (I ran this through a vintage filter so the colors are muted and the hue is slighty changed).

Underwater descent!

Carlos — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 03:07:20 +0000

Finally an underwater view of the pool. Not that anyone was even remotely curious but once you realize that being underwater means that all sorts of neat optical things happen when you take a picture and water is in the way of the subject. Sometimes, the water itself is the subject. I found this picture taking to be an interesting challenge and here’s a few of the ideas I figured would be interesting to photograph: I jumped in, looked up and took a pic of the bubbles rising and that was all I needed for one of the pics. There’s also a picture in the collection of a lifeguard tower with a neat natural distortion effect (take that! Photoshop). There’s scene of a swimmer in mid freestyle stroke; a self-portrait and other scenes of underwater coolness like internal reflections, refractions and other natural effects* of underwater photography. I have posted most of the pictures but one of the rolls of film may have gotten wet. I hope to recover those pics. I hope you like the ones I posted. Update: I added some pictures from the film that got wet and some beach pics!

Self-portrait

Hand breaks water surface

Natural filter

A ladder and a sign indicating depth

Close-up of bubbles

Freestyle

Descent!

The full gallery is below:

*Geometric optics for those who took physics.

Benjamin+Lisa & Jamila @ Summer Sounds

Carlos — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 20:45:10 +0000

It was great to finally hear Benjamin’s songs and the great arrangements provided by Lisa. It was fun to listen to and each song had a style of its own concluding with a fun jam by Lisa in the middle of the song. Jamila was a perfect counterpart to the evening with a soothing but powerful voice and unique lyrics. Both Benjamin & Jamila were some of the best sounds in Christian music now, far from the cookie-cutter music that permeates the current choices. Here are some of the pictures (as a bonus, I am including iPhone-filtered pics, as well). Update: I found a video of Jamila and posted it below, but there are none of Benjamin on Youtube (yet).

Jamila

For an encore, there were a couple songs on the piano

Benjamin and his second time with Lisa

"El maestro" went all out on some of the songs

Carlos had a very slick solo all his own

Bonus: iPhone pic

The full gallery is below:

NYC, Filtered

Carlos — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 02:45:41 +0000

I don’t like photo albums where all of the pictures seem to have been altered in Photoshop but this post is a total self-contradiction because all of the pics have been passed through a software filter. I took the pics of NYC last weekend and instead of Photoshop I’ve used my iPhone to apply the effects. All of the pics have been through a vintage look of some sort but instead of distracting, I believe the effect has made these pics all the more interesting.

This filter perfectly brings out the contrast of the green and the flower

At Bryant Park

Amazing skyline as seen from a table at Bryant Park

More random people at the park

My favorite pic is of this caterpillar that dropped from the umbrella above our heads!

I've been to NYC many times before and had never caught a glimpse of this retro-futuristic sculpture!

World Cup champions celebration at Times Square

A wonderful view of this highly geometrical, super modern looking building. The diagonals at the top are just great.

DC Monuments, Night Pics pt 1

Carlos — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 21:53:18 +0000

I had enough free time the other day to visit downtown DC for a picture session. My first destination was is the Washington Monument simply because there’s so many monuments near each other that the location practically chose itself. I started by snapping a pic of the Washington monument itself then headed west, across the street to see and photograph the WWII memorial which has working lights until very late at night. Before heading there I wanted to snap a photo of the South Lawn of the White House but apparently Barack Obama goes to sleep before midnight because the White House lights were out! I was surprised, I didn’t think the lights went out at all but that shows you Cinderella is not the only one going to bed before midnight. I say that tongue-in-cheek obviously, since for all I know the President could have been on a call with BP or Nelson Mandela at the time.

The World War II memorial is even better because of its fountains, its direct view of the Lincoln monument and a great view of the Washington Monument and the Capital offset from each other. The WWII memorial is very walkable and interesting and its soothing fountains are wonderful to photograph since they are lighted in a way that makes you think rays of light are shooting from the fountain and not water. The pictures below are a first set and I have other photo sessions in the works. I did edit some of them but hopefully not in a way that distracts from the subject.

The wall of stars in the WWII memorial.

The fountain in the WWII memorial.

A picture of the wreaths. One for each state.

The washington monument looks glowy! It's very well lit and I enhanced the purples in the night sky a bit.

The lincoln monument and the reflecting pool with a streak of light in the sky from a passing plane.

A closer view of the lincoln monument and its reflection.

Hope you liked these and the next set that will follow!

NYC: An attempt to capture some classic scenes

Carlos — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 23:34:51 +0000

Outside of Times Square, on its fringes, NYC is not as chaotic; it’s still very much ordered chaos but far easier to absorb. Try to stop in the middle of the sidewalk on 7th avenue and you’ll know what I mean. You’ll be whisked to the side by your instinct of survival when you see the sheer volume of people rushing in your direction. Go to 3rd avenue and its a different story. It is still bustling with activity of people who never stop but far more walkable. It’s also a place to really see where the locals hang out in peaceful locations. In this second set of pictures I tried to capture people who you are guaranteed to see in NYC, cliches or classics, of a sort. By all means the cliches I tried to capture are not necessarily New York exclusives but in New York you’ll see cops directing traffic, dog walkers, bikers, girls with bug-eyed glasses, door men, break dancers, skaters, and those with tailored suits within blocks of one another. Below, you’ll see just the scenes of a small sampling, and hardly representative but still interesting of those who make the big city their home.

A cop directing traffic

Movie makers!

More movie makers!

A lady and her dog outside of Central Park

A door man hailing a taxi!

Bug-eyed glasses? Check. Big purses? Check.

Ice cream stands

People hailing cabs.

Texting moms.

A skater and a kid chasing a ball

Nice bike!

Lets not forget the crowds!

Full gallery, below.

NYC: places & architecture

Carlos — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 04:26:13 +0000

It’s hard to capture the “look” of NYC because there really isn’t one; but we do speak of feeling that is unique to the place and maybe it’s more like a marvelous collection of a thousand types of people and places all working together to make up a single New York City look and feel. Today I’ll post but a few scenes of the New York skyline, its streets, bridges and all their wonderful juxtaposition. The gallery contains 20 pictures but I’ll single out some of my faves below. The people post will follow.

One way streets are surrounded by big and bigger buildings and the one constant are NYC cabbies everywhere.

A nice blue facade. Apartments go on top; mom and pop shops on the first floor.

A canopy made of American Elm Trees in Central Park.

A great view of this bridge and buildings, juxtaposed.

Signs! Colors, sizes and a nice place in the middle of times square for people to hang out.

The Gallery.

Click on one pic and you can scroll through every pic in the gallery.