Friday's Photo of the Week #41

I've been sick all week. :( But managed to go on a 9.5-mile hike last Saturday (pictures next week) and celebrate Sam's birthday by going to some landmarks downtown. We went to the Los Angeles Public Library, Bradbury building (picture below), and the new Marriott building. I'll post some more pictures on that next week as well, but for now, please enjoy the picture of the week:

The Bradbury Building was designed by George Wyman, who was the lowly draftsmen of a successful architect at the time. He was reluctant to take the job, but decided otherwise after a Ouija board experience, which he believed was his dead brother's way of telling him to take the job. This was his only claim to fame, but it is a good one! Such an incredible building, it has been in several movies and was built to be "futuristic, for the year 2000!" It is a beautiful building and I've been wanting to see it for years, so it was pretty exciting.

I also hired a friend who's a chef to give Sam a cooking lesson for his birthday! They made steamed mussels/clams, stuffed mushrooms, and creme brulee! Incredible. Truly a fun week, despite the terrible coughing.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

New York City

I see that you're still keeping up and following along. I love being able to tell stories of my life through photography, so thanks for enjoying these posts, you lovely folks out there.

Here are some pictures from our time in New York City, one of my favorite cities to visit. This was our 3rd trip there and the first time we didn't feel pressured to get as much sight-seeing in, which was quite pleasant.

We took a lovely row boat ride around the lake at central park.

And then walked down 5th Avenue from Central Park to Greenwich Village, which is about 70 blocks. I loved taking pictures of all the buildings and the lighting was quite spectacular.

Albany Panoramas

Some panoramas from Albany. Feel free to click on them to enlarge. :)

Friday's Photo of the Week #40

Lots of great photos this week. So hard to choose!!

But in honor of last weekend being HALLOWEEN, I had to choose this as my photo of the week:

I never realized Halloween could be that much fun as an adult. We got 2 gigantic buckets of candy and treated the kiddos for about 2.5 hours. We even put "outfits" on the dogs...Rita was a big hit. All the little girl princesses wanted to take pictures with Rita the princess. The tutu lasted til the next morning, longer than I thought it would last!
Then we went to our neighbor's house and enjoyed good conversation with wine and cheese and pumpkin pie. What a wonderful weekend.

Albany to New York City

The last day we were in Albany, we took a little walk around downtown. There's a beautiful courtyard just south of the capitol building:

And the concert building, the egg:

The capitol building still looked beautiful under construction...

The Johnson's incredible 4-story brownstone home, with attached guest house:

And lastly here's some pictures of the train ride to New York City:

Photo of the Week #39

I already posted the lens baby pics, which were probably my favorite photos this week. I don't get hours at a time to experiment with new gear, so that was a lot of fun. But instead of posting one of those, I wanted to post this moon picture:

It was such a serene and beautiful night.

Music:

My album preferences lately have cycled between Phoenix: Alphabetical (their first record which I used to dislike, and have recently changed my mind), Radiohead: The Bends, Ryan Adams and the Cardinals: Cardinology, and Portishead: Dummy. Occasionally I will listen to The Vince Guaraldi Trio: A Charlie Brown Christmas. I'm trying not to wear out my welcome with Christmas, but I can't help but look forward to it this year.

Anyway, here is a song I enjoyed last night:

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals: Cardinology, Go Easy

Lens Baby Scout

So we are visiting with Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Ted, who own a boat docked on the South Toms River in New Jersey (near the Jersey Shore where the tv show is filmed). After a visit to the boardwalk chatting with some real "jersey boys," we spent the rest of the day and the next morning at the boat.

I always enjoy photography discussions with Cheryl who's an incredible photographer. She shows me her new toys (lenses) and I get to play around a bit. Here are some photos of a walk I took along the shore to the ship graveyard:

Fish Eye Lens:

Soft Focus Lens:

Pinhole Lens:

More fisheye pics:

Thacher Park - Indian Ladder Trails, Albany, NY

I've already posted a few pictures from this hike, but I want to post more since it was so beautiful. The hike was really easy. You walk along a cliff top with an amazing view and then descend some stairs to walk along 2 waterfalls. Here is a more detailed description: http://www.localhikes.com/HikeData.asp?DispType=0&ActiveHike=13&GetHikesStateID=2&ID=5415.
We parked at the main scenic overview lot and walked to the west, but you can park at the very next parking lot, which is a bit closer to the trailhead.
You can view the full set of pictures here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=319825&id=527707845&l=e0b38e150e