I am just posting this to test how this looks when I embed a picassa web album to this blog or any page. I took these pictures of the new corporate office space my company is moving into soon. After they finish the construction of course.
Carlos
Who is she? I cannot imagine what it felt like to arrive in the harbor and be greeted by this large and imposing symbol. I spent a few hours in her presence. Yes I am referring to her as if she was a real person. To me, she is. She goes beyond just being a symbol for the liberties we enjoy. I am sure when someone looks at her they see, feel different emotions and thoughts than what I think and feel. This was the first time I saw her…the Statue of Liberty. As soon as I saw her as a tiny speck on the horizon. I knew I was close. There is just this feeling of anticipation, a feeling of belonging. As I got closer and as I joined all the others in the huddled masses. When I was surrounded by the hungry and poor. I know I was hungry and poor. I had just spent $3 bucks on a snapple in Battery Park. Not to mention the cost of the bus tour. So I digress. I did feel I had something in common with all those other people waiting in line. I could see that they were from many diverse areas. As the Jamaican guy played different state songs on his steel drum, I found it amusing. But then I realized that that was America. When he asked me where I was from and I said Texas he played “Deep in the Heart of Texas.” I think that is what it is called. I lived in Texas for 30 years and I know that the state flower is the Bluebonnet and that the state is huge, but I cannot remember many details beyond that. Like many other adults my mind is cluttered with new and often unnecessary facts about who is getting voted off of survivor, or what dumb thing Paula Abdul is doing or saying on American Idol. Both shows I do not watch, but I am flooded with tidbits of from friends or so called “news!”
Again, off on a tangent. I like this picture because it shows the large scale of Lady Liberty, while at the same time making it look like she is just a person. A friendly face standing for something to believe in. You can see the tiny people standing at her base. So you know she is very tall. But if you look at her against the plain blue background with just a few wisps of clouds she almost seems like one of those people dressed up as her in Battery park or Times Square. I tried to make this image look a little timeless. I am not that good with photoshop. I just tweaked the saturation and I made another layer where I added some noise to make it feel older. I probably messed up the picture. Maybe I will post the original.
Some tech info. I shot it with my Canon EOS 20D with a 70-200mm f2.8L lens. I know I was shooting wide open, but I think I was at 80mm-maybe 95mm zoom. ISO was 100 or maybe 200. It was pretty bright out as you can tell from the hard shadows. I took this from the ferry on our way back to Battery Park.
So I stopped being lazy and went to my metadata and here are the correct specs. 70mm f2.8 ISO 100 shutter speed 1/6400 sec. No flash, no additonal lighting. Duh, it is the Statue of Liberty. What did I asked the sun to change the way it shines. hehe!
Me…
Hey yall,
Ok, so that was a little of Texas coming out, so sue me. I did not have an exact picture of what this photoblog was going to be. Pretty much it has turned out to be me posting pictures of my kids. Sorry I have not had time to post anything newsworthy, or worthy of any type of scrutiny whatsoever.
Yesterday I took some family up to NYC. They came to visit us here in PA and we wanted to show them the big apple. We did our usual thing of driving to Hamilton Station in NJ and taking the train up to NYC. Not too bad and I think that is the most cost effective way to do it. I pay some tolls and use some gas, but do not have to deal with too much traffic or very high tolls and the parking is reasonable. If anyone knows a better way let me know…
So onto the news. We had a pretty eventful morning. We wanted to get an early start so we left early and got to Hamilton Station about 8am. There was a train on the track already. We got our tickets and the train was still there. Turns out this was the previous train before the one we were going to take. Don’t know what was wrong with the train, but everyone got off and the next few trains had to be loaded from the lower platform on the second set of tracks. Nothing too interesting there, just standing in line with angry commuters.
So we finally get ona train and it turns out to be an express. Some people on the train were pissed becasue they thought it was a local. They had to get off in Newark and take another local back. I would have been pissed as well. Here is where it gets interesting. All of a sudden we see some cops outside. Again, not too interesting with the state of our national security nowadays. Cops are usually every where especially on mass transit stations. Next, the doors open and you can hear a very distinct and nearby sound of a helicopter over head. Actually, I think there might have been a couple. Seconds later, we see the image I posted. Right outside our window are cops with assualt rifles. You cannot really gauage the situation from this picture. All you can see is a couple of cops in this scene, but trust me there were more. There were swat looking guys with the body armor, plain clothes guys, regular beat type cops, detectives, etc… They mostly stayed off the train, but a few did get on the train. After the train did finally leave, there was additional passengers who were not commuters, tourists, travelers, etc. I am not a rocket scientist, but I can spot a undercover cop when I need too. I did not mind. I just wanted to know what was going on. I figured I knew what was going on. I twittered a couple of post, but too bad I did not have my laptop with me. I would have posted this pic and others yesterday.
I checked the local news website to make sure I had a good picture of the guy they were looking for. I wanted to do my civic duty and report anything I saw. Turns out, Saturday there was an officer killed in Philadelphia. On Sunday we saw the billboard on the way back from Annapolis with the third guy they were looking for, Deshuan Floyd. The 2 other guys got a little what they deserved. One guy was killed by the cops in the shoot out, and the other was arrested. This thrid guy who is still on the run, was said to be spotted on the very train we were on. What are the chances.
To make things even more “interesting,” on Saturday, we got lost in the area where the shooting took place. We had no clue. I was just trying to take a “scenic drive” to Philly. I guess I zigged when I should have zagged. We saw more of Philly, than I really wanted to show my family from out of town. I do not think we were that close, but I will check google maps and see how close we really were. When we were “exploring” Philly’s colorful side we did not see or hear anything. I think we saw a few cops zipping by, but nothing out of the ordinary for the part of town we were in.
Let me put in a disclaimer if anyone wants to rant about me referring to Philly’s bad part of town in my post. I grew up in one of the bad parts of San Antonio. I was poor most of my life. I lived in a house that probably would not pass most housing codes. I am not an outsider looking in. So excuse me if I am not politically correct about my post.
I will post some more pics later. Like I mentioned, we were in Philly all day Saturday, but I did not take any pictures while I was driving thru northeast Philly. I did take some of Chinatown and in Center City. I just wanted to post something about this chain of events that I just find curious. I am a strong believer that we are put in situations and places for a reason. I am in the northeast for a reason. Everything I do or experience has a reason. We just do not always know what that is, it is bigger than us.
Hey there Phillies Fans,
I went to see the Phillies last night. I took my son and my cousin who is visiting from San Antonio, TX. I was glad to see that they were not going to let the previous night’s loss get them down. The first part of the game was pretty slow. The Padres came out early and scored 2 runs. The Phillies did not get on the board until later when Shane Victorino was brought in by Ryan Howards double I think. Then they tied it up. It was awesome to see Ryan Howard hit a home run and ring the fake Liberty Bell they have beyond the outfield. Too bad it was only a 1 run homer. It was still awesome. My son had a blast. We did not catch any foul balls even thought there was like a hundred hit back. I had never seen so many foul balls hit back in the upper deck. Oh yeah and Howard’s homer was in the upper deck. Someone got a nice souvenir. I took this picture of my son in front of the scorboard. Not really a post worthy pic, but just wanted to post something. I was going to try to take my camera and L lens to the game, but I fiugured they would not let me bring it in. I would have gotten some great shots. So that is it for now. I will post more soon I promise. I keep writing this like someone is reading it. Well, maybe one day…
Carlos
