Tag Archives: 36.5

Photo 108 out of 365 – “Napping in Transit”

27 Jul

Settings: ISO 1600, f/6.3, 1/320 sec, 50mm lens

I took this photo on the train home from Albany last night.  My camera was stashed away in my suitcase in the overhead compartment.  Silly me, I didn’t think I’d take any photos during the two-and-a-half hour trip home.  In fact, I was planning on taking a little snooze as well.  But when I looked across the aisle and saw my train neighbor sleeping with this newspaper on her lap, I was compelled to grab my camera from above and snap some shots.   I liked the light coming through the window and I liked her hat and her seersucker jacket.  I thought she had some pizzaz about her.  Looking at my settings now, I wish I had lowered the ISO to 800 as I had some room to slow down my shutter speed a bit, but I was playing it safe as I wanted her to be sharp and the train was moving pretty fast.

The funny thing is that now, every time I make a conscious decision NOT to have my camera on me (which rarely happens these days), I get extremely frustrated.  I see photo opportunities everywhere I look now.  Taking pictures every day has completely trained my brain to be looking for that shot at all times.  Poor Adam never gets to play with the Rebel (the plan was for us to share it).  It’s seriously attached to me 99.9 percent of the time.  That’s what he gets for turning me on to all these awesome high-tech toys!!

Oh – speaking of high tech toys, my external drive that I dropped on the floor and severely injured last week did not cooperate with the folks at the Little Laptop Shop… sniff sniff whimper whimper.  The next step is to take it to some other place that can do a deeper level of data recovery, which of course, can cost hundreds of dollars.  I’m going to get a quote, but I’m not sure if I’m willing to pay that much to get my photos back.  It is upsetting and disappointing, but I’m thinking those hundreds of dollars can go towards a new lens instead – and I have another 257 photos to go, so I have to look to the future.  I’m going to call for that quote tomorrow though and we’ll have to take it one day at a time.

Photo 105 out of 365 – “Boy on Subway – Coney Island Bound”

25 Jul

Settings: ISO 200, f/2.5, 1/800 sec, 50mm lens

I took this photo on the F train on the way to Coney Island yesterday evening.  I was watching this little boy kneeling on the subway seat, looking out the window with the light shining on his face.  He had such a sweet and serious face and the light was so beautiful… I had to capture it.  He was with his father so I asked his permission.  I also asked the boy himself.  They were both agreeable, so I snapped a few shots… then I brought the camera over and showed them both the pictures.  I always feel like that gesture goes a long way to establish a friendly tone.

Meanwhile, Coney island was totally fun.  Tomas (Adam’s nephew) lives in California and is used to Disneyland –  - so it was a bit of a culture shock for him.   He was appalled at the guys running the ‘pop a balloon with a dart’ booth, who tried to scam us.  Take note… if they ever offer you a free dart – they are sure as hell going to try to trick you into throwing more than one – which is where they get you at five dollars a pop!!   He also commented that most of the people who work the rides are miserable, not smiling, not friendly and supremely grumpy.  I’ve come to realize though – that this is all part of the charm of Coney Island. It’s gritty… it’s dirty… it’s a far cry from Disneyland.  But it sure as hell has flavor!

Now I’m in South Burlington, VT, sharing a hotel room with my parents.  We had an amazing dinner tonight at The Bearded Frog.  We were piggies… we wanted to try lots of things on the appealing menu.  Our dinner included:

Starters:

Spring Pea Soup with VT Smoke & Cure Ham & Mint Creme Fraiche

Watercress Salad with Prosecco Vinaigrette, Pickled Beets, Willow Hill Vacquero Blue Cheese & Toasted Almonds

Venison Cigar Rolls with Maple & Horseradish Dipping Sauces

Graham Cracker Crusted Calamari with a Lime & Chive Emulsion

Entrees:

Buttermilk Marinated Pork Chop with Rosemary Bacon White Beans, Sauteed Kale, Braised Red Cabbage and an Apple Cider Reduction

Grilled Lamb Loin with Moroccan Vegetable Mash and a Mint Salsa Verde

Grilled Filet Mignon with Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Horseradish Compound Butter

Of course, in my favorite style, we shared tastes of every dish – the overall winners being the split pea soup and the lamb.  The rosemary bacon white beans that came with my pork were unbelievable (my favorite part of the dish & overall standout for me)…. super rustic, hearty and homey with a deep porky flavor and an awesome spice (not sure where that came from).  My first bite of the beans totally channeled that moment in Ratatouille, where the mean old restaurant critic gets transported to his childhood with one bite of the Ratatouille.  Yum.

I also really enjoyed the lime chive emulsion that came with the calamari.  The calamari were fried in a graham cracker crust and were sitting on the plate in a layer of this creamy emulsion.  The dish ended up taking on the flavor of key-lime pie…  I guess that’s probably what they were going for… and for me, it totally worked – even though calamari is not necessarily one of my favorite food items.  I’m still a bit of a seafood wuss.

So after all that yummy rich food, we’re going to stuff ourselves tomorrow with cheese at the VT Cheesemakers Festival.  I cannot wait!  Then I’m going to return to NYC and go on a diet!  Yikes!

Photo 104 out of 365 – “Mrs. Duck’s Garden”

23 Jul

Settings: ISO 100, f2/5, 1/640 sec, 50mm lens - Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn

Inception… not such a fan.  We saw it last night on the super big IMAX screen near Lincoln Center.  Don’t get me wrong… it was fast-paced and exciting and the concept of entering people’s dreams was interesting and fairly unique, but I found it totally confusing and it didn’t really come together for me at the end.  This review in The New Yorker (spoiler alert) pretty much sums it up for me.  We did see the trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part I on the IMAX screen, which was AWESOME.  I can’t wait to see that in November!

Tonight we are heading out to Coney Island with Adam’s nephew Tomas.   Adam’s never been on the Cyclone roller coaster… I have – years ago.  I came off with bruises.  That thing jostles you around like crazy – but I might have to do it one more time.  I guess there’s a bunch of new rides at Luna Park too.  I’m looking forward to amusement park photography… a nice change of pace!   And tomorrow I’m off to Vermont for the VT Cheesemakers Festival.  I’m meeting up with my parents in Albany and we’re driving to Shelburne, VT.  Tomorrow night we’re having dinner at The Bearded Frog and on Sunday, the cheese madness begins.  This will be the first time my mom and dad will be exposed to my total obsession with cheese.  I think we’ll have fun together.  I’m excited to share my cheesy world with them.

Photo 103 out of 365 – “Just Another Day on 2nd Street”

22 Jul

Settings: ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/125, 50mm lens

Here’s our favorite friendly neighborhood drunk guy again.  I swear – by the end of this, I’ll be able to do an entire photo essay on this guy and his life on the sidewalks of 2nd street.   One of his friends (or acquaintances at least) was there yesterday – in the garden behind the fence and I sort of asked him for permission to take the shot – I didn’t want him to think I was being disrespectful. He gave me the go ahead and seemed to think it was all in good fun.  So here we are.

Meanwhile, I’m keeping all my fingers crossed as my photos of the past two and a half months are currently hanging in the balance.  I’ve been saving all my photos to an external drive and last night it accidentally dropped off my desk onto the wooden floor.  Ouch. This morning when I plugged it in… it made a sad little noise like it was trying to work, but couldn’t and then nothing. Double ouch.

No joke, Adam and I bought a new external drive (a terabyte) from the Apple store a couple weeks ago for me to back all my photography up with… unfortunately, we had not quite gotten around to it yet.  The last time I had backed up was April 30th. Oye vey.   So, this morning I took my poor little sick drive in to the Little Laptop Shop on Clinton.  I shed a little tear as I handed it to the guy, hopeful he’ll be able to work some magic and bring my baby back to life.  That’ll show me to procrastinate!  I guess this is probably an unfortunate lesson everyone learns once in their life.  So now… I’m sending my prayers to the technology gods…

Please technology gods, I have been a good girl and have fearlessly embraced all sorts of technology over the last year.  I have learned my lesson and promise to back up conscientiously from this day forward with no messing around!  Please grant me my photos back in good health… pretty please??

Fingers crossed… will keep you posted.

Going to see Inception tonight at the IMAX at Lincoln Center.  I’ll let you know what I think tomorrow.

Photo 102 out of 365 – “Thyme on the Windowsill”

21 Jul

Settings: ISO 800, f/1.6, 1/40 sec, 50mm lens

This is a photo of my unfortunately dried-out thyme plant sitting on my windowsill.  I like how how the super shallow depth of field gives it that moody blur.  I took a few others in this same vein – I had trouble deciding but the thyme won out in the end. Here are the others:

Settings: ISO 400, f/1.6, 1/60 sec, 50mm lens

Settings: ISO 400, f/1.6, 1/30 sec, 50mm lens

Yesterday I wasn’t feeling well, so on my way home from the nursing home I snapped one photo and decided that was going to be it for the day.  The photo was pretty good – it was of a couple of the guys who work at the nursing home taking a break on the steps of a building across the street.  When I got home and showed Adam, he was unimpressed… he thought I should take a rest and then see if inspiration hit again before giving up so early in the day.  I was crabby and mopey… annoyed for the moment by his high expectations of me.

Later that evening, we decided it was time to change our headers on our blogs…  I was unsure about changing my sheep picture, which I took in Italy and has been my blog header since the beginning.  But – it can’t hurt to keep things fresh so I changed my header to the cheese photo you see now.  What do you think?  Do you like the change?  I think I’ll start mixing it up once a month from now on.

Anyway, Adam was trying to figure out a good photo for his header and I remembered the photo I took a few months back of his bookshelf.  I thought that would be an excellent representation of Adam and the perfect new header for his blog.  He agreed.  However, the sizing wasn’t quite right so I picked up my camera and we re-shot it… rearranging a few books along the way.  (Check out Adam’s new blog header).  That was the inspiration I needed to play around with the camera a bit more and I took about thirty or so more pictures of things around the apartment to try to get a better (or more interesting) photo of the day.  The light was starting to fade, which is the reason I tried out the super shallow depth of field approach with the windowsill photos… that way I didn’t have to jack up my ISO to 3200 or 6400.  Bringing up the ISO like that gives you the ability to take photos in lower light, but results in a much grainier and “noisier” look to your photos… its a compromise and a balancing act (read about it here).

So – I’m glad Adam pushed me to pick up the camera again yesterday.  While I was initially frustrated with the “burden” of being pressured to do better, I am grateful that he believes in me and pushes me to do my best.  Without the structure of a 9-6 job, I know the personal importance of not succumbing to procrastination and laziness and of remaining productive.  Every once in a while I just need a little shove.  :)

Photo 100 out of 365 – “Jake”

19 Jul

Settings: ISO 400, f/8, 1/100 sec, 200mm lens

Since I missed posting yesterday I’m posting twice today and… drumroll please… here we are… my one hundredth photo of the day!   I can’t believe how quickly time is going!   This here is a photo of Jake. Jake is Mark & Julie’s gorgeous and utterly charming son who we had the pleasure of hanging out with this weekend.  I love taking pictures of children.  They tend to be much less shy and self conscious than most adults.  And they’re so beautiful and honest and have such a sparkle.  Isn’t he beautiful?

Anyway, the other day, I went up on the roof of our apartment building to take pictures and I ran into a woman who lives downstairs from me. Turns out, she is a totally self-taught photographer… started seven years ago, and now runs her own successful photography business!  She does mostly portraits of newborns and young children, as well as weddings.   She was extremely nice and super willing to talk with me and answer all my hundreds of questions.  She actually taught herself Photoshop using the online tutoring service Lynda.com that I just subscribed to last week!   Lynda.com offers high quality online video tutorials covering a gazillion different software applications.  I’ve already started up with a Photoshop beginner course and a WordPress tutorial – you have to pay a monthly fee ($25/month for access to all the videos you want and $37/month for access to all of the files they use in the tutorials so you can follow along on your own computer).  It seems like a pretty awesome service so far, seeing as Photoshop classes are QUITE expensive!  I just have to take advantage of it throughout the month to get my money’s worth!   Anyway – meeting her gave me a little boost of inspiration.   I looked at her work and she seems very talented – and she said I can call her anytime for a chat or get together!  Very cool.

Oh – and PS… I made a ridiculously delicious recipe tonight – mini turkey meatballs with a homemade marinara sauce.  It is from Giada De Laurentiis and it was OFF THE HOOK!!!

Photo 99 out of 365 – “Birthday Bear Plays Piano”

19 Jul

Settings: ISO 800, f/6.3, 1/60 sec, 47mm focal length (24-105 L series Lens)

So, we’re now back in the city after a lovely (and much too short) weekend in Watermill, NY.  We were visiting our friends Mark & Julie who have a gorgeous new country home out there.  Much of the weekend was spent relaxing at the house, swimming in the pool, playing with their two kids and cooking meals from ingredients purchased at the farmers market down the street… kind of my heaven.  Yesterday we made an amazing lunch – super fresh scallops from the market, a fresh corn, mozzarella, cherry tomato and basil salad and some kick ass guacamole.   We had fresh fruit at just about every meal.  I LOVE eating like that.  I swear – eating foods that have just come from the farmers market makes me feel so good.

I grew up within a mile of about three different farms – though I don’t remember really doing the farmers market thing as a child.  Ironically enough, it took living in NYC for me to get interested in farms and dairies and gardening.  Maybe it’s just because I’ve become so much more interested in food as I’ve gotten older.  Maybe it’s because we keep learning more and more about the evils of industrialized agriculture and processed food.  Whatever it is, my desire to become closer to the source of my food keeps growing.  It’s a satisfying thing – to meet the person personally responsible for growing or making your food and to put your money directly into their hands.  And everything TASTES so much better that way!  I bought a pint of blueberries at the Tompkins Square market last Sunday and brought them out to snack on while Adam and I were watching TV one night.  Adam was literally flipping out over the blueberries – they were SO good, tart and just bursting with blueberry flavor.  It’s like… oh… so that’s what blueberries are supposed to taste like!!  And believe me… Adam’s not necessarily one to flip out over fruit.  Good stuff.

I swear… I’m starting to crave the country life more and more these days.  In my perfect world, I’d live out in some beautiful place – with trees and farms but I’d still have a little one-bedroom apartment in the city for those times when the NYC energy and stimulation are calling.  Hmm….  something to shoot for. :)

Oh – and Mark is an awesome photographer and has a ton of amazing photography equipment that I got to play with this weekend.  I experimented with several high-quality (L-Series) lenses  - my favorite was the 200mm.   Here are some of my favorite photos using a variety of lenses:

Settings: ISO 200, f/3.2, 1/100 sec, 200mm lens

ISO 100, f/5.0, 1/800 sec, 200mm lens

Settings: ISO 100, f/8, 1/200 sec, 200mm lens

Settings: ISO 100, f/5.0, 1/640 sec, 200mm lens

Settings: ISO 100, f/2.0, 1/1250 sec, 135mm lens

Settings: ISO 200, f/2.0, 1/1000 sec, 135mm lens

Settings: ISO 100, f/10, 1/160 sec, 85mm lens

Settings: ISO 100, f/16, 1/60 sec, 14mm lens (wide angle)

Photo 98 out of 365 – “Eli Rosenberg”

17 Jul

Settings: ISO 6400, f/2.3, 1/60 sec, 50mm lens

This is Eli – Bernese Mountain Dog supreme & canine supporting actor in Adam’s film Hello Lonesome.  He’s posing here for his midnight portrait at his home in Watermill, NY.  Adam and I arrived by train here last night for a weekend visit to our friends’ lovely country home.  It’s been a dreamy day – beginning with a stop at the farmers’ market where I met the owner of Mecox Bay Dairy – Art Ludlow – artisanal raw Jersey cow’s milk cheese maker in Eastern Long Island.  We tasted four of his cheeses and came home with a hunk of his raw milk cheddar as well as his raw milk gruyere.  YUM.  I told him I want to come learn how to make cheese on his farm.  He gave me his card.  SWEET.

After the market we came home for a day of play… frisbee, paddle ball, swimming, grilling and bubbles (we are also with two children… though I still think bubbles are totally magical).  God it feels SO good to be out of the city!!  I’ve been frolicking in the softest grass in bare feet all day!!!  What’s better than that??

Now I have to get ready for dinner, but I’ve been experimenting with new camera lenses all day so I should have an interesting photo of the day tomorrow!

Photo 97 out of 365 – “Bedtime Reading”

16 Jul

Settings: ISO 3200, f/5.0, 1/25 sec, 50mm lens

Sorry to disappoint, but I must have done a great job icing my face b/c I’m barely swollen at all this time!  But here is a picture of my face from last time around (this is for you Eric).  Yes I know… I’m hot.

As for my bedtime reading, it’s called The Art of Eating by M.F.K. Fisher.  It is a compilation of five of her books, including the one I am reading now, titled The Gastronomical Me (1943).   She is considered one of America’s greatest food writers and I first learned about her while reading Ruth Reichl’s Tender at the Bone.  Ruth Reichl (former editor of Gourmet Magazine and former restaurant critic for The New York Times amongst many other envy-enducing foodie accomplishments) mentioned that M.F.K. Fisher was her inspiration and her favorite food writer.  I read four of Ruth Reichl’s books and ADORED them, so I figured I had to give this M.F.K. Fisher a go.

I’m only a few pages in (as I tend to fall asleep about 5 minutes into my bedtime reading), but the book begins with an introduction quote by George Santayana:

To be happy you must have taken the measure of your powers, tasted the fruits of your passion, and learned your place in the world.

That quote speaks so loudly to me right now, as I’m in the midst of my career overhaul and passion pursuit – if it’s any indication of the pages to come, I think I’m really going to like this book.  I’ll keep you posted!

Photo 96 out of 365 – “Novocaine”

15 Jul

Settings: ISO 800, f/7.1, 1/100 sec shutter speed, 50mm lens

I spent about half my day at the dentist yesterday having gum surgery, so I thought it only appropriate to make my photo of the day dental in theme.  I won’t even go into detail, but in the last year, I have had about five dental surgeries – including three rounds of gum surgery, the surgical removal of an impacted tooth from the roof of my mouth and two dental implants surgically placed into my upper jaw. This is some crazy stuff.

See – I was born with a complicated mouth – very fitting as I was also born with a dentist as a father!  But my dad is a general dentist and now that I’m older he thought I needed to have some serious work done… stuff he doesn’t do at his practice.  So alas, he sent me to his dental school roommate who works in a fancy specialized dentistry practice in midtown Manhattan.  A year later, after probably 30-40 hours spent in the chair, I’m approaching the end of the process (thank god).  It’s been a dental marathon.

I’ve been trying to ice my face conscientiously today to minimize swelling … but chances are, if this time is anything like the last two times, I’ll be delightfully puffy and looking like a Cabbage Patch Kid by tomorrow morning.  Maybe photo 97 will be my bizzaro self-portrait.

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