mental-detour

Moon Over Williamsburg Bridge

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 23:09:08 -0500

This was taken this past weekend near the Williamsburg bridge here in the city. The moon was almost full, but unfortunately to expose the rest of the scene I had to blow out the moon’s detail. A friend of mine is house sitting for someone who has this nice view.

Nikon D80 / Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 / iso100 f8 20sec 17mm

Dragon Face

Sun, 07 Jan 2007 22:57:19 -0500

This shot would have worked much better with less depth of field—maybe at f2.8, or if my lens permitted it, even lower. I think the windows on the bottom right are a bit distracting. I’m putting this up because I think, otherwise, this photo is strong. That face being positioned right in the middle is staring right at you.

Nikon D80 / Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 / iso100 f4 1/250sec 26mm

In Case of Emergency

Tue, 02 Jan 2007 21:39:06 -0500

It looks like it's time to start up the roommate search—a development that came out of left field. Every few years or so, life throws some curve balls our way to keep us on our toes. I often wonder how realistic of a dream it is to hope for some stability in life; after all, aren’t security and stability just illusions? It would be nice to have something or someone there to whom you can wake up to every day and say “Aha, there you are. I knew you’d be there. And, what’s more, I know you’ll be there tomorrow.” But it seems that’s not the way it goes down in this life. Right when you get all cozy and comfortable life shakes the living shit out of you and forces you to continue living—change if you will. My aunt was a healthy woman, and everything in her life was going smoothly; yet for some strange reason she got into a serious car accident last week and is now having a machine do the breathing for her in the ICU. We all believe she will get better, pray, but still…it’s hard. Things like this happen all the time and nobody really knows what they mean. Some people choose to question them, and yet others just accept them as the facts of life. Being facts is nice and all, but it doesn’t make them easier to bear. Ironically, at the end of the day, after all the analysis, thought, and search for understanding has worn us out, we are faced with but one option—acceptance.

I think I am beginning to understand what is so powerfully attracting for me about New York. It is the city of constant change, and not only are the people living here good at dealing with change—it’s deeper than that—they’ve experienced adversity in life and have realized—or maybe accepted would be a better word—that this is the nature of life. As you see in this photograph of 5th Ave, despite the sometimes severe challenges New Yorkers are faced with, they continue on with their lives. After all, what choice do they have?

Nikon D80 / Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 / iso200 f5.6 1/20sec 17mm

Sky Hi

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 22:56:44 -0500

Happy New Year everyone! May your moments in 2007 be blessed with good health, fortune, and most importantly lots of laughs.

I want to thank those who’ve spent some time at MentalDetour looking around and posting comments. Your support is greatly appreciated.

This image is mostly in honor of a book my co-worker recently shared with me. It’s called “Wind, Sand and Stars,” by Antoine De Saint-Exupery (you can purchase it here). I just finished reading it and must say that it’s a book I would rate as one of my top five, and can see myself coming back to it for years to come. It’s the adventures of a French mail pilot and is interwoven with profound philosophical thought. Here is some admonition, in the book, given by a seasoned pilot to a young one:

”You’ll be bothered from time to time by storms, fog, snow. When you are, think of those who went through it before you, and say to yourself ‘What they could do, I can do.’ “

I predict that in 2007 I will finally bring myself to start my flying lessons. This image, as the first this year, will hopefully serve as reminder of the amazing adventures that await me in the sky.

Also, for those who’ve noticed, I’ve redesigned the MentalDetour a little bit. I am hoping that this new cleaner design will make viewing the images a more pleasant experience for you all. Enjoy! And, feel free to comment; both positive and negative criticism is always welcome.

Nikon D80 / Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 / iso100 f8 1/250sec 50mm

Copper

Sat, 30 Dec 2006 22:55:32 -0500

I like the composition of this shot that’s why I chose to go with B&W; it accentuates the elements more. I think processing good B&W photos is sort of an art in itself—if you can gain good control of the shot in B&W, the color/toning becomes much easier to work with. As funny as it may be to the more seasoned photographers, I am only now realizing this.

Nikon D80 / Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 / iso200 f5.6 1/15sec 40mm

hidrant 2

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 00:54:20 -0500

This was taken a while ago—hence the sun patches. You don’t see many of those during the winter, here at least.

Nikon D80 / Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 / iso100 f4 1/100sec 38mm

Swan

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 20:14:46 -0500

Swans look like ducks up close. In fact, I never really paid much attention to the whole form of the swan; it was kind of just there. A few weeks ago while I was hanging out at Central Park, this swan was being photographed by many people. What’s amazing about the animals in New York City is that they will let you walk right up to them without so much as blinking an eye. I had my camera within inches of this particular swan without any sort of problems. Anyway, it turns out that swans are in the same family as ducks, which explains why they look so similar—minus the long neck of course; that’s what distinguishes the two birds. I like the way this photo turned out.

Nikon D80 / Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 / iso400 f2.8 1/500sec 50mm

Rent and Park

Sun, 17 Dec 2006 17:53:27 -0500

This was taken a few days ago in front of my friends apartment. As I was walking out, I noticed a cute girl was talking to the doorman. When I got outside of the building, I immediately saw this sign to the right, directly in front of it was a conveniently placed brick wall that would serve as the tripod. I set the camera on the wall and began taking different exposures. While I was doing this, the cute girl came up and in a playful voice said to me with a smile, “My doorman wants to know if that’s a bomb”. Since I wasn’t in the mood to mess with her—it was late and I was tired—after pausing for a second to grasp whether she was serious, I replied, “No, it’s a camera”.

Nikon D80 / Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 / iso100 f8 .67sec 24mm

The John

Sat, 16 Dec 2006 14:13:06 -0500

I haven’t posted much lately because I’ve been feeling uninspired. This has changed recently, which will hopefully mean I’ll be posting more often.

Nikon D80 / Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 / iso800 f5.6 1/30sec 17mm

Egypt at the Met

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 19:24:18 -0500

I'll add the comment later. Just wanted to post this for now.

time lapse

Thu, 07 Dec 2006 22:31:16 -0500

The Met has a huge Egyptian collection. I was there this past Sunday taking some long exposure shots. Hope you like this one. Egyptian rock carved by man thousands of years ago, still remains as residue of their existence. What will people be looking at thousands of years from now? What are we carving these days?

Nikon D80 / Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 / iso100 f11 6sec 38mm

simone

Tue, 05 Dec 2006 19:31:36 -0500

My cousin Mikey has three little girls. This is Simone, and she is the youngest. As you can tell from this photo she’s very cute. What you usually can’t tell from a photo is what someone’s personality is like, so I’ll fill you in. Simone is really sweet and has a great personality; every time she sees me she runs up to me and wants to hang out.

Nikon D80 / Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 / iso800 f2.8 1/45sec 50mm

Subway at Wall St.

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 00:01:02 -0500

This is one of the Subway stations at Wall St. It’s late so this will be short.

”He who has a WHY to live for can bare almost any HOW”. -- Nietzsche

Nikon D80 / Tamron 17mm f2.8 / iso800 f2.8 1/60sec 17mm

Lonely Man

Mon, 30 Oct 2006 23:24:26 -0500

This is not an uncommon scene in New York—it’s a city of extremes. Just under 200 yards away from where this man was sitting are central park apartments that start at over 5 million dollars…overlooking the park. It’s hard to say how this man arrived at this bench, and it’s probably bad of me to assume that he is homeless; nevertheless, I am beginning to realize that I will never be able to bring myself to stomach this. On the contrary, I hope that I will work up the courage to engage them in conversation, because whenever I see this my curiosity runs high wondering what kind of a life brings a person to such lows. Does he have a family somewhere that cares about him? Does he have even a small glimpse of hope—or love of life? Did he make bad choices in life, or was it just bad luck—destiny?

It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation. -- Herman Melville

Nikon D80 / Nikon 18-135mm f3.5-5.6 / iso200 f5.6 1/125sec 135mm

Night and Day Store Front

Sun, 29 Oct 2006 12:08:40 -0500

A photo store called Night & Day, located in Ithaca, Commons (thanks for the correction Ren :) ) This shot will probably the last of the Ithaca series for now. There a few more left that I could put up, but I’ve decided to save them for a rainy day.

Quote: "He inscribed His signature on the inside of each thing He made. On the outside it is finite, but on the inside is the signature of infinitude.

Open anything you like, examine it carefully and you will see."
--Rabbi Menachem M. Schneersohn

Nikon D80 / Nikon 18-135mm f3.5-5.6 / iso200 f5.6 1/60sec 24mm