orange. blob. blog.

Empire State Building in Red, White and Blue

Tim — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 21:12:36 +0000

The Empire State Building taken from Bryant Park, on September 11th 2011. Lit up in patriotic colors during a cloudy evening in New York City.
Taken with a Tilt Shift lens…

This was the same evening that I took the photos of the Empire State Building and the Tribute in Lights that was switched on for the anniversary of 9/11. Luckily earlier in the evening it was slightly less cloudy so I could get some shots from the Top of the Rock, but I still like the low cloud effect of the picture above, with the brooding dark facade of the Bryant Park Hotel in the foreground.

Photo Details:
Canon EOS-1D Mark III
1/8 sec at f/2.8
ISO 800
TS-E45mm (Tilt shift lens)

Glacier National Park Sunrise

Tim — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 16:03:24 +0000

This was one of those mornings where I really didn’t want to get up. We decided to sleep with the ‘fresh mountain air’ coming through the top of the tent, so we left the top fly sheet off. It was definitely fresh air, and it was definitely cold. The alarm went off way too early in the morning, but we jumped up and headed out…

First stop a hot chocolate or two on the way over. We had to drive out of the Eastern exit of the park, on the Going-to-the-Sun road, then loop back and head back into the park through the ‘Many Glacier Entrance’. We made it to the area that we’d found the night before, just in time. There was a slightly ugly road on the other side of the rocks in the foreground, so we clung to the slope on the other side to get the road out of view. For some reason as soon as the sun came up, there were mosquitos, or some other kind of human-eating insects flying all over the place.

On the way back we followed the river, and there was someone who’d set up a tent on a sandy area right in the middle of the river. Would have made a great picture. Tell me why I didn’t take a picture of that again?

Even though it was ‘summer’ there, plenty of ice was still clinging to the rock faces. Mucky ice, but ice all the same.

Top photo:
Canon EOS-5D Mark II
1/5 sec at f/22
ISO 200
24mm (24-70mm lens)

Bottom photo:
Canon EOS-5D Mark II
1/400 sec at f/2.8
ISO 200
70mm (24-70mm lens)

Glacier National Park – Lakes and Waterfalls

Tim — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 15:16:26 +0000

A road trip out west gave me a chance to grab a few photos in Glacier National Park in Montana. Not exactly the most restful trip, and as usual it was spur-of-the-moment with no planned itinerary. Just my kind of trip!…

The photo above is from the eastern end of Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park. We drove up to the park late one day, and entered on the west side, rolling along the ‘Going to the Sun’ road which cuts across the park. Our first goal was to grab a campsite before dark, and before they all got full. On our third campsite we found a small tent site – perfect for our ‘just a sleeping bag in a small tent and a campfire’ needs.

There had been an avalanche a few days before we arrived in the park – which may be the reason why we were able to find a spot at this particular campground – called Avalanche Creek.

Better to arrive after an avalanche than before, I guess.

After setting up, we then scuttled back along the road to the shore of the lake, and I trotted out my heavy tripod for a rare outing. The light was pretty good – nothing too stunning at sunset but to add a more calmed-blur to the water, I added a 3 stop ND (neutral density) filter to the lens so that I could keep the shutter open for longer without overexposing. Sadly I don’t have a collection of these filters, so the lens I happened to have rented didn’t fit this particular filter. A number of the reject-shots show my fat fingers holding the filter over the front of the lens – carefully done though, it doesn’t seem to notice – as in the photo above.

The scenery in the park as a whole was stunning. Absolutely the best park in the US that I’ve been to so far, in its own way. Even better than Yellowstone. Though at least there we got to see big wildlife.

The picture below was using Panorama mode on the iPhone. It’s not yet the built-in Panorama from iOS 6, but an app called ‘Pano’ that does pretty much the same thing.

For reasons unknown, we found ourselves hiking up this mountain by the side of Grinnell Lake – on the way to Grinnell Glacier – shortly after mid-day, and met lots of concerned looking people on their way down. Reaching the top was well worth it though, and I had possibly the coldest shower of my life in the ice-fed waterfall on the right of the panorama image. I think even the wildlife was appreciative though – given my eau-de-mountain-goat aroma from being a camper for the last couple of days.

Top photo:
Canon EOS-5D Mark II
1.3 sec at f/22
ISO 200
30mm (24-70mm lens)
+ a 3 stop ND filter applied… by hand

Bottom photo:
iPhone 4S
Using ‘Pano’ app

Fresh Coat of Paint…

Tim — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 01:07:45 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve last updated the look and feel of the website, and with more and more people using larger screens, faster connections and mobile devices, I thought it was about time I tweaked a few things…

It’s not a gigantic re-design, more a couple of small changes here and there:

Larger images embedded in the individual blog posts and the blog homepage
Larger images also available when people click on them
Removed as much clutter as possible – the ‘contact’ page has gone, as it was just duplicating information available on every other page (email address, twitter, facebook, google+ and rss). Also removed the sidebar from the individual posts
Cleaner look with as much space taken up by either white space, or photos
New orangeblob.com homepage – gives people 3 simpler options to get into the site and prominently shows the social site links

Feel free to take a look around, and have a look at the photo galleries which were updated recently, if you haven’t seen them already!

Black and White Spider Awards – 2012

Tim — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 23:27:17 +0000

Happy to see that I received two ‘nominee’ votes for the 7th Annual Black and White Spider awards…

One of the categories – ‘Still Life’ is above – taken in Bangkok at the end of last year. It’s a photo of the back of the head of the giant reclining Buddha near the Royal Palace in Bangkok. The braided ‘hair’ of the Buddha fascinated me, contrasted against the intricate work on the detail of the square pillow.

The other nominee was the ‘New York Times’ building photo taken in New York. I have a blog post about the New York Times building photo with more info about the picture too.

Swedish Blur… Stockholm

Tim — Wed, 30 May 2012 03:28:01 +0000

This one is an old one – from 2008 I believe. I kept ditching it because it was blurry – it was a mistake… but each time I noticed it in the reject pile, the more I came to like it. It’s a long exposure of the skyline in Stockholm in Sweden…

From what I remember, it was taken from a boat – the ‘Red boat’ hostel which was permanently moored on the south side of the river, near Gamla stan (the old town). It was dark, so when I selected the slightly longer exposure it left me with the blurring effect of the lights. I’m not quite sure why I like it – I think it’s the almost perfect circles of light that the movement of the hostel boat produced – and the distinctive shimmering shadow of the tower in the photo.

Canon Powershot SD700
0.8 sec at f/5.5

Myanmar (Burma) – Sule Pagoda in Yangon

Tim — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 21:55:43 +0000

The picture above was taken at the end of last year, during a trip to Myanmar and Laos. My other half was trying to find some replacement flip-flops in town and while she was in the shop, a Monk stopped to talk to me. He was very concerned that I was seemingly alone, at first – not in a sinister way, but just genuinely concerned that I didn’t have anyone to travel with me…

The Monk seemed to relax when I pointed out Jeni looking for flip flops, and that yes, she was actually travelling with me. He was slightly taken aback when Jeni started subtly checking out his flip flops – leather sole and good looking straps – just like she had in mind! We continued to chat for a while about where we were from, where he was from, what he was doing in Yangon, and what we were doing next. He wished us ‘Safety, no sickness, and no anger’, and we went our separate ways.

The next stop was the Sakura tower, where the picture above was taken from. Opening one of the windows from one of the top level restaurants meant that we could grab a view of the Sule Pagoda. The golden stupa stands out and gleams amongst the other roads, buildings and traffic.

The Sule Pagoda is a lot smaller than its more famous Shwe Dagon Pagoda sibling, but it’s setting right in the heart of downtown Yangon makes it appeal more. Set in the middle of bustling traffic and people, it conveys the deep-weave of Buddhism in everyday life in Myanmar. Its position also made it a popular meeting point during the recent uprisings and demonstrations.

The stupa is said to enshrine a hair from Buddha himself.

The photograph was taken with a tilt shift lens, and has been slightly de-saturated in Lightroom.

Canon EOS-5D Mark II
1/1000 sec at f/2.8
ISO 200
45mm (Tilt shift)

7 Nights of Bluegrass in NYC

Tim — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 05:01:21 +0000

This is a bit of a non-photography post, linked incredibly tentatively by a photo of a Banjo… Anyway, on Sunday we joined a friend at one of the last nights of Southpaw in Brooklyn before it closed down. Any music venue that has nights of Bluegrass, as well as a Photo booth is ok in my book!…

The bait… Sunday

$20 per ticket

We went to meet a friend at ‘Americana Pie 2′ which promised world-class bluegrass musicians. Kicking things off were the up-beat Birdhive Boys with a suitable amount of mustache-talk amongst the fast-fingered geniuses. Next up was Six Deadly Venoms (who we happened to have seen before in a completely random location in Brooklyn) before the main event – Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper. Some great fast-paced bluegrass harmonies.

We tried to go to more bluegrass gigs a few years ago, but found that there weren’t a huge amount of options, so while we were chatting to Justin (of Birdhive-Boys-fame) our ears pricked up when he said that he thought we could easily find bluegrass in New York every night of the week. We decided to take him up on the challenge, and picked and tapped our way through the New York bluegrass scene for the rest of the week. So, without further faffing:

G… Monday

$Tips

I’m not sure if we really committed fully last night on the 7 night thing, but today we had planned to see the ever-awesome Greg Tannen with friends at the Living Room (154 Ludlow, between Stanton and Rivington). We wandered out, and found ourselves near Mona (224 Ave B and 13th), so we decided to head over since google said there was bluegrass on the cards. Sure enough we turned up to a full jam in progress, with Rick Snell (of the Six Deadly Venoms) leading a weekly session. My first glimpse into a jam – everyone (there were probably up to 10 players at some points) dipping in and out of the limelight as they wanted. Banjos, violins, guitars and more got the whole bar stomping away to the beat.

Fantastic night of music, which wouldn’t have been complete without watching the man at the bar in the bowler hat (he later joined in the jam playing the violin) teaching someone how to play the bones. At least I think that’s what they call them. The fast clickety sound looked deceptively simple to make until the other person tried. Ah perspective.

D… Tuesday

$Tips

Our natural instincts were kicking in at this point, telling us that we should be knitting at home tonight (literally, for one half of us). Instead, we spied Michael Daves‘ set happening at Rockwood (196 Allen St, between Houston and Stanton). On our way out, fate arranged for Morgan O’Kane to be playing banjo on the subway platform, with foot-operated tambourine and bass drum (which was actually an old fashioned suitcase. Fantastic). We paused for a while to listen along with a load of other normally-we-never-stop New Yorkers, and picked up one of his CDs.

Onto Rockwood, we edged our way into the packed ‘original’ stage area for Michael Daves. After hearing larger groups up to this point, it was great to hear a simpler set – just guitar, banjo and voice. Couple some great string work with an incredible voice that rips you out of Rockwood and plonks you on a porch in Appalachia.

G… Wednesday

$Free

Tonight’s plan was to head down to the Grisly Pear (107 Macdougal Street, between Minetta Lane and Bleecker Street) for the bluegrass jam night. We arrived a bit late, but still caught a number of songs, with the evening mc’d by ‘Sheriff Uncle Bob’. A dark long bar where you head back thinking that the whole evening is over, until you reach the sounds of bluegrass and steel guitar coming from the very back.

Another different take on the bluegrass scene, this one really made you feel like you were witnessing an impromptu jam. All the players circled round and played to, and for each other. There could have been no-one listening, and there could have been a thousand people listening – it wouldn’t have mattered – and the players nodded to each other to take over lead or change harmony.

B… Thursday

$10 door

Our longest trek of the week, this one took us to a corner of Brooklyn hosting the Jalopy Theatre (yep, it’s actually spelled like that) at 315 Columbia St, next to a bunch of toll booths off the interstate. The strings tonight were those of Frankenpine – at first made me wonder about those cell phone tower tree things – and sure enough, given their cover artwork, that’s probably where the name came from. If I were reclining on a couch I’d say there’s probably all kinds of parallelisms about the tree and the band. They definitely were rooted in bluegrass but at the same time had their own flavour (since this appears to be the British spelling paragraph) – there was more to them than first met the eye, and soon found ourselves loving our second row seats that we were jumping around in. Fantastic band… another email list signed-up-to!

Talking of which… the Jalopy itself is a great little venue. Feeling like something straight from the Moulin Rouge, the velvety red curtains and festive bare bulb lighting made the whole thing more fun, apart from creepy glances from the statue head on the stage. We were left feeling buzzed from the music, so decided to stay for a couple of songs from the next band – Jessy Carolina and The Hot Mess. We even moved to the back of the room, planning an early exit.

Best laid plans and all that. One song in, and we were hooked. Having no idea what they were going to be like, our interest was piqued at the sight of a washboard. Old-school-jazz-new-orleansish songs, with snappy tight presentation and a great live presence meant that we stayed right through to the second encore and walked out with their CD. Jessy’s voice really was incredible – sounding like it was being played fresh on vinyl. I could almost feel the slippy mosaic tiles under my feet and hear the clatter of oyster trays in the background.

Advice? Always stay for ‘just one’ song from the next band… just in case!

(Artwork to the left is one of the posters from Frankenpine – more on their facebook page. The banjo player is also a talented poster-maker).

D… Friday

$12 per ticket

Nearing the end of the run, tonight left us with hardly any options that we could find online. Maybe the five-strings go underground on Fridays, but it definitely felt like the Monday of Theater-land. We managed to find one band playing at Rockwood that looked on paper (or screen, I guess) like bluegrass. Banjo? Check. Steel guitar? Check. Vocals? Check. So we headed out to see Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad at Rockwood. Although it was probably pushing the boundaries of the definition of bluegrass, it was still a great night with tappable beats and harmonica. The range of songs was from definite bluegrass to different blends which felt like jamaican bluegrass. Just add steel drums to taste! A huge crowd packed the place with at least half dancing like there was no tomorrow!

Finale… Saturday

$Brunch

Pushing the boundaries again – this time with the ‘night’ thing… we decided that the Bluegrass Brunch at Nolita House was too good a looking opportunity to miss. We weren’t disappointed. This one’s definitely going on the ‘repeat as needed’ list. Great Eggs Benedict (substituting crab cakes for the muffin. True fantastic-ness) and great bluegrass, with some familiar faces in the band from other nights of the week. We’re definitely beginning to feel like bluegrass stalkers at this point. The band was on break when we came in, but soon struck up the string mix with a number of lively songs. Perfect side to a sunny morning in New York.

In case anyone else is similarly bluegrass-obsessed, these are a couple of great sites that list up-coming shows, and venues that have bluegrass happenings: Blue Grass NYC website, and Jim’s Roots and Blues (you have to filter this one down a little to get the flavor of band you’re after, but it’s a great up-to-date list).

Related Links:

Ehm… yeah, there’s nothing else really related to Bluegrass in NYC on this blog, so instead, why not check out a few pics from my Travel Portfolio pages.

Brooklyn Bridge Waterfall

Tim — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 04:15:10 +0000

One from the archives to tide me over the vast swathes of tumbleweed that have been rolling through the blog recently… I’m sorting and indexing all the photos from my last trip to Thailand, Burma (Myanmar) and Laos, and came across some of these oldies that have never seen the light of day!…

These are taken back in 2008, and the whole art project was part of Olafur Eliasson’s ‘New York City Waterfalls’ art installation. There were 4 of these waterfalls built, and immediately everyone was reminded of the orange ‘Gates’ project in Central Park. The waterfalls were all built with scaffolding and looked pretty utilitarian in the daylight – I dare say that was part of the point – but I have to admit I preferred the slower shutter speeds that blurred the water to cover most of the scaffolding.

The picture above was taken from across the river on the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge, just as it was beginning to get dark. A very small aperture brings out the ‘star like’ lights on the bridge. The one below was taken before the one above, from the same spot with a slightly wider angle, pointed up so that the large pink sky gets most of the attention.

Top: Canon EOS-1D Mark III
30 secs at f/22
ISO 100
38mm (using the 24-70mm lens)

Lower: Canon EOS-1D Mark III
3.2 secs at f/22
ISO 100
25mm (using the 24-70mm lens)

Photography Masters Cup – 2011

Tim — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 04:08:29 +0000

A little late posting this one… only one year out. Towards the end of last year, I got a nod from the Photography Masters Cup awards for my abstract picture of Greenery…

The official title is the 5th Annual Photography Masters Cup awards – either way, they liked my photo of the cold looking stone, contrasted with the deep green of the bush. The photo was taken in La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Thanks again to the judges for picking my photograph out!