Tour of the Chocolate Factory

I have an interview tomorrow. I'm more than a little anxious tonight, but about 3 years ago I was in the City (interviewing actually) and took this snapshot on my cell phone. At the time, I had this feeling that there might be a bit of significance to this particular sign one day--hopefully that significance was foreshadowing.

low angle and a steep climb

This picture was originally an afterthought. I had scrambled up the hill adjoining the Northeast corridor rail bridge over the Raritan in hopes of getting some pictures of the foliage along the river. The landscape pictures came out as landscape pictures taken at mid-day do--boring, but I turned to my left and was presented with a great view of the New Brunswick skyline. Laying on my back with my camera (and head) two feet off the tracks, I wasn't spending my time bracketing exposure. Consequently, the rocks are a bit too dark and I can't even remember if this was taken with a 35mm or 24mm lens. But this picture was as fun to take as it was gratifying to see developed.

Hot and sticky

In tribute to the wonderful Jersey suck that is 95F/95%rH, I offer a found object example from Central Park, sometime around May of 2004. My college roommate Mike (already a NewYorker by this point) accompanied me--I kind of miss him, now the father of two sons and no longer irreligious slacker I once knew. Exposure was on Agfa UltraColor (I really like how the Agfa renders yellow; it "pops" in a way similar to Velvia red), 50mm, with spot metering read from the stones.

Shadow play

I had just gotten out of work on a dreary overcast day when, not two steps off the campus bus, the clouds parted and offered some of the clearest direct afternoon light I could ever hope for. The magnolia were just starting to bloom. My intent with this framing was to have the shadow of the tree add to the tangle of branches, creating a contrast between the color of the flowers and the shape of the buds. Exposure was 1/125sec at f/8 with a 35mm lens on a Nikon D100, matrix metered.

Cyclops

I took a weekend vacation to Seattle in May of 2004, and really fell in love with the city and its public displays of seemingly random art. While not exactly art, the sign above Cyclops caught my eye.

This shot, exposed on Agfa Ultra Color with a 200mm Nikon zoom, was stopped down to f/5.6 with a shutter speed determined by Aperture-priority matrix-metering. I kind of liked the shot originally, but it wasn't until I aggressively cropped the image for a small 3"x3" frame that I really loved it. This was the first picture I cropped to improve composition and I was very pleased with the end result.

f/4 and something

I'm not a photographer, but occasionally I capture a special bit of what I see frozen in time. Most of the pictures I like have some story behind them, or at the very least, an associated thought. This 'blog is dedicated to everyone of my friends who's ever waited for me while I futzed with my camera.

This picture was taken outside of the Au Bon Pain in New Brunswick, October 1997. The exposure was a handheld something slow, likely 1/30sec, and the aperture was undoubtedly wide open at f/4. This picture is my favorite off the first roll of film I put through my (then) brand new Cannon EOS Rebel, purchased at Service Merchandise [dates it a bit, doesn't it]. I walked around all afternoon and into the evening snapping shots; I came across this coffee cup, sitting exactly as pictured, as dusk fell.