A Sunny Day in the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens

Along with the cherry blossoms, I took a nice walk around the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens.    A lot has changed since the last time I was there – what used to be a North American garden is under construction/renovation, the Garden Shop has been completed and opened along with an entrance behind the Brooklyn Museum, and there is a section by the Rose Garden that is being cleaned up from the storm damage. This is the second time I’ve gone in the spring (the last time was later in the spring, after the cherry blossoms but just in time for the roses) which makes me think the next time I go will be either the Fall or Winter (preferably with snow).

The trees are blooming.

Flower blossoms all around, including in the Rock Garden.

Pulling out the colors of hellebores.

The Japanese Hill and Pond Garden – count the turtles.

A fun view from the side of the grotto with a lot of various colors.

The upper falls of the grotto section.

An overview from the back corner. Getting a shot with that bridge empty is a feat in and of itself.

The main coi pond.

The island in the coi pond, some day, somehow, I’d like to do a shoot on it.

Lilacs in the sunlight.

A bench setting along the side of the Osborne Garden.

Another bench setup – I love these.

The solo reader in the sun.

The colorful arbor – normal view.

Benches and arbors in the Osborne Garden.

The fountain – getting a picture of this on a sunny day without people or weddings around it is a nice happening.

The pavilion in the Rose Garden.

The sundial lass.

The sunlight makes it an interesting challenge to deal with pinks and reds.

Bringing out the highlights as yellows creates a different feel to the shot.

The lonely bloom.

The stage at the top of Daffodil Hill.

The sun brings out the green of everything.

The blossoms around the Garden Library.

What many people think of when they think of gardens.

The magnolias are blooming in front of the library.

More magnolias.

A fake stone bridge.

Shadow play thanks to the great sunlight of the day.

Next week: more flowers, especially tulips and the challenge they create with photography.

Making your photos look like paintings and other such art, pt.2

Continuing from last week, we have the more colorful art forms being represented here. A mix and match of different effects to create images that I like.

Bethesda Fountain as if it were a pastel.

Incoming storm painting.

The Gapstow as a highly saturated impressionistic painting.

A highly saturated shot of the pond and the Gapstow.

Another Gapstow impressionistic pastel piece, but with less texture overlay.

Another angle of the impressionistic Gapstow,

The Japanese Garden grotto with high saturation and contrast with a vignette that almost makes it feel metallic.

Another image of the grotto with a pastel feel.

This image of the waterfall in the grotto looks just like a painting. Leaving the lens open to get the moving water effect helps with it.

Highly saturated with a lens flare.

Turning an every day shot of a garden into a painting sometimes aids the appeal of the shot.

The bench as a pastel image.

A painting version of the arbor that makes for a nice garden feel.

I’m actually surprised I never see artwork of this sundial. Here it looks like a stylized painting due to the high level of saturation and vibrance.

A faded watercolor of the Japanese pond, with the highlights changed to yellow to change the atmosphere.

Super saturated color of a monster plant with a vignette.

Taking out the texture makes it look like a watercolor.

Ducks in technicolor.

This almost looks like an 80′s music video.

A painting with a touch of the romantic.

This effect makes the shot look like an illustration in a book.

Another illustration effect on the side of the reservoir.

Going forward, we will include these variations on some of my trips, rather than bash us all over the head with these massive entries.

Next week: Back to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens for some non-cherry blossom plantings and such.

Making your photos look like paintings and other such art, pt.1

Lately I’ve been taking so many pictures while walking around, that I have been playing around more with Lightroom 4 to see what the program is capable of. I have found how to make photos look like old style photographs, paintings, pastels, impressionistic, etc. I thought I would share some examples. Because there are so many fun ones, I had to split this into two entries. So enjoy!

First up: a standard black and white detail of a tree.

An old style of a lamp and tree.

Ye Olde Bethesda Fountain.

Entering the Mall – with a white vignette to created a faded/aging effect.

A softening effect creates the illusion of rain (it didn’t start raining for a few minutes after this picture).

This could pass for a book cover with it’s sharp contrast.

With even sharper contrast, this looks like an etching.

I added in the impressionistic effect by raising the roughness of the picture.

The same was done here, with an added black vignette to burn the edges.

An extreme vignette on this piece focuses on the turtle, but also makes it look like an old piece of film.

Going in the opposite direction, smoothing it out makes it look like a painting.

A large fad today is instagram. I don’t have a very good camera phone, so I stay away from that. Besides, I can create my own:

Faded colors, grainy texture. It almost looks like a black and white print that has been watercolored.

Putting color only in the few places I want it.

More fading of colors.

Changing the light effect and color saturation gets you this.

Another where we put most of the color focus on the subject and let the background fade out.

In this one, we create the etching effect, leave only the color of the blossoms, and then smooth it out to create a painting feeling.

This looks a lot like a pastel image with a lot of the detail smoothed out.

Another pastel example, where we leave the detail in the foreground, but the background has a lot less.

Next week: We will continue/finish up with this topic with more examples focused on painting and color manipulation.

Cherry Blossoms in Spring

Spring had a false start earlier in the month, but it’s finally warming up, which leads to the cherry trees blossoming in the parks and gardens around NYC. I headed out to Brooklyn Botanic Garden after checking the cherry watch page of their website (a useful tool so you aren’t heading out there for nothing). I headed out there when the majority of trees that were in bloom were located in the Japanese Hill and Pond Garden instead of the Esplanade (which has just started to bloom this weekend).

It was a wonderfully sunny day and the crowds weren’t too bad, just a few wedding and engagement parties getting photos in key spots. Some days you just wish you could have the place to yourself to get images without crowds of tourists or sightseers running around, but such is life around NYC.

The trees are in bloom!

The hang from the trees and clumps.

The upper falls and lagoon of the Japanese Garden.

Focus on the blossoms.

Blossoms around the pond.

A scenic view of the garden.

Always remember to look up.

So much color all over the place.

The trees are an interesting shape.

Some of the garden sculpture.

That’s a lot of pink.

The pond with the Brooklyn Museum in the background.

Playing with tint to create a new image.

Next week: Looking at some shots that I’ve turned into fine art/painting replicas.

Spring Pops up in Central Park, NYC

It is April and Spring has arrived. The weather is warming, the flowers are blooming, and allergies are sneezing. In hopes of a shot for a project I am working on, I headed to Central Park. I was also planning on seeing some fireworks, but some of Nature’s quirks stopped that (see Spring’s other friend: Thunderstorm). While there were some early buds, most of the trees were still barren, so there will be more trips in search of the shot I am looking for (such is life as a photographer).

The Gapstow in Spring.

Flowers popping up.

A sign that Spring is here: readers in the park.

The horse drawn carriages are out.

This shot is pure Americana. I picture it on a bathroom wall.

The ice rink is empty.

The blossoms have begun.

The beginning of the clouds coming in.

Springtime at the fountain.

See the petals fall in the wind.

The bench in petals.

Another way to draw focus to the blossoms.

The rim of Bethesda Terrace.

The source of countless allergies.

A colorful tree.

The early seats are getting taken.

Incoming – this is what got me to get up from my spot.

The crowds begin to move away from the clouds.

The storm over the lake.

A light in the darkness.

Spooky looking.

Next week: If I finish the shots in time, a trip to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. If not, something else.

The Start of Spring at Macy’s

As the weather gets warmer, the plants begin to bloom. And as is pretty typical for NYC, we get Macy’s 39th Annual Flower Show. I stopped by during the closing weekend of it. It was free to the public and, if you go in the middle of the week, the crowd was manageable. The show is held in a makeshift tent/greenhouse in Herald Square with some extra showing out in the Macy’s windows for passerby to enjoy. The theme this year was Indian art. There was a wide variety of roses, orchids, and many others inside the tent which stretched the length of the Macy’s facade facing Herald Square.

The lighting in the show was not very pleasant for photography. It was a lot of florescent lighting which makes for some horrible color developing. I got to work with new tricks on post processing white balance to clean it to a level that I was happy with.

The relaxing Elephant.

The centerpiece of the first section.

A better look at the centerpiece.

These are called Knockout Roses, though they weren’t punching anyone.

Some of the surrounding artwork.

More of the surrounding artwork.

The archway to the second section.

A mishmash of color.

I like how the blues and purples came out in this one.

Pinks and reds are always problematical when developing photos. I think this one came out fine.

Interesting mix of textures.

The centerpiece to the second section.

A nicely designed gate to serve as a backdrop.

What may or may not be baptisia.

A very colorful orchid.

A hidden wall fountain at the end of the second section.

I love the coloring of this orchid.

I have no idea what plant this is, but it looks like a painting.

Pulling out the color of the orchid by de-saturating everything around it.

These almost look plastic-y.

Using the shadows of a tent in the third section to create a nice image.

A mix of colors.

More light play to make this look almost like a painting.

The lonely rose in shadow.

Next week: Some early spring and a storm in Central Park.

Welcome to Grand Central Terminal

As a native New Yorker, there are just certain places you avoid like the plague: The Empire State Building, Times Square, Rockefeller Center (especially during the winter holidays), and Grand Central Terminal. I have taken pictures at all of these, even at the worst possible times (ie: the Christmas Tree in Rockefeller Center or Times Square after a bunch of shows have let out). This brings us to today’s entry: Grand Central Terminal. Most of the time, I only go in to kill some time, or I have to make a stop at the Apple store located in the main section on the Eastern Staircase. This past month I had some time to kill after a dental appointment, and since my dentist is located a block from Grand Central, I headed over to do some wandering and take some pictures. Luckily it wasn’t rush hour, so I actually could walk around.

The main lobby. Not a lot of people for a change.

Find your train on the schedule.

It’s the 100th anniversary of the rebuilt Grand Central. Here I get creative with the terminal clock.

A closer look at the terminal clock.

The elevators to the north.

Even during the middle of the day they are well traversed.

The stairs to the Apple Store.

A detail of the ceiling by Paul César Helleu, restored back in 1998 after being covered by dirt and grime and other gunk for years.

Line up at the ticket windows (some sconces need new bulbs).

One of many chandeliers on the ceiling.

A closer look at the chandelier.

Smaller chandeliers in the south end of the terminal.

Interesting architecture surround this door that leads to nowhere…or offices.

Across the street from the south entrance and under Park Ave: Pershing Square – featured prominently in The Avengers.

The southern facade: the most picturesque of the entire building.

It’s fun to avoid traffic while crossing the street.

My favorite view of the terminal, complete with taxi cabs.

There are typically numerous events held in the terminal, from live performances to museum exhibits. Last year one passed through that I made sure to catch.

Yes, that is a large snake eating an alligator.

Good luck sleeping tonight after seeing that.

Next week: The Macy’s Flower Show.