modusoptimus

I returned to New York more than one year afterward. I find that New York is still the best place for photography; there is an opportunity at every corner. The New York 2010 album is here.

I am now back to Paris after more than four years in NYC. These two last NY pictures were taken from the 52nd floor rooftop in Upper West Side just the day before we left NY.

Two pictures from this year’s offstage preps…

This weekend I got a 16 mm fisheye lens. This leans is really wide; I have to pay attention so that my feet do not appear in the picture.

While the fisheye is not particularly suited for architecture, I use Hugin (open source GUI on top of panorama tools) to “defish” the images. The rectilinear projection (a standard lens is rectilinear) yields and horizontal angle of view of 129° (this is way too much for a rectilinear projection, usually limited to 120°) and a vertical angle of view of 86°. This is the equivalent of a rectilinear lens with a focal length of 8.5 mm horizontally and 13 mm vertically. Of course the 3/2 image ratio is not respected anymore, the corners are somehow soft due to extreme stretching and the objects on the sides have a crazy perspective, but these angles of view are so extreme that it opens a lot of possibilities.

I have to explore more on different projections and find a projection somewhere between the fisheye (too curvy) and rectilinear (too much perspective distortion).

I continue with another three shots from Central Park; the first two are views on Central Park South from the pond.

There are about 13,000 cabs in NYC but when you walk the streets, you certainly have the feeling that the real number of cabs should be larger than that. Given the real estate cost in Manhattan, auto repair shops are a rarity.

When one enters the 14th Street subway station, he immediately notices lots of miniature bronze sculptures depicting cartoon like characters. The characters are joined together by money (many have money bags as heads or manipulate coins). The figures were commissioned by MTA and they were done by Tom Otterness.

After going every other day to the park for a year, one ends up with the “perfect” sunrise light over the Central Park West buildings and the clouds before the storm.

750,000 commuters and visitors pass every day through the Grand Central Station. The ticket counters can be found in the main concourse. See also a previous post on the Kaleidoscope light show.

In winter, the mall provides a striking panorama of American Elms bare branches etched against the pale sky above.