12/24/08

Adobe Contribute CS4 test post

So I am trying out a program called Contribute. Just testing to see if it is worth the hassle for this site anyway.

This is test 1

12/11/08

Published

So I have been published in the Jan 09 edition of The Sunday Times Travel Magazine. It's travel tip #23 out of 48 entitled Drink Undercover. It tells you about a "secret bar" in the city. The photo is one that I took while we were out one night and I just happened to have my new(back then) camera along to test it out. To me it was a good looking shot of the inside of this place that our friends John and Penny wanted to see. Nothing special, just a pic.

Fast forward 2 years and I get an email from an editor at the magazine. She wants to use the picture since they are doing a story on travel secrets. She found it on Flickr. Nice. So that's the story and here are the pics.

Oh, and yes that is Amy sitting in the chair.



12/8/08

Back in time

Yesterday, after church, Scott and I headed down into the subway to go to lunch with some friends. As we are waiting, we hear the subway coming, and as it pulls into the station, we realized that it was very different. The cars were all very old, and were all different colors. As we entered, a train conductor was in our car, wearing a vintage MTA uniform. Along with him, the car had very old cloth seats, ceiling fans, and advertisements from the 1900's. The conductor explained to us that every year, for the 5 weeks leading up to Christmas, the city takes old subway cars out of retirement and places them on the tracks. Our car was in the very back and was from the 1940's. The car in the very front was from the 1930's, while all of the cars in the middle were from inbetween those years. It was pretty awesome to ride in a piece of history.


The person below was lucky enough to spot the old subway cars when they were empty.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/singhkumar/sets/72057594065955683/


12/5/08

Mrs. DeVore

If you ever want to hear the truth, ask a child. Luckily, I have 9 of them in my class that speak the ultimate truth....they call me pretty. No truer words were ever spoken.
(To translate the blury writing, the above picture says: I love Mrs. DeVore. She is lovely. She is for God. She is Mrs. DeVore. She is pretty. She is funny. She is filled with lots of love.")

(My right arm is on a diet, and my left shoulder may have a tumor...not sure...)

12/4/08

Amy and Kate


Kate, from the show Jon and Kate plus 8, was making an appearance on the same block as my job (W57th st). I went down to meet her and try and make her laugh, and the picture that resulted makes us both appear as hot messes, but still. It's the experience that counts, right? She was really sweet and her crew was equally easy going as well. It was, all in all, a pretty decent 30 minute escape from work. Thanks Kate!

11/13/08

I will attack, and you don't want that

Scott has been teaching me how to make a real fist, not a girly one, and tonight his lessons paid off.

I stayed late at work tonight, getting some odds and ends taken care of, and then, around 6:30, I boarded the F subway train to come home. The car was pretty much empty, except for a drunken guy at one end, and a lady across from him, then me at the opposite end of the car along with a few scattered businessmen.

The drunken guy was pretty much out of his mind as he approached the lady next to him, who yelled something back at him along the lines of "You will NOT touch me there!" I did my best to put on my "I live in NY and this is nothing new face" while changing my iPod to some Britney Spears. Then, the guy came and stood right in front of me, as if he had nowhere else to go. Awesome.

The subway car was moving along pretty smoothly, but the guy let go of his grip on the pole, and lunged forward at me as if it were a bumpy ride, grabbing me with both hands in a very obvious location, all the while laughing like a madman. Before he did that my hands had already balled up into a fist without thinking. The moment he lunged, I drew back and punched him square between his eyes. Just then, the doors opened to let me out at my stop. He stumbled around and I was clapped for by the "suits" as I exited.

Cops are stationed underground to assist in matters like this, and one happens to be right at my stop 24 hours a day. Luckily, he saw it all and came right up and took the guy by his neck out of the car, and then released me with a "job well done" and a promise that they would call me if they needed anything else.
That's right, Amy = Batman.

11/12/08

New York Is Not Full Of Concrete


Had another shoot today. Auction winners from the Geneva auction. We toured the mall and various spots in the park. After we were done I decided to do a vertical "tiltorama"(panorama is sideways, tiltorama is vertical. Did I just coin that term?) of some trees in the park. This is 4 pics merged into 1. I like it.

11/10/08

Sheeps Meadow

(click for larger)

I had a shoot today in Central Park. A family I took newborn pics for wanted some fall pics in the park. We went to the Sheeps Meadow. I usually like to take reference pictures of places I shoot to remember things like lighting conditions and the overall scene. This is one I took before we started that turned out to be a pretty decent view of fall in the park.

11/8/08

Ambushed on the Tram

We were coming home after a date on Friday night when we suddenly found ourselves deep in conversation with Ronald. He gave us no choice. What follows is the last 3 minutes of our 20ish minute conversation with the "Governer" of Roosevelt Island. He likes politics, Obama, and close-talking. The conversation gets better as it goes. Enjoy.

10/20/08

Oct/08 Management Bulletin

546 October 18TH Fire

As many of you have already heard, we have sadly lost a member of our community due to a devastating fire within an apartment.

On Saturday, October 18, 2008 at approximately 5:30 a.m., Mary Madriguera, a long time resident of 546 Main St, apartment #1106 tragically died in a fire contained within her apartment. The fire Marshal's report stated that the fire was due to a lit cigarette.

Our hearts and thoughts go to the family and friends of Mary. May she rest in peace.

In the wake of this catastrophe, we must recognize and offer special thanks to the Department of Public Safety for their heroic efforts in attempting to save Mary. Also, appreciation and thanks go to the three building superintendents for the coordination of the evacuation of the residents of the surrounding apartments and floors.




We(Amy, not Scott because he slept right through it all) were awakened early to the sounds of fire trucks radio communications and high pressure hoses spraying the floor above us. Our hallway definitely smells like, well you know. The walls in the hallway are ripped open to inspect for fire damage and water damage. Our apartment is fine. Lots of chatter amongst residents. Sad situation.

9/26/08

This one's for you Dana.

What you are about to see is the evolution of a picture day sitting as performed by Jonathan. Enjoy.
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9/14/08

Changes

Scott and I are moving to a new church community. Nothing at all negative about our past church, in fact, it saw us through our first 2 years in the city and introduced us to some great people. We were just feeling the call that we could be better used somewhere else. God is funny how he works sometimes-we are now a part of another church plant in the West Village named City Grace Church, which has a pastor named Steve, who is married to one of my favorite people in the city, Dana. Scott is playing the bass there, alongside Ashley Jones, who Scott was raised with back in Tampa. It's a small world sometimes.
Check it out if you have the time. I can't get the link option to work, so type this into your browser: http://www.citygrace.org/

On the road again





Lame title. I know. That aside, Scott had a photo shoot out of the city yesterday, so I tagged along. We went up to Westchester County, NY. It was beautiful!! I think I am loving the areas that surround this amazing city. Above are some shots from the car window.

Filming




These pictures don't really paint the full picture, or any picture at all as they are a bit blury, but it's all I could get without looking lame. A production company was filming a commercial right in front of our building this week. I walked around the set some, hands in pockets, being super casual and aloof, then as my desperation rose, I asked as casually as I could what they were filming and if they needed any extra's. The reply was, "I have no idea. I just work the cameras." Doh!
All I could gather was that it was a commercial set during the winter, as they had snow machines that covered our front courtyard area in "snow". I have zero pictures of that though.

RENT




RENT is my all time favorite Broadway production. It sadly went off the stage this past weekend, but thanks to the DeVore family, we were able to score tickets to one of the last performances. Thank you guys-that was an amazing birthday present!!!! I'm not going to lie....I cried during the all cast song of Seasons of Love. Scott enjoyed it too. That means, it's a good play.

9/8/08

Hanna

The remnants of TS Hanna came up the coast and got to NYC on Saturday. We didn't really get much in the way of wind. Just a little gusty and rainy. Here are two pics of the view of it out our window. Just kinda looks like a normal night.

8/30/08

Fire in 1014

Last night was date night, but it was a little more eventful than the norm....Just a few minutes after we arrived back at our apartment, the building's fire alarm began to sound, and our tiny home filled with the smell of smoke. When you live with a ga-million people above you, under you, and across the way from you, these things become common practice, but this was the first time we could actually feel the effects, and were worried. Our door handle wasn't hot, so I opened it, and saw this:

They were running from door to door telling us the fire was on our floor and to stay inside our apartments. We did, but the smell was awful and making us sick.
We leaned out of our windows for air, and this was the view:
It finally got so bad that I opened our door again and a firefighter saw me and told me it was okay to use the back stairs and exit.

It was close to midnight, and all we had grabbed were our phones and 75cents (Scott's doing) so we walked around the grocery store and the island for an hour, in hopes that our apartment would air out and we could return home.

Long story short, our apartment is fine. The neighbor in 1014 burnt their dinner and had a kitchen fire. Thanks guy.