Some pix for NYC

Phew! What a few weeks it's been. This is the longest I've gone without posting since I began blogging very early this year. I guess I didn't anticipate how busy my first Christmas would be as a married man. More on my Christmas in a bit - I wanna catch up on some posts first.

A few weekends ago, we got a chance to visit New York City while it was all decked out for Christmas. It was my first time in the city in December, and it was awesome. Here are a few pictures of our trip. ...

Not long after arriving in the city, we enjoyed a great meal at Carmine's, one block off of Broadway. Awesome Italian food!

Bonus - Carmine's uses energy-saving bulbs. Yes, I know, me and Al Gore and other assorted environmental dorks are the people who notice this stuff.

Next, we checked into the Marriott Marquis, and this was the view from our room, overlooking Times Square.

Another view.

And one more - this is my favorite snap of our view from our room. The Marriott Marquis is one fantastic place to stay, and an expensive one. Thank God for hotel points.

We laughed when we rean across this Pimped Out Sleigh in an MTV storefront.

This is a view of Radio City Music Hall from a few blocks away.

A street vendor near Radio City Music Hall.

Next we headed to Central Park for a skate on the rink. It was packed! I'd never seen so many people on a skating rink at one time. We had fun, but the rental skates were anything but optimal.

Our friend Robin and Vandra at the rink.

The lighting wasn't too friendly, or plentiful, so I decided to get creative with some shots. Panning is one of my favorite techniques. These aren't great, but they turned out okay. Here's another one...

These don't always turn out great, but it's fun experimenting with panning. It's a cool effect, and it eliminates camera shake in low light, because you're moving the camera.

Another one of my favorite techniques - zooming while taking the picture. I actually really like this picture of Vandra.

One final pic before we head to the Rock to see the tree.

On the way, I decided to have some fun with the camera. I did a drag shutter on purpose.

And...
Pow! Just havin' some fun.

This is the front of Sak's at night. It was pretty cool; every 1/2 hour (I think), the lights go out, and then they light up to the lyrics of Carol of the Bells.

The tree at the Rock. It was awesome! A sea of people, but it was worth fighting the crowd. We didn't skate there - the rink is small, and it was cleared out anyway while we were there because two guys had just proposed to their girlfriends.

One more view of the tree, but vertical. I like this one. There's distortion because I took the shot at 24mm, and when you do that, the lines bend on the edges of an image. Sometimes this distortion is desireable; and I think it works for this shot.We saw this guy on the way back to our hotel. It was the third night of Hanukkah. A menorah on wheels - cool! He was nice - I walked up and asked him if I could take his picture, he said sure, and asked if I was Jewish. I said no, but he smiled and offered me some literature. Cool guy, cool car.

A few more sights before we called it a night...

St. Patrick's Cathedral at night. I almost fell about 10 feet on my ass trying to get this shot. I climbed a statue across the street, trying to be the big-time photographer, and I almost crashed to the ground. Thank God I managed to keep my balance, jumping to the ground, all while not dropping my camera. Anyway, lesson learned.

This was the best shot of the bunch. It's a gorgeous building, and it looks best at night.

The window displays were the best - I can't imagine how much work and planning went into designing and building all of them.

Another cool storefront - decked out for Christmas.

Those belts are lights!

I got this shot shortly before we left on Sunday afternoon. Only in New York.