A Visit to Scottsdale

 Travels  No Responses »
Feb 022013
 

We visited downtown Scottsdale today – to go to the market and then to see some the downtown. It is interesting to see the downtown of a city practically completely developed during the twentieth century.

There are, apparently, only about eight buildings pre-1930. So, It is a very new place and buildings get continually replaced. We had a very interesting discussion about this church we visited. It essentially became a derelict and was soon to be yet one more parking lot. It has been saved and restored – one of these eight surviving buildings.

There are few multi-story buildings downtown – most are one story buildings built in the latter half of the 20th century. To compete with the urban sprawl metro Phoenix is known for, downtown Scottsdale provides free and practically unlimited parking. It is really a very walkable town and, given the design of some of the roads, it offers real opportunities for them – such as their extensive arts district with the associated Thursday night art walks.

 

Antelope Canyon

 Photography, Utah  No Responses »
Jan 092013
 
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In the Spring, 2012, a friend and I travelled to southern Utah and northern Arizona for a week of photography.  We visited Antelope Canyon near Page, Arizona one day.  We were in Upper Antelope Canyon — there is also a Lower Canyon which we did not visit.

My photo gallery is right here.

As these are on Navajo land and the terrain is pretty inhospitable, you need to hire a guide for your travels to the Upper Canyon — you travel a couple miles through a very sandy bed where it was apparent that even experienced drivers with substantial four wheel drive vehicles could get stuck.  We had about 90 minutes inside this narrow slot canyon — along with a host of other travellers and their guides.

There have been some rather famous pictures taken in these slot canyons — mine are really a weak expression of what is there.  But, it is an amazing spot.

The guide on our tour told us of the need to adjust the white balance when we took our pictures off the camera.  When you are low down in a slot canyon, the light that reaches you has bounced off canyon walls many times and the whole character of the light has changed from anything your camera sensor is used to seeing.  In many cases, the colour was very muted if I didn’t adjust the white balance — the camera was seeing all this light that had been influenced by the coloured walls and was trying to make it white.

Enjoy the photo gallery right here.

Night shots in New York

 New York, Travels  No Responses »
Nov 292012
 

While visiting New York, I carried a small Canon camera during the evening and used it to capture a few night shots.  It has much better low-light sensitivity than my oldish Canon XTi SLR.  And, it is much easier to slip in a pocket when you are for dinner or a play or …  Sometimes, it was a bit hard to hold the small camera steady …

 

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Street Art in NYC

 New York, Travels  No Responses »
Nov 282012
 

 

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While walking through New York, I took a few images of some of the striking art on the walls etc.  Some of this is in the wanted art category (i.e. it was a desired addition to the building) while some was very much in the unwanted art category (typically called graffiti.)  To my eye, there are examples of good and poor art in both the wanted and unwanted category.  Every city struggles with the unwanted art that is added to walls in the city — particularly when the art is such many people don’t find it pleasing.  Lets face it, not all artists are like Banksy.

Anyway, here are a few images of street art that I enjoyed at some level.

 

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Walking the High Line

 New York, Travels  No Responses »
Nov 232012
 

 

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A truly memorable part of New York was walking the High Line.  This is an example of urban renewal done twice.  First, the High Line was built to take traffic off the surface train tracks — the tracks were elevated 30 feet in the air creating smoother traffic etc. on the ground.  After decades of service, the train was not being used as much and fell into disuse and disrepair.  Local community activists lobby for it’s renewal as an elevated park space.  Actual work began in 2006 to create this park space.  One final section awaits renewal and all that is saved will be open to the public.

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For us, it was simply a grand space to walk and see views of the city that we would otherwise have not seen.  At any of the stairs or elevators up,  you can descend to explore the local restaurants, shops etc. including Chelsea Market.  

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We need to pay attention to our urban infrastructure — not only for what it is today but for what it can be in the future.  I am not suggesting the former Rat Hole in Edmonton would have been worth saving …  but I love the continued use of both levels of the High Level bridge.

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MoMA: Museum of Modern Art

 New York, Travels  No Responses »
Nov 212012
 

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While in New York, we visited MoMA:  The Museum of Modern Art.  There are things to be seen throughout but the 5th floor is quite amazing.  Something incredible in every room.

After we visited, I read of the recent lawsuit regarding admission prices to the MoMA.  The ‘crystal clear’ signage is that the admission of $25/adult is actually voluntary — legally, the Museum must be pay what you will/can.  For me, the fifth floor along justifies this price to someone who can afford it but I truly hope they make the voluntary notion of this admission clear to those less fortunate.  It is really not clear that they do.

This is one museum that allows you to take photos (no flash) of the pieces in their collection — but not of the pieces that are visiting and not part of their collection.  A decent approach.  I never understand exactly why photos are not permitted in galleries — it is hardly the case that a photo can represent anything near the original and, presumably, visitors are sharing these representations which is promotion for the museum.

My images are mostly representations of the reality — creating an abstract version of an abstract image.

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Homage to J. S. Bach

Strawberry Fields

 New York, Travels  No Responses »
Nov 202012
 

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As part of our walk through Central Park, we visited a section that has been redone to commemorate John Lennon.  Personally, I was blissfully unaware such a place existed in the park but not so my travelling companions.

As we came to the central part of it (where this Imagine logo was), there was a notice requesting quiet — befitting the fact that this was a memorial.  I could hear a busker playing a guitar and my initial reaction was not positive — wondering why  he felt he could interrupt the quiet simply to make a buck.

20121110 IMG 0082 I was quite wrong.  It only took a minute or two of listening to realize his playing was really very appropriate — a completely acoustic treatment of various Beatle’s tunes.  Very well done.

It is always valuable to reject those first impressions and actually let people speak to you.  Notwithstanding some people’s views, first impressions can be so wrong — so influenced by our own thoughts, biases etc.  We always need to quiet that little voice of judgement in our head and listen for what is truly there and not simply what we want to be there.

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Walking the Brooklyn Bridge

 New York, Travels  1 Response »
Nov 182012
 

Early in our trip, we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. About the first third of it is being repaired so views are limited by the protective fences installed. But, after that, one has some very interesting views of Manhattan, the water and a distant view of the Statue of Liberty.

The image of the locks was taken on the bridge. Looks like a local tradition – each lock has a couple names and a date engraved on it. An engagement date? A wedding date? A first date anniversary? I never learned.

I haven't put all my pictures on my iPad and I am coming to realize it is my favorite place to blog from – there is a certain simplicity doing it on this device. Some things are more difficult so I just don't try to do them ..

 

App’y Travels

 New York, Travels  No Responses »
Nov 172012
 

We used more apps on smart phones on this trip than we have historically.

The most used app was a free app from TripAdvisor – their city guide to New York. Only as I started to use it did I realize how helpful it was. We used it's ratings to help us pick restaurants to eat at and we found that function to be really useful – it helped us discover great spots that we otherwise would not have found. I had used it to download offline maps of New York while I had wifi access. These turned out to be great as, even with no cellular coverage, these maps would always have my gps location on them. So, they were really helpful finding directions through some of the neighbourhoods to find a particular place.

I also had an NYC subway app. We used it less than the hard copy map we had as it was just a bit harder to use. But, as I got used to it, i found it more helpful each day. We slowly learned thatnit was more accurate than at least one of our hard copy maps. There are a number of choices for such subway apps so perhaps there was a better one. It can be hard to choose.

We used a Fodor's app on NYC. Honestly, it was the least useful of the bunch. Not as up to date and a more narrow collection of information.

I learned a lot about the value that apps are bringin to travel and will use them more in the future.

 

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Central Park Stroll

 New York, Travels  No Responses »
Nov 112012
 

We spent a good part of Saturday walking the south end of Central Park. Along with many many others.

It really illustrates how big people's dreams were in the 1920's. This is a completely built environment that was started at that time. Consider just how big that was at the time given the scale of the park. I have also thought of this when I look at the legislature buildings built in many of the Canadian provinces – particularly the west. I doubt any politician today could commit an equivalent portion of their provincial budget to such a capital construction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My travelling companions in Central Park today.
A section of Central Park called Strawberry Fields was renewed with support from Yoko Ono and her supporters – to recognize the Beatles and particularly John Lennon. There was a man playing guitar versions of their songs adding a certain poignancy to the place.

 

Maybe my favorite shot from the day in Central Park.

 

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