Photography – Page 29 – Geeky Girl Engineer

July 4th Fireworks

Posted on July 5, 2013 by geek

July 4th fireworks over the National Mall are always great. I found out about a spot on the Mt. Vernon trail where you can see the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, and the Capitol all in one frame, so I headed there to take fireworks photos. It is a great location, but next time I will know better how high the fireworks go in relation to my photo frame and make adjustments, like putting the photo in portrait instead of landscape or using my regular lens instead of the zoom lens. No, I’m never happy with my photographs.

Central Park in June

Posted on June 6, 2013 by geek

I love New York City’s Central Park. Then again, I suppose anyone who has ever been there loves it. I spent part of my recent trip to New York wandering around Central Park. Here are a few photos from my visit.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir

The Lake

stone staircase

rock outcrop

metal bridge

ravine

rose

flame azalea

allium flower

Belvedere Castle

carved concrete column

My First Trip to Brooklyn

Posted on June 5, 2013 by geek

I’ve been to New York City numerous times, but for as many times as I’ve been, I’ve never ventured outside of Manhattan. My guess is I’m not the only tourist who has done this. On this past trip, I decided I need to explore a bit of Brooklyn, partially because I wanted to go to the New York Transit Museum. Brooklyn is huge, so I couldn’t see everything, but I walked around a bit of downtown, Brooklyn Heights, and DUMBO. Downtown Brooklyn has some nice office and municipal buildings and a nice little park.

Brooklyn Borough Hall

Cadman Plaza Park

Then I walked to the Brooklyn Promenade, which is just a lovely elevated park-like walk area with spectacular views of Upper New York Bay, downtown Manhattan, and the East River.

Brooklyn Promenade

view of downtown Manhattan from Brooklyn Promenade

view of Statue of Liberty from Brooklyn Promenade

view of East River from Brooklyn Promenade

Then I walked to the area around the Brooklyn Bridge tower.

Underneath the Brooklyn Bridge

Manhattan Bridge as seen from Brooklyn Bridge Park

I then walked to DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass). It has a nice waterfront area as well as some neat shops. Also, it has hipsters.

Manhattan Bridge Arch

Finally I walked around Brooklyn Heights. It is a lovely area with classic tree lined streets of row houses.

Brooklyn Heights

Those are the highlights of my first trip to Brooklyn. There is still more to explore. I shall return someday.

Central Park Turtle Who Loves Being Photographed

Posted on June 2, 2013 by geek

Wandering through Central Park yesterday, I encountered this turtle. He was in the grass right off of the Turtle Pond within a foot of the fencing to protect either the grass or wildlife or both. He totally wanted his photo taken. He just sat there while people walked by and would helpfully turn his head a bit so that everyone could get his best side. Really though he was so cute, he had no worst side. Then when he had had his paparazzi fix, he walked slowly back to the water, knowledgable that at least one photographer (me) would post his photos in a blog post and at least two photographers (my sister and me) would post his photo to Twitter. Life is good when you are a turtle in Central Park.

My questions for the Internet are: Can anyone identify for me what type of turtle this is? And what is that thing beneath his mouth that kind of looks like a tongue?

Update: I’ve had a suggestion that it is red-eared slider (Trachemys scripta elegans), which appears to be correct based on photos and NYC Central Park’s website. Still not sure what the thing below his mouth is.

New York’s Highline Park in Bloom

Posted on May 31, 2013 by geek

Last January I visited New York’s Highline Park for the first time. I thought the park was wonderful even in winter when all the plants are dormant. On my next trip to New York, I had to go back. The park is even more beautiful in summer when all the plants are green and flowers are blooming. It is a wonderful oasis above the busy Manhattan streets. Below are a few photos from my most recent trip.

Orchids, Orchids, and More Orchids

Posted on April 27, 2013 by geek

Last weekend I went to see National Museum of Natural History’s 2013 Orchids of Latin America exhibit. The exhibit is now over, but it had an amazing variety of orchids. I love orchids. I think they are insanely beautiful, and I am amazed by the variety of them. Granted, some of that variety is due to humans breeding them. Below are photos of some of the orchids that were there.

Cherry Blossom Time

Posted on April 8, 2013 by geek

I’ve lived in the DC area for two years now, and this is the first time I’ve visited the Tidal Basin to see the cherry blossoms. They were not quite in full bloom when I visited, but they were still quite pretty, and the DC monuments provide a nice backdrop for many of the photos. Here are a few of the photos I took.

Cherry blossoms

Cherry tree with Potomac River and Arlington Memorial Bridge

Cherry trees blooming on Potomac River near the 365 bridge

Cherry blossoms on Tidal Basin with more cherry trees blooming on other side

The Jefferson Memorial provides a lovely backdrop for cherry blossom photos.

Cherry blossoms with the Jefferson Memorial

Other beautiful flowers are blooming near the Tidal Basin also, including one of my favorite flowers, saucer magnolias.

Saucer magnolia (Magnolia × soulangeana)

Saucer magnolia at the George Mason Memorial

Saucer magnolia with the Washington Monument

Also forsythia is in full bloom.

Forsythia at the George Mason Memorial

Ai Weiwei: According To What?

Posted on February 6, 2013 by geek

This weekend I went to see the exhibit of Ai Weiwei’s work called “According to What?” that is currently at the Hirshhorn, part of the Smithsonian. Like I would imagine many people, I was somewhat familiar with him as a Chinese activist, but I had never actually seen any of his work. The exhibit features sculptures and photographs, but I found the sculptures to be the most interesting. I don’t presume to know almost anything about art, especially modern art. I like some things. I don’t like other things. I simply don’t get or understand many things. I am not sure I understand much of Ai Weiwei’s work, but much of it did make me think, which I think is part of what he wants.

Ai Weiwei’s Light Cube

Possibly the biggest sculpture at the exhibit is Light Cube. It is this huge cube with amber colored beads or crystals on the outside and lights inside. I really don’t know what it is supposed to represent, but it is really cool to look at.

Ai Weiwei’s Straight

Another large sculpture is Straight. It is made of 38 tons of rebar recovered from collapsed schools in Sichuan, China after the 2008 earthquake. The rebar was evidently carefully straightened after it was recovered. Straightening rebar is no easy feat. Photographs of the devastation are on a nearby wall. The sculpture certainly makes you think about the devastation of the earthquake. The way the rebar is placed makes me think of a fault line and topography, but I have no idea if, assuming that is what it is supposed to represent, it is an accurate representation of the Sichuan area. As an engineer, I love the use of rebar for art.

Ai Weiwei’s Bowl of Pearls

Bowl of Pearls is honestly one of the prettiest things I have ever seen. It is two huge bowls (as in about 3 feet in diameter) filled with freshwater pearls. It is absolutely gorgeous, and I have no idea what it means.

Ai Weiwei’s Bowl of Pearls, unclose view of pears.

The pearls are different shades and so pretty and luminous. Yes, I like pearls and shiny things. All I wanted to do was put my hands in there and run them through the pearls. It is like a giant zen sculpture or something.

Ai Weiwei’s Colored Vases

Colored Vases causes me torn emotions. I love the colors, and the vases are a lovely shape. I think the way the paint applied and allowed to run down causes a really nice effect. However, the vases are really old, from the Han Dynasty. Dipping these ancient vases in industrial paint strikes me as defacement. Evidently that is what he is trying to do. These are supposed to be a statement about the Chinese state. The vases are innocent victims in his political statement. I am very curious just how many Han Dynasty urns there are lying around that people can buy or just find. Can you just go buy one? How did he get a hold of so many of them?

Ai Weiwei’s Moon Chest

Moon Chest consists of several hollow wooden boxes lined up on a curve. Each box has four circular openings that are precisely cut so that they mimic the stages of a lunar eclipse.

Ai Weiwei’s Moon Chest, view of the aperture

The fun thing about this sculpture is that it turns almost everyone into a child. Almost everyone who walked by it and between the different boxes got up close and looked through the apertures and moved around to see how the view changes.

Ai Weiwei’s Divina Proportione and F Size

Divina Proportione and F Size are two giant, wooden buckyballs. I immediately thought of Buckminsterfullerene, but then again, I am a geeky engineer. I suppose the less geeky inclined might see soccer balls or geodesic domes. I have no idea how well they would roll, but yes, I would like to see them roll.

Ai Weiwei’s Forever

This is why China is having such horrible air pollution. People are having to take cars because Ai Weiwei has taken all the nice bicycles and used them for art. I was thoroughly impressed with how well he fit them together. Parts of the bicycles were cut off, and then they could be joined with bolts and nuts. The joints are really well done. Yes, clearly I am engineer as I was analyzing the construction method of this sculpture not what it means.

All of the above photos were taken by me. The Hirshhorn allowed non-flash photography for personal purposes. A few of my photos are slightly fuzzy because they were taken in low light without a flash and thus needed a longer shutter speed. I make no money off this blog, thus my understanding is this falls under personal use.

New York’s High Line Park

Posted on January 6, 2013 by geek

New York is a city so dense that they actually created a park elevated above the street. The High Line is a park created on an abandon, historic freight rail line that is elevated above the streets of Manhattan’s west side. The elevated structure was threatened with demolition, but community residents formed the Friends of the High Line and successfully fought for its preservation and transformation into the lovely park it is today. The first part opened in 2009, and a second portion opened in 2011. They are currently working on transforming a third and final section. The entire length of the structure has a paved trail, and there are plants almost the entire length of the trail. There is also public art along the park. The designers did a nice job of preserving the structure and accentuating that the park is built on an historic rail line.

In many places the rail tracks were left in place, and plants were planted in and around them.

It has a lawn area.

It goes under buildings that straddle the old tracks. There is an amphitheater of sorts that allows you to view the street below.

There are seating areas all along the park. This area has some nice lounging chairs.

The lounging chairs are really cool. Some of them are on wheels that roll on the railroad track, although they were locked, so they can’t be moved by the general public.

The benches are nicely designed to look like they have just been lifted out of the ground material.

It even has a movie theater. There is a projector above the seating area on the left of this photo.

At one location, it has a great view of the Statue of Liberty.Zoomed-in photo.Cool street views.

There is public art along the park. This cool installation is on the side of a building and is called Broken Bridge II and is by El Anatsui.

Louisiana Welcome Station

Posted on January 4, 2013 by geek

My recent trip to Louisiana included stopping at the Louisiana welcome station on I-10 at the border with Texas. Like most parts of southern Louisiana, it sits near a swamp and wetlands. It has a nice little trail through part of this swamp, which if you have ever driven on I-10 is a welcome diversion. Below are some photos of my visit there.