Dirk Eusterbrock: Emotive Pixelations

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Still in New York, I swear!!!

I woke up in a grumpy mood today. Don't really know why... I guess it particularly frustrated me as I was in a great mood for last few days and had hoped that this would somehow last longer... I had shot in in the last few days but couldn't figure out a common theme... I still can't but decided to post some images anyway... I'm going to start with the two images I liked from today's trip...

I'm always fascinated by signs that I can't read. And thankful that I don't need to rely on that particular info. This is at the Grand St. station (B, D line). I sometimes ask myself if this series makes any sense... I mean I like doing it and following to where it leads me, but does it add anything... Mmmh... Maybe that's just moody me thinking!

There are some inbuilt station entrances in the city... Not all are pretty or easy to shoot... I like this one!

This is now from the end of last week... I like the entrance... It somehow looks crooked... Still like it though!

Walking along 57 St...

Other entrance of same station...

Carnegie Hall in the background... Not that easy to shoot as it is one of those buildings that are covered by scaffolding for practically ever! I don't understand how this works in this city... Shops must seriously be in trouble if this happens to them as they almost become invisible...

A new (to me) style of station indicator lamp... Seems not to be that sturdy... Most of the ones at that station were damaged. (The plexi had detached from the metal.)

My timing was not that great... Tons of people waiting to get into the venue to see one of the three sold out Furthur shows...

Still wanted to shoot this then as I'm not in this neighborhood at this time of day that often...

Further down the street...

Closer to Time Square... Display screens lighting up the building in the back...

On my way back home... Lovely 59 St station... Almost there!

After enjoying the image of the 96 St signal immensely I wanted to see what other stations have cool signal setups as well... Finally I found a good use for central-platform stations! ;)

O is for... This is from Sunday morning... Not very early, but at least early enough as I wanted to visit the Time Square area...

Office...

In front of the Playwright Tavern...

People... In Time Square... But it definitely shows that I was there early...

I walked further south to 34 St and made my way back from there... Another one for the signal series...

Another signal setup at 34 St.

Signal at 125 St (A, B, C, D line)

And finally the last signal of this post... Stop!

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Beavers and blue skies

To counterbalance another gray day I decided to post images of my Sunday trip... When I showed one of my aikido teachers my project she told me about the 8 St - Astor Place station and that she was especially fond of some of the tile work there: An image of a beaver... I was happy to go and check it out as I don't use that station much... I'd rather take the 8 St. stop on the N, R line since it is so close by... (By the way, I can never really figure out what the difference between the N and R is... Almost like the 1 and 9 in the old days...) Anyway, it was a great sunny morning with blue skies... A little cold, but pretty... I usually prefer more subdued light when working as I can bring up the contrast later if I want to... But I guess that's what this project is about: Adapting to different circumstances...

Sunday mornings are great for taking pictures in the streets of New York... Although the city apparantly never sleeps, it is definitely quite slow early on Sundays... But since the trains are scheduled not as frequently people tend to get stuck inside the stations longer... So note to self: Getting up early on Sundays is good for this project when the weather is right! Above image is from the entrance to Astor Place station.

Another detail from the same entrance.

I haven't seen an entrance quite like this before... The iron work (scales? feathers?) on the roof I have encountered before though... In gray at the Wall St station (4, 5 line) and in black at the Borough Hall station in Brooklyn... Beautiful!

Scale structure against window structure...

A friendly person pointed to the mirrored building and remarked that it would make a great shot with it reflecting the older buildings around... At first I was not convinced as I didn't see how to connect it to the subway... I guess I came around after all! Thank you, kind person!

The red K is in the back! Not sure if the composition is really working, but decided to post it anyway... This project is a work in progress, the images and the selections are not really finalized yet...

Shapes and color...

I sometimes hesitate to use this kind of image as I learned in my formal training that this is not the official way of shooting architecture! Things should be straight! And not at weird angles... But sometimes I find that straight angles don't quite give me the content I want and I try to embrace this more photo journalistic look...

The famed beaver! Lovely indeed!

And finally some more modern art... By this time the day had progressed too far to shoot inside in peace and I headed home...

Monday, March 21, 2011

The only one

I don't know... Today was somehow a crappy day... The heating stopped working in our building and I know it's supposed to be spring now, but the weather doesn't seem to know that yet! As well it was rainy and gray... And I'm trying to change my nutrition and the first days of that are usually not fun... Nevertheless I went out to take some pictures... This is the only one which made it through my selection process... Most of the others will need to be reshot or best forgotten! :P With this one I'm quite happy though... (Maybe if in a better mood I'd be ecstatic, who knows!)

Signal at 96 St station (1, 2, 3 lines).

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Going in circles... (mainly in Brooklyn)

In today's post I'm going to show images from yesterday's trip... Originally I wanted to go to Delancey St station... From my time living in Brooklyn I still recalled the station being quite dark and grimy... Somehow I decided to stay on the A train that I happened to catch at 125 St all the way to Jay St... I know it was not the quickest route, but I wanted to check out what changed in that station since it was renamed Jay St - Metro Tech (and had the R line added). I have to say, it used to be a mess in the past, but the renovation looks so perfect that I felt its soul had been ripped out... Maybe I'll just have to give it a few years... ;)

The R line part of Jay St - Metro Tech station... Hadn't seen a station with black walls yet...

Yet another mirror design...

Fabulous building at Jay St station exit...

Close up of globe light in front of same building...

Across the street from the beautiful building before...

Closeup of globe with statue...

Globe in front of a store called "Destiny"... Are globes my destiny?

Still exit of Jay St station...

I find that area of Brooklyn quite confusing... I love the buildings, but have a hard time navigating down there... (hence the title for this post)

This area at Jay St has been under construction for a long time now...
Can't really recall these lamps from earlier visits, but they are different and I like that!

Beautiful iron work outside Borough Hall station... Light was not ideal for more shots... Have to go back!

Wow! Isn't this something? I'm really impressed by that station ID!

Not quite sure what this is about... Entrance to Borough Hall station...

From Borough Hall station I walked to High St station hoping I'd catch a good view onto Brooklyn Bridge... But nope, that's a no go! Still happy I went: Love this shot!

I walked by the Clark St station which is set up in the same building as the defunct Hotel St. George... Crazy layout! Need to look into ways of making that look good... So I walked some more to Court St station where I found this lovely setup of pre-globe lanterns and a back lit church...