ManicMaurice.com

More Photographic Love for Astoria

ManicMaurice — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 06:41:51 +0000

More love for my NYC stomping grounds, Astoria. When I first moved out here I honestly found it pretty visually uninspiring. But I’m starting to feel like I’m finally finding a photographic groove that fits pretty well with my new surroundings. Sure, it’s not Riverside Park, the Upper West Side, Columbia University, or Washington Heights, but I’m finding that Astoria’s got a charm all its own.

Now for the disclaimer: This shot might give my non-NYC-dwelling-people the wrong impression of NYC and Astoria. It might specifically seem to reinforce several stereotypes about NYC that you might have heard, namely that it’s dirty and dangerous. Well, I do have to admit that it’s not exactly all polish and shine, but it’s also not exactly dirty — just well loved. And as far as it being dangerous, that’s not really true either. Just stay out of dark alleys, don’t flash your cash and valuables around, and generally use your common sense and you’ll be just fine. (words to live by no matter where you live)

And now on to the photo …

Astoria, NY // Sleepin it off

I did something a little different with this one. I developed it with a cross processed look. I know that cross processing is sometimes seen as cliche these days, but I just couldn’t resist, the image just seemed to be begging to be cross processed. And besides, I like the cross processed look. I feel it really adds something exciting and interesting to what might usually be seen as slightly bland everyday urban lifestyle images. In fact, I like it so much that I’m working on building a Photoshop action to partially automate the application of the cross processed look. I’m still refining the action, but once I’m happy with it I’ll write up a post and share it, so keep your eyes peeled.

Joby Gorillapod Focus // Fail

ManicMaurice — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:24:44 +0000

I purchased a Joby Gorillapod Focus earlier today from B&H Photo in New York City. I walked around the corner to the James Farley Post Office and using the built-in 1/4″ screw I attached my Nikon D90 to the Gorillapod’s mounting platform and proceeded to wrap the Gorillapod’s legs around the railing on the post office steps. Then the unexpected happened, two of the Gorillapod Focus’ legs popped off in my hands and my Nikon D90 nearly went crashing to the pavement below. Luckily for me, I wasn’t yet convinced of the Gorillapod’s ability to safely hold my camera, so I still had the camera strap around my neck.

The most disappointing part of this whole sad saga is that I was really looking forward to using the Gorillapod Focus to capture some long exposures of New York City, like the one I made of the RFK/Triborough Bridge. I had been holding off on buying a Gorillapod for a while now because, to be perfectly honest, the look of them doesn’t necessarily instill confidence. But after seeing stunts like this on Lisa Bettany’s photostream I was feeling more confident about a purchase. Oh well, I guess I will have to resort to using a traditional tripod. Unfortunately though, most of the NYC long exposure shots I had in mind were only possible thanks to the Gorillapod’s versatility, so they will probably have to go back on hold for the time being.

On the bright side, I was able to return the broken Gorillapod to B&H Photo less than an hour after purchasing it, so at least I’m not out $100. I had literally owned it for such a short period of time that when I returned to B&H my receipt info wasn’t even in the returns department’s computer systems yet. Fortunately though, they were able to look-up the transaction and they refunded me the full purchase price, no questions asked.

Yet Another Theme Update v0.02 (and counting)

ManicMaurice — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 07:58:59 +0000

So once again it is just after 4am and I need to get my butt into bed. I really wish I could figure out how I manage so successfully to zone out, loose track of time, and focus so intently when I’m working on a computer. If I could figure that out, I would write a self-help blog on the topic and probably end up pretty wealthy. At any rate, what you see before you are the latest additions to the site.

I re-added my Twitter updates and did a little more work formatting it with CSS this time. In case anyone is interested, the feed is accomplished with Ricardo González excellent Wordpress plugin, Twitter for Wordpress. If you’re looking for a Twitter sidebar plugin I whole heartedly recommend you at least take a look at Ricardo’s. I demoed several other Twitter plugins, but non of them were as simple to configure and as easy to incorporate into the look of my site using nothing but valid CSS.

I’ve also re-incorporated my Flickr photos into the layout of the site. I’m still not sure if I like how I currently have them oriented within the site’s layout, but it will work until I can get some more free time to figure out something else. This portion of the site is accomplished using Dave Kellam and Stefano Verna infinitely configurable FlickrRSS Wordpress plugin. Since I opted not to use it as a sidebar widget I’ve embedded some PHP code in the site’s Wordpress header file. It is a pretty straight forward system. The images are pulled from a Flickr set consisting of random photos from my photostream that I am generating using Dopiaza’s Set Generator. It is a hacked together solution and one that I’m pretty sure I will change in the future, but until I get a chance to dig further into the Flickr API it will have to suffice. Eventually I would like to have it display a random selection of my most interesting photos according to Flickr’s Interestingness Algorithm, but that will have to wait for another day.

Okay folks, I’m off to bed. But before I go, I’ll leave you with some of my Flickr uploads to peruse.

This is a set of three images from last summer. It was just shortly after I got my first SLR, a Nikon D80. I was sitting on the steps outside of James Farley Post Office across from Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden. I was experimenting with long exposures of several seconds or more and I ended up coming home with several shots that I still get a kick out of to this day.

The first photo is of a woman who was also sitting on the steps of the post office. I setup my camera to capture her in the hopes that I would get an image of her sitting all lone in an empty New York City. Well what I got was close. Here take a look …

This last image is also from the same location on the same day. In this photo I was practicing timing my shutter release with the walk signs and traffic lights in the hopes of capturing spooky ghostly outlines of human figures. I have to admit that most of the images didn’t really work out. People in NYC tend to just do whatever they want no matter what traffic lights and signs might indicate, pedestrians and drivers alike. But I already knew that, so I’m not sure what I was expecting. But anyway, here’s one of the images that actually sort of worked out in the fashion that I had in mind.

Okay, now I’m really off to sleep. Hope you all enjoy the updates to the site. If you have any comments or suggestions please visit my contact page and drop me an email or send me a direct message via Twitter. I haven’t done any work on the Wordpress comments section yet, but rest assured, it’s on my very-short-to-do-list.

Night guys …

New Website Theme v0.01

ManicMaurice — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 05:50:09 +0000

I stole some time away from my work schedule (time that I probably should have spent running errands, doing laundry, or sleeping) and did some more hacking on my WordPress theme. It is far from complete, but I’m stating to get a handle on how WordPress generates it’s pages and I finally managed to wrangle all the bugs out of my CSS Sticky Footer implementation.

It’s nothing special, but it’s a start. Back to the grind … having to pay bills sucks …

Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit Amet (long)

Website Administrator — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 05:30:30 +0000

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Curabitur tortor. Pellentesque nibh. Aenean quam. In scelerisque sem at dolor. Maecenas mattis. Sed convallis tristique sem. Proin ut ligula vel nunc egestas porttitor. Morbi lectus risus, iaculis vel, suscipit quis, luctus non, massa. Fusce ac turpis quis ligula lacinia aliquet. Mauris ipsum. Nulla metus metus, ullamcorper vel, tincidunt sed, euismod in, nibh.

Quisque volutpat condimentum velit. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Nam nec ante. Sed lacinia, urna non tincidunt mattis, tortor neque adipiscing diam, a cursus ipsum ante quis turpis. Nulla facilisi. Ut fringilla. Suspendisse potenti. Nunc feugiat mi a tellus consequat imperdiet. Vestibulum sapien. Proin quam. Etiam ultrices. Suspendisse in justo eu magna luctus suscipit.

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Nulla facilisi. Integer lacinia sollicitudin massa. Cras metus. Sed aliquet risus a tortor. Integer id quam. Morbi mi. Quisque nisl felis, venenatis tristique, dignissim in, ultrices sit amet, augue. Proin sodales libero eget ante. Nulla quam. Aenean laoreet. Vestibulum nisi lectus, commodo ac, facilisis ac, ultricies eu, pede. Ut orci risus, accumsan porttitor, cursus quis, aliquet eget, justo. Sed pretium blandit orci. Ut eu diam at pede suscipit sodales.

Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit Amet (short)

Website Administrator — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 05:28:54 +0000

Work Superceeds Website Time

ManicMaurice — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 00:51:37 +0000

Well the site started off with a bang, but then work and my need to pay the bills quickly overtook my free time. I’m learning the mix on a new musical and it has proven to be more of a bear than I initially expected. And quite a bit of my free time is being eaten up by practicing the show’s mix. In years past it wouldn’t have taken me nearly this much effort to learn a new show, but it has been at least 3 +/- years since I mixed a theater show and my speed and focus are extremely rusty. Like I told the show’s engineer, I’m finding that mixing a show is not at all like riding a bike. But overall I’m glad that I took the gig, I like to challenge myself and revisiting old skills is always a perfect way to keep the mind fresh.

At any rate, my responsibilities on this show will be complete by the end of this month. And then everything should settle back down again, giving me time to once again work on my photography and my website. So don’t go away just yet. Just take a break for the month and check back a week or two into September.

Or better yet subscribe to my RSS feed and I’ll pop up on your radar when I’m back.

But in the mean time, dig into my photostream and leave me lots of comments. I’m always looking for constructive criticism, so fire away.

I’ll help get you started with my latest Flickr upload, Busking Bean. It’s a candid portrait of Bean, a street performer I ran across a few weeks back. She was signing her heart out down in the East Village. I took a few candid street shots of her and tipped her a couple bucks, but she stopped me before I walked off. We talked for a few mins and she ended up asking me to be sure and post a picture of her “singing for her supper” so she could show her family and friends back home. So Bean, this one’s for you …

Busking Bean

HaHa! New Problem

ManicMaurice — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:22:18 +0000

Internet Explorer won’t load this site. It just sits endlessly “connecting” …

Oh well, at least Firefox, Google Chrome, & Apple Safari work.

Hacking Together a New Theme

Website Administrator — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:54:13 +0000

I spent a good deal of time stripping down the default theme and now I’m in the process of rebuilding it. It’s frustrating to see that after all these years the various browser vendors still haven’t gotten things sorted out. So far the site renders correctly in FireFox and Internet Explorer, but is broken in Google’s Chrome Browser and Apple’s Safari Browser. Hmm, looks like WebKit doesn’t like my code …

!! Update — Fixed? !!

Looks like I found the solution. I needed to add “overflow:auto” to the CSS for the site’s main

container/wrapper.

Work in Progress

ManicMaurice — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 23:03:22 +0000

This is my personal site. It’s basically a testing ground for my new website ideas and a place for me to collect of all my random ramblings. In other words, if I can’t say it in 140 characters or less and I’m not ready for it to go live on a more important site it will probably appear on here.

However, please don’t expect anything big right away. I’m still getting back up to speed on HTML, CSS, & PHP. Once upon a time I managed several websites all based on phpBB, but that was a few years and a couple careers ago and the brain cobwebs have set-in. Plus I’m attempting to go the WordPress route with this site, so the learning curve is a little more steep than if I just used phpBB or coded and built it all myself. Basically I have to figure out the method of the madness of yet another group of web developers. Fortunately though, WordPress seem pretty well thought out, so I don’t expect to encounter too many roadblocks along the way.

At any rate, keep checking back because around here the only constant is change …