Monday, August 31, 2015

EVERYDAY VIEW OF NEW YORK , TWEAKED.....


ASPIRATION
Morning sky @ Hackensack,
 juxtaposed with scenes from New York. 

Time to say 'good-bye' to the current phase of our stay in the USA. Our stays here have so far been underlined by  serious events. When we reached  here in 2010, soon after our elder son's marriage, father of our daughter-in-law expired. This time - it was just the opposite - we were here to witness arrival of our grand-daughter. A girl for the 1st time in our family's lineage after two generations.

IN THE SHADOWS
(Street scene ,Broadway)

We were mostly indoors during the first part of our stay. Going out was either for shopping or to  hospital. During the later phase of our stay, went around to various locations for photography, the last one being a night  through streets and avenues of New York. Here is a collection of  my photos tweaked by Photoshop.

TOWARDS THE LAST LAP
(Street scene ,Broadway)

It is difficult to photograph street scenes in night. From moving cars, hindered by traffic ahead. And... without tripod. And... when one section of the frame is very bright, the other is not. Another problem I faced was garbage on footpath and vehicles for their  removal parked here & there.  

 CITY REFLECTS....
View across Hudson river ,from North Bergen


Wednesday, August 26, 2015

MONOCHROME SKY , GREEN EARTH ........

@ POCONO  STATE PARK, PENNSYLVANIA 





 Earth covered with green grass, wild flowers blooming. 
Sky covered with slate-coloured cloud.

This park on top of Camelback Mountain, Pennsylvania is at about 1980 ft height. The view reminded me of Mahabaleshwar, though the height of this hill resort of India is more than twice that of Camelback mountain.


Sun-set's splendour we missed.
An orange glow lit up the gap between the mountain range and cloud.


The observation point offers nearly 300 degree view, with Rim road, clearing at the top,walk-arounds. The observation point is a good picnic spot too, which benches and tables placed  facing both the visible ranges of hills on western and eastern sides.

View of mountain ranges,  winding road at a distance and 
a few glimpse of the Water Park among the trees near by

 This 'Mountain Back' is about 1 hour 45 minutes drive from our residence @ Hackensack - 82 miles or 145 Km. We drove along I-80, sometimes quite free, clogged with traffic occasionally. Crossed Delaware water gap - difficult to photograph while the car was speeding .The road up the hill was winding, as expected. We had little traffic during our climb up. There were traces of rain during the evening and many car owners started descending one after the other.

 Cars descending the winding path 
as the evening cloud threatens shower.


An arch-shaped cross-over seen from I-80, 
captured @ 65 mph (and PSed !).



Wednesday, August 12, 2015

OUR NEIGHBOURHOOD @ HACKENSACK ( NJ )




Sun rises above  eastern horizon while  neighbourhood at Passaic Street sleeps

View of south east horizon

View from our balcony here is awesome . Specially, when the sun rises in the morning. Again when the sun is near the western horizon , a part of Hackensack is sunlit, yet in the distant south-western horizon, the tall and very tall buildings are under part shadow, part lit-up.


 A closer view of our neighbourhood.
Greenery spreads  till the horizon.


Our block has Prospect Avenue in its front -cannot be viewed from  our balcony. What we find is a slice of Passaic Street and nice cottages along its eastern edge. Then lot of greenery till the eastern horizon. Not many buildings can be viewed surpassing the green canopy of trees.


  For a few minutes every clear evening, buildings acquire a blazing tint 

The western horizon is blocked by the neighbouring buildings. The south-western horizon has a completely different 'personality. Trees, buildings, cars running along Expressway 80 ( connects Hackensack to  George Washington Bridge ) . Still further away are the sky-scrappers of Manhattan.  Different at different hours of the day. Different under different conditions of the sky.


Manhattan as the sky pours over. 
Neighbouring buildings in RH side block the Western sky


Lighted buildings in the south western horizon 
on a clear evening/night is a view beyond description.
( Courtesy - Ruby Chatterji)

This sky-line looks so wonderful at night. Can be hardly captured in my DSLR camera, as we do not have a tripod here.Miss a  binocular very much.


Rain-soaked neighbourhood.Bad photograph- re-touched

Wonderful was the day (11th August) when it rained since morning.The sky was covered with thick cloud. Manhattan often invisible. The very 1st few photos were spoiled because I messed up the 'Focus'( AF) setting .

Neighbourhood under canopy of cloud.