up north

Michiganders refer to anything north of Clare as "Up North." It's just an unwritten rule. It's always capitalized, to the point that it's even pronounced with capitalization. In fact, Clare, although it is located right in the middle of the "hand" and just about as far as possible from any state or international borders, is home to a large "Michigan Welcome Center," right off of Highway 127, the main artery that bisects Michigan vertically. Kind of amusing.

Anyway, in June 2008, I went on my third trip Up North. It was my last trip Up North as a Michigander, taken just a couple of weeks before I moved back to Chicago. I was with four of my favourite road tripping buddies, and it was our annual birthday celebration, since four of us have birthdays between mid-May and mid-June.

Our first stop was Sleeping Bear Dunes, a national lakeshore located near the pinkie finger of Michigan's mitten, just west of the Traverse City area. After paying a nominal admission fee to enter the park (good for the weekend, although we had too much to do to go back), we took the scenic drive through the park. We didn't stop at every point of interest, although I think we hit the most important ones. It probably took about 2 hours in total, just because we stopped for quite a while at one of the turnoffs.


Our first view of the dunes and a spectacular vista with Lake Michigan in the distance. I love the way that the sky turned out in this photo.


Okay. Noted. I did not attempt to scale the bluff.


However, I did take a photo of others trying to scale the aforementioned steep bluff. This photo is as-shot. I promise, I didn't tilt it or take it from an odd angle to make it appear even steeper!


This view was worth the drive already, and this was only the first stop on the trip.

Up next: more from Up North!

i want to wake up in a city that never sleeps

Day Four in New York started early with a tour at the United Nations. I wasn't thrilled with the tour - there were so many people there, and so many groups roaming around simultaneously. The guidebook also promised us a Chagall mural, which we did not get to see. Our guide could only show a select number of things, since there were other groups wandering. I guess they did what they could with the volume of people there, though.



The headquarters of the United Nations. The assemblies are in a different, connected building, but this is where all of the offices are. In front of the grounds, flags of the member nations (in alphabetical order) line the east side of the street for five or six blocks. In case you're not up on your flags of the world, from left to right, the flags in this photo are: Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, and Israel. I loved looking at charts of the flags of the world when I was a kid, so this is one of my favourite photos from the day. 1/80, f/13, ISO 100.



After the UN, Mom and I had lunch at Prêt à Manger for the second time that week. I ate at Prêt so many times when I was in London last year, and so I was beyond excited to find it in New York. I had no idea that they had stores in the States at all. Sadly, they are only in New York on this side of the Atlantic. After lunch, we took the subway to SoHo. Mom sat on a shady bench and read for a little bit while I took some photos. 1/200, f/8, ISO 200.



Besides the fab shopping, SoHo is a great neighbourhood because of the interesting mixture of brick and iron in the architecture and the narrow cobblestone streets. It has a bit of European flair to it. Oh, and we also bought my Mom an iPod at the flagship Apple store, which was really exciting for me. I also looked longingly at the MacBook Pro, but that's way out of the budget right now. 1/125, f/8, ISO 200.



Mom isn't a shopper at all, so there was still time after our walk around SoHo before we needed to head back to the hotel to change for dinner and a show. We finally decided to go to Brooklyn for ice cream at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory. It's just on the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a way to get there on the subway without backtracking and having to change multiple times. I didn't feel like doing that, so we decided to just walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. It's a classic New York experience, right? One problem: I am terrified of bridges. Especially when I can't cross them quickly! I stared at my feet and walked as fast as I could, but I made it all the way across and I even managed to pause a couple of times for some photos. I think this photo is worth it. 1/60, f/13, ISO 100.



This shot was taken on the bridge, looking northeast to Brooklyn. This shot also made the trip across the bridge worth it. Oh, and the ice cream didn't disappoint, either. 1/50, f/13, ISO 100.

Next: last day in New York, with shots from Greenwich Village.

top of the list, king of the hill

Day Three in New York was a beautiful Tuesday. Mom and I had a fantastic, somewhat leisurely day, compared to the running around that we did on most of the other days. We began our morning with a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and spent a few hours there. In a few hours, we still didn't even see half of the exhibits, but we did hit the kinds of art that we like the most and a few new things as well. Since the Met is located right on the edge of Central Park, we then spent the afternoon in the park. I took some photos and we had a fairly good Nutella crepe while we sat by the fountain and read for a while. Then we walked up to Lincoln Center, but they're doing construction on the fountain, so it wasn't very photogenic. Juilliard is right there, too, and I kind of wanted to get a Julliard pen to add to my collection of collegiate pens, but the bookstore wasn't obvious and the construction was loud and we were tired, so we headed back to the Times Square area. There, we met up with one of my mom's high school friends. Susan took us to McCormick & Schmick's for dinner, which may be a chain seafood restaurant, but it's classy and it's the best chain seafood I've ever had! I had the most delightful mahi mahi with pineapple and cashews, and Susan and I bonded over how fabulous Kristi Yamaguchi was on Dancing with the Stars. Good day overall. Now for the photos:


Façade of The Met facing 5th Avenue. It's so big that even with a 28mm and standing across the street, I had difficult getting the whole main part of the building in a single shot! 1/200, f/6.3, ISO 100.


This shot of some of the New York skyline (with Central Park in the foreground) was taken from the rooftop garden of The Met. There were some really interesting metal sculptures on display up there (like a giant yellow "balloon" dog - but made of metal, not balloon) and it was a nice place to sit and re-caffeinate before tackling more of the museum. In order to get this shot, I had to crouch down and tilt my camera way upwards, but I really wanted to get that little bit of blue sky and all of the pretty clouds in the shot! 1/320, f/11, ISO 100.


This is the main hall at the entrance of The Met, taken from the balcony on the second floor. I just love the arches, and how the big open space of the upper third of the room contrasts with the bustling floor. 1/80, f/4, ISO 1600.


The main fountain in Central Park. What a great day for being outside, and I'm normally not an outside-person. At all. This shot makes me want to watch Enchanted. 1/30, f/13, ISO 100.


My favourite shot from Tuesday. I didn't think I'd be able to get a shot like this in New York during the summer! There's hardly any people in it! This is the Literary Walk in Central Park. It's so quiet and peaceful, and the shade is just beautiful. I had to take about five shots before I got the exposure right, but I love how it turned out, and it's now my desktop wallpaper. 1/50, f/11, ISO 400.

All of these were taken with the Tamron 28-300, and it was after I had a chance to take it back to the hotel and dust it off! Also - I want to note that after my last post, someone from Adorama contacted me (and was quite persistent when I was worried that it was spam!) and wanted to look into what happened with my order. I was then offered a discount off my next order and free shipping. Since I want to get a new bag that's better for travel before my next trip, I will probably use that, so it's nice that they are so focused on customer service. Like I said in my last post, things are always going to happen, and I understand that (occasionally!!), but it's what you do after something happens that makes a difference with me.

Anyway, on the subject of bags - I currently use a Lowepro Slingshot, and I like it as a small bag to use on a day-to-day basis, but when I travel, especially by air, it's a huge pain because I have to use the Slingshot as a carry-on, and then I also have to lug around my laptop bag. I'd really like a camera bag that also has a laptop compartment. I'm considering the Lowepro Fastpack and one of the Kata backpacks. The Kata is less expensive and it comes in pink (always a selling point for me, I have to admit), but I'm concerned about the capacity. On my next trip, for example, I will have my Canon 200/2.8L, my Tamron 28-300, my Canon 50/1.8, and I may also rent a Canon 70-200/2.8L. I found a good review of the Kata backpack, but it wasn't from someone who travels with telephoto zooms. So it might be the Lowepro - which I can get in red. Not as great as pink, but marginally more professional.

Next time I post (which might not be for a while - I'm moving this weekend/next week!): Day Four of the New York trip - United Nations, SoHo, and the Brooklyn Bridge.

distillery

On my last trip to Toronto, which was about a month ago, I discovered that the sensor on my 20D was in desperate need of a cleaning. Well, I kind of knew this, but it was even worse than I remembered, so instead of using it to take photos, I used my old backup, which is a Kodak DX6490. Yeah...not exactly the quality that I'm used to! So these photos aren't my best, but I did manage to get some shots that I like while hanging out one Sunday afternoon in the Distillery District. If I have my facts correct, this an area in Toronto that used to be a working distillery, but they've since taken the beautiful red brick buildings and turned it into a fun area for shopping, dining, arts, and entertainment. Distillerydistrict.com proclaims it "Toronto's Hippest Address" and a lot of movies were filmed here during the 90s.


View of the main plaza in the Distillery. I don't know if this is an everyday thing, or just a weekend or Sunday thing, but there were tents set-up, art-show style throughout the plaza. Classy tents, though, with cool stuff and beautiful jewelry - most well out of my price range. I like the angle that the "Gooderham & Worts" sign cuts across the photo at, and I really like the reflection of the clock in the window. I took photos of the clock itself, but this is more interesting.


My favourite part of this photo is definitely the sky. I like that it appears to be in motion, the colour of it, and the wispiness of the clouds. I also like the lampposts on the right. Please ignore the man on the left in the daisy dukes. I wanted to crop him out, but using 4x6 proportions, I would have had to sacrifice too much sky, so there he stays. I suppose he adds character.


I don't have any great close-ups of the buildings, but this is the best of the ones that I have. The green Victorian ironwork against the red brick is just fantastic. The sign in the lower righthand corner indicates the building's number. Since there are not streets here, just pedestrian walkways, all of the buildings are numbered.

Next: I really will start to highlight last week's trip. I had just forgotten that I had a few decent Toronto photos to share.