The Mike Crough Photo Extravaganza

Monday, July 17, 2006

Burlington

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Macros

Monday, July 10, 2006

Things In My House Part III

Sunday, July 09, 2006

Pictures of Things in My House Part II

Pictures of Things in My House

Monday, July 03, 2006

Sturgeon Lake - Canada Long Weekend

Thursday, June 29, 2006

More Photos From NYC

Baby Lucas

I became an uncle about a month and a half ago. Here's a picture I took of him when he was about 3 or 4 hours old. His name is Lucas Jacob Michael Taylor.

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Hilton Falls Part II

Monday, June 19, 2006

Photos From Hilton Falls

Friday, June 09, 2006

Additional Photos From Kelso Ride 2 - Part IV

Additional Photos From Kelso Ride 2 - Part III

Additional Photos From Kelso Ride 2 - Part II

Additional Photos From Kelso Ride 2

The Finale of Ride 1 - Kelso Cons. Area

I continued to ride through the "X-treme" trail towards it's end. In between the last section photographed, and the end of the trail, there are, as mentioned in a previous post, many technical sections consisting of switchbacks, natural log obstacles, rocky terrain, climbs, descents, etc. It's a very good section of trail, but my favourite part of it might very well be the very end of it, which I just discovered earlier this year. To the right you see a photo of the beginning of this final section. To get to this point, I had come down a steep descent with many rocks, towards a smaller climb, the top of which is what I photographed here. The trail actually goes over those rocks to the left, and then back to the right just behind those small bushes, but to get there you have to ride past that small tree immediately behind the rock and take a right turn, which is much trickier than it looks here.

The picture to the right depicts what awaits you if you successfully navigate the section photographed above. Here's it's a relatively calm section of trail that allows you to set yourself properly on your bike to tackle the more difficult portions beyond here. The trail is still fairly tight, and as you can see is border on both sides by some trees and also logs laid on the ground to help define the trail from other parts of the hillside. These first two pictures aren't anything special, but I wanted to set the scene and illustrate this entire section that I enjoy so much.

Once through the relatively easy section above, the sign posted here says it all. It's really not that difficult or dangerous, but if it's your first time riding this section, you have to be prepared. The sign forces you to look ahead and to control your speed. The idea is to ride over the rocks in the foreground, over the small bridge in the middle, and then over the other rocks in the background. What makes it difficult is that it's so narrow, and is somewhat difficult to pedal through. There's no indication of scale here, but if I was riding through on my bike, I'd be about as tall as the sign, so you can see what I mean by how narrow it is. As a side note, I really like how this picture turned out because of the shadows, colours, and where the sign is placed in relation to the trail.

I shot this close-up of the small bridge to give an indication of the difficulty of the terrain and again to try and illustrate the narrowness of this section. You have to take a line that forces you on to the left edge of the rocks and the bridge so that you don't smash your pedals on the rocks to the right. You also have to be able to turn a slight right to ride over the furtherst rock in the background. If you don't maintain your balance, it's a bit of a fall down the left handside, which I have done before.

Once through and over the previous section, there's another small bridge, which you see in the foreground of this photo, and the trail forces you between these two rocks. One reason you have to pick the right line on the section before this is that you don't want to either smash your pedal on the rock on the left, or smash your arm/shoulder on the rock on the right. You have to come through (it's a bit uphill) to be able to hit this bridge with the right speed to glide through this section and on to the remainder of the trail, which you can see then turns to the left towars some more man-made wooden riding obstacles.

If you manage to squeeze through the rocks, then the reward is a fun downhill section, which carries you over this man made wooden ramp, which is a few feet off the ground. The picture doesn't really show it, but it's actually fairly steep and you can get some good speed through this portion. However, you have to hit the breaks in time to turn a right at the base of the Y, so you can ride up that small hill and on to the next portion. The turn is a bit more difficult then it looks, because you're forced to really maintain your balance as you pedal up the incline. Once you get there, there's one more narrow setction where you have a choice of obstacles before you finish the trail. This ramp is very fun to ride, especially if you can make it through cleanly to hit the ramp with the proper speed.

If you can make it through all obstacles without bailing too hard, then you have a nice smooth section which takes out towards another main section of trials. There are a few more obstcles through here, but nothing that difficult. The trail actually takes you past the set of ruins that were posted several days ago. I just thought this made a nice shot of how the trails winds it's way through the understory and into the open. The "X-treme" trail - c'est fini.

Just to give you people a visual of the bad boy that acts as my chariot for these rides. It's a Cannondale F600, which isn't the most expensive bike out there, but I can't say enough good things about it.

Thursday, June 08, 2006

MTB'ing at Kelso

After photographing the obstacle that appeared two postings ago, I hoped back on the bike and continued riding along the trail. Immediately after leaving the previous section, I rode through this portion of the trail which I thought made for a nice picture. It's hard not to enjoy yourself when you get to ride through this stuff. Like I said before, I never get sick of riding through here. The sound of my tires on the dirt, the physical challange of riding different types of terrain and the colours of the surroundings make it a great place for me to spend an afternoon.

I decided to stop and try and get another shot that had nothing but flowers in it. This is what I came up with. You'll note that the majority of the flowers in the foreground are out of focus. I actually like how this turned out because everything is so bright, and the flowers that are out of focus, for me, add just as much to the shot as those that don't. Either way, this is what I got so it's the best I can do, for now.

After passing through that section, I came to another man-made wooden obstacle, but this one is much easier to ride. Although, the first time I attempted it, I fell off and nearly crushed my you-know-whats on the top tube of my bike. Since that time, this has not presented a challenge for me. The idea is to ride over the rock in the foreground and on to the first platform, then down the middle section which is actually a small suspension bridge until you arrive at the end (notice the garbage bag full of hey attached to the tree. Once you reach here, you half to take a hard left, while still maintaining your balance, and proceed on to the next section.

Which is this portion right here, essentially a final platform with a set of steps at the end (they're hidden from view because of the camera angle). Once you've managed to turn your bike to the left on the previous section, this last bit only requires you to be able to guide the bike through those two trees, which isn't too tough. Riding down the stairs is fairly easy, whether your bike has suspension or not. You can see my bike in the background for reference. This time, I rode the obstacle, then got off and went back to photograph it.

I continued through the trail as usual, which consists of a number of techincal switchbaks and man made obstacles, and came to another portion of the trail that I really enjoy. This section has two rock obstacles that you can ride over. The one to the left, photographed here, is a little easier and just requires you to maintain even speed and balance as you ride down the face of the rocks. One to the right, which I did not photograph, is more challenging because it's steeper and has more rocks and crevaces. I like to ride both of them, and usually have no problem with making it over these without falling. I tried to get the handlebars in the shot for a different view.

Additional Panoramas

I was back at Kelso today with my camera, determined to take more pictures. I wanted to try and expand and improve upon what I have taken already. I was able to stitch together a few more panoramas that fit on to the site. I think I will go back and do some of the others again so that I can get them on too. What you see below is first a partial panorama from a rock plateau overlooking Glen Eden Ski Area, Lake Kelso, and then Milton in the distance. It wasn't sunny out today, so the pic isn't perfect, but it gives you an idea of the view from up here. The second shot depicts a quarry that is right beside the conservation area. It's an active quarry, so there's plenty of explosions, machinery, etc. This large lake attracts a lot of migratory birds, and provides from some secenery from this little lookout where people can sit.

More MTB'ing at Kelso

The same log that I photographed in the previous posting reappears in here, this time from a different angle. There's not much more to say about this thing, except that in this picture you can see the flowers I was talking about before, sort of. I wish I could explain what types of plants are in these pictures, but I just don't know. I studied Environmental Studies at school, but never really got in to the courses about identifying and classifying plants and animals. I know a little, but not enough to know what most of the stuff is.

The wooden riding obstacle that I discussed before is what you see to your right here. I'm standing on top of the middle platform, looking down the plank that you have to ride down as part of the obstacle. There's an identical plank behind me in this picture that you have to ride up to get to this platform. To start, you have to ride over a rock first, which makes it tough to get your balance to continue up the plank. At this platform, you're about 4-5 feet off the ground, which is no big deal because it's fairly wide, but getting up and down is tough because you're about the same height off the ground for parts of it, but trying to balance yourself as you ride up and down the planks.

This is a shot looking straight down the plank. I thought maybe the criss-cross pattern in the wood would make an interesting shot. It didn't quite pan out, but one thing I did capture was the garbage bag full of hay in the background to the left. That's there to act as a pad in case you come flying off the plank to early, so that you don't smash in to the tree trunks there and break your face, arm, entire body...you get the idea. The width of this plank is probably about 5 inches, so it can easily hold a bike tire, but it's still a difficult obstacle to ride. I've had some tough times with it, so say the least. Getting up is even harder.

Here's one more shot that I think does a nice job of illustrating exactly what this bad boy is all about. You san see the height off of the ground to the right that the platform is, and how high off the ground portions of the planks are. You can also see that there's not that much room for error on either side. This is more of a free-riding obstacle, and my bike is made for cross country type riding, so I don't normally tackle this particular aparatus because I don't want to destroy my bike too bad, even though I generall ride pretty hard and give it a good beating. Still, when you finally conquer something like this, the feeling is so sweet it's hard to describe.

Before I left this area, I decided for yet another close-up shot with my camera. I noticed the dandelions in the foreground of the previous photo, and tried to get one with a zoomed-in shot. So, here it is. Again, a bit fuzzy. I'll have to work on that, but I'm just finding my way in this photography game, so I think with some practice I'll be able to nail these down better. I only took this one shot because, again, the mosquitoes were feasting upon my lucious bod. I still think the pic turned out okay, even if a dandelion is nothing special.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Mountain Biking at Kelso Cont'd

There's another set of ruins at kelso on top of the escarpment which is really just an old stone wall, that looks like there were windows in it at some point. Because there's not much left, it's even harder to tell what it actually was. I'm sure the Halton Conservation website has more information on some of these features, but I haven't bothered to look. Regardless, here's a shot of a small portion of the wall with some flowers beside it. It's definitely the time of year right now for flowers and flowering bushes, because you can't help but see them everywhere.

I wanted to get another close-up shot, and the result is what you see to the left. This is a small piece of sometime of vine that was just starting to creep over the edge of the wall. There's not much in this photo, but I like the contrast of the colours, and the detail you can see in the stone. As a side note, I broke a piece of the all off while climbing it to try and get this shot. I don't think anyone will notice.

I have no effin clue what this is. There's a tall one (background) and a short one (foreground). This picture isn't even good, but I included it in case anyone who reads this blog (likely no one at all) might know what these things are. Of course, if you tell me something, I have no way of not believing you, so this really solves nothing. There's probably a nice picture to be had here somewhere, but I didn't find it. You can see the rust though, if that counts for anything.

After I wandered through the second set of ruins, I continued on my ride. Here you can see the gravel road I was on, which leads me to a trail called "X-Treme" which is a lot of fun to ride. All of the shots in the next posting or two will show things from this trail. So, you can see here the day has become sunny again, and the temperature (which I'm sure you can not see) was perfect. Sometimes at this spot I'll see some deer, but not today my friends.

At the beginning of the "X-Treme" trail there's a wooden riding obstacle that I have yet to tackle. I will document it later, but below it was this old log which I thought proved for a good photo op. The mosquitoes were bad again in this area, because it was in the bushes more and shaded, so I paid the price for this picture. There are some more flowers here, but they don't show up in the picture. I just thought it was a cool piece of wood.

The Only Panorama That Posts

The panorama is the only one that I can get to post.
I'm not sure why this one will load and the others won't,
but here you go. At least it's something. This picture is
not from the rocky plateau, but about halfway up my
climb. This is looking down one of the ski hills.

Mountain Biking at Kelso Part IV

This clearing I was in was filled with flowers of different kinds, all in bunches right next to the trail. I see these flowers all over the place in this part of Ontario this time of year, but I'm not sure what they are. The flowers look like Phlox, but I don't know if that's what these are. Either way, there's a ton of them all through out Kelso, anywhere there's an open field.

This is the shot I originally intended to take when I captured the photos of the bees. I took this one last. When you enlarge it, it looks okay because of the flowers. Like the one above, I wanted to get a shot that had nothing else in it, except for flowers of some kind. The trail I was riding is just a bit to the right of this shot. I like the way it looks also with the leaves providing different angles and directions in the background. I don't see any bees in this shot, but trust me, they were everywhere.

When I grabbed this photo, I had walked over to an area right beside the clearing captured in the first photo of this posting. I again decided to try and get fancy with my zoom to see what I could capture. This was my first attempt. It was difficult to find a shot that the camera would focus properly on because the lighting conditions weren't the best due to the fact it had just clouded over a bit. Still, I like this shot because of the background and the contrast in colours.

The image to the right turned out to be one of the
best shots of the day because I was able to zoom in so close and get a shot that was still fairly clear. It's a bit fuzzy, but overall pretty good considering I'm not using a professional camera, and the crispness of the image at this focus depends largely on the steadiness of my hand. A little difficult considering I've been riding for about an hour.

Here you can see the exact same plant, same flowers, only zoomed out a bit. I wanted to include this photo to show just how close I was able to get on the previous one. This is still a very clear and fairly well-framed picture, and again the colours are good. You can see that small bud in the background again, which helps give an idea of difference in scale between this photo and the other one. Also, because I'm a little farther away the colour of the flower appears a bit more pale, which is the way they really area when you see them. I think for these last two, I'm glad it was slightly overcast because then the light didn't reflect off the flowers too much.

Mountain Biking at Kelso Conservation Area Part III

Continuing on my trek, I head back into the canopy, this time I'm bascially on top of the escarpment, and this is where the majority of the trails are at Kelso. I was cruising along a trail called "Rock Garden" when I stopped to snap this one. I took a few others as well, some showing the trail from which I had just come. I wanted to get this shot because of the rock with the moss on it and also the flowers growing around it. This picture doesn't really do justice to the way it really looked. I'm starting to really notice my limitations as a photographer. If anyone's wondering, I'm using a Canon Powershot SD400 Digital Elph. It's a sweet camera, and very small. I bought it specifically for excursions like this.

I buzzed along the same trail for a few more minutes until I hit this spot. It actually looked a lot nicer in person, the way the sun was shining in on that patch in the middle, and with the tree leaning sideways through the shot. I left my bike in there for reference, but it kind of ruined it because the bike is out of focus and doesn't really blend in. Still, you can see the trail I'm on, which is fairly mild through this particular section. Also, this shot highlights the type of scenery I'm ridining through. I never get sick of this stuff, especially when everything is so green and brown at the same time.

I've come out of the canopy again and into a small field. This shot is looking back from where I've just come, and I'm lying on the ground to get this angle. I thought it would look cool to try and get a bit of a tunnel effect using the tall grass. It's pretty much exactly what I tried to do, but it doesn't really have the effect I was going for. It also would have been better if the skies were blue. I had taken so much time to get to this point because of all the photos I was taking that it clouded over on me. Anyway, this still shows the diversity of terrain you can ride through at Kelso. So far the trails I've shown are pretty tame, but you'll see some rougher stuff later. I've also left out some shots of some cool sections of trail because the pictures weren't that good. That initial climb I did is fairly tough, even though it's hard to get a sense of it from the pictures shown.

When I started to leave from the shot above, I noticed a large section of flowering shrubs to my right. I have no idea what they were, but they were pretty big and full and had lots of these little purple flowers hanging off of them. I decided to try and get some shots of the group of bushes, but while I was standing there I noticed that there where bees everywhere. Lots of different types of bees, all over these flowers. I decided to try and use the micro-zoom function on my camera, since I've never really been able to get it to work properly. This one turned out fairly well; at least it's in focus. I didn't see the bee when I first took the shot, but if you look closely he or she is peeking it's head around the corner of the flower in the center of the pic.

I decided to stay and take a bunch more, at the risk of getting stung, because this isn't something I had done much of before, and I liked the challenge of trying to capture a shot of these bees as they flew from flower to flower. The photo to the left turned out pretty well, except the bee is slightly out of focus. The one I took just before this would have been amazing becuase I got this awesome flower right in the center of the shot with this huge bee, directly from the side, feeding off of it. In the LCD display on my camera, it looks right out of national geographic. However, when I got it on my computer and saw it in larger format, it's out of focus. If anyone knows how to fix that after the image is created, please let me know.

Mountain Biking at Kelso Conservation Area Part II

This picture doesn't really show that much, except that I liked how the sun was shining just on that one spot of rocks. I think this picture also nicely depicts the terrain that I ride through. Kelso is located on a portion of the Niagara Escarpment, is characterized by thick, mostly deciduous vegetation and limestone outcrops. Being underneath the tree canopy provides quite a bit of shade, so you get an idea from this photo of just how dense the trees are and also what a nice place it is to go for a ride, even if you're riping through the trails at 35 km/hr.

After coming through the lower portion, I contine to climb towards the top where most of the trails are (I started at the base of the hill where there's a ski chalet). I took this picture just to give an idea of where i was going. I'm following that path up to the top, so that I can ride across that rock outcrop you see to the left. I wanted to try taking some panoramic shots from up top there, where I would take multiple shots and then stitch them together into one large view of the vista. I succeeded quite nicely, but the pictures are apparently too large to post here. If you want to see them, let me know and I can email them. I was happy with how they turned out.

In this image, I'm looking east across the face of the plateau towards more of the cliff. I would much rather include the panorama here where you can see for a few kilometers to the west, which shows the 401 down below and in the distance, as well as Lake Kelso, which is a man made lake at the base of the hill. Still, one of the best parts of making the tough climb from the chalet to this point is hanging out, sitting on the ledge, feet dangling over, just taking in the great view. On a really sunny day like today it's perfect, and there's usually quite a few people here. Today, fortunately for me, I had it all to myself.

From the spot I was in above, I shifted the camera left to get this image, just to help illustrate my point above about hanging out up here and what a cool spot it is. If we've been riding for awhile, we just stop for a good drink and a nice sit, usually right at the edge. This would be a nice place to suntan, if it were a little more private. Also a great spot for a picnic, if you're in to that sort of thing. I'm not.

In this image, I just walked towards the end of the plateau that you see in the second image of this posting, just to get a different angle and to try and capture some of the horizon in the distance. You can just see some of the country side in the middle of the pic, towards the left hand side. Imagine stretching this out for a few kilometers to the west. I reall wish I could include those other shots here. I couldn't believe how well they stitched together, considering how shakey my hands were from riding.

Mountain Biking at Kelso Conservation Area

I took this shot of the entry point to my photo journey today. I've mountain biked at Kelso dozens of times, but I've never taken my camera before because I'm usually riding with someone else. Today, since I'm on holidays from work, I decided to go and bring my camera along to see what I could do. If you look to the left you can see a small bridge that leads to this portion of the trails. I came up a gravel road, which is also just barely visible towards the top of the image, closer almost in the middle.

These old ruins add a nice accent to this portion of the trails. I'm not sure what this building used to be. I know the conservation area was a quarry and I think a lime kiln at one point, but I've never really bothered with the history to see that this is. It really doesn't look that old, but I'm sure it's been around awhile, whatever it was used for. Now I'm pretty sure people sneak in to have campfires and drink after park hours. Fine by me.

I climbed on top of the upper most portion to get this image. I like the way the shadows turned out. I was going to attempt walking across this log, but since I had just started riding, I didn't want to have to leave already due to injury. The fact that the building has some windows indicates to me that at some point people were living or working inside.

This shot shows the same window as above, but this time from back on the ground and right in front. You can tell by the sunshine streaming in that this was a great day for pictures of this sort. The only bad thing was the mosquitoes, and they were everywhere. My entire body is one enormous mosquito bite. That made it a little tougher to be patient to try and take a good picture, so some of these didn't turn out quite the way I had intended.

A very similar shot to the one above, just with the angle shifte a bit more to the left. The good thing about being there with my camera today is there was no one else riding really at all, so I could stop where and whenever I wanted to try and get some pictures. I would like to come back and get this site shot again, but under different conditions, perhaps after is has just rained or something. Also, I think there are better pictures to be had here, but the mosquitoes were literally sucking the lifeblood out of me.

Miscellaneous NYC

Here is the world famous Chrysler Building, looking way up from across the street. I like this picture a lot. I think the colour of the sky is perfect, the angle of the building gives an idea of how tall it really is, and I like how the two other buildings in the shot frame the picture. People who really know photography will probably tell me I'm an idiot and this picture sucks, but it's still one of my favourites. I couldn't quite capture the detail in the building, such as the gargoyles, etc., but otherwise it turned out fine.

Anyone who has seen Zoolander (I have at least 30 times) should recognize this building as Mugatu's headquarters (minus the digitally added giant M on top). That's really the only reason I took this picture, so that I could show my younger sister. She appreciated it. Here, I was standing near the entrance of Central Park. This was the last picture I took in the City, mainly because I didn't have any more room on my memory card.

One more shot of Times Square, again during that first Sunday night we were there. I guess this is basically the end of the strip, but I thought it made a good shot because of how tall and bright these signs are. Companies spend so much money on these things, yet none of them really stand out from each other because there's so many trying to grab your attention. Still, I thought it was really cool. When I got back to work, this dude in my office showed me a picture he took of roughly the same spot from around 20 years ago. It looks nothing like this.

The Brooklyn Bridge as shot from a tour boat on the frist Sunday afternoon. Before we left, a few people had recommended that we go on one of these guide boat tours that take you arond Manhattan, which is an island for those that don't know. We decided to make it one of the first things we did, that way we could get a sense of where everything was, and all we had to do was just sit there. I recommend it for anyone going to the City for the first time, plus you get to see the Statue of Liberty.

The same pergola that appears in an earlier posting of mine. I like this picture a lot as well. I wanted to capture this couple at the end walking together. It turned out okay, except for this dude on the left, fixing his video camera. This was a good spot to hang out, and a few other people were getting the same picture.

Monday, June 05, 2006

Central Park Part II

This picture was taken from a small rock outcrop in Central Park. There were quite a few people taking pictures from this spot because it was a little bit higher up, and provided a nice shot of some nature with the tall buildings of the downtown in the background. You can't see it in this picture, but down the valley there was another ice rink (this one had Trump advertising all over it). This one had hockey nets, so I guess they have games there sometimes. I didn't have my blades with me.

Here's a shot of a nice pathway in the middle of the park. It would have been much nicer without the fencing, but apparently there was some type of naturalization project going on and they were trying to keep people off of the unpaved surface. Still, it was a nice setting with the tall trees and the leaves on the ground. I chilled out on that bench in the background for a while.

This picture of a bridge (can't for the life of me remember what the eff it was called, possibly the Artisan's Bridge?) I think does a nice job of showing the diversity of the Central Park landscape. A nice peaceful spot that seemed to attract quite a few painters. You can see the boat under the bridge carrying a couple of love birds on a nice rowing excursion. I wanted to throw a rock at them.

This shot shows the same bridge but from the other side. I had to get way in to the bushes to get this one, and stumbled across some dude just haning out. Needless to say, I took the picture quickly and got the eff out of there. Who knows what was going on with that situation. Still, a nice shot I think. These pictures just take themselves really.

Central Park

This photo was taken near an entrance of Central Park, looking back towards Manhattan. The building with the copper roof is the Plaza, which used to be a hotel but which was being converted to condo's while I was there. I like this picture a lot because of how calm the water is and the colours of the trees and shrubs. It was a beautiful morning, especially in November, and I think I was really lucky to be there with my camera, even if I don't take the greatest pictures.

This photo is from the around the same area as the one above, except looking in the opposite direction. That stone bridge in the distance is where I took the previous photo from. What a beautiful place Central Park is (during the day). Of all the things I heard about it, I never expected it to be as nice as it was. I can see how people get lost. I was in there for about three hours and didn't even make it halfway through.

This photo depicts a pergola in Central Park. I don't know if there's any significance to it, but it looks nice with the vines growing up and over it, and also the way the wood has aged. I really like this picture as well because it just seems to tranquil. This is actually the last photo I took Central Park, since the room left on my memory card was running low.

Still More

This is a shot of the Rockefeller Center on our first night in the City. I've seen a few other shots like this on the web, so it's a popular photo to take. The building itself is about the same height as the empire state building. You can go to the top of this one as well, but we never did. At the bottom is NBC Studios. I wanted really badly to see a taping of Saturday Night Live, but didn't have enough time to try and get tickets. From what I hear, it would have been impossible on such short notice.

This is a photo of Times Square, also during our first night there. This is at about 7 pm on a Sunday night, and it was literall rammed with people. So much so that they were overflowing out on to the streets and causing a lot of problems for taxis. I still can't believe the number of signs...and the money that must be spent on these things.

Another shot of Times Square looking in the opposite direction of the one above. I wanted to try and get a shot of all signs and no people, but I'm too short so I still got the tops of people's heads. I really like this picture, even though it's not the clearest. The colours are really cool.

More NYC

A shot I took of the opening face-off at the Rangers game. Not really the greatest picture, but at least the ice looks bright. As I mentioned before, the game was really good to watch, and the crowd was wild. Not to mention the fact that Mark Messier was there watching from a press box. When they showed him on the jumbotron, the crowd gave him a standing ovation. He's my hero.

One more pic from the top of the Empire State Building. This is better than the first one I posted, and actually was the one I meant to include during that initial post. These buildings are really tall, probably about 50-70 storey's, and so close to one another. There were some new ones being built when I was there, and the way they do it is wild.

I took this picture during our second night there. I think the colours are great. It looks the same in real life, with the signs just jumping out at you. We never went inside so I have no idea what it really looks like in there.

NYC Aussi

This is a picture of Bryant Park. It's about mid-November, but during an unseasonably warm spell. I was walking around in shorts and a t-shirt, but they still managed to have all of the outdoor skating rinks going. I'm not sure what the buidling in the immediate background is.

This picture is taken of the front entrance to Madison Square Gardens. My Dad and I were there to take in a Ranger's game. We got to see the Rangers play the Pittsburgh Penguins and Sidney Crosby. Crosby was awesome as he lit up the Rangers for a goal and two assists, and was named the game's first star. The crowd was awesome and it was hard not to cheer for the Rangers, even though I'm a die-hard Leafs fan.

This is a photo of the inside of the Gardens before the game got underway. We were some of the first few people to enter, as evidenced by the fact that there's no one in the stands. The arena is a bit of a dive, but there's so much history. The sightlines are pretty good for an older rink.

Trip to NYC

Last November I went with my Dad to NYC for a few days. It was my first time being there and I had just purchased a new camera and was attempting to get in to photography. These are some of the pictures I took during my three days there. I covered a lot of ground, exclusively on foot, and basically toured most of Manhattan. This shot in particular is looking from the top of the Empire State buidling (88 Storey's high), basically as straight down as I could get.

Here's another shot from the same vantage point, only this time looking (I think) north-east. Not really sure on that one, but it gives a good idea of how dense the City really is. That's the Hudson river in the far background, and if you look closely you can see Central Park just beyond the buildings. This isn't a great shot, but it's a cool vantage point.

This is a shot looking straight up the Empire State building from the ground after I had come back down. I didn't spend much time at the top, but I managed to take a good number of pictures. It was a little un-nerving being up there because there was a bunch of security helicpters hovering over top (it's open air up there, no roof) and before I went up a bunch of security alarms were going off. Turned out to be a false alarm, but still, a bit creepy. The elevators were really small and rattled off the sides of the elevator shaft as you went up and down. Still, had to go up at least once.

I just created this blog as my first forray into personal webspace. I actually stole the idea from a friend of mine who recently set up a photoblog, which I thought was really cool. I decided to try and do the same. I've posted a number of pictures from NYC and also my adventures as I mountain bike around Southern Ontario.

Name: Mike

Location: Burlington, Ontario, Canada

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