Happy frozen friday for anyone in this part of the country.
We are looking at about 0 with the wind.

As many of you know there are several fun ice skating rinks in NYC.  One of the nice ones is at Bryant Park (on 40th/42nd and Sixth Ave behind the NYPLibrary).  They have a great facility and shopping area over the holidays. 

Last night I went by and they were tearing it down and I thought about the amazing change a day makes at the park and here you go!

This week I was tossing around what to use as my pick of the week and settled on a few shots I did in the subway.

The shots were done while standing on the platform and resting the camera on the steps.  The pattern of the steps and the subway background made for a neat shot - but I needed more.
So I shot the 2 shots here at wide open and stopped down.  (1.8 and 22 for the tech folks.)  Then I merged them with a color tweak in an animated gif.

See the results at the link below - allow about 5 seconds for it to load and then watch the depth of field and scene changes.

http://brandonremler.com/2.gif

if you are not faint of stomach - this other gif is of a dead bug I found - so don't watch if you don't like bugs -


http://brandonremler.com/86.gif

This week while traveling in Nashville I stayed at the Gaylord Opryland hotel. It was a unique experience since I did not expect to be housed in a biosphere for 5 days! The place has ornate decorations and features such as the five story waterfall, boat tour (a la Willie Wonka chocolate river) and a suspended garden walk. The evening view is a shot from my balcony.
You wake up in the morning walk onto the terrace - and think you are going to feel sunshine - but you are actually of course still indoors - always.

Then as every photographer does - I got restless on the flight home and decided to try and get a decent shot in the mirror which is tough with the flash, so my cover up attempt worked out.

The Nest is Proving to be a Great Tool

The Nest temperature settings are easy to do remotely and in house.  Need more images of the temps online.

https://nest.com

This week while in New Orleans I took a quick tour through the Ninth Ward area where the Katrina destruction was well reported.

There is some great progress in most respects for the housing and look of the area.  Many "green" programs and celebrity building sites have sprouted up.  But as today's photo shows - some of the area is still not quite back to anything we'd consider normal.  Many homes just stand partially erect awaiting a bulldozer.  Not an easy situation to recover from.

For a quick review of what the aftermath looked like 2 years ago see here -

http://www.brandonremler.com/neworleans2007/index2.html

I hope you had a great New Year celebration wherever you rung it in.

The streets of New Orleans were gonzo as one could imagine.

It is tough to pick just one that says Happy New Year - so these 3 out of 300 should get you in the mood for a great 2010!

Here's to good health and happiness.