Day 19 - More sites and New Contacts

Well today has turned out to be quite fruitful. I sent out a few emails last night and now have two more physical interviews and one email/phone interview. So things are looking better. I shall post more details tomorrow and Thursday after the interviews to outline our discussions and my learning.


While I was here I visited the Grand Lodge of New York. I have been hear before some 10+ years ago and this time I have a better camera to take pictures.

Grand Masters Chair

Library Enterance

Harry Houdinni - A Fremason

Tonight I have been invited to see a phenomenon called Manhattenhenge (by reference to Stonehenge) where the sun sets in alignment with the streets. This should be pretty cool to see and get a photo.


I will post some of those on my return. 

Day 18 - Memorial Day

Today I took it a little slower due to the weekend. It has been a little frustrating with the drop of contacts and appointments. I still have my appointment with Charles Mauro on Wednesday at 10am. Mauro New Media has been in the space of combining formal usability science with high performance user interface design to solve business-critical problems and create world-class customer experiences.. for more than 35 years. They are Certified human factors engineering professionals BPCE. Founded in 1975 they have more years of professional experience in formal usability testing than any other US consulting firm. Their clients include world-class corporations and leading startups covering many industry sectors. They are deeply involved in professional user experience design they know how to design and execute studies that produce focused actionable findings on tactical and strategic levels. Clients tell them they are especially adept at working with product development teams, market research executives and strategic planning groups. They are comfortable reporting to and working with all levels of corporate management.


It was this experience that they have that drew me to them. I emailed their generic account and recieved an email from Charles Mauro who offered me an interview. While I am here I am also trying other avenues of investigation but drawing blanks. 


Today I again went out to see the sights and take more photos.  Here are a selection of day time, evening and night photos. Some of them are obvious locations the others just caught my eye.

View from where I am staying

Some new tricks I have learnt

Some new tricks I have learnt

View from where I am staying

Wedge Building

Street Art

Street Art

Fire Station

Court House New York

Interesting Building

Brookliyn Bridge, under repair

View from the Brooklyn Bridge

The Bull in the Financial District

Experiment with Black and White

Night shoot, Brooklyn Bridge

Manhattan Bridge

Brooklyn Bridge

Day 17 - Two Photographic Tours

Well today I attended two tours one which was in Central Park the other was the concrete canyons of New York.  The tour of Central Park started at 9:30am so I got there early one to find the location but two to check out some of the sights around the area. I saw some major lights up on a crane which looked like movie lights. I was correct, as I walked up there was the film crew and heaps of extras and after a while a bit of a commotion and Ben Stiller arrived on set.

After that we were ushered off to keep moving. I then headed back to the meeting place to waiting on Louis. As I went my way I passed the famous glass apple store and a fountain.

After a while Louis turned up as well as Debbie who was learning to become a tour guide and a French Couple and another New Yorker. We then entered the part to start our tour on the first bridge. Here we were trying out some composition and aperture settings.

We then headed into the park to take a number of different shots using different techniques. The use of light and shade as well as under and over exposures. To finally end up at the famous fountain and bridge. That ended the morning tour.

Exposure Exercise

Exposure Exercise

Panning Exercise

Panning Exercise

Depth of Field Exercise

Shadow Exercise 

Louise and Debbie

Bad alignment you can just make out the fountain.

In the afternoon I then did a second tour with the same guide looking at different techniques and building to finshed up back home exhausted. Tomorrow which I was not aware of until about a week ago is memorial day. It is where america remembers the soldiers that have died in war. Some locations have a parade and some just make a good weekend out of it. I will be making good use to relax after an exhausting weekend and preparation for both my meetings on Tuesday and also a Key Note Speech I have been asked to give at the FutureGov Conference in Sri Lanka on the 19-21 July which is very exciting. I was asked to attend a week before going on this trip and initially just to participate in a panel discussion now I have been asked to give a key note speech. Pretty cool I recon. :)

Some of the afternoon photos.