First IBM Building -- Endicott, NY

[vvcarpio]

Originally Posted by Ancientritual

... Sorry VVCARPIO did not mean to hijack your thread. Please do not consider this an act of terrorism.

No, not at all, Ancientritual -- I actually liked your comments a lot. Thanks!

I agree with you and shoturtle, too. Your views sound opposing but I actually think don’t. I’d say they’re complementary.

Regarding the cop, I’m now convinced it’s all about terrorism. Our daughter said Lockheed Martin is in Endicott, too. And that, according to our daughter, is a terrorist magnet. When I look it up on Google Maps, Lockheed Martin also shows up at the IBM buildings. So maybe that’s why the buildings are blurred in Google Maps.

So the cop was really being very nice. We are ethnics (although we tend to forget that after living in melting-pot NYC for so long) and the cop probably didn’t want us to think he was stereotyping us in any way. He probably can’t say no either and didn’t want us to stop shooting pictures – heavens, definitely not scare us by asking us for identification which I would have happily obliged. It would be my way of helping our cops breathe a little easier. But he had to do what he’s paid to do so at least he had to ask.

In contrast, I’ve met lots of building security guards in NYC who are rude and sometimes go on power trips. If you come to NYC and visit only the American Museum of Natural History until closing hours, you might leave with the impression that New Yorkers need to learn some manners when you are ushered -- I’d say kicked -- out of the building.

But going back to Endicott, I agree -- I think the cop doesn’t have adequate training to differentiate terrorist from civilian. I think we could have very easily been ruled out of the “suspicious-looking” category.

Then again, maybe he’s aware of his shortcoming if we can call it that. And probably thought it was better to be safe than sorry so he did what he did. If so, then I’d say more power to him and to good and honest cops like him for keeping our towns, cities, and -- you never know -- our country, too, safe.

[vvcarpio]

Originally Posted by Torgny

Excellent, vv,

Verticals impeccable. You really struggled with angels, sorry, angles, and managed very well

We have an IBM house in this city, if I may

Torgny

Thanks, Torgny! Yes, I didn’t expect to be shooting buildings outside of New York City and definitely not in upstate NY where there is plenty of open landscape. I thought I could get some respite from correcting perspectives for a change, but there we were, shooting buildings in the boondocks .

[vvcarpio]

Originally Posted by maggo85

Interesting story and interesting shots... but the sky looks kinda weird in the IBM Building shots (why is it so noisy?)

Thanks, maggo85. Yes, I noticed the noise in the clouds, too. I don’t yet have fix on what caused it -- it also happened in my East River Esplanade shots. But I know I changed my methods. The shots I am taking now have at least five exposures, most have 7 or 9, because I want really dark exposures included in the HDR set so I can get some features from the clouds. Still, after the DPHDR edit the clouds often end up featureless so I darken them some more in PSE. That’s when the grains appear. I’m not yet one hundred percent sure but I think if I omit some or add some more shots in the HDR set the noise might go away. I will have to experiment.

For now, for my #3 Esplanade shot, I cheated by using Gaussian blur on the clouds to reduce the noise.

[Torgny]

Hey, guys,

Someones are fooling you to get frightened

//T