My Favorite Pictures of 2014 – New Jersey Group
Category: Photography
My Favorite Pictures of 2014 – New York City Group
My Favorite Pictures of 2014 – San Diego Group
Last year was an unusual year for me because I spent the first half of the year in San Diego and the second half of the year in the Northeast. As always, I took quite a few pictures, but in 2014 my pictures were more geographically diverse than they normally are. I usually start out trying to select 10 pictures that are my will comprise my group of favorites, but I don’t want to limit my selections to just 10 for 2014. I took too many pictures that I like to limit this group to just 10. I put together a group of about 40 pictures that were my finalists and I’ve divided them up by region. I not going to post them all at once, instead I’ve decided that I’m going to post each region’s pictures separately. I’m going to first post my San Diego group and I’ll follow that up with a New York City group, a New Jersey group and a Pennsylvania group.
A few thoughts on Winter and the New Year
I start this blog in 2015 at the same place the I left off in 2014, on Northampton Street, in downtown Easton, Pennsylvania, although there are a few differences. This picture was taken as the sunlight of early morning was emerging vs stark darkness of nightfall and the view is facing west vs facing east. It reflects my optimistic view of the year ahead. I tend to try to look at the bright side of things, but there is another part of me that is a sober realist. So, I recognize that our country faces a wide variety of serious challenges, but I still have a lot of faith in America.
I thought this scene captured the look of winter here very well. I took this picture shortly after dawn and particularly liked undisturbed snow on the sidewalks. I haven’t lived in the northeast since 2003, when I moved from New York City to Southern California, so it has been a while since I experienced a full Northeast winter. I did return this area to visit friends and relatives during my time in California, so I had some brief exposures to true winter weather during a few of those trips, but nothing close to living several consecutive months in the cold and snow. Now, to be honest, we really haven’t had too much snow so far this winter, but there have been plenty of sub 30 degree days, some with biting wind chill that makes it feel like 10 degrees or less. That might not sound like very appealing weather to most people, but I’ve enjoyed it. I think it is invigorating.
Downtown Easton, PA on a Cold December Night – My Last Picture of 2014.
Looking down Northampton Street, Easton PA, at about 10:00 pm on the night of December 30th, 2014. In the distance you can see Easton’s Center Square and the illuminated Peace Candle, which covers Easton’s Civil War Monument during the Holiday season.
Views of San Diego in HDR
I the past several months I have posted a few of my favorite HDR pictures of NYC, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Los Angeles, but the city that I have the most digital pictures of is San Diego, where I lived from 2003 until July, 2014. I have finally selected a few of my favorite shots from America’s Finest City and applied the Snapseed HDR filter to them. Frankly, it was hard to pick just a few pictures and declare them my favorites, but I will say that these five are among my favorites for sure…more to follow at a future date.
La Jolla’s reputation for seaside beauty is certainly well deserved.
I took this picture from Shelter Island as an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, which I believe was the USS Higgins, was headed out of the port of San Diego and toward the Pacific Ocean.
This picture captured the waves rolling into Pacific Beach from the Crystal Pier in PB, where you can sleep above the waves if you want to. There are bungalows built right on the pier that are available for rental.
Newport Avenue is the main drag in the Ocean Beach section of San Diego. OB is one of my favorite neighborhoods in San Diego. Gritty, bohemian, unconventional, working class, it is quite different than many of SD’s wealthier neighborhoods, but what it lacks in wealth it makes up for in character.
The view of downtown San Diego from Coronado.
The 2014 Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center
I visited New York City last week and had an opportunity to see the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center for the first time in well in quite a few years, because I had been living in California since 2003. The magnificent 2014 Tree is an 85 foot Norway Spuce which was imported from Danville, Pennsylvania. It was almost a surreal image when I first viewed it from Fifth Avenue, given the way it was framed by the surrounding buildings at Rockefeller Center and the Angels you see in the foreground of this picture. As you you can also see from this picture, quite a few other people were also interested in capturing this beautiful image.
The Ice Skating Rink at Bryant Park – New York City
I had to make a trip to NYC yesterday. I spent a full day in the city and before heading home on the bus at Port Authority I took a walk over to Bryant Park where I found that the ice rink had been installed for the winter. Surrounded by soaring skyscrapers, including the iconic Empire State Building, the setting is quite dramatic.
Views of Los Angeles from Runyon Canyon in HDR
I took both of these pictures at Runyon Canyon in the Hollywood Hills about this time last year. I always liked these shots and recently enhanced them with Google’s Snapseed HDR filter.
After taking the the city shot above I kept on climbing, until I reached the top of the canyon, where the mountain views to the east and the south were stunning. In this picture if blow the picture up and look closely you can see the Hollywood sign on the left and the Griffith Observatory on the right, which is the white building with domes.
Fall Colors – 2014
I has been quite a long time since I experienced a fall in the Northeast, after spending the last 10 years plus in San Diego. I loved the moderate year around temperatures of Southern California, but I can honestly say that I missed the changing seasons too and the spectacular changing colors of the trees in the NE was certainly one reason why. I’ve taken an variety of pictures here in Northeastern PA as well as Northern NJ that capture some of the beauty of fall. Here are a few of my favorites so far, with more to come in future posts.
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