Behind The Shot: Brooklyn Bridge Park Waterfront

The weekend of Memorial Day, summer of 2018, the unofficial start of the summer vacation season, I decided to spend the weekend in New York City.

As part of the trip, I had planned to ride my motorcycle to Brooklyn Bridge Park and take a couple of pictures late at night using the Manhattan skyline in the background.

I tend to watch the weather channel constantly to monitor for rain, I am always worried about getting wet. Riding a motorcycle in the rain can get dangerous real quick.

That particular Friday night I was late heading to NYC. For the first time in a long time, the ride northbound on Interstate 95 was smooth sailing. Even though there is always a traffic jam at the Holland Tunnel, I was pleasantly surprised that for a Friday night on a three day holiday weekend, I encounter no traffic congestion.

It could be dangerous riding a motorcycle in any big city; New York City is no exception. The New York metro region roads and highways are known for being in bad condition, lots of potholes. And taxi drivers are the worst of the worst, they move into your lane with little disregard for others. They stop in the middle of the street, and customers open their doors and exit. A few weeks prior to my trip a motorcyclist was killed after slamming into the rear of a car in Brooklyn, …. but I digress.

The plan was to ride to Brooklyn Bridge Park Saturday morning at 4:00 a.m. Why so early you may ask? Due to the hundreds of tourists that visit the location every day, the park is guarded by overzealous security guards; they don't allow motor vehicles in the waterfront area. At 4:00 a.m. the Brooklyn Bridge Park is deserted, and completely pitch dark. It's like walking into the lion's den.

When I arrived at about 4:00 a.m. to the waterfront in the DUMBO area of Brooklyn, the only person in the area was a homeless man sleeping on a park bench. To ensure my safety first and foremost, and to get out of Dodge, I quickly set up my tripod and Nikon D7000, composed the scene and started shooting. About 20 minutes later, hoping to succeed in getting one good image, I had taken two dozen pictures.

I am very happy with the final result.

[Click here to view the image in it's original size....]

Podcast MotoVlog : Episodio 1

Hace unos meses que he estado pensando en hacer el Podcast en Ingles y en Español. La transicion de escribir en mi blog y grabar un podcast no seria mucha para mi ya que requiere casi todo el mismo equipo de sonido que un Motovlog. En otras palabras, como hace un tiempo que he estado grabando Motovlogs, practicamente tengo todo lo que se necesita para hacer un Podcast.

La idea de hacer este Podcast es excelente, no se como no se ocurrio anteriormente. Especialmente para los meses de invierno que la moto esta en el garage guardada por el frio y la nieve. Cuando llegue el verano se podria combinar los Motovlogs y el Podcast o utilizar mi Motovlog mas como si fuera un Podcast en video.

No ha sido facil para mi el grabar Motovlogs, los videos en la moto. El problema que tengo es que soy bien selectivo en todo lo que tiene que ver con el sonido, y todavia no he podido perfeccionar grabar manejando la moto sin que se escuche el viento en la grabacion.

Por vago, por no decir otra palabra, todavia es la hora que no he editado los videos que grabe guiando la motora cuando estuve una semana el verano pasado en Deals Gap, Tail of the Dragon en Carolina del Norte y Tennessee. Voy a tratar de aprovechar estos meses de invierno para bajar esos videos a YouTube.

Para mantener la motivacion, quizas borre los Motovlogs que tengo en mi canal de YouTube y empieze de zero. Por ahora pienso empezar grabando los Podcast en YouTube, y eventualmente utilizare SoundCloud para guardar el sonido del Podcast.

Voy a utilizar este Podcast para grabar mis aventuras en la moto, mis excursiones de la fotografia y de vez en cuando quizas hablare de las problematicas sociales, economicas y politicas actuales de Puerto Rico.

[Video Subtitles and Closed Caption in English]

How Many Motorcycles Are Too Many?

When I was a young grease monkey mechanic with a serious addiction to motorcycles, due to my finances I was never able to afford more than one bike at a time. That did not prevented me from driving past motorcycle shops, stopping and drooling over the bikes.

According to Scott Bruce Duncan, MBS (multiple bike syndrome), also known as cycleholism, "is a progressive disease that scientists have yet to discover the cause of. Cycleholics exhibit an illogical, uncontrollable desire to own multiple motorcycles".

Methinks that to overcome my addiction, somebody should have done an intervention. Like a crack user get addicted to crack after the first use, I was dead hooked after my first solo ride on a motorcycle.

In the early 70's I rebuilt the engine of my 1972 Kawasaki 750 triple in my bedroom, read every motorcycle magazine I could get, and dreamed of the day when I'd have my own dragbike. Now that I am older and financially stable, one of the disadvantages of living in the city is not having enough room in the garage to park or store more than one motorcycle.

To me it is an exercise of frustration to browse through Craigslist, Ebay and Facebook Marketplace ads every week. There are so many older bikes I wouldn't mind having, bikes that can be roadworthy with simple engine repairs. Besides, motorcycle restoration is a form of therapy; well that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

In a perfect world I wouldn’t mind suffering from MBS (multiple bike syndrome), and owning multiple bikes to satisfy every riding whim I might have. The cycleholism gets worse for me when I hang out with friends who also suffer from MBS. We always attend the same vintage motorcycle events, so it is frustrating for me to hear them talk how many bikes they have and what stage of the restoring/repairing process they are in.

Since I don't have the space to store multiple bikes, all I can do is imagine having my own private stable of vintage bikes, and daydream about tinkering with tools.

How many bikes are too many? I guess the best answer is, as many as you want, as many as you can afford, and as many as you have room for.

A Condenar Complicidad de Ricardo Rosello Contra Pueblo de Venezuela

Si usted es de las personas que lee las noticias diariamente y le preocupa la politica y el futuro de su pais, me imagino ha leido del escandalo por la supuesta intervencion de los rusos en las elecciones de Estados Unidos en el 2016. 

En mi opinion, al los rusos intervenir en las elecciones del 2016, los rusos hicieron lo mismo que la nacion americana ha hecho por mas de 100 años en otros paises; intervenir en la politica de un pais para desestabilizar el gobierno. 

Lo fascinante de esta realidad, es lo ignorante que el pueblo americano ha sido y continua siendo hacia las acciones clandestinas que Estados Unidos ha cometido a escondidas, en secreto en contra de otras naciones para desestabilizar esos gobiernos. Estas acciones subversivas incluyen las atrocidades que los americanos han cometido y continuaran cometiendo en Puerto Rico. 

Los Estados Unidos de America, en su supuesta lucha por la "libertad y democracia", quita y pone presidentes en paises elegidos democraticamente por el pueblo. Estados Unidos y la CIA ayuda financieramente a miembros de la oposicion, organiza protestas y lanza campañas mediaticas para manipular la opinion publica. La triste realidad es que estas intervenciones son simplemente una excusa para apoderarse de la riqueza de otros paises. 

En estos dias se ha incrementado la retorica de oposicion en contra del gobierno de Venezuela. Estados Unidos esta actualmente en comunicacion directa con miembros de el ejercito venezolano tratando de convencerlos que abandonen su apoyo a Maduro. Los americanos continuan su patron de intervencion en Venezuela al promover e impulsar planes desestabilizadores y llamar a la desobediencia civil, que es manipulada por los medios de comunicación. 

Si usted es un amante de la guerra y apoya el poder militar de los Estados Unidos, usted es de las personas que se deja llevar por la manipulacion mediatica y no va a tener ningun problema con que este pais se inmiscuya en otros paises con la excusa de restaurar la democracia. 

Los Estados Unidos es un pais que por mas de 100 años ha sido un pais intervencionista, un pais que por generaciones y a traves de acciones encubiertas apoyados por la CIA ha derrocado gobiernos en otros paises para instalar monigotes que obedecen ordenes de las corporaciones americanas.

En la prensa de Puerto Rico diariamente vemos a nuestro gobernador y sus alicates apoyando las criticas en contra de Venezuela por parte de Estados Unidos. Ricardo Rosello, nuestro incompetente gobernador, como fiel esclavo continua besandole el trasero a el presidente Trump y a su corrupto gobierno. 

Nuestro incompetente gobernador en vez de preocuparse de los problemas que azotan a nuestro pueblo, escribe en su cuenta de Twitter que "Puerto Rico apoya totalmente a Venezuela en su lucha por la libertad". El problema de esta contradiccion es que este corrupto es el lider del partido que en vez de luchar por la libertad de Puerto Rico, es el añangotado que desea la anexion de Puerto Rico con los Estados Unidos.

Ricardo Rosello esta siendo utilizado por intereses politicos de Estados Unidos para intervenir en contra de nuestros hermanos los venezolanos. Ya lo dice el refran, "de todos los esclavos, el que defiende al amo es el mas cobarde".

History Is Written By Those Who Print

Recently, I decided that is time to start printing personalized posters and large prints of some of my favorite pictures. The image above is my first ever poster size image (16" x 20") printed. It is also my motorcycle favorite picture of all time.

If I asked you to show me a picture of your family, what would be the first thing you would get? Probably your smartphone, right? Can you remember the last time you showed someone a printed photo? Do you even remember the last time you printed your photos?

When I was younger, I hated having my picture taken. Now I look back on my life and regret not having those moments captured. I only have a couple of pictures of my childhood, and those old images were taken by my parents. Now I am trying to make up for lost time.

Nowadays, “passing down” a digital version of our family history is just not going to happen. Printed photos are what will be preserved and saved for many years to come. Have you come across any photos from your parents, grandparents, or even great-grandparents? Those photos have likely been stored away or preserved in picture frames or photo albums. They are treasured by you and your family because it’s a part of your family history. Photographs are a huge part of our family history and how future generations will try to understand our way of life.

I want to print my favorite pictures, kind of rekindle my love for the final product, which is the print hanging on the wall. My pictures have been shared online digitally and I found that to be just leaving me wanting to share a bit more. It feels kind of empty, it feels like I'm not actually done. There is no better feeling than holding my framed images in my hands.

We all love to make our man-cave beautiful, so why not use the images I've taken myself to do that. Because of my love for shooting city skyline at night, most of the images in my office are standard sized pictures I’ve taken myself. In fact the biggest pictures decorating my office are 8" x 10" size prints.

From this point forward, I am going to create larger prints of my favorite photos to preserve my history. No one else is going to go through my digital clutter on my computer in the future, I have to be the one to do this. I am going to pick my favorite images, blow them up, frame them, and make a gallery wall of my life.

Photographs are the footprints in the sand of our life.