I haven’t been great about my lists lately. You know: that which is designed to keep me in line.
Well, it still works, kinda, if only irregularly, and if only as a reminder to get off my tuchus.
So, today, I took my tuchus and the rest of me over to Brooklyn Heights & Cobble Hill, with a stopover at the ferry landing near the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge:
This was a day which made me wish for an SLR with a couple of decent lenses: Intermittently cloudy, with some beautiful cuts by the sun. Alas, the point and shoot had to do:
You can’t really see the Chrysler Building, in front of the Empire State. Still, the Manhattan Bridge provides a nice ramp into Manhattan.
Again, a camera with more flexible exposure options would have allowed me to capture all the nuances of this multi-dimensional shot down Furman Street. Still, you get the various buildings, as well as the platforms of both the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges.
No, this is not how the Manhattan Bridge actually appeared before me: I cranked up the contrast using the (free) rudimentary photo fixes Windows offers. Still, I like how the colors pop out in an almost painterly manner.
I know: If I spent less time mooning over my life and more time trying to sell my novel and/or get a real job, I’d have the money for both the camera and Photoshop.
But in the meantime, I’ve got my walkin’ shoes and the city. That’ll do.
AbsurdBeats 
Have you tried Gimp yet? (open source and free) I hated it when I started out using it but practice and a newer, better release have converted me. More control of individual processes than Photoshop and therefore a lot to learn and fiddle with but it more than serves my purposes. I mainly resize, crop, sharpen and adjust colour balance and it does all of these just fine.
And I dither on the camera. While I would love a “better” camera, all of the photos on my blog are taken with a point and click (Sony Cybershot 7.2 megapixels), tidied up sometimes with Gimp and are more than adequate for the purpose. I may not look very professional as I photograph (why do people look down on pink cameras?!) but I somehow managed to win a photo contest recently with a shot taken on it.
No, I hadn’t heard of it.
Thanks for the tip.
And Ms. Blithe: a pink camera—really?
But hey, I believe in choice. . . .
Yes well…pink wasn’t top of my list. But the options were silver, black and pink (very pale silvery pink but pink nonetheless). And we run the house as a semi-democracy (ie. the kids get a say unless I tell them they can’t) and there was much eloquent pink advocacy and I am just a poor sucker…so there you are. I try to cope with the shame.
I suppose until the purchase time comes, you could always just plan a photo weekend and rent a body and a couple of lenses for the occasion. I’ve done it before and it’s kinda fun.
Someday I’m actually gonna make it to NYC…