Duck Talk

 The story of Lolita and Stud Muffin

On Monday, April 11, 2011, the weather was gorgeous; the sun was shiny, the winds turned into caressing breeze, the air was crisp and clear, it was 77°.  I decided to give a visit to Central Park after work :)) As if the whole New York had the exact same urge to enjoy the day, the sun, the air to the fullest.  The Park was buzzing with children of all ages :) the birds were chirping happily, people walking nonchalantly with big happy smiles, some laying on the grass, children running and playing, dogs barking and trotting next to their owners. Colors were all around me, bright shorts and T's were the preferred attire, barefoot on the grass was the popular footwear :)   read more

Duck Talk

Pichincha to Mindo, Ecuador

Pichincha Volcano Crater, inactive and very fertile.  It was a beautiful drive from Quito to Mindo, a country like city in Ecuador located in the valley 2:30 hours from Quito.  You can view over 70 images here.

Pichincha is a province of Ecuador located in the northern sierra region; its capital and largest city is Quito. It is bordered by Imbabura & Esmeraldas to the north, Cotopaxi & Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas to the south, Napo & Sucumbíos to the east, and Esmeraldas & Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas to the west.
Prior to 2008, the canton Santo Domingo de los Colorados was part of the Pichincha Province. It has since become its own province, Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas.


Photo by Houry Najjarian

Flower Talk

Magnolia is a large genus of about 210 flowering plant species in the subfamily Magnolioideae of the family Magnoliaceae. It is named after   read more

 Photos: Houry Najjarian

Celebration Talk

St. Patrick's Day - Preparation to the Parade and side streets scenes. Over 100 images, click here.

 Photos: Houry Najjarian
St. Patrick's Day parade

Flower Talk

This fast-growing, dwarf Flowering Quince does it all. Before 'Crimson & Gold' leafs out, you can enjoy an abundance of deep red flowers with yellow centers that bees love. In fall,  read more

  

New Yorker

(from Wiki and other sites)
The 43-story New Yorker Hotel, was built in 1929 and opened its doors on January 2, 1930. It was designed by the architectural firm of Sugarman and Berger. the New Yorker is designed in the Art Deco style that was popular in the 1920s and 1930s. The building's pyramidal, set-back tower structure largely resembles that of the Empire State Building, which lies just a few blocks east.

For many years, the New Yorker Hotel was New York's largest hotel with 2,500 rooms. In addition to the ballrooms there were ten private dining "salons" and five restaurants employing 35 chefs. The barber shop was one of the largest in the world with 42 chairs and 20 manicurists. There were 92 telephone operators and 150 laundry staff washing as many as 350,000 pieces daily.

Throughout the 1940s and 1950s the hotel hosted a number of popular Big Bands while notable figures such as Spencer Tracy, Joan Crawford and even Fidel Castro stayed here. However, by the late 1960s, with both the passing of the Big Band era as well as the construction of more modern hotels. Due to lower and lower revenues, the hotel was finally closed in April 1972, to be acquired in 1976 by Rev. Moon's World Unification Church.

On June 1st, 1994, the New Yorker Hotel Management Co., Inc. returned the building to hotel use by opening it with 178 renovated rooms. After that, the number of the refurbished rooms increased steadily, with the current number of 932 rooms and 82 suites reached by the end of the 1990s. The top three floors house 70 large tower suites and on the top is the panoramic Sky Lounge. Since 2000 the New Yorker has been a part of the Ramada hotel chain.

The inventor Nikola Tesla spent the last ten years of his life in near-seclusion in Suite 3327 (where he also died), largely devoting his time to feeding pigeons while occasionally meeting dignitaries.

Above a three-story limestone base, a set-back tower of brown brick rises with the distinctive vertical light courts splitting the facades. 23 elevators service the building, with one for direct entrance to the North Ballroom from the 35th Street entrance. Moreover, one was built to connect the hotel to the tunnels from the subway and the nearby old Pennsylvania Station. To meet the requirements of power generation for the activities, a separate powerplant was incorporated within the basement, including also an early air-conditioning unit.

Power PlantWhen initially built the New Yorker Hotel had coal-fired steam boilers and generators sufficient to produce more than 2200 kilowatts of direct current electric power. This was at the time the largest private power plant in the United States. The hotel's own direct current generators were still in use during the Northeast Blackout of 1965 but by the late 1960s the hotel's power system had been modernized to alternating current.

Renovations

In 1994, the New Yorker Hotel Management Company, Inc. took over operations and began the largest renovation project in the New Yorker's nearly 80-year history. Progress continued steadily until 9/11, when production was halted. Then, in 2003, renovations resumed, continuing over the next five years. By the end of 2007, the hotel had 912 guest rooms available. (In 1994 there were only 178 rooms available for rent.) From 2007 to the end of August 2008, hotel administration planned to spend approximately $65 million on renovations.

Here are some shots from the New Yorker location area:

Photography: Houry Najjarian

Happy Valentines Day :)

Enjoy this special day :))

Tiramisu

Chocolate covered Canolis and strawberries

Cheesecake and chocolate covered strawberry

Chocolate cake with layers of vanilla cream, stuffed with almonds, covered with gouey caramel, and strawberry dipped in chocolate.

Photography: Houry Najjarian

Photo Talk

Blogs are easy to use if you know how they were designed. Took me few tries to find almost the best look, for me, to post pages, home page, other pages, etc....

If you visited me before, here on blogspot, you have already realized that my blog had a face lift and somehow I am pretty sure that maybe it will have few more, until I am really comfortable with the final published look.  Meanwhile I am having fun.

If you're visiting me from houry photography, you already know I like variety in my daily postings. Lately, I have tried the high key color portrait and turned the colored version into Black and White.  I did my processing in Photoshop CS5 the way I thought it would look good.  I liked it, my flickr friends' feed back was very encouraging and positive. I didn't give up on the idea that there could be another way, done by a professional. I was right, I found it and am sharing the link of the site at the end of this post. I am pleased to find out, from watching the tutorial that the steps that I took to edit my photos were pretty much the same as John Arnold was demonstrating in his tutorial.  Of course mine need little more work in couple areas.  I will try the high key look, again, another day and share it with you here and on my houry photography.

Since this is photo Talk segment, here are the photos of my best model, Amber:) also posted on my flickr site.

In his tutorial, John Arnold, not only shows how to Edit in Photoshop CS5, but also in  Adobe Photoshop LightRoom.

My Little Princess, Amber, who calls me Nana:))














I thought I'll share it on my blog high key high colour portraits  .  Most of the tutorials are very comprehensive video clips and John Arnold very articulate.  The best thing is, all his tutorials are free of charge.  But if you wish to make a donation of $2.00 a month (cheap, cheap, cheap!!) please do so.  Information on donation can be found at his site. Really worth the penny!! (Oh, by the way, I am not paid to write something nice :) )

Note: the previous two posts about Mamouns and Oasis moved to the sidebar on the right, under "Food Talk" page.

Photograph by: Houry Najjarian