BENEATH THE BETHESDA TERRACE

The Bethesda Terrace is one of many architectural features located inside New York City’s Central Park. It’s lower passageway is a spectacular work of art that has been featured in so many Hollywood movies as well as tv and print ads. It has also become a favorite backdrop for multiple social media selfie posts. I am currently in New York City for a weekend of leisure and decided to spend the afternoon in Central Park while waiting for my hotel room to be ready. I’ve been to this spot many times but surprisingly has never taken a photograph of it. I didn’t bring my DSLR on this trip so I pulled out my ever reliable iPhone 11 Plus for this photo session. I also decided to play with my phone’s wide angle lens feature and got very pleased with how these three photographs turned out. To this day I continue to be amazed by the quality of photos my iphone has been giving me. Hope you guys like them as well.

TIAN TAN BUDDHA

I visited Hong Kong in the fall of 2019 and despite the protests occuring around the city, I went ahead with the trip and glad that I did. A friend who lives in Hong Kong told me I should be fine as I will be in the city during the week and most of the protests occur on weekends. True enough, I had a great time in this amazing city with no untoward incidents during my stay. One of the highlights of my visit was a trip to the Tian Tan Buddha, which is considered one of the largest statues of Buddha in the world. Located in Lantau Island, this famous landmark is best accessed through a cable car ride with amazing views of the HKG airport. This famous landmark sits on top of a hill and one has to climb almost three hundred steps to get close to it. At first I thought this was an ancient shrine but after a quick Google, I found out this was just built in the early 90’s. Still it is quite a magical experience climbing up the steps and coming face to face with Buddha. The photo above was taken inside the cable car as it was approaching the final station close to the statue. The photos below were taken at the steps during my climb as well as on the base of the statue at the top of the hill. By the way, I was told it was bad luck to look back during the climb so I didn’t. I’m not superstitious but I adhered to the instructions just to be safe…I didn’t want any protests/riots to spoil my vacation.

THE VESSEL (TKA)

The Hudson Yards in New York City has a new architectural landmark called The Vessel (TKA). TKA is acronym for “Temporarily Known As” since the new construction does not have an official name at this time. The architect is actually encouraging the public to come up with a name and submit it at their website at https://www.hudsonyardsnewyork.com/whats-next. Here are some photos I took of the Vessel with my GoPro Hero 7 Black using the wide-angle lens mode. Access is free but you will need to get your tickets in advance as entry is on a schedule basis. I lined up around 11AM and got a ticket in 5 minutes for a 12 noon entry…Unfortunately, I got hungry and decided to eat and missed my schedule…so no photos from the inside. LOL!

LA MANO (THE HAND)

La Mano or The Hand is a sculpture by Chilean artist Mario Irarrázabal located at Brava Beach in Punta Del Este, Uruguay. Punta del Este was one of the stops of my South American cruise and to my luck an Argentinian friend was in town for the summer and offered to show me the city. We made this our first stop in an attempt to avoid the bus loads of cruise ship passengers who will swarm around this sculpture in an instant like a colony of bees. I intentionally left my DSLR on the ship for this stop so I used my iphone to take these photos. I wished the sky was clear that day but somehow the clouds provide a unique perspective to the photographs.

OBELISCO DE BUENOS AIRES

Last month I was in Buenos Aires, Argentina for the first time and explored the city for a few days before embarking on a 2-week cruise to the tip of South America. I fell in love with this elegant city referred to as The Paris of South America that I promised myself to visit again and perhaps stay a little longer. One of the most prominent landmarks in the city is the Obelisco or Obelisk located right in the heart of the 9 de Julio Avenue, which happens to be one of the widest avenues in the world. This architectural icon was built in the 1930’s to commemorate the quadricentennial of the foundation of the city of Buenos Aires.  Fortunately, the hotel I was staying, The Palacio Duhau at the Recoleta District, was just a few minutes walk to the Obelisco so I made sure a trip to this landmark was included in my itinerary. By the way, one can actually climb to the top of the obelisk but with elevator access nonexistent it is a test of endurance climbing 206 steps to the top. I would say I was happy enough to appreciate it from the ground so here are some photographs I took of the Obelisk and its surrounding area also known as the Punto Obelisco. Happy New Year everyone and here’s to more travels as well as great photo opportunities this year.