Lets have a PARADE!

The whole purpose of going to NYC when we went to NYC was to see the Macy's Day Parade. Of all the fun/famousy things that happen in NYC (the Macy's Parade, lighting of the Rockerfeller Tree, the New Years ball, etc) this was the thing I WANTED to see! To warn in advance, this post is going to be FILLED with pictures!

So we got up early, and headed to Central Park West. We landed at 64th and Central Park West, which is closer to the start of the parade then the end.

More of me attempting myspace-ish type pictures


Here at our spot was where we had our one and only encounter with a famous person. Randy, from Say Yes to the Dress, watched the parade from the ledge directly behind us. Of course, I took two not so flattering pictures of the guy.




I actually heard him before I saw him. He has the best voice ever. I didn't say anything to him, because I figured he just wanted to see the parade like me, and there was no reason to get all weird about it. I say this right after I show you guerrilla-style photos I took of him, so sure I am being a little hypocritical. Shoot me!

So when we first got to our spot, I thought it was crowded. We were in the back row of about 4 rows of people. But the start of the parade, we were pushed up to the second row of about 10 rows of people... sardines man! We knew the parade was starting because the tv helicopters started circling, and people started craning over to our left...




Okay the floats aren't going to be entirely in order... sorry about that! I do know that this one float had mirrors all along the side of it, and Tim poked me and said "You should try to get a shot of you in the mirror." The girl next to me (who I think was also a photographer like me, and was definitely not from New York) was trying to get the same shot too. Both of us were convinced we missed it, but upon further inspection when I got back to Ohio...

Full shot


Hey thats ME! Right in front! With my new Parade friend. And a guy looking at us like we're idiots....


My favorite people walking around were the ones on stilts. Love those guys!


The energizer bunny actually would stop and spin around periodically. Genius!






Hey there's Cyndi Lauper!


Jimmy Fallon




Some band... I think it was Boys like Girls? Something like that... I just liked that they were taking pictures of the crowd


Awwww Sesame Street


This confetti was all over EVERYTHING! We ended bringing it to Ohio with us!


Some random older ladies called the Ohio Purple Peddlers. I don't know of them, but apparently they peddle


DORA!!!!


The people holding down the balloons wear these smocks, and I loved the Dora handlers, because they had Backpack on their backs. So awesome! (a note on those people - they yell to the crowd too... we were chanting for Spongebob)


I think this guy in the fireman float had the BEST seat




Oh Gabba..... YO GABBA GABBA! I'm not going to lie, I got SO EXCITED when I saw their radio in the distance. And editting these pictures were hard, because the girls would get upset when I'd change to a picture that wasn't these guys...




330 of 365: Dj Lance Dj Lance DJ Lance ROCK!


So there were kids at the parade (not just me) and this one little boy... he was so cute! Blonde, blue eyed, sweet as can be. He just couldn't wait to see Buzz Lightyear. He had his Buzz Lightyear shirt on, and his Buzz Lightyear toy... his dad was worried he wouldn't stay awake long enough to see Buzz, but the kid made it.






I loved watching the balloons as they were leaving, since everyone's looking at whats coming ahead.


Loved this float too... it would rock every time she stopped


Papa Smurf, give me a "what what"






I love this santa balloon... I might print this up to use as a decoration at Christmas time




Awww its Santa! Which means its over! But how cool was his sleigh??


And now it's time for the masses.... the shear amount of people at the Parade is just staggering. The street is barracaded off, so you can't cross the street at any point. There are officials who follow he end of the parade, moving the barracades in so that people can move again. And its just a SEA of people.




Tim and I crossed into Central Park to sit for a minute, before heading off to China Town. The ultimate goal was to get to Little Italy, to see if anything was open to eat. We weren't going to have Thanksgiving dinner until late late into the evening, so we needed to eat a lunch now. In China town, we got lost. I mean LOST! Here's a couple random things I decided to photograph.




So, like I said, we got lost. Like super lost to the point of going home. Tim at one point said "Man if I only had a map." So there's a series of pictures like this one on my camera. I literally went down into the subway, and photographed small sections of the map from where we were to where we wanted to be. It actually worked out really well... I just looked like I was checking my camera constantly.


We found an open restaurant, had lunch, went back to Jessica's, slept, and got ready and went to her friend Johns house. She and John made a fantastic dinner, and there was just so much food!!




I didn't take many photos, because I wanted to actually be at the party, rather then photograph the party, but here's what I did get. I love how Tim looks bored to death - he wasn't, he actually enjoyed himself more then he thought he would. I thought it was fantastic, and was sad when it was all done. Definitely a great way to spend a holiday!






*phew* that was one heck of a post!

as precious as you can Imagine | Purple Platypus Pictures: Newborn Photographer

Baby Imagine made her appearance this month. She is adorable in every way, and she's got a gaggle of boys that are going to protect the heck out of her. She was my first newborn, and it took some patience, but I'm very pleased with what we got. Welcome to the World little girl!

Thanksgiving Eve

I woke up the day before Thanksgiving with one thing on the brain: "I must see the Statue of Liberty before I go." Up until this point, I was just happy to see what I saw, and so didn't really weigh in too heavily on what I wanted to see. But I knew if I didn't go see her, I would be so upset with myself. Just her shear size - I know she's small compared to just about everything else in NYC, but she's a STATUE! Someone created that! And Liberty is just HUGE when you think about that! So I was determined to see her.

But first, Jessica cut my hair! Well before that we had to find her salon. Which involved taking a different train then we were used to. So Tim, being the navigator of the two of us, talked to Jessica on the phone to find out how to get where we were going, and off we went. About 30 minutes later we came to a cool bridge. I even took a picture of it.

After we crossed the bridge, we realized we made a grave mistake. We were walking into the Bronx. The total opposite direction we were supposed to go. So we called Jessica, turned around, and proceded to walk the entire width of Manhatten island that morning. But we eventually made it to the salon. What I find cool about where my sister works - its right next door to Tom's Restaurant. If you don't know Tom's Restaurant, then man you need to watch some late night re-runs! Here's a memory jog.



We didn't eat there, because the food sucks, but HOW COOL!

And then Tim played photographer when I got my hair cut. Sure non of the pictures were in focus, but look how flat my hair was!! I've never seen my hair so flat and wonderful! It didn't last because it was foggy/misty/rainy out, but man it was gorgeous while it was there.




So we headed off to the Statue of Liberty. I made us take a ferry out to see her, because I was not going to be satisfied with seeing her from the dock. I mean this is the view you get of her (which I'm sure is nice when its clear out, but even if it had been clear I would have wanted to go out)


I mean this was as close as my zoom was going to get from Manhatten


I've determined NYC makes taxis out of everything


On the ferry, I went out onto the bow to take pictures. Tim, well he sulked inside (he was so not interested with going onto the island)



329 of 365: Lady Liberty






I don't blame Tim for being a pain that morning... it was nasty out


So Tim offered to take my picture with Lady Liberty. I was thrilled, handed over the camera and hopped up onto the grassy area. Tim takes a picture, and I look at it...


He chopped her head off!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay, he says "But you can see you alright, and you know it's the Statue of Liberty" Okay okay, but I know what I look like, and I wanted all of her in the picture. During our spat, I took an image of Tim, which is now my favorite picture of him ever...


Amazing. But he did take a great picture of me with the statue right after.


Even love the composition! Nice job Tim!

Back on land I took a few more pictures...

cool buildings


wreckage from the World Trade Center


And then my camera died. And it turned out, my backup battery... dead also. Seriously it was like barely one o'clock in the afternoon, and I had no camera. It was lame.

But I have to tell you about ground zero. When we got off the ferry from the two islands, Tim and I just started walking the direction of shrouded buildings. So when we saw ground zero, we didn't see the 'official' ground zero. We just walked up from a random street. And, while I know it annoys some New Yorkers when tourists take pictures of it, I was upset that I couldn't. Because it is so impressive and scary. So incredibly destructive, even after almost a decade. I mean its still just an empty space. A hole. And I've said before, that New York uses every avaliable space, which just makes ground zero that much more breathtakingly horrific. It's so scary to think that someone hated us so much to cause that kind of devestation.

So from there, we headed back to the apartment. We were both drained, and I wanted to charge the batteries to my camera. My sister had left for her friends house where we were going to have Thanksgiving dinner, and she invited me along. Let me tell you, her friend John lives in the most incredible apartment. He swears he got a great deal because of the economy, but I think he had someone killed for it. It's big! It's as big as apartments in Ohio, and thats saying something! But I have a few snapshots of Jessica and John prepping for dinner the next day. They were so cute!











The next day was the parade!!!