To the devil, you say!

"Spring in Upper East Side, Manhattan"
© Joselito Briones

You notice that new logo on the upper right corner of this page? That's what's new. I've taken so many photos and I've decided to offer some of them for sale for commercial purposes. I'm trying out iStockphoto. It's a slow process, it takes their staff about a week to review a photograph and approve it for inclusion in the portfolio. It's a good thing, probably, at least they're screening carefully.

Now about your photos. Don't worry, I'm not including personal photos. Although am not really sure what non-personal photos are, I'm sure I know which ones are personal. Pictures of friends are definitely personal, I'm not including them even though I have a signed model release that says I can. Well, unless you're an attention ho' like me and you write to me saying you don't mind if your photo is plastered everywhere. Once I put it out there though, there's very little I can do as to control how people use it. Your photo may end up in an advertisement showing the wonders of life, or it may be used to endorse laxatives. Hey!

Anyway, if you just want to have a print of your photo, I'll look for website I can upload high-resolution versions of "friendly" photos, so you can order directly from them.


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Kastanienallee

© Joselito Briones

This is a waiting bench in Kastanienallee, the heart of the "happening" scene in Mitte, in Berlin. I've got an overflow of photos now, so you'll be seeing a lot more of less-than current images. I'll be going to the US pretty soon, so it'll really stack up even more.

I'm trying a new way of putting up the pictures, using automated scripts, because it's getting difficult to update my photo website due to the sheer number of photo. I got a freebie gallery template from the internet and used it for testing: click here for a compilation of all the photos I've uploaded so far. What do you think, go this way or stay with simple html?


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Summer in the city

© Joselito Briones

Not quite, but almost. These people are obviously eager though. The photo is of the man-made beach along the river surrounding the Museum Island in Berlin, one beautiful, sunny day. The building in the background is the newly re-opened Bode Museum.


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The Brandenburg Kiss

© Joselito Briones

And today's theme: cheese! Can you get any more cheesy than this photo? I doubt it.

I've been to the Berlin three times the past year, and every time I make it a point to go to Brandenburg Tor to take pictures, but it was always raining the past couple of times that I was there. This time around finally there was sun! And what did I get? Not a photo of the gate, but of these lovebirds. Oh well.

Btw, do you know the couple? If you do, you can ask them for me if they object to having their photo here. I'll take it off if they do. Or if they want a high resolution copy, I can also send them one (the faces are actually recognizable in the high-res version).


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Knut Impressed

© Joselito Briones

Berlin's current biggest attraction, no doubt, is Knut the Eisbär. The baby polar bear born December, 2006 in the Berlin zoo is a superstar. He even has a website. His official showtime is limited only to 2 scheduled hour-long playtime with his caretakers. Nevertheless, people (and kids) from everywhere stood in long lines just to see him. People visit Berlin just to see him.

It was the perfect place and time to observe kids. I was particularly struck by the display of determination of the boy, who couldn't have been more than 10 years old, who was in line just before me. Discouraged by the long line for Knut (this was the second line, the first long line was outside, just to enter the zoo), the father tried all the tricks in the book to persuade him to leave the line and to just go with him, the younger brother, and the mom, to see something else (penguins!). When the father failed (to his credit, he was very patient with the boy, even as it was obvious he was also concerned about the younger son missing the other attractions), the mom tried too. Didn't work. She ended up handing the boy a cell phone, so they can walk around the zoo without him. What's most striking was, the boy stood his ground without being a brat about it. No tantrums. Whenever the parents tried to offer something new, he just nodded his head no. In his eyes you could see that he was being saddened everytime he had to say no, but he was firm about seeing Knut. Half an hour later, when it was already obvious that we were gonna make it after all to the last few minutes of Knut's appearance that day, the mom, impressed, rejoined the boy in the line. Then the younger brother did. The boy was obviously proud and excited, and just before we entered the gate to Knut's viewing gallery, he tried hard to persuade his father to join them to see the baby bear. Unfortunately it was the dad's turn to be proud, who stayed behind and watched from just outside the gallery.


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P.S. No, pictured, top, is not the same kid described above.

Keb

© Joselito Briones

Today's Keb's birthday, one of my nephews in the Yay! Area in California. He's the one on the right (on the left is Omar), and this photo was taken a long time ago. It's particularly noticeable in this photo the compression artefacts that I mentioned to you before (especially around the eyes and on the skin area in general), the thing that is introduced whenever I upload a file to Picasa. I guess they've gotten cheapo and want to save some space, hence the compression.


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Sony Center, Berlin

© Joselito Briones

This is as touristy and disneyfied as any place can get, the Sony Center in Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, and this particular roof structure has been photographed gazillion times before, but since I was just another tourist that day, here it is. The rest of the photos I took in this recent Berlin trip are about the same, tourist traps and all, so don't expect anything profound the next few days.


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