Musings of a VC in NYC

Fun Friday: Photos

Photosharing is one of the killer apps of the Internet.

Flickr, Facebook, and Instagram have all been built on this one simple, but killer, feature.

So I figured we'd have some fun today and take advantage of a cool Disqus feature at the same time.

I will start out by sharing a photo that I took that I am proud of.

And then all of you can share a photo with me and everyone else in the comments. For those who aren't Disqus regulars, you do that by clicking on this button in the comment box.

Enjoy.

This is the computer lab at The Academy For Software Engingeering, which opened yesterday. I was there to welcome the students and I was just so inspired when I walked into this room that I took out my Android and snapped this photo and posted it to Instagram, Tumblr, and Foursquare. Now I am posting it here.

Fred's Mountain

  View From Fred's Mountain 
  Originally uploaded by fredwilson.

My friends Brad, Amy, Matt and Mariquita took a hike up Fred's Mountain  (on the Wyoming/Idaho border near Grand Teton) yesterday and sent me this from their phone on the hike. That is a glorious view.

I wish I was there, but getting a photo like that "phone to phone" is kind of like being there for a moment.

It's true that I'd like to fund teleportation (but not beta test it), but short of teleportation, mobile social media isn't too bad to take you to another place for a moment.

The Meat Market Apple Store - A Large Glass Circular Stair

The new Apple store under construction at the corner of Ninth Avenue and 14th Street is starting to come together. I walked by it on the way to Chelsea Market to shop for dinner just now.

As I was walking past the sidewalk permits, something caught my eye and I stopped to shoot a photo of one of the permits with my blackberry curve. As I was taking the photo, the construction site boss came out and started glaring at me. He asked me, "What are you doing and who are you?" I told him I was Fred Wilson and I was taking a photo of the sidewalk permit. I mentioned that it is a public permit and that it was there to inform the public about what was going on there. He just stood there staring at me and I checked my photo to make sure I got what I wanted and then headed on.

The thing that caught my eye was the permit for a "large glass circular stair". The Apple store in Soho has the large glass stair front and center. The Apple store in midtown has the glass enclosure. So they are doing a large glass circular stair in the meat market district. Based on the progress I saw, we may see that stair before year end.

The "North" River

  The "North" River 
  Originally uploaded by fredwilson.

The Hudson River is also known as the North River (as opposed to the East River and the Delaware which was the South River). It runs 315 miles from Lake Tear of the Clouds in the Adirondacks and into the ocean at New York Harbor.

I've moved a lot in my 46 years, but one constant has been the Hudson River. I was born in a hospital that overlooked the Hudson in West Point NY. My bedroom in my teenage years (after we moved back to West Point) looked out over the Hudson and in the winter when the trees were bare, I could stare out the window and watch the boats go up and down the river.

Maybe that's why I love riding up the Hudson River Park. I guess I just have a thing for the North River. And it shows no signs of abating.

The Barbecue Feast

  The Feast 
  Originally uploaded by fredwilson.

I promised photos in my last post and so here's a photo of the barbecue feast before everyone went to town on it last night.

The menu was pulled pork (cooked for 12 hours indirect heat on our gas grill) and brisket (two of them cooked for 8 hours in La Caja China), cole slaw, watermelon feta salad, and way too much desert. We also served beer, sangria, water, and juices.

Hopefully, The Gotham Gal will blog the whole thing with recipes and the like. All I can say was it was awesome.

I posted a few pictures of La Caja China on Flickr if you are curious about that contraption.

And here's the new Bruce Springsteen song that I couldn't figure out how to get onto my Sonos last night when Cliff asked me to put it on. It's nice to hear Bruce rock out.

Radio Nowhere - Bruce Springsteen - Magic (new record coming soon)

Beach Blur at Sunset

  Beach Blur at Sunset 
  Originally uploaded by fredwilson.

I took this photo with my Blackberry Curve last night on the beach at Sunset.

I was moving too fast and it came out blurry.

But I like it anyway.

There's nothing quite like the beach at sunset.

Take a picture of something you see

  Take a picture of something you see 
  Originally uploaded by fredwilson.

It's all starting to come together, but it's not quite there yet.

I go out in the world, take a picture of something i see, email it to flickr, twitter the news, and eventually i'll geotag it and maybe even blog it.

What I'd really like is for all of that to happen in one text message from my phone.

Talk - Coldplay

"you can take a picture of something you see"

Send Me A jpeg Please

Everyone's who has been to an amusement park has seen a photo like this. You get off the ride and they have them on screens so you can check yourself out as the roller coaster took the big drop.

This is Jessica and Emily yesterday at Busch Gardens. We liked the image of Emily's hair standing straight up so we decided to buy it. The women at the counter asked what size we'd like to purchase.

I told her "send me a jpeg please". The girls laughed but I was dead serious. I was certain they'd just take my email address, charge me $5 or $10, and I'd see the email with the attachment in a couple minutes.

But it doesn't work like that. They can only sell you a hard copy. They should fix that.

Photobiking

  City Sunrise 
  Originally uploaded by fredwilson.

The westside highway at 6am in the morning is a wonderful place this time of the year.

The light is awesome.

The city is mostly asleep but it's stirring.

I did some photobiking this morning and I put a fourteen picture slide show of my ride on flickr.

Domino Sugar Factory (continued)

Jake at Bluejake left a comment on my original post and linked to a bunch of photos he apparently took inside the shuttered Domino Sugar Factory.

This one is my favorite but they are all great and there are also links to a bunch of other blog posts on the topic.

Urban landscape photoplaceblogging. I love it. More at Gothamist.