No parking, no smoking

Uncle Paulie's

"Cookin' in Brooklyn" is the best sign in Brooklyn. Cute little building. I've never been out here when it's been open but I hope to get some shots of the place lit up. (By "out here" I mean Greenpoint Ave almost at the bridge over Newtown Creek.)

Coffee Shop

Fish Market

I stood there for a while to get a shot with no cars in it but in the end I kind of like the way the blurs came out.

Esposito Pork Shop

Light and dark

Hopeless

Yams on the G

I have no idea why there would be four random yams on the subway platform.

Alien invader

It's a funny thing about street art that an old piece can suddenly stand out to you as though it's new, and a new piece can look like it's been there forever. That said, I really feel like this is new, but if it's not, that's OK because it's beautifully done. It looks almost like it was done in chalk first and then colored in, but what you can't see in the detail photo is that it's not chalky, it's like some kind of paint stick or something.

As for the artist, that one name looks like Faile, which is common in this neighborhood, although not for this kind of work. Also, I read here that one of the Faile members went to school in Minneapolis.

This is on the Mill Building. Wythe near N3rd.

Take back

N7th St. Williamsburg, Brooklyn

A look around Williamsburg

Urban Green condos? 142 N. 6th? I thought they meant the "7 Berry" building but I think that address is actually this big hole between N5th and N6th.

It has glass. Hard to imagine this is only half as high as it's going to be. It already looks tall. It's going to look freakishly tall.

Speaking of N6th...

No real scoop here other than to note that the work being done involves renovating an eating & drinking establishment, so we can expect another place to eat on N6th.

Speaking of new places to eat on that block...

I know better than to hold my breath for the opening of Alia, but it seems noteworthy that they've got a new sign and these new benches out front.

The Girlfriends

As much as I love the way the Empire State Building looks over everything that happens on this lot, I don't think the composition accommodates it well. (Although I don't feel so strongly about that that I won't include that framing as well.)

At the Newtown Crik

This is from the Greenpoint Ave. bridge. It probably has a name but I don't know it. For what it's worth, the focus in the Coral Queen photos held up well for the larger size views.

Brooklyn palette

What's amazing is that the dumpster was surely painted somewhere else long ago and put here relatively recently for whatever job is being dumped into it.
Calyer St., Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Stylin'

As promised:

If you click the photo it takes you to my Flickr account and should give you a number of size options for download.
(Backstory: These fine folks were struck with telegenic spirit as I happened to be passing.)

The King of Par is dead

Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Idiotarod 2007 - people

I've grouped my first batch of Idiotarod photos into three categories, people running, bewildered locals, and character shots.

Idiotarod 2007 - What the...?

I've grouped my first batch of Idiotarod photos into three categories, people running, bewildered locals, and character shots.

Idiotarod 2007 - RUN!

I've grouped my first batch of Idiotarod photos into three categories, people running, bewildered locals, and character shots.

Breaking News -- Brooklyn Label now with dinner hours

The Gothamist review on Friday mentioned there was "word on the street" of it and sure enough, walking down the street the next day I saw confirmation.

If you click it to view it big you can even see the specials menu.

Walsh's Shoe Factory

Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Choose your own adventure

This is the Studio B club in Greenpoint
How cool would it be if the doors were that way because of the different shapes of the clubgoers?

Chicken Crossing

I don't care if it's a "bourgeois trend," I like the idea of people making their own signs. And I still don't like the idea that public space can only be decorated by people who purchase it for advertising. So there.

Stripes

Wythe
I had a hard time figuring the framing on this. Also the bench was greener to the naked eye than it looks here. Still the contrast in colors works well.

Elephant walk

Since I took two pictures I made the second one black and white, just to see...


This is the site at Berry and N10th, diagonal from the 55 Berry neighbor. The weather blew down the construction fence so I was able to just walk in there.

Walk the plank

N9th (?) between Berry and Bedford. it looks a little like they put a top on the hose in the foreground, but if you look closer you'll see it's a new building. Last time I saw it they had the balcony but the wall hadn't been extended so it looked like a random platform sticking out. It still looks a little random but I don't think I totally hate this building. I like that it's set away from the street a bit and that its face has some features. If they give it a tasteful finish it could be nice.

The Gates

The new construction at 23rd and 3rd looks like it's going to be a giant box, presumably glass.

Going up

3rd ave near 28th St. A few doors down from Rodeo Bar. Particularly striking because everything next to it is so much lower.

Destination in view

Secaucus, New Jersey gives new meaning to "so close and yet so far."

Marsh grass

Chic Shack

Even when it's closed it's cool to be seen at the Shake Shack.

Lush is coming to 14th St.

Those shopping carts are for Garden of Eden
Since I won't have to go to Herald Square, someone may be getting bath bomb presents more often than once a year.

Another colorful truck

6th ave above 14th

Into the sun

14th & 8th
I remember when this place was full of tranny hookers (or maybe they were just trannies, I wasn't exactly shopping). It always had the steam table and I'd come here for the mac and cheese because sitting in that tray all day it'd be thick as roofing tar by the time I got there after working at the bar.
Anyway, I have no idea why I kept this picture. Maybe it's the mental associations. There's something about the dizziness of staring into the sun that I feel in this cyclist. The pattern on the window makes it look like he's not in focus but he is.

Closed

Meatpacking district, obvs.

Wire in the sky

Water access

I finally made my way down the Greenpoint street that doesn't end with a chain link fence topped with barbed wire.

The Williamsburg Bridge

Taking the picture into the sun wiped out almost all the color except the sky. I think I prefer the blue sky to the all black and white below.

The stars come out in Greenpoint

The three above are different buildings but I have to wonder if they're all related to the pencil factory since they're within a block of each other. Meanwhile, I knew the Pencil Factory bar was based on a factory in the area, but I guess I never looked up to notice there were actual pencils on the facade. Very fun.

OK, this one is probably not part of the pencil factory but it has a star on it and it's within a block of the others.

Greenpoint, Brooklyn, around Greenpoint ave and West.

Outside NY

I finally went to the new garden place in Williamsburg. Very nice inside. I wasn't quite feeling the plants they had for sale, but it's a good poke-around place. They do sell giant bell jars for growing plants in high humidity. I may go back for one of those.

Oops, I forgot that cold weather season means a foggy camera lens.

Ribbed

Lamarca Cheese Shop on 22nd off 3rd Ave. I like how those fins echo the arches in the church doorway.

Black and White experiment

This is a great example of how different the results can be for the different ways of rendering a color photo in black and white. The middle photo is done through the "desaturate" feature. The bottom photo is done using "monochrome" mixing feature.
As to the subject matter, the NYPD is scraped off this thing and it has what looks like improvised bolt-on rear view mirrors. Could it be that someone is driving this around as their regular car?
14th Street.

A climbing wall?

Built next to the high line in the meatpacking district. It looks like it could be a cement form, but the wood has a finished quality that makes me wonder if it's meant to be seen. With "The Rock" written at the top it looks like one of those indoor rock climbing walls.

Shoe tree

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Dead end

I get the impression this is more of a safety demolition than the start of a new construction project. When I was here a few weeks back this shed was barely standing on its own.
Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Wardrobe

This picture is a little sadder when you know it was 32F degrees and very windy out. No people on this street though, so whoever these belong to hopefully found someplace warm.
Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Brooklyn colors

I'm sure this wall has been shot a thousand times, a couple times by me probably already, but the light was really good and there was no car in the way, so one more time.

I like pieces like this where the perspective shifts mid-letter.

Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Berries

Last season's vines.
Brooklyn

Cold Day Hot Coffee

This guy is often hanging around in that corner. Usually reading the newspaper.
Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Opportunity

Secaucus Junction train station

Cycle

Port Authority bus terminal

Watering hole

The Meadowlands of New Jersey have a much different kind of industrial feel than the East River waterfront. It feels a little more bleak to me, even when the sun is out.

Soggy commute

Secaucus Junction station

Subway streak

That's the 7 train.

Down the hall

More Northside goings on...

Billyburg Place Corp plans to open a bar/restaurant (no sidewalk cafe or backyard garden) on N4th between Bedford and Driggs. You missed your chance if you have a problem with it.

It's the first empty storefront next to the Mexican place (tried it, didn't like it). The one next to that is the place with the hookah pipes.

Meanwhile, is something going on at Empire Candy? I don't think I've ever seen lights on in this place. Peeking through the door, there were three people in there. I couldn't quite tell if they had the look of future plans on their faces.

N3rd & Berry

Sparks fly

This was a pretty disappointing weekend for taking pictures. I didn't get out to shoot like I usually do. So I was pleased to find this guy with the grinder to play with.

Most of these are better in black and white I think, but I'm pleased to have learned a really intersting lesson in the process of making them so.
Since I use a digital camera, all of my photos are color, so the black & white happens in post production. Heretofore I'd done them using the desaturate feature, but recently I read that setting them to monochrome is a better way, preserving more of the grays. It turns out there's a really big difference, but monochrome is not always the best way to go. Monochrome made some colors indistinguishable from their surroundings, particularly light blue. Desaturate kept the color fields distinct.

Triple layer

I was aiming to get the silhouettes upstairs but looking at the photo I like the three rows of people. The bottom one has balloons.

A meat guy

There has been a meat guy in one form or other on this corner of 6th Ave and 14th Street for at least 12 years.

Lamp herd

Chelsea

Negative sky

I like the negative space in the tree and the rooftop trellis and the fire escape.
22nd St. between six and seven.

Cobbling

6th Ave.

Kitchen Delight

N8th just east of Bedford Ave
I asked the guys inside when they'd be open. "A week or two," is the answer. Over the counter there's one of those industrial looking brushed aluminum banners like they have at Pop Burger and places like that. I don't know if that's the new burger joint aesthetic or if they're related somehow.

Burgers & Cupcakes

Except for pizza these are probably the two things New Yorkers are most judgmental about. This place had better be good or it'll be torn to shreds.
23rd near 8th ave, across from the movie theater
(It had a sign in the window about an application for a beer/wine license, but looking through a hole in the window paper it looks really close to done. Even the TVs on the wall were on.)

Credit should go to any place with a spinning cupcake sign, however.

Then it rained

N3rd at the East River.

In between

N3rd near the water
Williamsburg, Brooklyn

59

This is the No Place Like Om on Kent. It was a dark building with the yellow light in the window but there was still enough sun in the sky so that the sky wasn't really dark.

Goldfish

OK, they're leaves, not goldfish, but that's what they remind me of. This is from November when we still had leaves on the trees. My big hang-up about this is whether the light in the lower left corner ruins the composition or gives the eye a starting point.

Cyclist memorial

I always see pictures of these white bikes that memorialize cyclists killed by cars but I don't recall walking past one before.
This is McGuinness in Greenpoint, I think at Greenpoint Ave.

The Yard

The sky is overexposed in this one so I was going to just chuck it, but I really like how the attention on the red box in the front makes for a greater sense of depth looking through the doors.
Greenpoint Ave., Brooklyn

Street light in training

Guernsey St., Greenpoint
Incidentally, the sign on this lot says it's owned by SevenBerry. I'm going to do some Googling and see if there's any connection to the Seven Berry building.

Williamsburg progress check

This is Berry & N9th, which you'll recall I peeked at through the door last week. This week they've got the gates up and I can officially confirm that it's going to be a restaurant. And I'm not just saying that because there's a kitchen vent truck parked outside. I don't want to get kicked out of the purely speculative photoblogger club, but the guy was right there cleaning the windows so I asked him. They open in February and it's going to be a Vietnamese restaurant.

Below is N8th & Wythe where they've taken most of the cardboard off the windows and are surely close to opening soon. That's not a customer in the picture though.

Since I walk past both almost every day I'm watching the progress on the building next to 55 Berry and the building down on N3rd across from the Mill Building (pictured below) as a sort of race. They appear to be at about the same point right now, but I never see workers at the Berrry St. site and these guys at N3rd are always working.

Blue blanket

Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Sea guls

Sometimes we see tons of sea guls along the East Rive and sometimes none. I had thought it was to do with storms at sea or something, but more likely it has to do with which garbage barge is passing and when.

Upper East skyline

This was another learning series. It's the view of Manhattan from Long Island City. What I really like it that one spot where there are all those overlapping planes.

Terminated market

I was disappointed with how washed out the sky came in these photos but then I played with the "curves" feature in Photoshop and was able to bring out the contrast that was in the sky when I looked at it.

Garage

Greenpoint, Brooklyn
West St. I think.

Tree Building

Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Technorati Profile

Rainbow

Williamsburg

Colorful van

I see this all the time, but usually I'm walking home from work and it's dark.
Roebling & N12th.

Lending support

N4th near Bedford, looking through the block to N5th. Why do they bother preserving those flimsy skinny walls instead of just flattening the whole thing?

Cobblestoned

These have so little color I could barely notice when I switched them to black and white. This last one I kept color because of the orange leaf toward the top. Again I'm poking around for reflection photos.
Father Jerzey park, Northside, Brooklyn

A good laundry day

Greenpoint, Brooklyn

The tipping point

I took a whole stack of these but wanted to get these up relatively quickly. N4th @ Metropolitan. In the end they brought a huge crane in (bottom photo) but I didn't stick around to see the finale, had to move on.

Reflecting on a bridge

I've been keeping an eye out for "reflection" shots and thought of this spot. All the lights there are a weird halogen so it's really orange, even on the bridge. I tried to correct it down a little but ultimately I think black and white is the way to go with these.
That's the Williamsburg Bridge by the way.

Franklin Deli

Greenpoint, Brooklyn
(Al, I just keep giving tanks.)

Laundromat

oops, hi jogger.

I tried this in black and white and didn't like it. Too flat.
Greenpoint, Brooklyn

P.A. Grocery

This is my favorite of the twilight series

Franklin Ave. Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Twilight water tower

With and without tree branches. The neon sign in the window says "Tattoo." I don't know why there are two street lights on top of each other and neither is working.
Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Brooklyn Label

I mentioned yesterday that Franklin Ave is full of budding storefronts and new places, so I was interested to see someone else make that same observation on Curbed today. This is the new Brooklyn Label in the Astral building on Franklin and Java.

Look out Mr. Window!

I have a ton of these. I don't know why I find the character so funny.
Off Franklin.

It's the side of this bar on Franklin which I guess I'll have to go in to find out the name because I didn't see it on the outside.

Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Not hating the building at N7th and Berry

Depending on how they finish this, I think it looks pretty good.

New building on Metropolitan

This is right across from the movie theater construction site.

Skyscraping

For what it's worth, that intersection (N10th and Berry) now has another corner behind construction plywood. The blue stripes on the corner on the right is the plywood around the former zipper factory.

How 'bout that moon tonight?

This camera doesn't quite have the control to get the moon's details, but I was mostly liking the moonlight on the clouds and the backlit trees anyway.
Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Twilight barn

I read an article about twilight being the best time to take pictures of Christmas lights and buildings because if you catch the time right it's dark enough for the lights to pop but light enough to see without a ridiculous shutter speed. You'll see a few of what I ended up with this week. One interesting complication was an overcast sky, which ended up dark enough to not burn out the photo but light enough to illuminate the scene.
Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Is there a new restaurant coming in at Berry & N9th?

I've been away for a week so maybe I missed something, but I don't remember seeing anything on this corner before. See that door on the right that's open a little? The second photo is looking in that door. There's a counter and then a computer with flat screen monitor and what looks like a receipt printer. What's brewing in there?

Wrong white balance, better focus, accidentally uploaded this one too, so here I added it to the end.

Countdown to the countdown

West 10th.

A view down West 10th

That building on the right has Christmas lights arranged in the shape of a giant guitar.
W10th St. @ Greenwich Ave.

Smoke break

Almost as if there were a timer inside waiting for the year to end, my little camera is breaking. Most of my New Year's Eve shots are basically ruined with those lines across the photos. Considering I've been carrying it around every day at all times for four years I guess it had a good life. This is an SD100, part of Canon's Elph line. I don't think they make them anymore. Anyway, I look forward to the upgrade when I get a new one, hopefully next week.

Juliette

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Wheeler dealer

Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Happy New Year

Alter Fashion coming soon

I don't know what Alter Fashion is, but this is a cleverly papered window. I like the silhouette of the ladder. Franklin Ave has a lot of budding storefronts.
Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Portending Poorly

New Year's Eve
Greenwich Ave.

New Year's shopping

Manhattan Ave., Greenpoint, Brooklyn