Wednesday, November 28, 2007
The Black Friday crush of humanity
Every year I go to Herald Square on Black Friday to marvel at the crowds and struggle with how to show it with the camera.
Where the sun don't shine
Ok, this is a little mean but still, if you're going to be standing in a tutu with your back to a storefront window on a busy street you should pass your hand around yourself now and then to make sure you're still composed.
Eleven Times Square
Really I was peeking through the fence looking for a good shot of the tag on the wall there on the left. Seeing all the little orange vested guys made me go for the bigger shot.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Closed
This is a little bit in violation of my "no pictures of homeless people" rule but it's hard to say just what this guy's story is.
Stitched
I walked by and thought maybe I should have taken the shot even though my initial reaction was to skip it. Half a block later I finally talked myself into going back. She caught me just as I took the picture.
Yellow corner
Not too much here but the sun was really blazing on this corner and it has an odd convergence of unrelated yellow going on.
Radical assist
This is a little hard to see but there was no better way to take the picture. From what I can tell, this is a totally rideable bike. The red glow is because there's a light behind the gas tank, so it doesn't glow on its own. The reason there's a gas tank is that there's a bit of an assist motor on there. So on the right side of the bike the chain runs from the pedals to the rear wheel. On the left side of the bike there's a chain from the little motor to the other side of the rear wheel.
As crazy as the steering looks you can see there's still a basic fork hinge attaching it to the frame. I can't quite tell if the geometry is right to be able to steer it though.
This is in a store window in Soho... something like Mercer between Prince and Houston I think.
Porto Rico warehouse
Y'know Porto Rico the coffee store on Bleeker (and there's another in Soho on Thompson)? Well their distribution center is in Williamsburg on South 1st St. at Driggs. Since moving to Brooklyn I still go to Bleeker Street for my beans - with occasional emergency runs to Oslo - but I've always wondered if it's possible to buy at the place down on S1st.
The other day some people were hanging out inside the fence so I asked them and they said to come between 9 and 5 and I could buy coffee. Today I went down there. The door was locked but I rang the buzzer and eventually someone same to the door. He opened the door for me and walked away. I caught up with him at what looks like a room for filling mail orders. So I wouldn't call it retail in the traditional sense but yes, you can buy small quantities of coffee (2 pounds in this case).
Meanwhile, I have no idea what those overhead scoopy tubes are for but the whole place feels like a coffee scented Santa's workshop.
Bushwick party
I went to one of those cool hipster parties in Bushwick recently. It probably says more about me than the party that these are the photos I liked best from that night:
Father Demo Square
There are no murders or illicit love affairs taking place in the windows but it came well for a free hand night shot. They did a good job with this square.
Times squares
I once took a picture in this station of people getting off the Subway viewed from above. Like this one it was a picture of nothing, but eventually I'll find a good use for this perspective.
Smiling feet
I know, performers don't count as street photography but this gal and her drummer were really good.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Bigger and bigger
This isn't really a picture of anything and I've been telling myself it was just the light that made me take the picture. Now, a week later I think I was impressed by the way that building in the back really looms over the whole scene.
Chimi Loco
As many version of this as I took I probably should have walked into the street. I didn't know the area though and it was pretty late at night so I didn't want to do anything stupid.
Red Hook highlights
When the Curbed sites did their day of live blogging from Red Hook it made me go back to my photos from my trip out there to see if there was anything nice that I hadn't gotten around to posting. Some of them I had passed on because I'd seen other similar photos from other people who'd obviously done the same kind of trip I had. But there are a few worth sharing as well. Along with the few most recent entries below here are a few more:
The full Red Hook collection then is here.
House and tree
They seem to have a dialogue...
Until the lady in brown clothes passes through, then it's all her and the house.
Brooklyn Pineapples!
Maybe it's not as surprising as I think that this plant store had fully functional pineapple plants growing in the back deck overlooking New York Harbor.
LeNell's
Some exteriors. I was out there for the Bourbon Fest, which meant three free tastes. I came home with a very young local from Hudson Whiskey mostly because the lady said younger tasted "grassy" and I tasted it and not only did it totally taste grassy but ever life experience I'd ever had with hay was suddenly brought to mind.
I've still got about a third of the bottle left but this holiday will likely kill it so I'll go back again soon.
The Great Red Hook Iguana Caper
I was walking back from that great plant place on the water when this guy flickr.com/photos/atestofwill/2034849770/ says to me, "You wanna good shot? Check that out."
I look up to see a massive iguana on the roof of the building across the street.
Wha? How?
Crazy, right?
I cross the street to try for a closer shot and the guy calls out, "It's over here!"
At the other end of the building a guy holding a towel waves and walks toward the lizard. "My neighbor said she saw him. He's been missing for three days. I guess he can get out of the cage."
We watch as he slowly sneaks up on the Iguana. You may not know that lizards don't form bonds with owners the way other animals do, and Iguanas have a reputation for getting nasty with age. So it wasn't much of a surprise that the approach of the towel was met with much hissing and menacing. What was a surprise was when the iguana jumped from its perch, slammed that aluminum door gate with a thud and fell to the street. The owner tried to jump after him, hanging from the edge of the roof and no doubt suffering immediate regret. He appeared to make it down without injury but by then the iguana shot across the street directly at me and the other guy. It veered into the garbage can corral, its tail clanging and whapping the cans and the building's siding.
The guy, no doubt freaked at the prospect of this thing getting into his house, flushed it from the cans whereupon it fled down the sidewalk.
"Stay right there! Stay right there!" The sprinting owner screamed at some random passers by, hoping they'd block the lizard's path at the corner of the block. They stood dumbly but the tactic didn't work. The lizard, all flapping legs and flipping tail, hopped a small wall into a dirt parking lot.
Exciting as it was, I decided not to follow.
When in Red Hook, look up. Or better yet, don't. (That's the lizard's owner up there about to make the move with the towel.)
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Ural sidecar
Russian motorcycle company Ural, looks like sidecars are their specialty. This isn't a good restoration, it's actually a current model.
www.ural.com/
Zinc Building
Can you imagine living in this place and looking at that traffic every day? I hope weekly window cleaning is included in the maintenance cost.
Raw interior
87th and Broadway interior
Just a window peep on some commercial space for rent but I like the depth, seeing three rooms deep.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
The Donut Pub
Not bad for free hand but I should start carrying around the tripod if I'm going to be doing these photos in the dark for the next few months.
Red balloons
Maybe I should have tried to stand in the street to shoot this. I don't feel like I got it right.
Hood kiss
The second one is clearer but I like the two together because you can feel the street moving around them.
Neighborhood glance
Memorial for the guy who was beaten to death at Johnny's.
30 Rock shooting at the OTB on Manhattan.
This is that spot that used to be a deli on the corner of Manhattan and Norman. A worker once told me it was going to be a restaurant but it looks like they kept a lot of the deli coolers - which would suck because we don't really need another deli. But then, does that look like a deli ceiling?
UWS
My eye was drawn by her coat and the colors of the newsstand but it's funny to see these moms lugging their kids around like overpacked luggage.
Noel
I generally resist the urge to take pretty sunset pictures but this was too much. It's the remnants of Noel, which I think was a hurricane at some point as it moved across the Atlantic and up the coast. We got a wavy sunset.
Thursday, November 08, 2007
NYC Marathon 2007 highlights
My full set of this year's photos is here but these are the stand-outs to me. This is my favorite photographic event. Basically a full day of picture taking practice.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Local shoots
Ghost Town is shooting on the Upper West Side as well but I don't recognize any of the names associated with it. This shot was down on Metropolitan.
I passed this shoot today and have a picture of it I'll post later. Whatever they were doing involved dirty miners and the OTB on Manhattan Ave.
Peter's since 1969
All week I was going crazy trying to remember if the Peter's sign was already there. Then they added the awning. Is it weird to say "Since 1969" about a place that's brand new? Maybe there's some history we'll learn once it opens.
Anyway, the guy in the white shirt says they open November 15th.
Vinas next to the gym
Vinas opens in about a month according to the guy who let me go in and take pictures. The place has the same owner as the gym going in next door in the old theater building. Spanish food and especially Spanish wines. I don't know why I'm so drawn to this project. I have a ton of "progress" pictures of it for no good reason.
Alia
Alia finally opens on N6th. I haven't tried it yet but the inside is pretty cool. If you look close there's a whole back room as well.
D.O.C. Wine Shop
D.O.C. Wine shop should open this week. (No internals because the owners were there and kind of guarding the place. Not much to see inside anyway.) Next do Dressler.
Slightly used
Down on South 6th there are always cool cars. The other day I was admiring some kind of Dodge muscle car from what looked like the 70s and a guy came up to me and told me it was for sale. He lives in one of the buildings there and I guess he makes a hobby of flipping these cool cars. There was a massive El Dorado and then there was this. I didn't ask the price, though it's not exactly in mint condition so maybe it's not so bad.
Thursday, November 01, 2007
East Coast 2 highlights
I had a good time shooting this new LIC building for Curbed. It was a challenge to look for shots that weren't straight documentary real estate pictures. The building uses a lot of textures and natural materials. Also great views. Some highlights:
Eminent domain?
I keep reading about the use of eminent domain to sieze riverfront property between N9th and N10th. This is what's there. It's supposed to be only an acre but this looks like more than that. Plus there's supposed to be the start of some kind of maritime museum on the site and I don't find that anywhere. What am I missing?
N9th is at the fence, so that's the waterfront behind the car lot. Again, I don't see it.
Been hive
This is the back side of the building going in next to 55 Berry. It's really massive from this side.
125 North 10th
Eventually you won't see this view because another building is coming in the lot facing N11th.
Essex card shop
This last one is a self portrait.
I'm usually very careful about making sure I don't show up in reflections. I'd ordinarily delete this but it occured ot me it's fitting to have a picture of myself in the act of taking a storefront picture given how many of those I take.
Nick and Tera - Paparazzized
I took this picture as a lark, not expecting it'd be picked up by Eater as a joke about eating next to garbage. Sorry Nick. Hair cut looks good though.
Roadwork
This didn't come out quite how my eye saw it. Behind the workers in one of those huge road saws so there was dust in the air and a low morning sun making hazy silhouettes out of the workers.
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