Pillowscapes - Pillow Fight NYC 2007

Photos of pillows flying.

View the full set here.

Union Square Feathered - Pillow Fight NYC 2007

I took a ridiculous number of photos at the Union Square pillow fight yesterday and even though I deleted two thirds of them I still have a ridiculous number. To put them all up here would make for a cripplingly heavy page, so I'll just post a few samples and you can click over to the Flickr set if you want to see more.

I viewed the event as a photography workshop, like going to a drawing class with models. For only a couple hours of shooting it turned out to be extremely valuable practice.

I broke the photos into three sets, shots of Union Square, shots of pillows flying, and shots of faces. My main goal of the day was to practice taking more candid face photos, so that's the biggest set. Here are a few from the Union Square set:

View the full set here.

Chumley's bundled

The building is obviously for sale and there is planned renovation but as of the taking of these photos Chumley's itself was still open for business.

Local lore when I was bartending in the Village was that the expression "to 86 someone" came from Chumley's because that's the number on the door through which bouncers would toss unruly patrons. I guess that expression also exists for items removed from the menu. I think the competing theory is something to do with the navy, but I prefer the Chumley's explanation.

This isn't the Chumley's building, it's the one next to it in the shared courtyard, the corner building, although one of the signs says 89, which is weird since it's the wrong side of the street and the wrong side of 86. Maybe it's 89 Barrow?

In the inner courtyard there's not visible construction.

BL(ove)T

Outside BLT Burger on 6th Ave.

Eyesore Park?

I was surprised to see someone on Curbed call this Eyesore Park. I kind of like the look of it.
Downing Street.

Greenpoint porches

There are some pretty brownstones in Greenpoint, but I don't think I've ever seen front porches like this anywhere around here. It's like a tornado dropped this house here from another neighborhood.

By the way, this is its brand new neighbor.
Java St.

McCarren Park

McCarren Park
I tried a new way of rendering black and white that involves the "color lab" mode and grayscale. The difference is almost indistinguishable and in the end I like the simple "desaturate" button better.

Future Starbucks?

That's the buzz.
Manhattan Ave & Greenpoint Ave.

The toolbox

King 99

I love that sign

Tools of the trade

I've been living here for months just a couple blocks away from these suits of armor and this is the first time I've taken a picture of one.
Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Notes on a wall

Fortune Cookie
Manhattan Ave, Greenpoint Brooklyn

Red stripe

Winter escapes

Even though I took the color out of the shot above, there was almost none to take out. See?:

40 Bond rubberneckers

There was actually a small group of us, totally unrelated, arriving by coincidence, standing in front of that book shop across the street, all looking up at this building in progress. I think these three people knew each other.

Slices

Driveway abstract

To check my camera settings I'll often take a random shot. In this case I like the test shot better than any of the subsequent shots I was prepping for.
By the way, it's the driveway on the 15th St. side of the Zeckendorff Towers.

Skyscape

Regarding this last shot, I think it's usually a point of criticism when the lighting is so uneven, but I kind of like the way the facets of the skyline make the eye refocus.

Gargoyle's vigil

I don't spend much time in skyscrapers and I almost always hate the photos I take from the windows of them. I wish I'd brought something zoomier.

Up and Down

This is the 7 platform in Grand Central so hopefully I'll try again next time I get out here. I liked the balanced escalators but this guy would not get out of the shot. It's funny that usually the challenge is to find a way to take a picture of someone but in this case I wanted just the escalator wall.