Then Big Red 9
Here’s a wider view of 9 W 57th Street. There’s no mistaking the address here!
Again, notice the Chickering Building reflected fun-house-mirror style in the parabolic facade of 9 West.
May 242012
Street-level design flair in South Philly
When I saw this pattern, it immediately reminded me of a gritier, more urban version of this one
Both images have two design elements that I really like: a repeating pattern and the contrast of color with “not-color.” This new one also has another of my favorite design elements in the radial lines at the top of the grillwork.
For the record, this photo shows the basement window of a house at the corner of Tasker and South Carlisle streets in funky, cheese-steaky, home-of-Rocky-Balboa South Philly.
Gustavino tile lines the arched ceiling of the south arcade of the Municipal Building in Manhattan
Subway commuters ascending to street level from the IRT Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall stop are treated to this elegant vaulted arcade, lined with Gustavino tile.
May 082012
Walking to Brooklyn, early morning
Early on a Saturday morning, there weren’t too many walkers and cyclists on the Brooklyn Bridge. By 10 am and beyond past sunset, a small city’s worth will have crossed over the East River from borough to borough.
Captain James Landing, a restaurant in the Canton section of Baltimore
Here’s a trick that I often find useful – find some scene that I like – then using it as a background or backdrop, wait for someone to walk into the scene. You need something photogenic to use for the backdrop… a handsome or unusual building, as in this case, a colorful, graffiti-covered wall, or a leaf-covered path in a park during autumn.
This kind of thing is an example of the whole being more than the sum of the parts. The building, wall, or whatever may be attractive, but by itself, will seem too static. On the other hand, a person walking by an uninteresting, distracting, or ugly background probably won’t be an image worth a second look. But combine an engaging background with passerby, and you often get something compelling.
I’ve driven past this unusual restaurant, Captain James Landing, many times before. But today, I had my camera with me, so I parked the car and took some photos.
I framed the image and waited for someone to walk into it. Several people did within the next 15 minutes, but this young woman made for the most compelling photo.
A nice trick when it works… and it often does!
Aug 152011
Now here’s something you don’t see everyday – Park Avenue taken over by bicycles and pedestrians.
This past Saturday, as usual when I have an afternoon photo safari in NYC, I arrived several hours early so as to walk around Manhattan and take some photos for myself. By great good fortune, I had picked one of the three Saturdays designated for the city’s Summer Streets program. That means that Park Avenue and its southern extensions, from Central Park to the Brooklyn Bridge, are closed to motor traffic.
I discovered this fact as I emerged from Grand Central Terminal onto E. 42nd Street and saw that people were walking, jogging and biking on the Pershing Viaduct that carries Park Avenue up and around Grand Central. So I walked south to 40th Street where the Viaduct begins and joined a few hundred thousand New Yorkers on the move under their own power. As a photographer, I saw this as a great opportunity to get some photos from viewpoints that aren’t normally accessible. The Viaduct levels out at about two stories above street level as it encircles Grand Central. On the north side of the terminal, it goes through two monumental arched portals that go through the Helmsley Building as it connects back upper to Park Avenue.
At various points along the route, there were areas designated as rest stops, with food vendors and entertainment, making the event rather like a giant, movable block party. As I kept on heading north on Park after emerging from the Helmsley Building portal, I found that the uptown rest stop was at a familiar location, just past the Waldorf-Astoria and literally around the corner from where I used to work at the former General Electric Building.
So here are some photos from my Summer Streets portion of Saturday morning:
Shooting Commodore Vanderbilt. The statue, standing in front of an upper floor of Grand Central Terminal, is not normally accessible on foot.
Cyclists and pedestrians emerge onto upper Park Avenue from the traffic portal that's built into the Helmsley Building
There were lots of decorations and themes among the cyclists on Summer Streets Saturday. This young woman was spreading peace... or at least good cheer
I always try to get to NYC early on days that I’m leading a Photo Safari there, as I did last Saturday, in order to get some photographs for myself. You have to be a little meshuggah to get up early enough to make the 5:30 AM Megabus out of White Marsh, but at least this time, I had some company in the form of MariAnne, one of our safari-goers and a top notch photographer.
I had proposed that we take our pre-safari time to shoot on E 42nd Street around Grand Central Terminal and then up Lexington Avenue to 59th, with a side trip to Sutton Place along the way, which is pretty much what we did.
We took the Broadway-7th Avenue Local to Times Square-42nd Street in order to pick up the Shuttle to Grand Central. As we were walking to the Shuttle, we noticed several colorful mosaics along the way. Here’s one of my photos of one of the mosaics.
Doing a little searching on the Internet, I found some background on this and other artwork in the subway system. This panel turns out to be part of a piece by artist Jack Beal, entitled The Return of Spring/The Onset of Winter, 2001-2005. You can read about this work here, and also use that web page to jump to other artists’ contributions to the NYC Subway system.
May 122011
“Yo! Take my picture!” he said as he walked by and saw MariAnne and I standing at curbside in the Flower District, cameras ready to snap passerby against this dazzling blue construction fence.
I guess he was couriering these flowers from one of the floral suppliers on this street to some destination.
Anyway, he gave us plenty of time for photos, not only posing, but mugging for our cameras. All in all, a good ad hoc model.
I was about to give him my email address and offer to send him some photos, when he asked if I could spare two dollars. Knowing a good thing when I see one, I said, “sure,” and proceeded to mooch two bucks from MariAnne, as I only had some twenties.
My aim during the couple of “pre-safari” hours this day was to get a few photos that I might be able to sell via my online print store. I doubt I’ll ever sell this one, or even display it in the store, but it’s a keeper for me nevertheless. A nice reminder of some fun we had on W. 28th Street that day.
Oh, and I did pay MariAnne back later that morning.
“Wir waren hier” … we were here.
And so shall we be again tomorrow! … on the second of two NYC Photo Safaris that I’ll be leading for Washington Photo Safari.
If you haven’t registered yet for either or both of the Midtown or the Foley Square to Brooklyn safaris, shame on ya!
But it’s not too late – you can still do it tonight. Or if you’re a world-class procrastinator (in which case, I applaud you,) just show up at the northernmost Lion at the main Library at 1pm or at Foley Square at 5:30 pm – you can settle up for the $109 fee afterwards (or even register on your smartphone just prior to safari-time.)
Late Afternoon on Brooklyn Bridge
