whatchoolookinat?

This little guy was patrolling Herald Square and luckily he approved of me... this time.

hangout

biker, father, 6 train

having lunch

In New York you can have lunch anywhere.

three men in blue

I'm forcing myself out of the office at lunch and I'm enjoying getting some snaps again. As many street photographers may tell you, the hardest part is to choose and edit the photos and then put them up. I've got a lot of things that I feel have potential and just lack the time to do anything with them. I enjoyed these three guys very much. They were engaged in a pretty animated conversation.

Superman in Dingos

This guy is often hawking perfume in Herald Square. I'll try to get a better shot of him in the future, but I was late getting to the subway. I have had absolutely no spare time lately, and it's only going to get less. Announcements forthcoming...

counting aluminum sheep

You'd be tired too if you gathered as many cans as this guy did. I'll keep up a little longer with the shots near my office, since I didn't do too good with my "one a day goal".

reflexion

In an attempt to get myself back on track, I'm going to set a theme for this week. All photos this week (one each day) will be taken within a 5 block radius of my office in mid-town. Let's see how this goes.

herding

don't go anywhere

Confusion reigns for a few seconds at 231st St.

pigeon perched

master of the obvious

We take a break from "artist" photos to bring you an example of your tax dollars at work.

fastidious

This guy was carefully cleaning little bits of something off the road.

shopping dogs

beauty in the bronx

There is beauty to be found everywhere, if you are willing to be flexible in the way you look at things. The first photo below is from a nice group of shots I took a about a week ago. The second shot is from a distance a way so you can see the whole scene. This flowers are growing in front of a gas station in the Bronx.

waiting for street meat

Not a great shot, maybe, but I enjoyed popping the camera into the back window of this food cart and getting this shot.

three wheeler

Taken at 5th and 34th.

flaw in chemistry

This was taken very close to this one during a street fair. If you are really, really know Manhattan well, you might be able to tell me the closest cross street based on one clue in the picture.

novel romance

"I wonder", thought Greg, "If I continue staring blankly at the pages of this very thick and impressive looking novel - will she ever notice me?"

meter made

As much as I love getting shots around NYC, sometimes it just isn't practical to keep my camera bag with me. Then there is the added complication of being out of town nearly half the month of July, and being limited in the things I could take with me. Nevertheless, my enthusiasm is unabated.

Couple of things I'm happy about. I've finally decided to start thinking about possibly learning how to post process photos. Most of the shots you see here have had precious little done to them out of the camera. While I doubt I'll ever do a ton of editing to my photos before posting (I think it would make me lazy when taking the photos), I'd be kidding myself if I didn't admit that they could benefit from such a thing. The first step is getting the software, which I'm planning on getting tomorrow.

stilt building

As safe as I hope this building is, the fact that it seems to teeter on toothpicks has always slightly freaked me out.

can lady

I need to be truthful. I stalked this woman for about 5 minutes to get these photos. She has been collecting cans in my neighborhood since I moved here, and she is extremely industrious, often pushing carts so laden that I have visions of nature videos where ants are lifting 20 times their body weight. I'm not implying that she looks like an ant, but I am implying that you can stalk my camera phone in the long droughts between pictures I put on this site.

canine political discourse

Charlie communicates his political views to his conservative owner the only way he knows how.

dog walker

morning strut

Saturday mornings provide Petunia with the privacy to promenade in peace.

splat

I have mentioned in the past how often you can see umbrellas scattered all over the urban landscape after a storm. I'm going to try to do my best to carry my camera around after rain. New photo category: umbrellas.

you talkin' to me or you talkin' to the broccoli?

Taken in my neighborhood. I attracted some attention when composing this one.

where the synagogue used to be

This is part of the empty lot where this synagogue was once located.

brooklyn bridge

I now have all my current favorite photos on this site tagged with the term "favorite" (and added this tag to my sidebar, indicating this is a photo that I like. You may disagree, so please look at all my photos and then forward them to the New York Times so they can do an article on me and I can become famous. No, don't do that.


I like this photo quite a bit. I took it right before a performance we did at a restaurant in Brooklyn.

northbound 1 train

Taken at 231st St (I think). I can't believe how many photos I've taken that I haven't waded through yet, and I don't even have much time to take them. I can't imagine the challenge people have choosing photos when they shoot every day.

I didn't want to post anything for a few days because I was so proud of the cat picture below. I've decided I'm going to add a knew tag called "favorites" so that curious viewers can see which photos I've taken over the years are the ones I like the best, and hopefully that will keep them from sinking into the ether.

clinging cat

There is a reason for this cat's aggressive grasp. He easily weighed 30 lbs.
Now part of the File Magazine Collection.

street fair can

People walk by a can filled to brimming with roasting ears at one of many street fairs in New York City. This was on the upper west side.

washington square

depth of barb

Amazing. An empty lot in the West Village.

rocky phone call

Taken in Central Park this winter.

round building

This roundish building is on Marble Hill (<---click this link to find out why Marble Hill is technically in Manhattan though it appears to be part of the Bronx). I've always liked it, and just wish I had a wide enough angle lense to get the whole thing. Note all the shoes on the wire.

two tracks diverged in a grimey tunnel

If Robert Frost had my commute he might have written a different poem.

kingsbridge stairs and graffiti

As promised, a comparison graffiti photo from my neighborhood. I decided today while having some fun taking photos at a street fair that I need to take more photos of people, so we'll see how that goes.

graffiti in little italy

If all I ever wanted to do was take pictures of graffiti, I could do it forever in NYC. However, what's in my neighborhood or in the area at work might not be as entertaining as this (I'll put a shot of graffiti in my neighborhood tomorrow and you can decide). The reason I put this one up, even though it's of shaky quality, is because of the time and effort that this guy took to deface a wheat paste poster which, depending on where it was posted, might also be considered by some to be a defacement.

urban still life

This is on 231st St between Kingsbridge and Corlear. Hopefully as things slow down this summer I'll have more chances to take pictures and build up an even bigger stockpile to post from for later, because it's only getting busier this fall.

empire state from far west

Taken from 10th or 11th Ave.

A friend of mine has sent me a photo program for me to try for post processing. My goal is to learn how to do it this summer.

where's empire?

Can you find the Empire State Building?

It's a good thing that I didn't make a new years resolution to put up one photo a day because I would feel like a failure.

dark city

South Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty (squint!), and New Jersey - all in noir style. I've gotten a bit out of habit of putting these up once a day, but it's tough to find the time to go through the photos I take. Then, I'll invariably go back a year or two and find ones that are pretty good that I've forgotten about.

trash and girders

Taken beneath the tracks of the Highline.

recording session

A few weeks ago I did a recording for the Chock Full O Nuts jingle contest. I thought it would be fun, and it was, but then Chock Full O Nuts didn't recognize my genius and failed to put it up on the net for people to vote on it. That's a shame, because I really think it turned out good.

The photos above were ones that I took at the session, either between takes or during the mixing process. We laid down at least 10 tracks, each one of being my voice, so it was like me singing with a bunch of clones.

You can go here to find the recording and listen to it. Go do it right now or you'll regret it.

push cart

Taken on Broadway somewhere between the 231st and 238th subway stops.

barbed wire and plastic

Taken in Chelsea, in the shadows of the Highline tracks. I love this area of town; it still feels unexplored, kind of.

silhouettes and bling

Taken on Canal Street. Earlier that night I had gotten screamed at for taking pictures of pastries in a bakery. I think they must have thought I was stealing their secrets.

smokin'

This guy was letting the world pass him by while he enjoyed a stogie in Chinatown.

back door view

This was taken while rehearsing at Ripley Grier Studios. I've taken alot of shots out of studio windows there.

I've got a huge backlog of photos that I'd like to post, which is a good thing because I've not had much time to shoot lately. I'll be taking some shots in a very warm climate in the next few days that I'll add to pile of future posts.

building layers

I know I need to mix these up a bit, but here is another one from my neighborhood, looking down from the steps above 238th Street, just south and also up the hill from Manhattan College.

hurt? injured?

Taken while waiting at the 231st St for the 1 Train. I love my neighborhood and could take pictures here forever.

ernie young

Looking north toward Times Square on 7th Avenue, I think.

meeting of the top brass

There is a bothersome tangent in this photo which I will forgive because I like other things about it. In addition, I'm a little pressed for time. I can look up and see this view everyday right before I cross the street and cut through Greeley square.

lamps a plenty

You've got to wonder if Con Ed got together with the MTA when deciding how many lamps to put on this platform. I had to walk to this stop for about 3 months while they were fixing up mine, and one thing you'll notice here is the strong smell of cookies backing at the local Stella Doro bakery.

rivets and girders

Taken at the 238th St Stop of the 1.

waiting for what?

I'll be going out of town for a few days, but I spent a few minutes last night going through the massive quantities of my potentially award winning photos and found some gritty black and white gems to delight and impress you. I will post them one by one with deliciously tantalizing slowness, thereby achieving maximum suspense.

kingsbridge holiday

This was taken back near Christmas. If you look carefully you can see the 231st subway station behind the lights. I took this on the way home from work.

Blogger photo posting is working again! Very good. I'm travelling a lot this month, but I'm going to try to preload a bunch of photos so I can post them from the road. We'll see how that goes.

for shame

I was happy to see that this man of principle stopped to clean up after his dog, despite the fact Fido had made his deposit in the very busy westbound lane of 14th St. Please note the appropriate canine look of shame.

under tracks

This is back in Inwood, under the tracks near Broadway and 218th Streets. They were doing work under here for the longest time. Covering up the brick was an aesthetic step back, but I'm sure the cars appreciated it.

ornate inwood

We walk back down to Inwood to go to the park, which is the thing we miss the most from living there. This is the top of a building on Broadway.

winter light

Southerly, stark winter light and a street on the lower east side.

bad dad

My Dad may be the nicest human being on earth. Of course, after seeing this picture you might thing he is a hit man. His accidental grimness was the result of me testing my auto-focus in dim lighting. We were in the Bryant Park D train platform at the time.

silvery trees

I took another picture of this with a better composition, but I was really taken by the way the winter light was hitting these trees and branches and the other shot cut off too much of the sky. This is the northeast corner of the downtown NYC library, taken on our way to the Bryant Park Christmas Fair.

please be quiet

Taken on the lower east side.

cabfinity

Not sure where the focus was on this, but I do like this image somewhat, kind of, in a way.

I'll be going out of town for awhile, but I'm taking with me images of undermined quality which I will post while I'm gone.

light and chrysler

I think the reason that like this image is the repetition of the verticles but also the contrasts and details. Took it while at the Bryant Park Holiday market.

cell phony

This isn't an artistic photo, but there is a storyette attached. This guy brushed by me in Herald Square and was shouting a steady stream of obscenities, accusations, and threats into his cell phone. Then I realized he didn't have a cell phone.

pidgeon convention

Someone must have tossed a bunch or birdseed or bagels on top of this phone booth, because they had quite a quorum.

tenements

On Christmas Eve we toured the lower east side tenement museum. Very interesting. Afterwards we went to my sister's favorite, Teany. This was taken on the way there.

inside out

Another one from my day on the empty floor. See the Chrysler building?
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empire state shadow

The floor above mine is empty. It's been empty for a few months, after they kicked the last tenant out. Ever since, I've been itching to get up there for a 360 view. The morning I finally got up there and had some decent light I was lucky enough to see the Empire State's shadow falling against the side of a building to the northwest.
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5th ave couple

I shot this at lunch about a month ago. About an hour later this same lady walked in front of a shot I was taking and stopped and backed up so I could finish. Even though NYC is big, you do see the same people over and over again, especially on the subways.

taxi driver / music connoisseur

This guy started talking to me about music in the East 50's and didn't stop until he dropped me at my apartment and I paid my fare. He recommended Clifford Brown, and I bought a CD the following week.
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library statue

Taken in front of the NYC Main Library branch.
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manhattan skyline

As seen from the River Cafe.
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gas station sunflower

This and other sunflowers grow every year beside a gas station across the street from where we live in the Bronx.
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david blaine's latest stunt

I don't know much about what happened, but you can probably find more things here. I just happened to be in the neighborhood.
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crowded sidewalk

You can get alot of exercize on your lunch hour pushing through the crowd.
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new yorker

Nice windy day, as I remember.
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1 train leaving 238th st stop on a cloudy day

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garment district

I like the way these moody buildings look like they are leaning over the street. I know that's a distortion of the lense, but it works for me here.
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cicada

This little guy was bumbling around Inwood awhile back.

how do you like your city?

I take pictures out of my office window constantly. The view of the city changes all the time; it is really amazing. For example, see the photos below, all of basically identical views. I didn't manipulate these pictures at all - just took them at different times.


This first one was taken last Friday, on the clearest day I can remember.


This one was taken at dusk on a much less clear day.


This, after sundown on a foggy day. I think I used a long exposure setting of some kind.

mom and trish

 

something old, something new

mom and dad's feet

Taken when visiting the Van Cortland House in 2004.

perpetual handshake

This standing lady was shaking the seated ladies hand as long as I had them in eyeshot. That must have been some deal they struck. They look thrilled.

the 1 and metal spaghetti

I love this picture.

very small rain storm

Builders squirting water off the top of a building on 33rd and 5th.

herve

Why do people have to fight?

untitled

I don't know why I like this picture so much.

hourdrsx

Taken on Canal. I've take this same picture many times, but never got one that I liked. I've always been fascinated by the watertower and the top of that building. This one I like better than past attempts.

shopper

Taken on Mulberry Street.

ouch

Mannequin from a store in my neighborhood.

views from my office window

Our office is 40 stories up in the Empire State building, so we get some good views when the days are clear. Here are a couple of photos I shot about 2 weeks ago at the end of the day.

east village graffiti

freaky barbie doll window display

This picture was taken the same night as the one below. Location of this window display was E. Houston.

collapsed synagogue

This is one of the strangest pictures I've ever taken. This was taken with about 2 seconds of exposure through a hole in a piece of plywood that formed the wall around a building in the lower East Side that is being demolished. The way it was told to me by the waitress at Teany's, the roof just fell in one day and that further investigation found the building to be so unstable that it couldn't be repaired.

Anyway, the post nuclear attack look of the whole thing is probably due to the light from the street from behind me, because the lot itself had no direct light. I didn't mess with it at all after I took the picture. I should also tell you that almost every shot on this blog is taken with a little Sony Cybershot DSC-P31.

street light

This isn't a terrific picture, but it's got a neat light in it and I like it. Please keep coming back, because I'm going to start making this more and more of a photo diary, with the pictures reflecting where I've been and what I've done. Of course, I reserve the right to put in blasts from the past that I like.

Today's picture is from about a month ago, but me and Sandy and my sister were down in this neighborhood today.