Strangers On A Train

I met up with Matt and did a little shooting at the Peace March. I was bored. But there were a couple of the usual "maybe" shots. However - as usual - on the way there, and on the way back I got (hoping) a couple of good shots that had nothing to do with the march. I think the march functions like the phone series. Just something to get me moving.

I suspect that unless you're paying me to cover the event (your own ideas here) my mind wanders. But -- I had an absolutely fascinating train ride home.

Fascinating to me. It was just a mood or a vibe in my corner of the train. Very strange. Everyone very relaxed. It started when an older black guy (I hate that description. Picture Scatman Crothers) - sits down opposite me; stares at the camera a while and then says, "That one beauty of a camera."

This leads into some sort of conversation about the old time stuff and how beautifully it was made and I asked, yes asked - if he'd mind if I took his portrait. Oh sure. And he looked into the lens. One shot. And pulling on the lever I feel that I'm at the end of the roll. I tell him I'm out of film and just smiles and says: I'm ready when you are D.B.

Yeah, he actually uses my initials. But it's also an expression I guess.

As I'm changing film, the doors open and a young white couple (I should do police descriptions) enter the scene. The wife is pretty and pregnant. The woman beside me is scratching her foot in its sandal and talks to the couple across the way about giving birth.

- Now that's something you should get a picture of, she says to me. (Uh, that's about the last thing I want to photograph). She's moving her sandal thong around. As is usual with passengers on the subway - she knows everything. Maybe it's not confined to the subway and everyone actually believes they do know everything.

The young husband is being peppered with advice and stories from the woman with the itchy foot. Now she moves the sandal so that I can see a cut on her heel and in the arch. A little bloody.

She wants to know if I have any bandaids. Uh - she has me confused with a medic. It might be the camera bag.

She was coming from the peace parade. How far did you walk, I ask. She closes her eyes and doing the calculations she finally sputters: 4 blocks I think. From 23rd to 18th street.

I think that's five blocks say I. And she closes her eyes and does the math again.

It was sort of like being in the middle of a strange party. I had the camera to my eye and could pretty much click away at anyone

The couple get off at 59th after the pregnant woman has been given the secrets of life by the scatman wizard and the woman with the sore foot.

Then, as if that wasn't enough a young girl who looks like she's on her way to church steps inside the train and sits in the empty seat next to the wizard. And now they're sitting there like ma and pa kettle in American Gothic.

But there's nothing on that bench anymore that gives any sense of this time period. The old and young characters look like they were in To Kill A Mockingbird. Or that we were in the delta - standing at the crossroads --

Okay that's what I was feeling during those 6 or so subway stops. Now - is any of it on film? I don't know.

Metropolitan Museum

Willow Tree

Willow Tree, Closeup, Central Park





Willow Tree and Lake

Man In Rowboat

Man in Rowboat, Central Park

Union Square - Infrared

Union Square, People








Sprial, Union Square


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A couple of tech notes: this film really wants to curl. I never had such a curly film to deal with. Almost everything was shot at f11, 1/100 sec with the red filter (I think its Wratten 25). Exposures were made with my handheld sekonic digital meter. The film was processed in Ilfotec dd-x just as if it were Tri-X.

Kodak Infrared

Shot one test roll (though often stuff on my test rolls is better than my normal rolls) with the Kodak Infrared film. I picked it up at Adorama, and also picked up a changing bag. I stopped under some scaffolding and loaded the M3 in the changing bag. That is one thin film. (No anti-halation backing). Anyway - put the 2-stop red filter on the 35mm and shot around Union Square Park. Then some shots on the subway just for the hell of it. Outdoors, I just shot around f8 or f11 and zone focused so I don't think the infrared difference in focus will matter. Inside the subway - that's another story since I was shooting wide open.

I don't think there is anything that amazing on the roll, so I'm going to just do it Ilfotec like I normally do Tri-x. I picked up some D-76 in case this roll is completely out of the ballpark.

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The strip is drying. Not bad. The only thing I can see for sure so far is that there is not much infrared light in the subway, i.e. those those shots are about 50 stops underexposed :)

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Untitled

I think I'll leave the phone at home for a while now. This was shot in one of the crevices in the Alice statue. The flare was added in PS.

Tulips and Bench - Horizontal

Bench and Tulips

Bench and Tulips

Magic Garden, Empty

I was lucky enough to get this yesterday as the reflecting pool was being drained and fallen petals covered everything. Central Park.

Good Vibrations

Biopsy results from the colonoscopy all normal. Phew. I think I have too much imagination for my own good.

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If you haven't been up to the formal gardens in Central Park - 5th avenue and 105 street- now is the time. I was blown away this morning. Not the greatest lover of tulips but with puddles left over from the rain - man - that sort of took my breath away.

I continued with the "phone in nature" series. Found some sand - buried phone in it and then excavated as if I had just found it. Even tried to float it in the pond (I would need to tape up the holes from the inside for it to float).

If you look at the pictures on this site I don't think you can find a single (well I know one) shot that I would consider pure nature photography in the sense that it is bereft of human artifacts. I noticed this about myself a long time ago. I wonder whether the insertion of the phone and possibly other objects into otherwise mundane nature shots stems from prediliction. Of course the phone - even in this retro-version - seems to be the gadget for everything in the future:

The Phone: still camera, movie camera, planner, blood-pressure device, translator, small massage unit, e-mailer, text messenger, price-evaluator in the supermarket, accupuncture machine, garage door opening, music player, mapping navigation system, and possibly a program to tell me what's in the fridge - oh and you still may be able to use it as a phone to call people.

Phone And Blossoms

Phone and Blossoms, Central Park