Central Park in Rain

Woman through Railing



Jogger, Bridle Path - Central Park

As soon as I get some other prints done for orders, I can't wait to take a crack at printing these two - large. I want to try the jogger shot at 16 x 20. The detail from the lens is wonderful. You can easily read the tee-shirt: St. Bonaventure and see that his mouth is open for air.

I just did Birch Trees for an order redoing it with the SharpKit tool. There's stuff in there that I never saw before. Almost every tree has carvings on it.



Cobblestones in Park

RSS Feed & Podcast

I changed the link for my RSS/Atom feed to Feedburner. I've been thinking of doing a PodCast and they make it pretty easy (I think) to create the RSS for the PodCast. (The old Atom link works as well though).

What is my PodCast going to be about?

Hello and welcome to Beckerman's Shoot Like the Pros PodCast. In order to shoot like the Pros - the first thing you need is a truly professional camera. Features are important. The more you have - the more professional you will be. This PodCast is sponsored by Canon and Nikon - and I would suggest that either of these superb manufacturers makes a camera that will fit your needs.

(Sound of rapid gunfire).

Remember - the more frames your camera can fire per second - the better chance you have to capture that once in a lifetime moment.

Canon and Nikon jingles are then played back to back - or maybe on top of each other.

By listening to this PodCast you will learn the secret tricks of the professionals. Click your iPod to listen to the next chapter.

Joe's Sermon

"Yeah, yeah. Sure the artist is tortured. They should be tortured and you wanna know why? You do? Okay, I'll tell you: because they're spoiled. The world owes 'em a living? The world don't owe anyone a living. Take me for example.

"How many years did I go to school for this job? You got twelve years just to get through high school. Twelve stinkin' years. Then another four in college which is just about required for any kindof job. So there you go. 16 years and that's just to get a foot in the door of some stinkin' company.

"We're the ones who are tortured - not them. We're the ones that gotta get up every morning and put on chains and blinders and one day wake up middle-aged and wonder where our life went. Not them.

"Tortured artist. Give me a break. Okay. I'll admit. A lot of 'em don't make much money. But that was their own decision. I had a lot of talent with the french horn. Ask my music teacher Mr. M. But how'm I gonna take care of my family playin' the french horn? Tell me that? Okay - so I wind up as an office manager for the Cosmo Ladder Corp. It's not that bad. But can you tell me why I needed 16 years of school to get this?

"And don't tell me they're all poor. Poor? They don't know the meaning of the word until they're sendin' a couple of kids through college so those kids can get out and find some job which hopefully will be better than mine - though I doubt it. And anyway - some of them get rich - those actors I mean. Yeah. Especially those actors.

"Look at those movie stars driving around in their big fancy cars getting into accidents every day like they ran the world. I'll be honest with you. I love to sit back on the couch and watch them being carted off to jail for drugs or shoplifting. I mean - I'll see them in the movies but they ain't gods. You watch that idol show on t.v. You wait and see what happens to them when they get crowned.

"Don't get me wrong - I like what some of the artists do - though most of it is crap. But the world don't owe them a damned thing. In fact - I'd trade places with them in a minute if I could. The rich ones I mean.

"No. I say they should be glad for what they've got. Even the poor ones. 'Cause no one told them to do what they do - and if they have to suffer a little for that sort of freedom - then let them suffer. Anyway, that's just my two-cents on it since you asked.

The Classical Tradition

Subway Exhibit

misc

A lot of rain in New York and I've been in it all morning with the M3. The only quibble I have with the C/V 28mm external viewfinder - when it got wet - man it got fogged up (inside) and I couldn't unfog it until I got home. Of course the Leica viewfinder was fine all morning. And I came back completely soaked. I'm still doing this thing with runners at the track - practically lying down in the mud to try and get unusual angles.
* * *
I added blog listing to the sidebar that I like with something called BlogRolling which is somewhat useful in terms of managing blog lists. If you have a photoblog to suggest - let me know.

Head in Hands

Head in Hands, Lexington Line - 2005

I think photographers have been fascinated wtih New York's subway forever because everything happens down here - the good, the bad and the ugly. You are alone here - and you are surrounded with a crush of people. You are going somewhere - and going nowhere at the same time. No matter what camera I'm using - it always finds its' way into the underground.

Directly behind me - at the same moment - two couples were kidding around with each other. A man was watching me take this photograph. Two policemen were a few yards away on walkie talkies.

A few minutes after I took this picture - the woman was helped onto a train by a young man at the other end of the bench.

Turtle Pond & Subway

Today in New York.

It was a cloudy day in the park. The turtles were out in turtle pond. When I got home there was a big story about a potential bomb threat to the subways.





Turtle Pond

"It was a slow day
And the sun was beating
On the soldiers by the side of the road
There was a bright light
A shattering of shop windows
The bomb in the baby carriage
Was wired to the radio" - Paul Simon

"specific yet noncredible,"
"information was of doubtful credibility."
"This is the first time we have had a threat with this level of specificity."

So what we have here is a specific yet noncredible threat of doubtful credibility with a level of specificity we haven't seen before.

It's a tricky business. Homeland security at the federal level and city officials had different messages - but frankly - I'd put my money on the city officials in this case.

Runners, Central Park

Part accident - part planned. I watched five or six runners circling the park and planted myself to take a wider shot of them with the park in the background - but all of a sudden they changed their route and sped past me.

The Home Page

Not sure if anyone likes the homepage changes - blog / store combo. But I like it a lot. Think I'll stick with it at least through the end of the year and see how it goes. Tomorrow is print day. I have two orders to get out.

And if I'm going to stick with doing all this PS sharpening stuff in 16-bit mode I'm going to need a new PC for sure. My friend Eugene keeps sending me specs from Dell, Gateway etc. I'd like to hire him to set up the new system and deal with the headaches but I don't think I'll be able to afford a new setup until the new year.

I'm not prone to depression - but the mini-depression I was going through the last few weeks seems to be fading. I went out and was happy as a lark shooting in Central Park. Felt very creative again. Can't wait to see a couple of shots on the last roll. An empty field with with high-school runners - and wide angle - and I definitely was thinking of the opening shots from - Chariots of Fire... I was actually lying in the grass shooting up and -- well we'll see...

The Touch

Reflection in store window (Touch)

Cleopatra's Needle

Cleopatra's Needle, Winter 2004 - Central Park

Street of Dreams

I was watching one of the ballgames last night - and had an epiphany about the why of photography.

Each time a batter come to the plate - the circumstances in the game have changed. Even the very best hitter is going to fail 2/3rds of the time. Sometimes the pressure is on and their time in the box means something to the team. Sometimes it's a blowout. But it's the personal challenge. You anticipate the pitch. You anticipate it correctly this time and get a hit. Maybe a game-winning homer. You don't retire after that. You want another chance to do it again.

Photography - for me - is like that.

Photography is mostly about failure in the sense that very few of your images are grand-slams. Ansel talked about being happy if he got 12 good images in a year.

It's this very rarity of the good image (as you define it) that keeps you going. Whether it is street photography or nature shots - the world - and your feeling about the world is different every time you step out of the house. The fact that you define the success is the main difference between art and baseball. Still - the similarities remain. You feel - at these great moments - like you were doing what you were created to do.

You caught light in a bottle. You anticipated the unexpected. You were born in the right place at the right time and your senses are up to the task. Time has slowed down for you - enough to capture some photons as they were meant to be captured.

You move through a constantly changing stream of possibilities. You're on the lookout - and you are plodding through life at the same time. You are walking to pick up your laundry and you are buying breakfast and chatting with friends - and you are somewhere else at the same time.

Work on your technique. Keep your shoulder in. Level swing. Press the shutter gently. You anticipate the pitch. He's thrown a slider to you last time up - I'll be he's going to go inside with a fastball this time. Ah - he fooled me again. Damn. There's always next time.

You become comfortable with uncertainty. To paraphrase MLB - you live for that uncertainty. The audience - they're far away in the stands - staring out windows - passing you by as you stoop to conquer.

You're in the zone. You're bored. It doesn't matter. You're going to take your cut at the ball because that's why you're here. If they don't let you play in the "bigs" - you'll play in triple A. Your moment will come. And if it doesn't - so what? How many people get to play the game they want to play - at any level?

The wind-up. The pitch. It's a long fly ball. The image flies through the air - as if it had wings - going. Going! It's over the wall! It's landed on the street outside the park! It's landed on the street of dreams...