Times Square, Night Montage

Times Square, Night Montage

liner notes for this image:

Camera: Leica M3, Film Tri-x. 2006

o.k. possibly i was trying to be funny saying this was taken with the M3 and Tri-x. four different cameras were used to make this picture. two different film stocks. the pictures were taken over a period of about ten years. the skyline is from Sedona.

none of that matters. what does matter is that i felt from the beginning that times square needed to be like a big garbage bin filled to the brim with shiny things to keep the natives happy.

it should feel like a giant headache.

it was too big to fit in one frame. it really needed to be faceted. three different perspectives of the marine recruiting station.

times square is now: MULTI-NATIONAL CORPORATION AMUSEMENT PARK.

this is simply a big showcase for the biggest corporations. and it feels like Las Vegas - which is how the tree skyline made it's way into the shot.

I think I'm going to hang out there more often and do some more Times Square montages.

Another Stop

Another Stop

In my never ending quest to photograph every subway stop in New York - here's another station. This was on the way out to Coney Island, and I actually got off at about six stations because they looked interesting. I suppose this is a harmless sort of fanaticism.

Come to think about it - I always liked movies about trains. Did you ever see The Train with Burt Lancaster? That's what this shot reminds me of. Another great one, maybe the best film ever made where the New York City Subway was the star: The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3. Final frame for you trivia buffs was what?

In case you care about such things: HP5 with the Hexar Classic.

5 minute snow

we had a five-minute snow storm. i looked out the window and was startled to see big flakes. frankly, i have had enough snow but then matt called and said he was outside and this was the big-flake flurry.

i was warm and cozy and finally getting around to matting some prints, just about finished for a west coast customer, but i haven't been shooting much and so even though i had put the big yellow parka away yesterday - i pulled it out and downstairs i went.

the storm lasted about 5 minutes. the snow flakes were massive, maybe 5 inches wide (at times) and i stood on the corner and tried to do things with the trees that were in bloom, the guy trying to hail the taxi (impossible in this weather), and the big gusty flakes.

i decided to shoot at as high a shutter speed as i could manage because this time i was out to freeze those frozen flakes so I shot wide open at f2.0 and 1/500th. sometimes i need some quasi-tech thing like that to get me going. one shot intrigues me - as i bent down to tie my laces and may have pulled off this sidelong shot of a woman in black with a strange curved hat, against a black umbrella and the fluffy blizzard-looking scene. but who knows.

did the best i could in the new york minute snow. now back to matting.

Origami Ceiling

Local Japanese Restaurant - A couple of days ago. Best thing about the place are the little hand-made birds dangling from the ceiling. Reminds me of what I looked up at when I was a baby - you remember - those bird mobiles? Blue for the boys. Pink for the girls. Some of them you wound up and the birds moved around. Later on they got fancy with battery powered jobs.

These paper birds are wind-powered. When someone opens the restaurant door, a bit of a breeze and the birds all flutter.

Blizzard on Fifth

Steichen Striken Back

I was going to make up a story for April 1st about how I went to this garage sale and found this old print that was signed by Steichen and it was in an large envelope with a glass plate negative. But then I plumb forgot to pull the stunt or thought it was too dumb - if that's possible. But this was the photograph to go with. I was going to Photoshop the sign out - but as I worked on it, I began to like it and decided to let it just live or die on its own.

31 + 28 + 31 + 3 days ...

... Cigarette Free. But today I am missing them.

Other than that - orders for prints - especially the smaller ones are coming in from overseas. Last night I added Belgium. Yes, Belgium - tomorrow -- who knows, maybe New Jersey.

It's just that I don't want to tinker with the cart code to internationalize it, so I end up doing it country by country. Brilliant.

What else: I'm printing everything on the Silver Rag (small prints included). I've been doing two at a time on the roll paper without a problem. The roll paper is by far the cheapest way to go, because you can usually fit the image to the paper so you aren't using extra paper. The only thing that annoys me is that before I do any final printing - and if I haven't used the 4800 for a day or two - then I want to print a test pattern. But that means pulling out the roll paper, using the paper tray - and eventually going back to threading the roll paper through.

I guess there's just no way around that - you've got one paper path at that point and if the roll paper is threaded - then you can't use sheet feed. So what you want is automated feeding. I think that will be a long wait. Automated roll threading for you Epson 1MG.

And I decided that as far as having too many pictures - you may be right, but I'm going to keep going with it until I hit 150 online images for sale (that was my first goal).

I have them tagged by keyword, so at some point I'll categorize them. I always hate that:

PEOPLE : PLACES : THINGS

STILL LIFE : STREET SHOTS : NATURE

I don't know how to categorize my shots. I don't even see the point. No, I think most people would prefer to just browse through 'em all.

Crossing Street

'Crossing Street'

That early delta 400 film would do some odd things. This is an unretouched (except for sharpening) shot from the early Delta 400 film. I think it looks like a bad, or at least odd burn-in around the guy, his shadow, and the light. But as I say - it's a Delta 400 film effect that was built in at the time.

"CROSSING THE STREET IS ONE OF THE GREAT ADVENTURES IN OUR CROWDED LIVES." - The marquis de Fordham Road, 1890

SEVEN PILLARS

SEVEN PILLARS (CONTAX SLR)

Balustrade, Church - Park Avenue and 83rd street. I should find out the name of the church - it was where Jackie Kennedy was buried.

"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible."

T. E. Lawrence, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom

How's that for your daily inspirational message? Gives me chills.

PRICE INCREASE ON THE WAY

The $25 5 x 7's are going up. I'm doing them all on the Silver Rag which is expensive enough. But the price increase is just based on what the market seems to want to bear, so they'll either be $30 or $35. Either today or tomorrow.

* * *

UPDATE: THEY'RE RAISED

Smile!

It's never really night in the subway. It's not day either. There is time, but you don't get days. There are hours of waiting, but no morning or afternoons. I think of this because you can't tell what time of day this is - can you? Do you think it's a weekday or a weekend?

Although it is hard to discern the time - you can deduce the time, even in this picture.

Catching Bus, Fifth Avenue

Dedicated to M. Weber and his undying devotion to the blurry image.
[ whole lot of shakin' goin on in this shot; Leica M6 ]

BENCHES ON EBAY

It doesn't look like much of anything is happening on eBay with Boy On Bench (I think it is one of my best shots, and a #1 at that - but I also don't see it as sellable according to Dave's Rules of what sells - which I'll have to enumerate at some point) so I am adding Benches, which - according to my rules should sell. Well, I'd buy it.



ON EBAY: BENCHES, ATLANTIC CITY 6/100