Dress Up
Back to the kids. Hey, there were a lot of pictures with them in the photo. Sometimes cross dressing was involved. Those are my clothes Julia’s wearing. What can I say, they have become fairly normal adults. But what would I know? I’m Facebook illiterate.
Times Square
Last I looked Stardust is still there but it’s called Roxy. OK, maybe it’s not there. The neon looks the same garish red. Empty lots are pretty much a memory now. The police still have a big presence. Actually there are many surveillance cameras. I wonder if this is where they watch you. Cameras and video, how quaint and dated… now your smart phone does it all and plays back and has a radio.
Skyline
When you get down to it, none of these high rise apartment buildings were here when I first moved into the neighborhood. The wall of buildings is now just about complete and the view to the southwest is pretty much obscured. You can still see the sky, but for a view, you gotta get out of the city.
Times Square
it’s looking a bit more contemporary. There are a lot more lights and activity. And like all things it has been changing with newer stores replacing new stores. It seems that it’s not a sure thing for a business to be located right here.
Concord
There was a time when the Concord still flew. We now have one on the Hudson River nearby in the Intrepid Air Space Museum. You can visit but you can’t fly it anymore. This is a model in case you are wondering.
Times Square
42nd Street looking onto the north side of the street. Some of the theater fronts were preserved. Some were destroys despite the mandate to preserve them. They just sort of fell down while renovating. Hey, it’s New York. Shit happens. There was a place or two which burned down. But I wouldn’t know how that could’ve happened either.
New York Times Clock
That clock tower is the old New York Times Building. The new one is not far away and all shiny metal and glass. The old building to walk past on the ground level is so nondescript as to be forgettable. In fact no one ever noticed the building. The old tower and clock is a different story. The new tower has a giant antenna which changes color at night.
8th Avenue
Looking up 8th Avenue from 42nd Street, you see the pyramid topped building which is Worldwide Plaza built on the old Madison Square Garden site near 50th Street. It’s all built up now. No more empty lots. But they’ll get around to tearing down the low rise buildings for more skyscrapers. Real estate is too expensive and scarce.
42nd Street
This is an east view of 42nd Street. It is all developed and clean now. It’s glossy and neon bright with a Madam Tussaud and BB King’s grill. No more sleazy movie houses. No local color, just a gaggle of tourists who make you walk too slowly because you can’t pass them.
Times Square 42nd St
Times Square – 42nd Street and 8th Avenue by the Port Authority Bus Terminal. It was a couple of parking lots forever. The owners held out and finally sold. Two large skyscrapers are there forever now. You won’t see the Empire State Building from here any more. There’s a Sbarro or Chevy’s on the left corner. Just off the near left corner Show World Palace still exists as a porno peep show. But there’s a Duane Reade drug store directly on the corner.
Circle in the Square
It’s a theatre production company, a pretty good one at that. The building that’s being erected in this photo from many years ago has now changed the skyline forever. With construction going on constantly, the neighborhood changes marched on inexorably.
This little sliver of land on the corner is now a chain bakery outlet. You would never remember it was once a parking lot. There was still a lot of empty space to develop on the Westside and along 42nd Street. The redevelopment is continuing and will be here for a hundred years or more. It’s interesting to have some shots as it was built up.
Times Square Tourist
If you can’t get to it, the statue will come to you. Tourist trap – the good news is that we are just using it as a backdrop. You come to NY and you bring home a replica of the Statue of Liberty.
Times Square
It’s a work in progress. Much like London’s Picadilly Circus, Times Square was deliberately edgy and garish. The edge is a less but the many neon was designed into the plans for restoring the area. The lights remain. The brands change.
Stormy
Wow the waves were going on this day. I think I would have been queasy on the ship. Yes, there’s not a lot to love with the boat being dead center. But then again, the waves and sea make this ever so much more interesting. I could have cropped and adjusted. Aside from some minor corrections in Lightroom, it is what it is.
Details
We’ve been to Mystic Seaport many times. I still try for a quintessential shot. Not many, but one shot that would convey the early sailing history of this New England town. I find that detail shots do this for me. But as with many things I’m still looking …
Kids
You want to get some boring grey lobster traps into a shot but you need a little color. Add a couple of kids and they will make things more interesting. I’m guilty of using them as additional props here. Hey it works sometimes. I find them conveniently standing around when I need them.
Family
At the end of the day and after all the images that I have shot, that would be more than 200,000, I have found that the ones I most cherish are those of the kids. Thankfully when we traveled they were pretty good about letting me take so many shots. I know that they didn’t have a lot of choice. But here’s the end result. I’m glad to have the shots.
Candids
Sometimes you have to laugh. Both kids had the urge to stick their noses where they shouldn’t go. Hmm… you have to wonder why. Just a bit of humor. I didn’t take the shots with this in mind. They just happened to pair up in Lightroom that way. I think that my daughter would undoubtedly say that girls are smarter.
Penguin
I’m slowly working my way through pictures from my archives. I’ve got many thousands. It would intimidate the average person to know how many images, I’ve culled and then scanned (tens of thousands). I love penguins. They are still exotic to me. I have a wish to go to Antarctica and see them live and in person. Considering how many things on wish list have come true in my life, maybe it’s not entirely impossible. For instance, I’ve been up in a helicopter many times and I’ve learned to scuba dive. I did these things more than once. But it’s not near the top of the list and so I take shots of the penguins whenever I see them.
Wedding Photography
In my other life, I was a wedding photographer. Not really, just a fantasy, otherwise it would be work and not fun any more. But, I get to do some without the pressure of being lead photographer. In this case, Julia asked that I bring the mini-DV video and shoot the ceremony. (Laura asked.) Then she (Laura) changed her mind… no video. Her father (Laura’s) said bring the video. Oh boy! And, Julia said don’t bring it. Well, I carried it and then took it out just before the ceremony at the request of the bride’s brother. Too dark, it was too dark. So I switched over to the Canon G12 and shot video from that. I had almost forgotten that point and shoots have pretty good video. And that f2.8 lens can see pretty well in the dark. Video solved and without making the bride or her father disappointed. After the ceremony, I got to walk around getting ambient shots, crowd shots, family shots and so forth. No one minded. There was a hired photographer. She used as mounted flash and AA batteries. I hope she got some good ones. I wanted to tell her she should be using a Quantum rechargeable battery. It was a dark venue. The bride’s father was wandering around passing his Nikon D800 around and using the on camera flash. You should at least have an SB900 flash. Am I too snobbish? But as in all things, it’s not what you use as much as being in the right place at the right moment. Without pressure, I got a few shots and Julia has the memories to share with her best friend.
Wedding Cake
Fondit turkey for you
I took a lot of shots of this cake. It is a first, I think, for Julia. She’s done some cakes but not a wedding cake. Well, truth be told it was mostly her mom. Julia got caught up with the wedding plans and then had a minor disaster in her apartment, so mom was the one to save the day and do most of everything. Have I mentioned that wedding/layer cakes are not easy? You need to support the layers. Duh!! Yes, the top layer will collapse down the cake. Yeah, cake has weight and is heavy. (Check your thighs, ladies.) So in order to pile cake layers, you have to support them. How? Dowels… yup, wooden dowels are placed to support the cardboard at each layer. And, then it all stands up, get it? After that you still have to decorate the cake. There’s where the art and fun come in. But it’s not just free association and imagination, because the bride does have some say. Laura wanted a ‘turkey’ cake. Oh yeah! It’s a December wedding and an inside joke, I guess. Here’s where a traditional layer cake trumps turkey. Surprisingly it served over one hundred guests with a layer leftover for the one year anniversary. One year old cake… ugh? No ornamentation on the top…just pennants. And once more, did I mention that the food skills and artistic talent is pretty impressive around my house. Also, it was Julia’s best friend and a high honor to be trusted with such a delicate task. You have seen the Cooking Channel. It ain’t over until the cake is transported safely to the restaurant.
Scales and Tales
Out on Long Island, the weekend ritual would be to go to Scales and Tails. It was a small country market. The owner’s wife baked fresh croissants every morning. Warm from the oven, it was my mission to return with one each for my kids. The kids grew up and eventually Scales and Tails closed for lack of business. But it sure was a daily ritual when the kids were little. It almost felt like feeding the little birds.
Mystic
Even as the kids got older, I took them on trips just the three of us. Bonding, laying down some memories, making sure that I was a figure in their lives, I was doing what my parents hadn’t done. It’s clear enough that they loved me and pushed me to academic excellence. But it was the personal things that they had problems doing. Generational, probably, and I don’t fault them. I just promised that I would get to all the games and activities as much as I could. So here we are on one of our trips. If memory is correct this is the trip where David was in love with Happy Faces (ice cream) from Friendly’s. So I bargained with him to eat a hot pepper in order to persuade me to take him. I wonder if he remembers.
This Dog Can Jump
I didn’t realize how dogs age. When Nellie was a puppy she could leap small buildings…. Her hair was short. As she got older her hair got way long and one day she couldn’t leap onto our bed anymore. It all happens so gradually. I always chased my kids and pretended I couldn’t catch them until one day I couldn’t. I don’t think that they realized this for a long time. Last winter we skied and I couldn’t go down the mogul trail with them. You get a little wisdom with age. Not much but a little.
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