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Speaking candidly

unposed shots of people at work, rest, and play
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DSC_1855 frisbee fun
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DSC_1855 frisbee fun

Central ParkBethesda fountain areawinter

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  • Now this one was just plain funny.
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  • Maybe there's something special about this spot that generates interesting moments. I remember telling my friends after capturing my favorite candid shot - the one of the couple chatting on that great looking wood bench by a pond in Central Park, that it was a perfect moment in time. It was one of those shots where everything came together to create a perfect moment. It was so special that I told them it would be another 20 years before I captured another candid moment as good. Turned out it only took me 3 months, as I captured that great shot of a man smoking his cigar, while holding his dog in one hand.<br /> <br /> That man was sitting less than 10 yards from where the boy in this shot is. Only then it was in the fall, and the water had been shut off for the season, so Michael (the man with the cigar) could rest his feet where the water would have been flowing. Today with spring finally here the waterfalls were back on, and as I sat by this idyllic spot letting my cheeseburger and milkshake calmly digest in my belly, I people watched in the gorgeous 70 degree sunshine with my camera sitting on my table an easy reach from my fingers.<br /> <br /> As I did I watched two young boys playfully do all sorts of things with the water here. Splashing it, dropping things into it, then both of them found some twigs and grazed them across the surface. They were to my right front lit at the time, and I just missed capturing them in a great moment moving in unison. Then about 10 minutes later the older brother picked back up his twig and again started skimming it across the shallow water, only now he was on my opposite side which left him wonderfully back lit, my favorite lighting situation, and this time I was waiting for him.
  • There's a saying that capturing people doing something together in a group of 3 helps create a special image. I can't really argue with that belief.
  • Sometimes your walking down the street with your camera by your side and life tosses you a freebee.
  • Ok, this one made me laugh.
  • Ever since Easter moms physical condition had deteriorated. Wanting to spend more time with her, I no longer felt comfortable traveling great distances on my days off photographing, so I preferred staying close to home so I could photograph for the first half of the day, when mom preferred to be left attended to the nursing home staff, and then spend as much time as was needed attending to mom's various growing needs at night when staff coverage was sparse. <br /> <br /> Snug Harbor certainly fit the bill for locations as not only did I not have to leave the island, I barely had to leave my neighborhood. With so much of my time spent on mom I had little time to capture the colorful scenes of the spring that she loved so much to see. I would print out my pictures for her, and then put up the 11x17 or 13x19's on her wall for all those in the nursing home to see and chat with her about. So I wanted to give her a new batch that she hadn't seen yet as she was often asking me for new ones to display (they were great conversation starters for all those who walked by and mom loved the extra company and attention they brought), and so that was one of my purposes for coming here today.<br /> <br /> It was early in the afternoon, and I was headed towards the northern exit and the bus home. As I walked past the "White and Herb" gardens, I noticed way off in the distance to my right, a woman sitting on the lush green grass capturing the wonderful colors of the spring with her paintbrush. Stopping in my tracks I turned and heading towards her. I watched as the constant breezes sent waves of movement flowing through the plastic sheets she was sitting on. I wanted to capture the rhythmic movement of the wind blowing through them but after several shots I could tell that I was never going to succeed capturing that effect with still photos, but I knew a good image was still there waiting to be captured none the less.<br /> <br /> I switched the release mode on my D300 to 'silent release' so the sound of my camera wouldn't shatter the perfect peacefulness of this charming scene as I framed her up in my viewfinder (and how glad am I that Nikon included a silent shutter feature in this newest upgrade of this great camera model??). Her paintbrush filled fingers in her left hand as she painted with her right, was quite the perfect accent to this colorful april scene.
  • Since mom's condition worsened the day or two after Easter, I was spending everyday either with her, or traveling up and down Manhattan purchasing new things for her, as the many things that she use to prefer to use were no longer any good, as she was too weak to use them. It was trial and error to see what worked for her, which added to the number of trips, and while I slipped my camera and 2 lenses into my backpack in case I ran into something interesting to shoot, with so little free time and my mind so filled with mom non-stop, I hadn't managed to take a single shot in 2 days. But today as I walked past the marina at Battery Park City, I spotted this pair working on their boat and found this image intriguing.
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  • The few hours I spent watching parents and children flying kites together here in Central Park, made me smile and helped clear my mind as I tried to decide whether to turn mom over to hospice or stop them and give mom over to a natural healer that my brother and mom's good friend from her church were asking me to do. Watching them play reminded me of the life time of fun and laughter mom and I shared, and how much those times meant to the both of us. I felt a part of the great cycle of life as I watched children playing with their mom's, and how the time would one day come when they like me would have to make heavy decisions for their parents who could no longer make them for themselves, and how the memories of times like these, shared with their parents, would help to, unseen, guide their actions as they decide what will be best for their mom or dad.
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