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Speaking candidly

unposed shots of people at work, rest, and play
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DSC_4785 pulled out from the bay
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DSC_4785 pulled out from the bay

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  • DSC_ 3042 a man and his manatee - poetry in motion
  • DSC_ 3060 a day at the shore, scenes from my seat at the beach
  • With the sun already starting to set in the western sky, this turned out to be the last group of people that would hunt for crabs here at this focal point at New Dorp beach, but I met a lot of interesting people. and learned about several interesting facts on this part of Staten Islands shore. So my day did not turn out that bad I had to admit as I packed up my gear and headed home for the evening.
  • DSC_6945 best Holloween costume of the night
  • So who's the bearded fellow smiling with the glasses? Why that's my best friend Scott. If perchance you've read my 'bio' here on Smugmug, you now have a face to go with the nice comments about him. Not quite as visually gripping as many of my other candid shots in this gallery, you might ask what made me take this particular shot, which is disappointingly grainy and slightly out of focus to boot, (sometimes your camera's autofocus just misses the mark, what can I say!) Well as it happened we were talking on the phone one day, and he mentioned that he was building a large scale model battle tank for the game 'Warhammer' that he plays with numerous friends of his at a store in the Village, called the Games Workshop.<br /> <br /> Now having been my best friend for over 20 years, and my roommate for 7 of them, I know when he goes big he goes all out. He once started building a flyable wood scale model of a DC-3 that had a 12ft. wing span. He mounted the wings on our living room wall, and suspended the fuselage from the ceiling between the living and dinning rooms, man it was so cool. Another time we each built HO racing car layouts that were so massive that they took up the entire living and dining rooms. The main straightaways alone on each layout (we built 4 different ones), were over 18ft long and it took a car two and a half minutes to complete just one lap! Don't ask about how difficult it was walking around the apartment while we were doing all this, we were just having too much fun to care.<br /> <br /> He told me the tank won first place for his Games Workshop store, at a worldwide convention that all the Games Workshop stores held this past August in Baltimore Maryland. And now that it had returned 'home' to his store here in the Village on 8th street, he was going to spend the next few months hand painting the colossal scale model, as he entered it in the contest unpainted in order to beat the deadline. So I decided to come down one day a get a few pictures of him at the store painting his imaginative creation.
  • That's the model Scott built sitting on top of the box in front of him. Here he's painting one of the landship's many canon's as he and his friend Matthew talk shop. From a size standpoint some of those that build scale models, might look at this tank he calls "The Waaaghsa" and not find it visually imposing in stature, but when you consider Scott built this model to scale in every detail, so it can be used in real Warhammer battles, it's actually a massive creation compared to most war weapons that it will face in combat. And he won't have far to travel to test it out in battle, as Games Workshops stores serve as a community center with large tables set up both for the building and painting of all manner of Warhammer creations, and more tables next to these that the participants can then do battle on.<br /> <br /> Unlike many games the Warhammer creators don't command absolute control of the weapons used in their game, and encourage their members to combine and create vehicles and weapons that suit the needs of the armies that use them. Even following the guidelines necessary to incorporate your creations into the well setup rules of combat in Warhammer, the only limit to what you can create to use in battle is determined by your imagination, and if there's one thing Scott has in copious amounts it's creativity.
  • As I mentioned this tank isn't just a static model to look at, but it is a weapon to be used in battle, and will have an actual crew that opponents will have to recon with as well. Here Scott's painting one of the many canons his Orc's will use to lay waste to their mythical enemies from the deck of their colossal "landship".
  • While Scott was painting his deck canons for his "landship" his friend Rick was painting his "demon canon's". Awesome looking already just partially painted, they'll look even more phenomenal when he's finished decorating them in all their desired colors.
  • Here the wonderful relaxed pace and social interaction of this unique game experience is on display, as Julian takes his time to plan his moves while his opponent Jackson looks on. They keep rule books within easy reach to aid in play. This scene brought to my mind the relaxing images of many old time board games from companies like Parker Brothers and long gone companies like Avalon Hill.<br /> <br /> Games are probably as old as society itself. The development of the Internet and gaming platforms like PlayStation, Xbox, and computer games, has given those who like to play multiple player games easy access to the one commodity that for ages was as precious as gold to game players - worthy opponents. Before this development, finding people who were willing and able to give you a satisfying challenge was often impossible to find. And if it wasn't a widely popular game you fancied, you were often lucky if you found one or two people to play against over and over again till you knew their upcoming moves like you knew the upcoming change of the seasons.<br /> <br /> Now finding lots of fresh new game partners to dance with has helped those electronic games explode in popularity, while causing exotic board games to fade into history. But these electronic games are often frenetic paced play against faceless opponents, that while quickening the heart rate and providing much excitement, don't quite provide the relaxing mental stimulation that we as social creatures crave (and by the way I do enjoy many an electronic game).<br /> <br /> But if you play a board game whose playing pieces are often so large that you need a massive table to play it on, where in an urban locale like New York, are you going to find someone with an apartment big enough to play it in? Here Warhammer has an advantage no other game I've seen has. The Game Workshop stores provide that table, as well as the modular battle fields that mimic hills, valleys, towns and citadels, while the players provide the collectible pieces to play on them. The store also provides additional tables to build and custom paint their playing pieces. It often takes weeks to assemble and custom paint these figurines, which provides an additional emotional boost and attachment to those pieces (just remember how much you may have liked playing the race car or the hat in Monopoly, and you never took the time to hand paint them) At the same time they are also building friendships while sharing paint supplies and equipment, as well as laughter and stories. All this allows this unique game to thrive worldwide while so many other exotic board games have faded off into history.
  • Providing their customers an actual store to play their battles in also provides the players access to experienced staff members that help aid in game play and rules questions. Here John (in the red staff members shirt) helps Julian and Jackson as they play out the battle "High Elves vs. Chaos", as Lincoln (in the Phillies cap) and Nathan look on.
  • DSC_4686 father daughter bonding by the koi pond
  • Taking the last week of October off so hopefully I could catch the beautiful changing colors of the fall, I found natures display a bit flat and disappointing this season, as the lack of cold nights has the leaves already starting to shrive and die on the branches. But the lack of brilliant colored trees didn't necessarily mean the start to my vacation was a fruitless one.
  • DSC_4740 phone fun
  • My first official day of adding my fall vacation photo fun to Smugmug, started off somberly today with me first posting those pictures of that drowning victim. However this charming pair is actually what I was photographing the moment the sound of helicopters droning on loudly above our heads, led me to walk over and discover the tragic scene I captured in the next group of photo's.
  • DSC_4749 pulled from the river
  • As I am on vacation this week, I was out doing what I do - taking pictures, when I saw several police boats enter the harbor. I thought it a bit odd - so many, but Coast Guard patrol boats enter here regularly around sundown, so I didn't let it disturb my plan to get shots at a spot a 1/2 a mile or so south from here. But soon the peaceful quiet of this rather pleasant evening was disrupted by the sound of helicopters. One flying by would not have been more than white noise (for the city anyway), but this sound was from multiple helicopters and they weren't leaving. Looking up into the sky I knew something was up, and then I noticed a crowd gathering at the other end of the marina, and this sight is what I found when I reached the growing crush of onlookers.
  • My actual plans this afternoon did not include bringing my camera, as I had a pair of places to go in the City, and didn't want to be encumbered with camera equipment while I was traveling in and about. But then I had a change of heart as it occurred to me that the lighting I was seeking for a shot near here was only going to happen in the evening, and I was pretty certain I could get down to that spot before sundown even after taking care of business. Still it was predicted to rain and a cloud filled sky would ruin any chance to get that shot, but if I just brought my camera and my 16-85mm zoom, I could take some test shots for composition of what I figured to be a really nice shot once the lighting cooperated. <br /> <br /> As I was putting together this mini lightweight kit, I grudgingly added my two other zooms, just in case - in case of what I did not know, but as it turns out it was a good thing as I could never have gotten most of these shots without my 70-300mm tagging along, because naturally I wanted to keep my distance and not get in anyone's way during this terrible life and death situation.
  • DSC_4778 pulled out from the bay
  • DSC_4785 pulled out from the bay
  • As I continued to dance around for a clear shooting angle through the growing crowd, I looked to see if she coughed, jerked her head or moved in anyway, but she never did. But the way the paramedics were talking and handling her I was almost certain she was still alive, but as I edited the shots at home her color didn't look good no doubt because of all the water she took in.
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