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Speaking candidly

unposed shots of people at work, rest, and play
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DSC_5019 isn't this thing cool
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DSC_5019 isn't this thing cool

Brooklyn Botanical Gardensfallchildrencandid

  • Coming to the end of the day on this cloudy fall afternoon, on my last vacation of the year, I started to head for the exit when I came across these vine / hut 'thing-a-ma-bobs', and I was really taken in by them. Huge and hard as stone I'd never seen anything like them here before. As I walked in and around them for a bit I could see I wasn't the only one enamored with these natural shelters.
  • As you can see I wasn't the only one who thought these huts were really cool.
  • DSC_5019 isn't this thing cool
  • Neat! It even has a kiddie entrance...
  • Requested months ago from my job, I saved this, my last week of vacation for the year to capture the autumn colors of our fair metropolis. But the color show has been pretty mediocre this season. When I'd find a beautiful grouping of color, it was set inside of a poorly composed scene. If I found a beautifully composed scene, then the colors were drab and dull. Finally today walking through the large tree covered roads of Battery Park City I found a scene that had both excellent composition AND nice fall colors. I thought to myself "all I need to do now is to wait for a nice grouping of people to come along to complete the picture." "Ah this pair will do nicely..."
  • Since I've gotten back into photography 3 years ago I've often passed through here, and thought it would be nice to capture several shots of people playing chess and checkers amidst the splendid colors of the fall in this, the worlds most famous park. I think this shot is a good one to start off with.
  • This shot I simply couldn't resist taking.
  • Early on, dazzling colors this fall have been far and few between, but as early autumn flowed into late, the splotches of eye popping colors have noticeably increased. Still these superb color explosions weren't simply everywhere you turned your head. So finding sensational ones that were also in a spot that would allow for capturing in a well composed manor, was still a little more challenging this year than in the past few. With that in mind it was not surprising that this tree stood out more brilliantly than any other within a mile, and naturally you could see more than a dozen people taking pictures of it, or beneath it as friends took pictures of them smiling under the magnificent maple. I on the other hand, was hoping to capture this tree in a fashion that would show a tad more panache.
  • DSC_5763 cycling through the park
  • DSC_5950 cleaning food the old fashioned way
  • With my latest fall day spent in Central Park coming to a close, I was finishing up my meandering path which started at the most southern edge of the park, and was going to end at it's most northern - the gateway to Harlem. Just as there is a large pond (photographed a million times before, by a million different people) that welcomes you into the park on 60th street, so too is there a large pond that bids you goodbye on the way out - the Harlem Meer.<br /> <br /> As I was walking down the road that circles the Meer I spotted two woman cleaning bags of beans in the lake. Just loving to capture images that one doesn't normally expect to find in our urban jungle, I sidled over and recorded the scene, a task made rather difficult because of the bright sunlight in my eyes. Even looking through the viewfinder didn't help all that much. The sun was so bright that looking at the first shot of her on my superb high resolution rear screen, couldn't clue me in as to whether the shot was a success or not. But I didn't need to look at this image on the screen to know that my bean cleaning friend was too heavily back lit to take the shot as is, so I popped up my built in flash and captured this photo just as she was finishing up. Looking into the sunlight my aim wasn't perfect, but luckily I just barely managed to not cut off her hand and basket, as there was no time for a retake.
  • A simple scene, yes but there was actually something very humorous going on that you didn't see in this picture. Now there was these 3 guys fishing at this spot by the lake (the youngest is sitting to the left on another folding chair about 12ft away). Then there was also this group of geese off in the not to far distance, one of which had absolutely NO fear of people WHATSOEVER. It kept sneaking up around them trying to steal some of their bait. It was a stitch! But in between constantly chasing off the bold bird every few minutes, one of them actually succeeded with what they came out here in the first place to do.<br /> <br /> If I wasn't lugging my large wheeled camera bag behind me, I would have run and captured the fun. But while this bag is great for lugging lots of stuff great distances it's not made for quick access or movement. If I had come here looking for candid shots today I never would have brought the big bag. So now when I look at this shot I always chuckle to myself and think about the unseen story.
  • The fall colors at Snug Harbor weren't rich and plentiful this week, but a few choice spots were exceptions. This one provided a natural photo opportunity.
  • Here I am again back at the Games workshop on 8th street. My best friend Scott told me he was still painting that large imaginative model of his, and from our phone conversations I was sure he was pretty much down to painting the fine details on it. This would allow me to get some closeup shots of him painting it which I still hadn't been able to do during my earlier trip here last month.
  • As I mentioned the last time I was in this store, Scott custom made this scale tank / ship by combining dozens of basic Warhammer model kits and accessory pieces and making one massive tank. Being that it is a scale model he made it not just to look at but to actually use as a playing piece in battle. As such when it he puts it on the playing field the underside will be hidden from view, but paying attention to details is one of Scott's strong points, and not surprisingly he even gave attention to the one part of the model you'll never normally see in battle. He took the barrels from a pair of large cannon's and combined them to create the drive train for the tank. The lower tank body itself was made by combining two really big Warhammer tanks and turning it into one Goliath tank (classic kitbashing).<br /> <br /> Here he's starting to paint the drive train finally giving me that chance to get a nice close up shot of him painting the tank itself and not just one of the accessory pieces that go with it, something I was hoping to do the last time I was here, but never got the chance.
  • This is my favorite picture of all the shots I took at the store from my two trips here. Having been my best friend for so many years and rooming with him for about 8 of them, when Scott told me he was creating a giant tank game piece to enter a Warhammer contest with, I knew the creation was going to include loads of interesting details. So it didn't surprise me at all that he ended up winning a first place prize for it, even in a contest that was international in scope.<br /> <br /> The part he's painting here is a side facing periscope with a computer terminal interface at the captains station. If you zoom in real close you can see all the fine painting details he's done to the computer interface terminal. When we first talked months ago about his idea, our phone conversation created an image in the back of my mind of him working on some big unusual looking model. That fuzzy image floated around in my head and intrigued me for some time. Finally here when I saw him turn the model on its' side and start to paint some finishing touches, that fuzzy picture in the back of my head, at last came into focus.<br /> <br /> From the moment he first told me about it I knew whatever form his model was going to end up taking, it was going to be memorable, and if anyone was going to get a really nice shot of him working on it I figured who better than me?
  • Here's Scott's friend Rick painting more cool stuff. The store was a bit too crowded for me to get a clear close up shot of him painting these guys like I got of him painting his amazing demon canons my last trip here - too bad they were quite intriguing.
  • This tank contains thousands of simulated rivets, and Scott's hand painting every last one of them with a metallic finish to make the model look more realistic.
  • DSC_7836 applying the fine details
  • A good photographer I may be, but I am just awful at painting models, believe me I've tried. I really have great admiration for the ability of everyone here to decorate their pieces.
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