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Speaking candidly

unposed shots of people at work, rest, and play
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DSC_0448 Beth Orton's concert in the park
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DSC_0448 Beth Orton's concert in the park

performerssummerBeth OrtonBattery Park CitycandidManhattanNYC

  • Now I spent several hours taking photo's this day under the statue of the Angel at Bethesda and her picturesque environs, and for most of that time whenever I walked near this overpass I could hear the sound of a young choir singing and a cello playing in the background with them. A few times I ventured in under the overpass to see if I could come up with a nicely composed shot of them both, but with so many people milling around them I could never isolate them for a good shot. Naturally with so much going on outside of the overpass I quickly moved on to other subjects.<br /> <br /> But when I turned around at the end of my day to head home, the crowds around the choir had thinned a bit, and I saw that a young couple had stopped right under the edge of the overpass and gotten caught up in the moment, then so did I.
  • DSC_9950 human foosball tournament
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  • DSC_0158 facing Repercussions
  • You never know what you'll run into next in the Big Apple. Stepping out of the subway on a sunny weekday afternoon last month, I walked right smack dab into a full sized brass band calling themselves the California Repercussions. They were playing an impromptu concert right in the middle of Columbus Circle, much to the delight of the passing crowds.
  • DSC_0299 Beth Orton's concert in the park
  • After enjoying dinner with my friends at Bubba Gumps, I headed back downtown for home, but decided to get off at Chambers street instead of South Ferry, so I could take a leisurely stroll down the Esplanade in Battery Park City first, and give my camera some after dinner exorcise. Music seemed to be the theme of my day, as I ran into the California Repercussions uptown and Beth Orton here.
  • DSC_0390 Beth Orton's concert in the park
  • DSC_0448 Beth Orton's concert in the park
  • On the 4th of July I spend part of the day photographing friends playing softball in the Bronx, at their request. It was worth the long trip as it helped me in my quest this year of traveling to places in the city I'd never been to before. Plus I liked this particular one of my friend Arcus being pitched to by his brother quite a bit.
  • In various shots among my 6 galleries (3 of them are private), there are several pictures taken with some of my old manual focus nikkors. Most everyone of my dozen manual focus lenses suffered from fungus damage, because of the way I improperly stored them. Most of them I haven't bothered with, as I now have better options with my new auto-focus lenses instead. But 5 of them as well as one tele-converter would greatly add to my photographic arsenal. My 300mm f4, 200mm micro, and 1.4x tele-converter have all been successfully cleaned at a hefty cost of almost $500. Not having any cash to spare for a while, I decided that the other 3 lenses would have to wait for another time. Two of them though didn't look nearly as badly damaged as all of the others. So I cleaned them myself, and took them out into the field to see if they could skip the costly cleaning. My 35mm f1.4 passed with flying colors, and for months I waited for and occasion to use my 85mm f2 as well. Today proved to be the day. This shot and several others I took on the 4th of July in VanCortlandt Park showed without a doubt that my old reliable portrait lens is still as good as ever, even after 20 years of gathering mold. I'm making sure it will never get mistreated like that again.<br /> <br /> It's tough getting proper focus with a manual lens, when the subject's striding towards you as you shoot, as my friend Domingo is here in this photo, but it is possible, and this is what we had to do for every shot back in the old days before autofocus, and we managed to get by somehow. I just need a lot more practice to get my skills back, after years of non-use, but the satisfaction you get from shots like this makes all the effort worth it.
  • Sometimes the seemingly most mundane tasks can lead to a photo opportunity. Last month a law prohibiting me from making more than 6 electronic transfers per month on my computer (and for some reason Citibank limits this to 3 transfers to my checking account) forced me to walk to their nearest branch to transfer the money using one of their teller machines. As I approached Van Duzer Street, I saw they were having a festival that had the road closed off to traffic. I always thought it was a charming stretch of road there, now I had a reason to come back and photograph it. But by the time I got back home and grabbed my camera the event was over. Looking the festival up online I discovered it was an annual event and had one more Saturday to run. I was working that final Saturday, but I stuffed some equipment in my backpack and headed there straight from work to catch a few minutes of fun, just before it ended and I stopped and helped them fold up the tents and chairs. Now that I know, I'll be sure to come back next year!
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  • DSC_2329 groovy chicks
  • After the concert was over and we folded up the tents and chairs, a few people topped off the afternoon festivities cooling themselves off from the heat by water sliding.
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