It rained today. I found a nice puddle with the Chrysler Building in it. Here are a few photos.
iPhone XS
Back dual camera
ISO 64 6mm f/2.4 1/120 sec
iPhone XS
Back dual camera
ISO 80 6mm f/2.4 1/120 sec
iPhone XS
Back dual camera
ISO 64 6mm f/2.4 1/120 sec
This was snapped today. I had a few spare minutes at lunchtime, and the vertical framing of this stoplight in front of the alley caught my eye. The eyes of yesterday’s nosy backdrop are visible to the left. I’m happy with the vertical framing of the surrounding buildings and the positioning of the red light agains the green of the building behind (part of Pfizer World Headquarters). The lower f-stop gives the background some softness.
Canon 6D Mark II
EF24-105mm/4L IS II USM
ISO 100 105mm f/4.0 1/320sec
And here’s a reflection from today, in the door of what I think is Scotty’s Diner, opposite a Two Boots Pizza. This seems very New York City to me. This was cropped down and got some heavy Lightroom futzing. Heavy Door, Pull Hard.
iPhone XS
Back dual camera
ISO 80 6mm f/2.4 1/120 sec
And a third one from today. Just some evidence that buildings besides the Met Life Tower sometimes show up in puddles. I have no idea where this water came from—it did not rain until much later in the afternoon.
iPhone XS
Back dual camera
ISO25 4.25mm f/1.8 1/530 sec
This photo is from today. I was fortunate to get anything. Work is busy—a welcome change from my last job—but I felt mild guilt taking 15 minutes or so during lunchtime. The corporate wall art is big, so the woman looks small. Some cropping and Lightroom futzing.
iPhone XS
Back dual camera
ISO 25 4.25mm f/1.8 1/120 sec
This is a recent photo, taken on August 15th, 2019. I’m pleased with the interaction of the guy’s horizontal stripes and the gal’s vertical ones. Another thing that pleases me is the little dialog between the tabletop fan an the wheel on the passing SUV.
iPhone XS
Back dual camera
ISO 125 6mm f/2.4 1/110 sec
Here are a few out-takes from the same series of shots. I fully confess to a spray ‘n’ pray approach when random passerby are an element of the composition. It’s a luxury of NYC—the background and foreground are constantly shifting with the traffic on the sidewalk and the street. The photos below are shown without any Lightroom futzing.
iPhone XS
Back dual camera
ISO 125 6mm f/2.4 1/80 sec
iPhone XS
Back dual camera
ISO 125 6mm f/2.4 1/120 sec
This was taken today at 12:14pm on the roof. We are lucky to have roof, and particularly lucky that access to the roof is on the same floor as our apartment. Parenting puts a person in the background, fundamentally, although, also in front of your kids, all the time. Leading and following. The four of us are all generally pretty happy with it, it would appear, at least we were at 12:14 today.
iPhone XS
Back dual camera
ISO 16 6mm f/2.4 1/180 sec
Until recently, I was “between jobs” and free to wander about Madison Square Park in the afternoon at my leisure, worrying about my self worth and my family’s future. This photo is from those brief anxious weeks that, in retrospect, I wish I had enjoyed a bit more. The date was August 15, 2019, at around 4pm. As this photo demonstrates, it was a good time for reflection. If memory serves, I was also carrying my analog “kit,” however, the rolls of Portra 400 still sit on my desk, undeveloped. So at some future date, I hope to post a film version of this scene. Yes this photo has been vertically flipped.
iPhone XS
Back dual camera
ISO 50 4.25mm f/1.8 1/120 sec
Here’s an unflipped version, with a little more of the surrounding context. Or is it just clutter? Unlike the photo above, this one is untouched in Lightroom. There’s that pesky dog again.
iPhone XS
Back dual camera
ISO 32 4.25mm f/1.8 1/120 sec
Today we’re taking a break from 23rd Street and puddles and presenting a couple of photos that were actually taken today. Thrills! Today, T Pain was in Brooklyn’s 7th Avenue station with the rest of us morning commuters, at 8:23am.
IPhone 6s
Back dual camera 4.25mm
ISO 200 4.25mm f/1.8 1/60 sec
And, despite the demands of my new day gig, I was able to snap a nice reflection on East 40th Street, in one of the many public pedestrian plazas in the area. This was shot at 12:14pm while I was eating 2 sandwiches. I tend to get hungry early. I zoomed in a lot—apparently 6mm is the equivalent to a longish telephoto when using the iPhone—but I sort of like the resulting compression distortion and lowish resolution. Also, I did not have to disturb anyone.
IPhone 6s
Back dual camera 4.25mm
ISO 50 6mm f/2.4 1/122 sec
Her'e’s an alternate version that really captures the compression distortion of the telephoto. The woman with the crutch was about halfway between me and the reflections of the duplicated phone woman. This alternate version is also presented without any Lightroom futzing.
IPhone 6s
Back dual camera 6mm
ISO 50 6mm f/2.4 1/122 sec
So obviously it is nice to have a backup puddle, not all cluttered with random bicyclists and dogs. This photo is from the same lunchtime session on November 16, 2018. It’s a few feet east of the other puddle, and if I recall, closer to the food cart. There’s a ginkgo tree nearby, obviously. This is rainwater and snowmelt, but I do remember sometimes finding this puddle on dry days, formed from standpipe water or food truck spillage.
Canon 6D Mark II
EF24-105mm/4L IS II USM
ISO 400 28mm f/5.6 1/160sec
You may recognize this puddle from the very first post on this blog. If you recognize the dog, I’d like to hear from you. This photo was taken just 3 minutes before the photo of the cyclist in the earlier post, which I’ve dropped into today’s post as well. I spent I lot of time staring into this puddle, hoping nobody from my office would walk by and wonder why I was taking photos of the ground with a huge camera. I began to feel a bit proprietary, which is an odd way to feel about a puddle.
Canon 6D Mark II
EF24-105mm/4L IS II USM
ISO 400 28mm f/5.6 1/60sec
And here’s the photo of the cyclist, originally posted September 19th, 2019:
Canon 6D Mark II
EF24-105mm/4L IS II USM
ISO 400 28mm f/7.1 1/50sec
This is a little building on the corner of Washington Avenue and Prospect Place in Brooklyn’s Prospect Heights. I shot this on November 11, 2018, probably while out on a run. I had the straight-up-the-corner view of the Met Life Tower in mind.
Iphone 6s
Back camera 4.15mm
ISO 25 4.14mm f/2.2 1/1900 sec
Here she is again, the Met Life Tower. I took this on November 12, 2018, at 12:26pm. That’s right, lunchtime. Is this a bit touristy? Perhaps. The hands on the clock faces are distinctly visible on close inspection. According to Wikipedia, each minute hand weighs half a ton.
Canon 6D Mark II
EF24-105mm/4L IS II USM
ISO 100 24mm f/11 1/80 sec
This continues the 23rd Street/Met Life Tower series. This one was taken on November 19th, 2018, at lunchtime. The inside of the restaurant and the sidewalk and street outside intermingle in a pleasingly disorienting way. It’s the opposite, perhaps, of a minimalist photo. The rather slow shutter speed adds an element of movement.
Canon 6D Mark II
EF24-105mm/4L IS II USM
ISO 100 50mm f/5.6 1/8 sec
A classic shot of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower and pedestrian overpass from the edge of Madison Square Park, near the intersection of Madison Avenue and 23rd Street. As the clock face makes clear, this is yet another lunchtime ramble. The date was November 19, 2018. Since there is nobody here, and very little to indicate the era, it’s interesting to consider what an insurance agent transported from 1909 (the year of the building’s completion) might find had changed over the ensuing century.
Canon EOS 6D Mark II
EFS 50mm f1.2 USM
ISO 100 50mm f5.6 1/320 sec
This is another lunch break shot, taken a few days later on November 19, 2018 in the same area. Pigeons above, people below.
Canon 6D Mark II
EF24-105mm/4L IS II USM
ISO 100 50mm f/5.6 1/160 sec
I took this on November 16, 2018 during a lunch break when I worked on 19th street. I’d noticed the Met Life Tower often reflected nicely when there were puddles on the south side of 23rd. Here we have great conditions for a puddle photo: clear skies after a heavy rain and calm winds. This is one of my favorites from that day.
Canon 6D Mark II
EF24-105mm/4L IS II USM
ISO 400 28mm f/7.1 1/50sec