Today is labor day. In honor of labor day I’m going to share with you three labor day photos.
Travis & Brad at Life Cafe.
Tim in our backyard.
Heart-shaped Elephant Ear’s I planted last month.
Labor Day
September 6th, 2010Raleigh St. Clair
August 19th, 2010My beautiful, sweet, sweet, delightful bicycle, whom today I started referring to as Raleigh St. Claire, just went through a very traumatic experience.
A mean and nasty unmarked white bicycle chained itself up to my very own Raleigh, so that I could not remove her from where she rested. After much interrogation with everyone in the immediate surroundings, and debate about whether the tools necessary to cut the unwanted lock were even available, we decided to try taking my dear’s beautiful back wheel apart to free her from the chains. Several greasy hands later and with much help from a good samaritan – success!
In light of this nearly tragic incident, I want to share two photos from the first week that I got her, in distant place long ago…
I just don’t know what I would do without her.
The Tower & Other Night Scenes
August 7th, 2010As soon as I got back to Brooklyn (7:30 am after a 13 hour bus ride) I busted out the black and white and got down to processing. Two hours later – voila!
I took a few time lapse photos at night while I was in Cleveland and they really add the variety I was looking for to this project, giving it a little more depth. Plus they look really great.
Look closely in this one. At the pay phone on the right side is a woman standing. She hardly moved during the entire one minute exposure and I think she might be as sharp as the building itself. Can’t wait to print this one larger and see how she looks.
The next two were both taken in Cleveland, and the last one is the current pièce de résistance, known as “The Tower.” That photograph was taken in Bushwick off Knickerbocker Avenue.
Tito
August 4th, 2010I’ve been in Cleveland, OH since Saturday and though I’ve taken a ton of photos (at least 3 rolls of film) none of them were digital so we all have to wait just a little bit longer. I think I’ll have some really fun stuff come out, who knows? What I do know is that by default I took a ton of photos of Sabina’s puppy Tito Parmesan and I have one photobooth preview to keep you satiated until the good stuff comes in…
Who Doesn’t Like Hydrangeas?
July 22nd, 2010They’re beautiful, they’re big, and they change color according to the acidity levels in the soil. And they’re fun to play around with in an arrangement. In light of the last post being so morbid, I thought I’d share a pretty picture of the flower arrangement I made today.
I used blue hydrangeas, white snapdragons, waxflower, orange roses and magnolia leaves. This is one of my favorite ones so far because of the colors, especially the way the waxflower looks against the blues in the hydrangea.
Flowers are fabulous.
Not For the Faint of Heart
July 20th, 2010Yesterday on my way to pick up some lunch in the neighborhood I passed by one of the most disturbing thing’s I’ve ever seen. In the middle of the sidewalk, not more than a few paces from children playing in the street and their parents sitting on stoops watching them, was the rotting carcass of what was most likely a dog. I almost passed it without even realizing that it used to be a living creature, a sure sign I’ve grown a bit too accustomed to seeing garbage and filth line Bushwick’s streets. But it caught my eye nonetheless and I slowed to try to understand the whole situation of the animal being here and the people being here and the conscious decision made by everyone who passed it to leave it there for the flies.
I didn’t have my camera with me at the time, but I came back to the scene a few hours later. This time there were not so many people on the block, just two men standing next to a nearby car. I spent about 15 minutes trying to photograph the dog and half way through one of the men leaned out from behind the car and called out to me,
“Smells pretty bad doesn’t it?”
The smell was unbearable and the reason I didn’t take any photos in color. After I left I felt ill for at least another half hour. The whole scene and attitude of the people and thought of this now unrecognizable creature was disturbing in a way that left me saddened but mostly filled with frustration towards the carelessness of the society I’m living in and the lack of respect that is awarded to other living, and dying, creatures
UPDATE:
This morning as I walked to work I called 311 and told them about the dog. They are sending the Dept of Sanitation’s dead animal clean up crew to take care of it. And it didn’t cost me a thing.
Night Scenes: George & Jefferson Streets
July 15th, 2010This past week I started on a new project of time lapsed night scenes. For now they are all taken in Bushwick, but I fully intend to do this wherever I go, now that I know what I’m looking at. I don’t have a light meter because they cost a fortune and do what brains can do, so I did a lot of bracketing. Each scene was shot at 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 minutes, and every image came out, which was the most exciting thing that’s happened to me all week.
Going forward, I’m going to shoot at a lower iso to reduce some of the graininess and bracket at 1, 3, 5, and 7 minutes. The images below are two I picked out and did quick scans of. I am seriously looking forward to actually making darkroom prints of these. And I’m contemplating doing a few in color just to see if I like the color of the street lights.
George Street between Central and Wilson, 8 minutes
Jefferson Street between Irving and Wyckoff, 6 minutes
Both images were shot on Fuji Neopan 400 film at f22 between 10pm and 12am.
Kristen & Alex
July 12th, 2010A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of being able to photograph Kristin & Alex’s wedding. It was a pleasantly small and intimate ceremony and we were able to take a few photos in Prospect Park before hand. Here are a few of my favorites from the day…
It’s July!
July 8th, 2010What happened to June?? It’s so hot I’m waking up early and going to bed late because it’s impossible to sleep. Air conditioning is no longer a part of my vocabulary. I can’t remember what it was like before sweat was a part of my wardrobe.
So I’m finding things to do when the sun goes down and things cool off. This is my backyard lit by the streetlight in the parking lot next to us. These are just some random test shots I took – dropping off the film tomorrow! And picking up a shutter release and a stop watch so I can do this properly next time.
The one taken outside was shot at 250 iso at about f4 with a 30 second exposure. The following one is of Tim, only for about 5 seconds. Next round involves black and white film and the empty streets of bushwick. And maybe some more from the backyard once the timing is more resolved. Hold me to it…
Terrariums!
May 24th, 2010I have been working at Rose Red & Lavender since the beginning of April and not a day goes by there where I don’t learn something new and wonderful. One of the most recent projects I’ve been working on is making lots and lots of light bulb terrariums.
I started by learning how to make a larger terrarium (not pictured because it sold before I could snap a photo!). They are layered and it’s good to start with some rocks. After that, we added spanish moss, and a pretty good layer of it because it does compress quite a bit. Then a little soil and plants of your choosing! I have been using dwarf plants like rabbit’s foot fern and blue baby tears, and of course I’ve added miniature garden gnomes and tiny dinosaurs where I can.
The light bulb terrariums are a whole other ball game. They are so small you can really only use one plant. I hardly add any soil to them because it’s tiny and the inside of the glass gets dirty fast. Hollowing out the bulb was a challenge at first, but Kimberly (the garden shop’s owner) invested in a Dremel set which made the process sooo much easier and faster. Let me tell you, it is no easy feat to squeeze those plants through the bottom of a light bulb. It’s like building a ship in a bottle.
