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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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…

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.

Here are a few I liked from the first session of shooting. These were all taken around 5pm, with lots of natural sunlight coming through the windows. I used a lot of long exposures to capture the light as it fell across the wood, which gave me really great tones and emphasized the texture in everything.

This image is of Ben Warren, one of the owners of the Bodega, and also the bartender. His partner is Gina Leone.

Ted and I decided after looking at the first set that we needed a couple more in the evening. Something to really get the atmosphere and the whole look of the place. These are the two gems we ended up with.