very simple

London pics are still to be done, but there are just so many of them that it will be a while before I get through that much editing.

But today, I took a trip down to the 9/11 Memorial. I got my ticket a few months ago and had almost forgotten about it, but I didn’t want to let it go to waste (even though it was free, there is a lengthy wait since they’re limiting entrances). It was a little jarring to be in the middle of what is, essentially, a giant construction zone, but the memorial itself is just…beautiful and moving. And my ticket was for 4 pm, so i got to see the lights go on at dusk.

Some pictures…

Today, my brother was very excited to take me to borough market, which is essentially the green market on the south side of the Thames. Of course, remembrance Sunday put a damper in those plans, as pretty much everything was closed. Including the train to take me to borough station, forcing me (the horror) to walk from Bank station, where I accidentally emerged at street level in the middle of some sort of procession/parade across London bridge. Which was, in actuality, quite lovely.

So then, in search of something to see and/or eat, we ended up walking all the way down Thames walk to black friar bridge, back across, and taking a tour of LSE, before having a classic pub lunch.

Again, more pictures will follow once I arrive home, but today’s photo of the day is the view of the millennium bridge and st. Paul’s. And I didn’t even edit this. It’s really this beautiful out here.

(Side note first – you may be wondering why I’m not using the lightbox gallery for these – I’ve decided to only use the lightbox going forward when there are 10 or more pictures, so it’ll return eventually!)

A visit to union square and its immediate environs.

A walk around the west village. I was listening to an interview podcast yesterday with some urban photographers who were discussing the fact that these hanging signs are no longer legal, and recounted the story of a harlem businessman who racked up $50,000 in fines before ultimately losing his case. I guess garages and bars in the west village are more special? In any event, I always love the signs featured in some of these photos.

Most of the time I walk around my neighborhood, I’m looking at my feet or in front of me, to make sure I don’t step on something unpleasant or walk into someone, but sometimes it’s nice to look up, because we’ve got some beautiful buildings. I particularly love this row of rooftops.

The weather had warmed up a bit last week, but it was combined with some rain, so today was truly the first nice day. And everyone knew it. Random people smiling at each other on the street (none of whom I got photos of), and people just generally, and obviously, enjoying being outside. So I spent the afternoon wandering the upper west side with my super-telephoto zoom (70-300) lens, and tried to pick up some of the details without getting noticed.

In this batch is an assortment of random people enjoying the outdoors, storefronts, flowers, a variety of signs, water towers, fallout shelters, rooftops and random architectural details from around the upper west side.

As always, click on the thumbnail to enlarge.

No real description. I was just crossing 5th Avenue last night and thought this would make a good, gritty picture.

I swear, I’m not going to turn this into a hipstamatic triptych blog, but I probably have a few more of these to get out of my system before I move away from the theme.

This is the “old” part of the American Museum of Natural History, in triplicate. Just sort of lends itself to the aging that the app provides.

I decided to head down to the high line today, before another snowstorm hits this week, since I haven’t been down there since last year. For those who don’t know, the high line was an elevated railway in the meatpacking district that allowed trains (particularly stock cars) to pull up on sidings either right next to or inside the big meatpacking plants. The combination of trucking and the fact that most of those plants are now fancy designer showrooms left the high line to rust away. But now, it’s a fancy elevated park, with pretty cool views. It’s much prettier in the summer, when there are actual flowers in place of snow, but it’s still neat.

Today’s walk got pics of weird classic-modern architectural hybrid buildings, stairwells, rooftops, a menagerie of snow sculptures, doorways, sky bridges, fire escapes, super long-term parking, scooters trapped in the snow and the high line itself.

click on the thumbnail to get the full image.

They did a beautiful job on the renovations at Lincoln Center, but in the dead of winter, without the green of the “lawn” or the leaves on the trees, and the apparent use of the fountain as a snow storage/melting center, it’s still pretty dreary. It didn’t help that I trekked through the slush and ridiculous curb puddles, and there were no tickets available to tonight’s show (we were hoping the snow would force some cancellations). Oh well. My feet are still thawing out.