very simple

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.

Coming back from the upper east side on Friday. First, a little girl attempting to play in the little bit of snow still left on the park side of 5th Avenue, and second, a much better snow scene inside the actual park.

Most of the city is nigh-well disgusting at this point, with dirty, soot-covered, half-melted snow/ice clinging to curbs. And that’s not even counting the trash that’s somehow melted itself into the same piles, or the newly visible dead christmas trees that have finally been uncovered since they were tossed out during the first big blizzard on boxing day. Or the “gifts” left behind by people who seem to think that if their dog poops in a pile of snow, that somehow absolves them from having to clean it up (note to my fellow residents: it doesn’t). But Central Park is still pretty nice looking, even from the sidewalk. I thank the real estate gods every day for landing me an apartment only half a block away.

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 can’t quite put my finger on it, but something about this scene indicates to me that perhaps this building doesn’t have the most adequate drainage system in place.

Compared to other cities like LA or San Francisco, we don’t actually get a lot of fog here, because we’re in a geographically unique situation. But yesterday was an exception.

This squirrel was sitting, happy as a clam in union square, eating away at a piece of bread as big as his head. surprisingly cute for what is essentially a rat with a bushy tail.

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.

I wish profound amounts of luck to the person who owns this bicycle. At least this lowers the chance that it will get stolen.