very simple

As I mentioned a few posts ago, on Memorial Day weekend I took the new camera out for a spin to Coney Island. The trip was somewhat dampened by this bizarre fox/haze that rolled in halfway through my wandering down the boardwalk, which you can see halfway through the photos here – I lost any sort of visibility, and it was just…weird. I actually thought there was a fire, but couldn’t find any information online either then or later, except for some other folks on twitter also commenting on the weirdness of the whole thing. Apparently there was supposed to be a blue angels air show that afternoon, but no one could see anything because of the haze. Oh well.

As with any new, expensive toy, I’ve been carrying the new camera with me almost every day. It helps that it’s significantly lighter than the old one. I’ve also been trying to challenge myself by only using my prime 25mm lens for a little while (equivalent to a 50mm on a full frame camera) rather than one of the zooms that I also got. Don’t get me wrong – I find the zooms to be incredibly useful devices, but there’s something…elementary about having to go back to basics a little bit and work with a camera that that doesn’t move. If I wan’t to get closer to something, I actually have to physically move myself (Cropping afterwards has its own limitations).

Apparently I’ve spent the last few days focused on signs (one of my favorite things), and really noticing all of the municipal “works” we’ve got going on around here. and coffee of course.

I took the new camera out over the holiday weekend last weekend as well as all week back and forth to work. Here are some random photos from my wandering (specific pics from Coney Island still to come).

Not as delayed as last time. As always, there are cats and coffee. Plus some (sort of) kosher baked goods and it was primary day here in NYC, as you may have heard. The weather started cooperating a little more, but not as much as one would like, and I’ve begun experimenting with an antique film camera that I found at a tag sale, but since that requires film, you’ll have to wait even longer for anything other than a picture of the actual camera (so far I’ve shot 2 out of the 3 rolls of film I bought, and so I’m looking for something interesting to use the last 12 shots on before I send everything in together to get them processed).

This is a massive photography catchup, going back to october. I didn’t post a lot of photos in general that month, so i figured I would wait another month, and then things just got away from me. And as with anything, the longer one waits to catch up, the harder it gets to actually do the work. So now that February has ended, I’m biting the bullet today and getting everything through the end of the latest month up. pre-spring cleaning, shall we say. As always, this wouldn’t be a roundup of my instagram without coffee and cats. plus subway kvetching, pretty much the entirety of winter this year (of which there wasn’t much), and some more baking experiments.

september was a lot of apples, apple pie, and in a strange irony or coincidence, both madonna (the sacrilegious one) and the pope showing up in town. and other random assorted stuff. In an even stranger turn of events, no cats.

On the fifth anniversary of September 11, I wrote about what I saw and experienced that day, living in New York and seeing the buildings on fire. Not on TV, but actually from the street. And then on TV, because that’s how we share experiences as Americans. I was by no means nearest or most affected by the events, but like every New Yorker who was here on that day, it will always be a part of me. I sometimes find myself stopped in my tracks by a random thing. Yesterday I got weepy several times for “no reason”.

As we move further and further away from the day, some of the continued reminiscences begin to feel maudlin. like rubbernecking. I don’t want to begrudge people who don’t live here, who never lived here, their own feelings, but there are times when I start to get offended by the meme-ification of the events scattered through various feeds, most often seemingly posted by people from far-off locations, and then I try to stop myself, because it was such an overwhelming event and people have their own ways of dealing with things. The New Yorkers post tangible, sometimes terrible, actual memories, because we have those, not that we want them.

Things that made me cry yesterday, in order…

– Completely randomly, based on my OCD podcasting queue habits, when I got on the subway yesterday morning, Episode 4 of Mystery Show started playing. The description in the link is intentionally vague (I had no idea what it would be about when it started), and if you don’t want to be spoiled, skip to the next bullet. The episode involves Starlee trying to solve her own mystery – of a license plate that she saw that read “I Luv 911”. Did it refer to EMS? a radio station? or well, 9/11? A lot of people have theories, and the fact that the conclusion made me cry on yesterday of all days should probably clue you in to the answer.

– Towards the end of the day, Sars posted her fourteenth anniversary essay on the events. And the fact that she never found Don. And that she even considered, yes, contacting Mystery Show to look into it. I commented on the post itself, but the essay, plus the callback to my own morning, left me a little weepy.

– And then, of course, on the heels of renewing my commitment to photography, I dragged my camera to work yesterday with the intention of finding some spot to actually take some good pictures of the tribute in lights. I think I’ve gotten one halfway-decent iPhone photo of the lights up until now. After doing a little online research, I decided to head over to Roosevelt Island. I figured downtown and Brooklyn Bridge Park would be too crowded, and there was just no chance I was going to New Jersey. There was a lot of opportunity to simply stand around and wait, in relative quite and solitude, and it was the right choice. (Side note – the last time I went to Roosevelt Island, the half surrounding the old smallpox hospital was all overgrown brush. It’s now been converted into a quite lovely park and they are still developing a whole “Four Freedoms” center on the island. The only downside is that I couldn’t get a good shot of the Pepsi sign because access to the path to get a good shot was behind a locked gate at this hour).

As with every year, labor day weekend conveniently coincides with my dad’s birthday, so I headed to the berkshires for the weekend. It was an opportunity to bake a gazillion pies with the ridiculous number of apples from our garden (links to instagram), and to visit friends tag sales and gardens. and dogs. everywhere. Other than the first few pics, which were taken at our friends’ tag sale, most were taken at our friends’ Maria and Roberto’s farm/garden/horse paddock/retreat. Their garden puts everyone else’s to shame and these pics don’t even begin to capture it.

I never got around to posting my instagram pics from july, so I’m posting everything from july and august together, now that we’re heading into labor day weekend. Pics include my normal subway related fare, snapshots from my trip to wyoming and mini trip to the botanical garden, the cat (of course), and some culture by way of the most anticipated, awesome show on broadway right now.

As part of my “summer vacation, part II – staycation”, on Wednesday a friend and I went to the New York Botanical Garden for the Frida Kahlo – Art, Garden, Life Exhibit. One might question our sanity in going to a greenhouse exhibit on a humid, 90+ degree day, but it was still quite amazing. and sweaty. The exhibit also has a collection of artwork, but photos were prohibited in that area, and I am nothing if not a rules-follower (unlike some obnoxious hipster art students who were holding everyone up in the tiny room while trying to “secretly” take pics).

One note about the photos – the first half are a bit grainy – I forgot to reset my minimum ISO after the rodeo on Friday night and didn’t realize until halfway through the day.