Took the 4/5 to Grand Central and walked north up Park Avenue. A midtown area I used to walk a lot pre-Covid.
Wanted to see the new JP Morgan tower up close. A friggin modern day ESB. I used to take a lot of photos around the previous building on that site (Union Carbide, I think it was called). The way the Helmsley Building throws a shadow along the east side of Park Avenue was one of the first places I fell in love with shadows. Still is. Shot a roll of Tri-X and called it a day.
Kids are out of school and it's been raining all week. Not much time to sneak out, and when there is, the light isn't there.
Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny. First good light in days. Looking forward to getting into the city early and seeing what's out there.
Left the house at 6am. My oldest son had already left ahead of me to get a good spot. Got to Bowling Green at 6:30 and it was already packed. Thousands of people. The city showed up. Witnessed a celebration for the ages.
Gave up on getting to Broadway to see the floats pretty quickly and just started roaming FiDi shooting the crowd. Brought the Q2 Mono. The Leica M4 viewfinder is still out and I wasn't confident shooting zone focus in the canyons. Used flash at times. The canyons were dark, overcast, no sun. Still working out the kinks with flash on the street. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it just announces you.
Scouted the parade route for Thursday's Knicks ticker tape parade through the Canyon of Heroes. Started at Bowling Green and walked up to City Hall looking for a higher perspective to shoot from. Nothing useful.
Stood on the corner of Broadway and Reade for 30 minutes. The light was fine. Nobody gave me anything.
Got a couple frames of a man in a white fedora sitting on a bench in City Hall Park. The hat against the dark background. Exactly what black and white is for.
Found a Chinese storefront on Walker Street on the way back. Something about the signage and the light hitting the front of it. Shot a roll of Tri-X there and called it a day.
Sunday. Overcast. Watched the World Cup most of the day. Used the downtime to file negatives I'd been letting pile up. Labeled by date, location, and film. Satisfying in the way that organizing anything is satisfying. Pulled a few to print in the darkroom this week.
Too hot to be outside with a camera.
Spent the afternoon in the basement instead. The darkroom took on water in a flash flood a few weeks back. Still getting it back together. Hoping to run some sessions next week.
Almost everything I shoot in Manhattan is downtown lately.
The light down here is specific. The streets are narrow, the buildings are tall, and the sun doesn't reach the pavement until late morning in June. For the first hour or two after sunrise you're mostly working with reflected light off glass and stone. It's indirect, even, and flattering in a way outdoor light rarely is.
Then the direct sun arrives and it's something else entirely.
The neighborhood empties out quickly in the evenings and on weekends. During the week at 7am it's a specific population: people who work in the buildings, delivery runs, a few early commuters. The man on the corner of Trinity Place is always there.
The architecture makes wide photographs difficult and close photographs easy. I mostly shoot a 28mm and try to stay out of tourist mode, which is harder than it sounds when you're standing in front of the New York Stock Exchange with a camera.
Picked up the negatives from Photolife and filed them away.
The light was harsh but a couple frames turned out alright. Tri-X tends to be more forgiving than color film.
Heard back from a repair service about the Leica M4. Three to four months to fix the rangefinder prism.
Ugh.
Looks like it's going to be a zone-focus summer.
Headed back to the Financial District this morning hoping to find a rooftop to photograph the Patrouille de France as they flew over the Statue of Liberty and up the Hudson.
I found a roof, just not in time.
The jets were gone by the time I got there.
Ended up spending the rest of the roll photographing Lower Manhattan and the East River from 60 stories up.
Dropped the film at Photolife on the way home.
We'll see what came back instead.
Met a photographer in the Financial District this morning. She'd asked if I could help sharpen her eye for street photography.
Started around Beaver Street and wandered through Maiden Lane before ending up near the Seaport. Three hours, maybe more. I was shooting Tri-X. She had a digital camera.
June light isn't winter light. The canyons down here don't really come alive the same way they do in November. Still, there were moments. A few shafts of reflected light. A couple of corners worth waiting at.
She kept asking about the decisions. Not settings. Where to stand, when to move, when to stay put.
We talked about light, patience, and where to find a clean bathroom. Street photographers eventually need all three.
We walked, talked photography, and paid attention for a few hours. That seems like enough.
Meeting with a photographer in the Financial District tomorrow. I love opportunities to spend a few hours walking around New York talking photography with another photographer. She's a family portrait photographer who is curious about street photography.
We'll see what the light gives us.
Started this to have somewhere to keep track of my practice. Everything that happens before and after the photograph. The rolls. The darkroom mistakes. The walks that go nowhere. The light that shows up and the light that doesn't. Some days there will be photographs. Some days there won't.