Penn, 9:00 AM


5th Av. stairs.




5th Av. downtown platform, morning commute.




Escalator, morning commute.



Turnstile, 5th Av.


Entering a corporate ladder, 9:15 AM.



W. 53rd, 5:40 PM.


5th Av/ station, E downtown train platform.


Penn, 5:50 PM.

Penn, AM.


E train platform, AM.




E train, northbound.





5th Av, stairs.





MOMA, afternoon.


5th Av., 6:10 PM.



Penn, 6:25 PM.


6:36 train, near Freeport.

Penn and 5h and 5th.

Sampled from here . A cool challenge (or call for play - check it out)....I continued here with slices of old images including pretty scraps borrowed from Japan.

Here is how it looked on the way...below with a BB image in the background.

Penn, walking towards E train station.


Penn, E train approaching crowded platform.


5th Av. station staircase, bottom level.


5th Av. station staircase, upper level.


5th Av. station merchant concourse.


Bellmore station, 10:45 PM.

More of yesterday's commute. The photo on the E train platform is good - I like the Degas tones and the depth and also the feeling of beauty in gloom. I also like the staircase pictures since they also convey calm within a crowd. The lighting on the staircases is among the dimmest I play in. I get maybe two or three shots off as I follow the other calm cattle up the stairs.

I have yet to get a good picture going through the turnstiles.

Frances asked about the blond woman in the prior post. I have never seen her before and may never see her again. She boarded the 8:12 in Bellmore and when she got off at Penn she walked slowly determining which way to go. Not a daily dasher.

A ship in the morning, not a ship in the night.

Penn, 9 AM.

Back to MOMA - more abstractly.



Back to Penn, heading to the E train, morning commute.


For Frances, a MOMA moment man.



I've been working on the railroad...

Friday morn's commute in. Bellmore escalator, Penn, 5th Av. station.

MOMA Thursday. The space has soft bathed light and great colors on the walls that envelop and tinge. People linger through the exhibit. It feels less NY frantic in this darkened gallery. It is quieter.

The close as a I get to having people pose.

Penn,morning


MOMA afternoon


5th Av, commuting


Penn, evening

Good day - joined MOMA and took great shots in my favorite exhibit. Will post these soon, one is here, but those above are a snapshot of Thursday.

I have been experimenting and learning and I have a better control and preconception of what the BB does.

Sue at Sacred Circle Mandalas gave me a cup of roses petals award - a "lovely blog award."

Thank ya, Sue. Awards have rules meant to be broken. Here they are, made into fine print:

1. Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.
2. Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you love and/or have newly discovered.
3. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.
4. Use the One Lovely Blog award picture from my blog, on your blog to let everyone know that you have one lovely Blog!

So now I have to anoint a few blogs - here I go:

Kim - Oz painter and art blog enabler. Check out the art she created for a dance school.

Joanne - who combines poetry, found objects and an open grace. Go Freeport - I pass it and gas just about every day.

Lisa - who brings great zeal care and spirit to art, family and life. She dislikes snakes.

Mick - another guy and Wookie watcher - whatever that is. He finds justifiable crassness in the my high brow BB art.

Irene - who writes better than anyone I know and even those that I hardly know, I suspect.

There are others, but we all need to leave others for others. Altruism meets laziness.

Now to hyperlink.

Today's commute. Warm and not too muggy.


Track 21.


E platform, Penn.


C train.


E train, Penn.


5th Av. station stairs.


5th Av, station turnstiles.

Midtown marble floor near elevator bank.


5th Av. station, E train approaching, 5:39 PM.


5th Av. station, 5:40 PM.


Penn Station E platform, downtown.


Penn eastern concourse.


Penn eastern concourse, 5:50 PM.


Penn, track 21.

6 line, south.

I am thinking I will cease taking BB photo for a while....not sure what I will do next.

The process - mainly exploring the capabilities of a BB, but also the hunt and and the luck - have been exciting, but I am simply merely taking too many photos of attractive women. I am not a fashion photographer and many of the photos are like shooting ducks in a barrel, no? I have liked skirting art with hints of fashion.

I will probably start again, but I need a wider subject matter.

Until I find another form of expression, I might post BB photos that I have taken.

My best.

6 line at Lexington and 51st Street.

This series also comes from Thursday night, starting just as I got to the 34th Street entrance to Penn.







This series reflects a couple of recurring themes. One concerns mobile technology - subjects using cell phones tend to be distracted, walk slower and are easier to photograph. There is also a connection/disconnection feeling to cell phone photographs. Or ones where subjects are texting or reading their BBs. A BB documenting the use of another and then another BB.

A second theme is my taking taking multiple pictures of a subject. As a rule this only can happen when a subject is standing (or sitting) or when I am following a subject, like this example. "Head on" photos are "one of a kind" interactions usually. "Ships in the night" situations. I do like cliches....

Third, it is interesting how the BB reacts to differing levels of light - the top picture has the most diffused light and it looks most like a "photograph." Somehow I was able to prevent the BB from jiggling which also makes for a more traditional picture. By the last photo in the series the subject was in a dark area and there fluorescent and dim lighting affect tone and quality.



This bottom photo was taken as I approached Track 20 to board my evening train. Shot like most from the hip, I estimated when subjects would enter the frame. I was a little early clicking, to fortunate result.

Shooting from the hip is harder in portrait mode since there is smaller window for error.

The BB lens does wonder to the human figure in portrait mode - the wide angle elongates the torso or legs, but not to the the extent of an El Greco.

I close this post with some final Thursday night photographs, the first as my train approached Bellmore (a composed image, not shot from the hip) and then the nightlife at the station. Here we have commuters waiting to head to Manhattan and a small collection of cars in the station parking lot (again, the last two being composed in the viewfinder)....








Have a great Sunday.

I took Friday off so these are Thursday's commute, morn and night.

The BB does best for me under low light conditions - indoors, underground and at dusk. Midday, outdoors, the BB cannot compete with the Nikons and Cannons. Yesterday's posts of the walk to the train are the first long experiments with evening city light - I have taken a few other BB shots at night but few indeed.


5th Av. lunchtime shopper.


7th and W 34th.

The Times Square series below has a rawer sexuality, a stronger sense of voyeurism, than anything else I have shown. Is it because at night there is a higher level or vulnerability or because at night more subjects are dressed to go to clubs? I had also drunk a few beers before walking to Penn, so that also is part of the mix.

The other day I went into St Patrick's Cathedral to take a few pictures - coming out of midday sun like a BB vampire. After one photo of a subject lighting a candle, I decided I could not do my candid shots there.

Well, back to my more regular routine...


Penn, central concourse,after 9AM.


E Train northbound stairs.


Northbound commuters.


7 Av. Station, shot from the train car through an open door.


5th Av. escalator.


5th Av, station "token booth" area. No more tokens are sold though, just magnetic strip plastic Metrocards.


5th Av. station stairs near Dunkin donuts.


Stairs to street level, up to W. 53rd.


Off peak LIRR Conductor, Babylon line.


Babylon branch rider.

Here I document my walk last night from Times Square to Penn Station - down Broadway to Seventh Av. to West 34th Street. Hot ansd sultry night - you can almostg sense the humidity in the air by the rings around night lights.

Penn Station, morning commute.

Seth at The Altered Page has gathered collaborators who will look at older work ("Burried Treasures") and display one. I have spent some time today looking back at old posts and I realized how my work has transformed.

Here I am choosing something from April 2008 - another fresh Spring day.... and my start of exploration in paint.net with layers.

Hope you enjoy...thanks for your comments.

Aye, Matey!

Two more, again smaller versions. My larger file compositions seem more peaceful.

Winter branches and goldfish based. First attempts to play with "layers."

Jasper, MOMA.



Elevator doors opening, 19th floor, Manhattan.



Penn Station, western concourse, about 9:02 AM.

I took Tuesday off so no new pictures, just chores and plumbing (God, I am a bad plumber). Here are some left.overs. Old and new, maybe something borrowed, something blue....



Mariana, in the Subaru.





Fourth of July, Penn Station.



Fourth of July, Penn Station E Train, heading to Yankee Stadium.



LIRR, approaching Penn, morning commute.





Valley Stream cloud, afternoon commute. Marie grew up in Valley Stream and we rented our first apartment there when Greg was born. It borders Queens and is every integrated community now - whites, African Americans and Muslim. I go past it twice a day every day on the train. The train speeds up after Valley.



Bellmore main stairs, morning commute.



Bellmore stairs off Bedford Avenue, afternoon commute.



Fifth Av. station escalator, 9:15 AM.

Back to the salt mines....tomorrow I find an old post per Seth's Altered Page challenge.

For Frances - some quilts from the cellar - I hope you like them and that I have not posted them before....my best.

Ohh, no - one posted here. Ohh well, it provides prespective to November.

Yesterday's commmte - frozen slices.



Westward bound.



Queens bound E.



5th Av. station stairs.



5th A. station merchant hallway, evening commute.



5th Av. station, V train departs.



Tourists, shoppers, commuters.



5th Av. station, E train approaches.



Newsstand line, LIRR.



Western concourse, evening commute.



Conductor, Babylon line.

"trip.lets"

I put a quilt up last week and then took it down...here is another....

Mariana, soccer practice Saturday in Subaru.



Sunrise Highway heading east, past Seaford.

Mucho sepia.

Morning commute, Babylon line 8:12 westbound.

The other day I was coming home at normal rush hour and I photographed a hand bag (in great light) across from me and some accountant type man asked me if I knew the "lady" and he told me if it were his wife he would be angry. I showed the photo I had taken to the subject and she did not mind. Chivalry in a cheap silk tie.

Has left me cautious though, particularly on my commute train. The BB makes a noise -a click, and I usually have my iPod on so I do not hear it, really. I have not taken many picture on the train since this incident.

Later trains are better - the crowd is drunker, happier and more tired and louder.






These photographs were taken on an F train and the F cars have fluorescent lighting. I rode the 6 line recently and they have the same cars as the newest E trains.





Back to MOMA - all but the one with the painting were taken at the The Erotic Object: Surrealist Sculpture exhibit. Great lighting there and the visitors do linger. Check out the link if you have time.

The beauty of the MOMA is its lighting and the fact you can take pictures with almost no restrictions. The click does not mean anything, everyone is taking pictures.

Maybe not accountant types. Cheers.

Penn Station west concourse, 9 AM.


Penn, walk to the E train platform.


C train approaches.


5th Ave. station escalators.


Penn, evening commute at stairs to New Jersey Transit and Amtrak. Best picture of the day. The subject was wearing this amazing hat - high couture.


Penn Station, waiting for track assignment, one.


Penn Station, waiting for track assignment, two.


Weekend getaway time.


Arriving at Bellmore station.


Bellmore station late day light.

5th Av. E stairs.



Westbound and eastbound.

More abstract. Have a great weekend.

Subways and trains - escalators and stairs. Morning, and twilight - up and down standing and moving. iPods and BBs and newspapers and dreams.

How long do you commute?

Soccer practice field, Saturday.



E train, morning commute Brooklyn bound.



E train, midtown.



Bergdorf shopping bag, 5th Av, station.



Penn Station, evening commute waiting for a track.



Penn Station, 8 PM.



Bellmore, near train station, 9 PM.

ja.va shop.ping spree

Gorgeous day in NYC. Too busy at work, a.lass.

Yesterday Greg and I had seats to the Yankees game against Toronto. To put things in perspective we were sitting in right field and these seats, given to me, were more than a hundred dollars each. Seats behind home place are about two thousand dollars each for one game. Below is a pic from our seats, admittedly with a BB wide angle lens.

My pictures above show three fans on the way to the game - one guy had a Yankees hat, Yankees shirt and Yankees shorts. We saw someone else wearing Yankees shoes. The second pic is a Yankees fan in a bright sun dress, post game, back on the subway Manhattan bound. And the portrait is of my oldest son, Greg, listening to his iPod on the LIRR train home.

It is easy to be a Yankees fan, I am not. At the Stadium there where fans with Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and Lou Gehrig shirts on - each an icon of the game. Yesterday marked the 70th anniversary of Lou Gehrig's retirement speech.



The Yankees won yesterday in extra innings. Gehrig must have smiled.



Later we had an all American dinner and then roamed the neighborhood for illegal firework displays. Neighbors on some blocks collect money, go down to Virginia, and bring back massive quatities of outrageous dangerous munitions. We stay well back in case there is an explosion.

Have a glorious Sunday. Peace.

Happy Fourth wherever you are....to me here on the northern hemisphere It is the height of summer - blueberries, watermelon, bar-b-ques and fireworks. A day at the beach when everything is warm, alive and inviting.

Hydrangeas is full blossom...Frisbees in the air. Flags and fireflies.

Preparing rto travel for the Fourth of July long weekend, 5th Av E train Station, downtown platform.

This platform has soft diffuse light. Here is another picture from a few days ago.




Although it is not at all its strength, I still use the BB sometimes for traditional compositions - here the camera shows its weakness - lack of sharp focus and small file size, et al.



I still take these types of photographs, like a moth drawn to a flame....

My company apparently stopped their subsidy of MOMA on July 1 - I cannot get in for free anymore. I need to decide if I will pay the $70 annual personal membership. I probably will. In the meantime, I am taking photographs in the lobby. Free and easy,

This one is good. A digital camera LED is a magical dish illuminated.

West 52nd.



Bellmore train station staircase off Bedford Avenue.