I like this batch - they are in motion and somehow via luck elegantly - lately I strive for an "abstract realism" - see the last picture in post. This points to what I am aiming for - as an interest, a map for exploration.

My words here are sparse, no? Like poor man's ad copy. I admire my blogger friends who can write eloquently more and thread conceptual needles. Your words and quotes do inspire me.

Lately I have been photographing white when I see it - so much black in the NY winter.

I feel most at home photographing in Penn Station. There is open space and there are enough people and bustle that my image making is less obvious. There is also also the greatest amount of diversity of subjects.

I continue to photograph more women subjects than men - part is subject matter preference and the other part is the confrontational aspect of taking candids. I do seem able to take photos on subway cars in close proximity and not be caught.

I heart Frdays.

More pictures of Martin Luther King Day snowstorm morning. First one is of our backyard. It was the first picture I took that morning. The red thing up front is a plastic cabin the kids used to play in and I have not had the heart to take to the dump.







More dogwood pictures.

Here are two earlier dogwood pictures, one featuring our van in springtime.

The photo below is for Lisa who inspires me to stare into the sun...



My best.

A wet firm snow last night that stuck to limbs making the front and backyard look like a temporary winter wonderland.

That is our house and van. We also have an all wheel drive Subaru that is a mechanical snow dog.






I enjoy photographing up into our dogwood.

The picture below looks at the sun room where my computer lives and breathes...



I have a pocket Nikon camera, nothing fancy. Would like to have a better camera someday, maybe a high end SLR Cannon, double maybe.

"winter.corvid"

Annie's picture. Early version below. Top is bottom and bottom is top...etc.



Yesterday we had a miracle in New York City. I am on a conference call and someone states a plane went done in New York, I say where, and third caller states, "It is not as bad as it sounds - the plane landed in the Hudson River." No 911 scenario. No plane hitting buildings.

Apparently the jet engine took in birds at take off. The plane floated for a long time and all passengers got off. It was really cold in that water, yesterday. Still a miracle.

Maybe it is a season for miracles.

"red.less.ons"

Back to a wave, played out, I guess.

Today I was standing on a train platform waiting for the Eight-Twelve and the sun was reflecting off a stop sign eighty feet down and away and the sign looked bright white like a Mount Sinai burning bush of metal.

I had never noticed this before and maybe it was the day, the light, the angle, the clouds, whatever and it had a spiritual unearthly blinding glow....but if you looked at it for long time and then squinted you could see the letters that make up S T O P.

"more.than.holding.hands"

Spent today in Manhattan with my family. Insane thing to do because of the holiday crowds. Lemmings everywhere all committing financial suicide by opulent spending, each at the level they consider a luxury. For some, that means carrying bags out of at a discount store, others were grazing at Cartier's on Fifth Avenue.

The highlight was some time in music stores on 48th street where I showed my son some electric basses. A young man was playing Flamenco on an electric guitar and we listened for about ten minutes as he mastered the song and instrument. Quite engaging. What I noticed with musicians is that their art can be social - interactive, an audience is sought or warranted.

"Painting" for the most part has been lonely, but for my recent excursions on blogs here. For a long time I did not reach out or look or communicate. There is a fellowship here and I am drawn to it.

Thank you to those who have been kind and open.

"beneath.in.reach"

Two images - before and after - merged. Saw the effect on my Blackberry where I sometimes look at this blog. The two images below had a thin line between them. Tiny epiphany with a dash of serendip. I know that typo is not a real word, but it should be.

Not a great image, nice drive by accident.

"lost.still.looking.waiting.hoping.caring"

Progression of an image, the first being a a crop of a larger photograph taken in summer of a sidewalk in need of repair. First image was cropped to fit full window of Paint. The tools I use are rudimentary - for now I prefer the primitive qualities of MS Paint to the slickness of Adobe Photoshop etc.



I have dabbled with older versions of Corel Draw and Paint. Like to also use Microsoft Window Photo Manager to modify contrast or change color saturation and tones.

Truck, stop

This morning I was getting ready to cross the street mid block and I saw a woman come towards me between two parked cars and she stopped less than a a foot short of being smacked hard by a speeding truck. She did not look before she stepped out....a large truck slammed its brakes and she had good enough reflexes to stop on a dime. If she had tripped, or been tardy, she'd be dead.

Manhattan's daily run of the bulls. A heavy metal Pamplona.

Monday, Monday (my real 200th post - if you exclude drafts)

Today on Broadway near 43rd Street there was a professional high end film crew set up - apparently Eddie Murphy was going to film there. Two very large cameras and lights. Not three guys from Eastern Europe making a bad NYC documentary. Up the same block there was a 40 gallon plastic tub filled with Poland Spring water bottles, sitting on ice. Finding this unattended tub very odd, I looked down the side street and there was a catering truck unloading twenty feet away.

My first paranoid thought was "tainted water - bio terrorism," and then I saw truck and thought, "the dumb caterers will lose their water." Then I saw woman dressed for work walking with a friend and she grabbed a bottle and opened it and started drinking it, walking slowly uptown. Did she think she was in marathon race and getting free liquids?

Apparently she is not a paranoid like me and became much better hydrated that minute. Glad to be paranoid, and thirsty.

Here in NYC the motto on subway system is "if you see something, say something." It is not "if you see a water bottle, drink something...."

At home finished all prints to paint. Started on 9 by 12 canvas a simple landscape wit much sky. Need to figure out how to proceed. Progress, goals, focus have shifted.

Tonight on PBS - "The Power of Art." Watch. Drink. Experience.

My 200th Post

Completed another painting last night - 8 by 10 and this on has the least amount of paint ever - the pic was prepared in Microsoft Paint very well and now only has highlights and additions. Very subtle, yet elegant.

Less is more. Happy - no, the word is "content." Only have one 11 by 16 left - most work has been good. Then I am done with printed images of former model. Will need to close the Rubicon, then.

Everyone I have shown work to has liked it. Very good response.

Oh, well....

Today walking to office and near Rockefeller Center saw fit tall blond woman on bicycle with braided hair. Wearing short clingy light blue and white sun dress and no helmet. The dress flowed as she sped by on her bike. She looked like a trim strong goddess on the way to a Swiss Alps beach (a non sequitor, understood). Simply lovely sight, yet suicidal.

You have to be insane to bicycle in midtown during rush hour.

Social Security Moment

This morning on Seventh Avenue as I walked up from Penn I noticed a short blond woman drop something - it was her unsigned social security card. She was walking quickly and I picked it up and tried to call and catch her. You never know with mid town traffic - red light - crazy taxis - and you would lose her forever as you waited. Her luck she stopped to make a call from corner phone booth.

Who still uses public phones? Cell phones have made them obsolete just as emails and text messaging has wiped out the use of faxes. CDs wiped out vinyl albums, and then iPod and iTunes wiped out Tower Records, my haven.

So I walked up to her - she had an eastern European name (cannot recall anything else) and held the card out to her - she gave me a two second look of appreciation as she took the card and I turned away my good deed for the day accomplished. Not a deep moment.



She was more pert than smart, I wish her continued luck. Her card indicated she needed a work visa (green card?) - losing that social security card would have set her back considerably.

Do not expect any karma, instant or otherwise.

Sidewalk Cracks

Years ago I photographed sidewalks and staircases a lot - back in San Francisco, primarily.

Text Messaging Suicide

Yesterday morn I walked uptown from Penn Station. My hobby is to people watch - really woman watch more than anything else. Always looking for the next model....probably lost my current favorite.

Circa West 40th street there was an attractive bleach blond with dark roots text messaging into her phone. She stood across the street from me facing a red light when I spotted her. Suddenly without looking up she took two steps into street. Cars were zipping by. I decided she was insane. A few seconds later pedestrians to the left and right of her walked into street and she followed them without ever looking up. Still typing, distracted, as if her life was a text message video game.

Some people trust others insanely. A car in motion tends to remain in motion unless otherwise acted upon. Physics. Momentum.

Text Messaging Suicide.

Will (not) power

It is freezing this morning - not February freeing, but too cold for mid May. So I wore no jacket as if doing so would force the gods to warm the South Shore of Long Island despite the steady rain driven by a persistent wind.

I froze walking to the train station, my soul laid even barer by need to have one arm up with an umbrella.

You cannot will a change in nature and not even in human nature. My "deep" thoughts for the day.

Everyone knows how badly they feel when they are ill. There might be an hour when one is better that one revels in the joy of suddenly being whole again. Then we forget. I feel fine, but should be happier.

So I am on a train, warming up typing into a blackberry. Blog by way of email since one cannot directly make a post with this little demonic device. Sitting here staring at poster that states "Lose the 9-to-5 Find Your Montreal".

The poster has cobblestone street washed in the rain (rain again) and you see knee down the legs of a man and woman walking. Great legs on the woman. Photo is good ad - warm golden hue to the print and anyone looking at the image can dress up or dress down the ambiguous couple based on their own lifestyle preferences. Night on the town or going to a humble pleasant pub.

I had a friend who went on vacation to resorts where he and his wife had to dress up big time for meals. The guy did not like casual Fridays.

I do not think I will lose the 9-to-5 soon.

Another day, another....

Walked up again from Penn Station. Another glorious day, cooler and nice breeze. Takes about thirty five minutes for me to walk up - 25 blocks or so in traffic.

In Times Square men and women trying to get tourists to ride tour buses have replaced the pimps and hookers. Nice alternative, skin movie Taxi Driver to see how it used to be.

Walked in and out of skyscraper shade. Each time in the sun I felt alive. I'll take summer over winter anytime.

Noticed young tall woman walking with a delicate woolen shawl. The sight, her step, her hair moving in the breeze as she embraced her shawl and walked assuredly was the commute's most clear vision. Grace and taste and individualized style.

Need to find good book to read. I am a man of habits - call them temporary addictions, maybe better called obsessions. I have tried but I have not been able to change that. Defines me more than most other characteristics or traits.

Need to get the high end camera - then need time to do pictures.

Monday Update

Took images to downtown photo printing shop - first time used higher end printer in a while.

Get them back Wednesday - three eight by tens and one eleven by fourteen. All full frame. Excited. Hope results are good.

Shop is on 17th Street, in the old neighborhood, where we lived before first child. It is in the photo district.

I miss Manhattan some - used to living in the suburbs now. Bad lawn and leaky roof.

Spring Has Sprung - A Walk In the Park

Walked to Central Park today - up 5th Avenue through the thick swirling soup of tourists, shoppers and office workers. Walked around the pond right inside the park near the Plaza Hotel and Sherry Netherland Hotel pictured in the picture, below. Diana Ross lives in that building.



Perfect weather - low seventies and no humidity. Daffodils and crocuses were out and lovely. No one should die on a day as beautiful as this one.

Birded without binoculars in the park. Bird of the day was the white throated sparrow. Saw a number including one in perfect dominant plumage with the white stripes on its head painted bright white. Heard many singing in the trees and hills. All will be gone by mid May moving north past most of Canada. Right now a couple of them are also in my backyard.

For me the birds more than anything else make the long New York winter bearable. I am a Northern California boy. Ice is meant to be part of term "ice cream" or clinking around in a stiff drink.

Waterfall, Tulips and a Wonder

I went back to my midtown waterfall - it is warmer so more people present. The owners placed pale yellow tulips in containers in the space. These tulips look unnatural and clash (poorly) with the minimalist serenity- daffodils would have been better choice - they would have echoed the quiet sense of nature of this small concrete oasis. Particularly in March, when there are no tulips in March in Manhattan except those pulled out of a pot.

I am a gardener - I plant many spring bulbs but prefer those that naturalize and seed and replenish - certain crocus, daffodils, species tulips - plants that are tough yet elegant. Understated.

Regular tulips are short lived and some types are almost trite. I have many Lilac Wonder tulips, shown below, in my garden. More beautiful than pretty. They hug the ground. Then they disappear. Then they come back, good as new.

Good as that which is old and true.

Tulipa species 'Lilac Wonder'

Falling and falling with nowhere to fall ("Find the Two Hearts")

On E train to Penn Station tonight saw woman, maybe thirty, with red square eye glasses and her face makeup, rouge and lipstick that perfectly matched her cute glassses. She looked adorable - more smart than sexy which is very sexy. I fell and fell, with no where to fall.

Understand, I wear kakhi pants and polo shirts in summer and mostly LL Bean flannel shirts in winter - no follower of faux fashion am I. But the woman looked heavenly and I developed an eye glass fetish for the three stops that we shared on the train. She got off at 42nd Street - probably headed to New Jersey.

She was beautiful and in all likelihood I will never see her again. I do not think anyone else noticed her. But in my eyes all five foot six inches of her were radiant. Mostly her face, honestly.

I do not even remember what she was wearing. It was the glasses.... and the lipstick....and rouge on strong cheek bones, maybe the way her hair framed her face. I photographed her in my mind fifty times.

There is a curse to seeing, well.

Here is an image I made tonight titled "Find the Two Hearts."



Can you see the subway tracks? I wonder where the train will stop?