Exchange Spotlight

In the winter on sunny days, the light in comes in at extreme angles. In Manhattan, the morning light creates very long shadows. At lunch time, one block can be bright and the next dark. The New York Stock Exchange, with it's flags, is on the corner of Wall Street and Broad Street. Nassau Street forms a slight hill before turning into Broad. This creates an interesting hump where figures can be seen juxtaposed in front of the flags of the Exchange. Yesterday's light lit the flags as a spotlight and it looked like this.

Times Square Snow

Times Square Snow
Originally uploaded by jfraissi

The Flickr photography site monitors how many "Views" individual pictures get from their community and assorted search engines. It's interesting to see what attracts the most interest.

After a year, this shot of Times Square has finally taken over the number one spot from one titled "Financial District People". Undoubtedly the jump in traffic at this time is due to seasonal searches.

There was originally a color shot, but there is something about a colorless Times Square that makes the shot unusual.

Opposite Vantage Points

With the Pittsburgh Steelers being in the Super Bowl, thoughts of the city came back to me. I know that each time I see a picture that I've taken, I am transported back to the moment that it was created. I can remember the activity of snapping the camera, the circumstances, and the perspective. I find this uncanny since I am rather sketchy on names and facts in particular.

One night earlier this year I happened to be in Pittsburgh, a photographically interesting city that I was totally unfamiliar with. Out of a search for lodging in a geographically relevant place for our purposes, the Renaissance Hotel was our home for three days. It was nondescript and urban from the street view. Looking up the street from the front of the building, it was seen to be positioned right in front of a bridge, the Roberto Clemente Bridge, I later found out was its name.

When arriving at a hotel, it is normal to look out the window. I found a most unusual view which was totally unexpected. Through an arch cut into the building, there was a direct view of the bridge framed perfectly by the walls of the hotel. I waited until the evening and took the time exposure here.

I knew that PNC Park, the home of the Pittsburgh Pirates was on the other side of the river. And, I occasionally would see a ball game with the magnificent cityscape and view of the bridge over the outfield wall. Well, it finally clicked in my mind that the hotel, which was strategically perched right by the bridge should be in the view during games. And, upon careful examination, I became aware that my actual room on the 7th floor is visible during any Pirates game.

It may be insignificant in the scheme of things, but whenever I will ever see a baseball game in progress in Pittsburgh, for the rest of my life, I know I will remember the picture of the bridge from the hotel room with all its details.

Best of 2008

I found that subjects have evolved somewhat over the course of the year. Some previous themes were related to landmarks or different perspectives of particular areas (perhaps I’ve exhausted some of the major categories associated with the New York City area). Anyway, I am now very interested in Street Photography and these reflect this. The newest photos are frequently pictures of strangers on the street, many translated to Black and White. Besides being interesting to myself, I’ve noticed that when I post these pictures to my online Flickr account, these draw a lot more “views” than the more “beautiful” types of pictures I’ve worked on in the past.

Some of the Top 10 pictures come from the most recent Street Shots series on my main site. There are also a few that are brand new. It was a bit tricky to get down to only 10 pictures, and I actually left many many favorites out (it was a very productive year, photographically anyway). Here's what made the cut. (You can click the photo's name to see it on the site’s page). You will see that some of them are linked to blog entries in which I discuss them in detail:

1. Queen Mary 2 – The Queen Mary 2 ocean liner was preparing to rendezvous with the Queen Elizabeth 2 which was making its final trip across the Atlantic. A view from a skyscraper between the buildings of the massive ship.
2. Man with Coffee – It is a lone man sitting in the window of a coffee shop. This was noticed and cropped from a picture of a completely different subject.
3. Fan Fan – A vintage-style capture of a girl behind a spinning fan at a flea market.
4. Alone – A figure silhouetted on a rainy sidewalk taken from above.
5. Watching the Tickertape Parade – Hundreds at their windows overlooking a tickertape parade for the New York Football Giants taking place below on Broadway.
6. Cig – A cigarette dangles from a man’s hand.
7. Crossing Silhouette – The silhouetted legs of a pedestrian in a crosswalk near City Hall.
8. Cigarette Swing – A classic street photography view of a stylish woman walking down a rainy street with a cigarette gesture.
9. Financial District People - The most viewed picture of the year on the Flickr account. A mixture of moods of individuals walking down Broadway.
10. Twilight Windows - As evening approaches, the glowing lights of a brownstone building provide a mixture of moods from each window.

Characters

Some characters noticed on the streets of Manhattan. It was after I selected them that I actually realized they were all on cell phones. Yak Yak Yak...

Hailing Yakker Cigar YakkerSilent Yakker

Toshi

Through my Flickr account, I received the following request:

• "My name is Mayumi from Healing World Co., Ltd. which is an independent music label in Japan. We're currently creating a series of promotional movies for our artist, TOSHI with a lot of nice pictures from over the world. We would like to use your photo "Strolling In Budapest" if possible"...

This is the picture (to the right):

Here's the part which I found of interest:

• ..."It would also be very nice if you could allow us to use it without giving you a credit, not showing your name on the movie"...

It is fairly standard if you're not going to buy a photographer's shot, then you at least will traditionally ask for permission and tell people who took it. The alternative is basically cheating the system and working it completely for free. Here's more:

• ..."Here's our artist, TOSHI's official MySpace at www.myspace.com/toshioffice for your reference."

So, I was curious to see what calibre artist Toshi might be and started some research based on his MySpace profile.

On first glance, it's a little hard to decipher since some of his MySpace material is in Japanese, but this is what we can determine. His music is Pop (you can hear that, kind of like Josh Groban), he plays concerts in Tokyo, he has CDs, his music is on iTunes (in Japan at least). Here he is on YouTube.

There are more clues from his biography which describes him as a "legendary" vocalist who has given more than 2500 concerts, has "steady and honest activities", and has created "big sensations". Toshi says, “I have seen so many people shed tears to hear my songs for as long as 8 years, and I sincerely feel that is such a blessing and a great pleasure for me.”

The biography later relates that after splitting from the band that made him legendary and going solo, they had reunion concerts at the Tokyo Dome in March 2008. The Tokyo Dome is a 55,000 seat stadium where the Yomiuri Giants play in Japan. Hmmm.... I am concluding that Toshi may be a major artist.

I further find that Toshi has 6786 MySpace friends. Looking up Britney Spears for comparison, we see that she has 505,795 friends on her space. Well, I guess he's not in her league.

At any rate, I decided to allow the picture to be used without credits (or money) out of curiosity and because he seemed to have a good heart. I did ask to have a link to the video when done.

And, in the end, he does appear to be trying to cheat the system, but since his bio says he is a "healing artist"it will be my contribution to the good of society.

Breaking for Snow

I was holed up in my office building while the snow fell. I knew it was coming down, but I couldn't see it as I was working deep in the windowless bowels of the building. In the vicinity of lunch time, I got a chance to get out and observe even though my time was short.

Taking pictures of people in the snow is not easy. Flakes end up on your lens, it's hard to move and it's cold. Fortunately, my building has an extended roof which allowed me to swing around the outside without getting too wet. Each perspective had its own aura, different then the usual Manhattan mix. Three of the four sides of the building produced subjects.

Looking east.

Looking south.

Looking west.

North was a bust.

Digital Picture Frame broken

My digital picture frame died today. I had it on my desk, and watched it flip through hundreds of my pictures over time. This was not a high quality frame. My shots that look so nice elsewhere, looked crappy here. Plus this frame did not maintain the aspect ratio, it typically made people look fat as it expanded their girth to match the width of the frame.

I had noticed that I had to constantly change the contrast and tweak the brightness settings. This was done in one degree increments in tedious steps. There was no way to easily compare the settings looked on an actual picture. Little did I know, these adjustments were the beginning of the slow death of the digital device as there came to be a scattered flickering which became quite annoying.

It's just as well that it broke, I really need to get a wireless picture frame. Most of the newer model frames have a built-in wi-fi chip that allows photos to be downloaded from the web. As a matter of fact, a company started by a former boss of mine, FrameChannel.com, is making a business of this. You can manage a feed from the web of various photographic or news channels. This is similar to how feeds are provided within some elevators in high rises.

I was asked to provide a channel for the launch last year for people around the globe to download my pictures to their own frames. Now there are somewhere around 70 people subscribing to the "Photographer - John Fraissinet" channel. However, my old, now broken, digital frame can't get it, since that frame is not on the web.

FrameChannel is banking on the holidays to sell a lot of the frames this year. They sell advertising that is embedded into the content they provide. Right now, 1% of all the content are downloads of my photos. I'm not quite sure how it is displayed (outside of the preview on the site) but it's a cool concept. They do embed ads somewhere along the line, and if they are ever profitable I would get a cut. So, I think its time to get a wireless frame.

The Parking Ticket - Resolution

As a followup to my "The Parking Ticket" entry...

Today I returned to the "court house" (actually a regular Manhattan office building) to contest my parking ticket. This time I brought along additional evidence. That is, as the judge had suggested, photographs of the layout of the entire street from end to end. The key was including the Duane Street sign which would prove this was the street that the ticket said I was parked. I was concerned that some of the legal rules revealed at my prior appearance might have discounted my "misled by the signs" defense, although I insist that I made a reasonable effort to understand the postings.

This time, I did not have a friendly cordial interested male judge. The judge was a stern disinterested cold woman judge. She had me raise my hand and swear I would tell the truth and sign my name on the electronic pad to indicate I was there.

I explained my confusion in reading the parking signs. I laid out the pictures on her desk, as I did with the first judge two weeks prior. She said several times, if there is even ONE SIGN on the block, then that covers the whole street. THAT IS THE LAW. She looked at the photos disinterestedly. "These don't show the side", she said. I reached into my pocket for yet another shot. Her questioning and insistence put me on the defensive.

I honestly wasn't in this to save the $95 (they had again offered me $20 off if I decided to not see the judge). I just wanted to see how this would play out. Perhaps I would get a reduction that might pay the $5 I spent on the photos? As things progressed though, it seemed clear that my argument was not being considered.

She left the room, 5 minutes passed, 10 minutes passed... I contemplated my sentence and found another relevant picture in my jacket pocket. She finally came back. I showed her this picture. She looked but didn't seem to care. She then spoke, "I am dismissing this case." I was stunned. She printed out a receipt, "This will be proof of the decision". I had won!

As I walked out, I concealed my grin, and walked out across the street. I took out my camera and took a picture of the court office building there at 66 John Street. No parking in front of that building, it was clear from the pictures. No standing either.

The Parking Ticket

While I usually take the train when I'm coming and going to Manhattan, occasionally I'll drag the car in. One weekend recently, I parked on a street with parking signs hard to locate or decipher. I found no nearby signs and when I glanced up half a block at the nearest posting, it looked to me that it only applied to a contained loading area for trucks. So, I parked my silver Subaru on the street with others in a spot that was safe.

Upon returning, a parking ticket was affixed to my windshield. I glanced around at the signage, and studied the closest sign again. Looking closely now, I saw that a portion of the sign, an arrow pointing in my car's direction, was obscured by a sticker. As I had my camera, I photographed the misleading signs along with my car's location to look at later after I studied the ticket at home.

The price tag was $95, not fair to me, as I made a reasonable effort to try to park legally. I found that the court was accessible, and I figured I might as well take a stab at fighting the ticket. Armed with my photos of the car and the signs I paid a visit at a lunch time.

The trip was incredibly efficient. I was in and out in 20 minutes. My time before the judge was cordial and friendly. Armed with my photos, I spread them out on his desk, explaining where my car was and how the signs had taken advantage of me (in my own humble manner and friendly).

The judge studied the shots, and nodded that he understood the confusion. He stroked his chin, and then scratched his head. "But, if only I could see that it's Duane Street" (where I had parked). "There's nothing here that proves that it is Duane Street". I immediately considered telling him to pull up Google Maps on his PC and go to the Streetview of Duane Street. You would be able to see all the stores I had shot. I figured that was not the way to handle a judge though.

He said, "This is what you need to do, if you want. Go back and take a picture of the Duane Street sign and every building on the block with their numbers. I'll give you an extension". He printed out instructions telling me how to take the pictures. It also explained that if there is one sign on the entire block, then it counts.

Figuring it was a new photo assignment, I took the challenge. Returning to the scene of the crime, I snapped 18 photographically boring pictures documenting the lay of the land (or Duane Street). Three quarters of the way up the block, I found a sign that seemed to indicate that there is no parking on the entire block. (Although I still think the confusion of the other signs contradicts that... to a reasonable person).

I have the digital version of the pictures here (the last one is here). But, I don't usually make prints, so they are still being printed. When I get the prints back, I'll see if I can convince the judge that I'm innocent.

Below the Waist

I've noticed that a good number of the pictures that I favor tend to cutoff people around the waist and focus on their lower extremities. There seems to me to be a certain action and harmony, especially when combined with the geometric elements found in the streets.... the vertical lines of the crosswalks, the circles of the manhole covers.

I looked through my collection and pulled out the ones that fall into the "Below the Waist" category.

Posing with the Bull

At the end of Broadway, at the entrance to Bowling Green Park, there is a bronze statue of a Bull. It symbolizes Wall Street. There was quite a story to how it got there, but mostly now it is a tourist attraction. The shot to the right is a rare look at the bull absent of people. It was cold and wet that day absent of the usual crowds.

There are two standard places that people pose with the bull. One is on the front, and the bold ones climb up to sit on his head. The other location is at the rear of the bull. You see, the bull is anatomically correct. So, posing at the rear brings the private parts of the bull into play, photographically that is.

It seems to me that those who pose in the rear are the most fun loving of the tourists. And, I like to watch them as they enjoy their visit. They smile and smirk and joke.

Virtual Restaurant Murals

Frizztext, a contact/friend of mine from the Flickr photo sharing site has a unique idea. He selects favorite shots that he finds on the site, and places them into a photo he has created of a restaurant's mural. He liked the photo I took of the Queen Mary 2 and this is the result.

I find the result fascinating. Here is a slideshow of his other restaurant murals:

"Click Away"

Lunch time on an unusually warm day. It is cloudy and dark, rain is in the air. Pictures taken in this kind of light are evenly lit and lights pop. A favorite time to wander and shoot.

I headed down Broadway in the Financial District, near Wall Street. I came to focus on a man in a red jacket. Red always is flashy in pictures, and I noticed he had a cigar grasped behind his back. I moved under a portico overhang of the building and watched from behind. The position of the cigar was interesting. I tried a couple of different settings and shot rather consistently. Sometimes one shot out of 30 may be something special. I knew, slowing down the shutter speed, would show cigarman still but the people passing on the street in front of him would blur, so I tried that. I kept shooting oblivious to my surroundings.

I came to feel the presence of two rather large gentlemen standing rather closely to me. One, with a walkie talkie, spoke "May I ask you, sir, what you are photographing?" I jerked up to see who was talking to me. I know it's legal to shoot pictures on public ground, and kind of organized my thoughts to put up a fight. Although, this I might have been just off the sidewalk, potentially on private property.

Also coming to mind, was an incident from a few months ago. I saw an interesting light fixture on a building, and reflexively took several pictures. I was halted by a security guard who said I wasn't allowed to take pictures of that particular building, which happened to be the Federal Reserve building. I really didn't think much about its security as it was in quite a public location frequented by tourists. You can take pictures outside of the NY Stock Exchange (certainly a secure location). But, that time the guard made me delete all the pictures of the light fixture, plus a shot of a stop sign that happened to use a tiny portion of the facade as a solid background. I concluded that was a power play by the guard, as I later went on the internet and found hundreds of pictures of the building, so I'm not sure how much more secure it was without my pictures.

With that in mind, I was concerned about the possibility of being asked to delete the cigar pictures. At that point, the guy said must have sensed my trepidation, "You're not in trouble, what are you taking pictures of. This is a sensitive property." I understood the guy's job, and hunched over and pointed. "You see that guy's cigar? That's what I'm taking pictures of." The guy turned and looked then grinned. He said "Take as many pictures as you want. Click away".

I took another 15 or so, waved to the guard who went back to his post (which was inside the lobby) and headed off downtown. I didn't bother to turn around and inspect the building to see what it was. I didn't really care. After all, it was all about the cigar.

Rittenhouse Square

I was visiting Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia... my first visit... on a Saturday evening at dusk. A fall day, warm weather. The park was full of activity, beautiful with the orange leaves on the ground. A wedding party, at least the male portion of a wedding party, was assembled towards the center of the park, listening to guitar music. I worked my way through taking pictures and found a bench at the end of a path and sat there to observe the crowd.

No sooner than I was in position, a homeless-appearing man came into sight. He croaked, "Like to take pictures?" I nodded. "Like to take pictures of people?". I again nodded. He approached and plopped himself down next to me. One of his eyes was white, and he appeared blind in that eye. His teeth were loose and facing multiple directions. He extended his hand and I warily shook it. He was not threatening and talkative.

He started talking about the deterioration of Philadelphia and that white people didn't like to talk to him, "not you" of course he noted. He said he went to a free Bruce Springsteen concert and there was only himself and one other black person in attendance. I found this curious as I later found out the concert was for the benefit of Barack Obama. I mentioned that Bruce Springsteen had a song called "Philadelphia". "Ben" (his name) corrected me and said that was Elton John. I noted that Elton John had a Philadelphia song but it was called "Philadelphia Freedom". He agreed, and said that he had been shocked to learn that Elton John was gay. We then spoke about Michael Jackson and his woes. He rocked back and forth with enthusiasm as he spoke about each subject.

I wanted to take a picture to capture the character of this man. He readily agreed to pose, this was his purpose all along. It was dark so I needed to be steady. I took a first shot, and looked in the viewer, but didn't think it looked like him. The personality was missing. I asked for another, he posed again. Again, it didn't look right. I took a final shot, again it wasn't what I was looking for but decided to move on. He seemed pleased with the few dollars I left him. That was what he was after, afterall.

When I got a chance to transfer the picture to the computer, where I could look at it. I noticed that the flaws in his features that gave him personality (primarily his teeth and the blind eye) were missing in the shot. His pose each time was with eyes shut and mouth closed. Despite the inherent wildness of his personality, Ben was self-conscious enough of his appearance, that he wanted to look his best.

I thought about it, and realized this was the best evidence of his self. The picture had captured his character, even if it wasn't evident.

Artistic or Blurry?

Orange Scarf
Originally uploaded by jfraissi

I saw the woman in the orange scarf as she was about to cross the street. I thought the scarf would be an interesting element and rushed to get into some sort of position to get a shot off. It was evening rush hour and a low light situation, so the shutter speed needed to be a bit slow. I didn't have time to settle down and rushed the shot. This picture was the result.

When I saw it on the computer, I was a bit disappointed the shot wasn't a bit more stable, but then I started to appreciate the impressionism the colors and composition. It is a bit like a painting. But, as I stared at it still longer, I then thought it just looked blurry. Perhaps if I had pre-planned the out of focus artistic take of the shot, I might feel a bit better about it.

But, now... as I'm looking at it again, in a smaller size. It captures a certain dreamy mood. And, I kind of like it again. I might even love it, or maybe not.

Mad Men

I'm a fan of the AMC program Mad Men. The show takes place in a Madison Avenue ad agency in the 1960s. Madison Avenue, for some reason, had a plethora of advertising agencies located there during this time period (somewhat dispersed now). So, the name "Mad Men" really means "Madison Avenue Men".

I was visiting my dentist who is located on 46th street (and Madison) and emerged to see the Roosevelt Hotel. This hotel has been featured on the show, as the main character has been exiled there by his wife due to indiscretions. It rang a bell and I began shooting some pictures.

This picture is an update of the Mad Men concept with generic business men representing the ad men. The three featured biz guys here are not connected in any way other than being on the same corner (they came at different times).

I wanted to make sure the Madison Avenue street sign was in the picture so it might be cropped a little higher than I might have chosen otherwise.

Cropping Decisions

I was wandering at lunch time and headed towards a school on the lower west side. In the shot below, I first noticed the woman hunched over the baby carriage (think she's on a cell phone). I rattled off about 5 shots and noticed an interesting number of elements, each of which could be a picture. As a whole, however, this shot seems to hinge on the man in the center, not the baby carriage woman. He's the hub of the photo but not really what I wanted to emphasize. So, it made sense to do a little cropping.

Besides the woman to the right, there is some interest on the left side if you draw attention there. The guy with the sunglasses is still the main draw, but there is a balance. The school bus is a nice background piece, the little crosswalk symbol saying to walk is a nice element. There could be a pleasing composition if it was done like this (right).

You could even take this same shot of the grouping on the left and move in closer, drawing attention to the guy even further behind. He seems to be inspired and looking off into space. Being out of focus kind of adds to his mood of thoughtfulness. Also the little crosswalk man could be what is in his imagination.

Getting back to the original focus on the right side of the shot... The look of happiness on the woman with the baby carriage seems like it should be emphasized. But, looking above her to the rear, there are two guys speaking. Another nice compositional balance. They could also be a focal point (right).

In the end though, to emphasize the woman in the baby carriage, the balance needs to be redistributed on the right to minimize the prominence of the man in the center. To do this, the left side of the picture needs to be eliminated completely. After cropping for this, I found a shadow on the sidewalk to be distracting and removed that. Also the backlighting is dramatic but made the buggy woman's face a bit hard to see, so I isolated her and brightened very slightly.

That could be enough, but classic street photography tends to be more gritty if it is rendered in black and white. To do that though, the trade-off was to lose the attraction of the yellow school bus in the rear. As I find the color of the bus draws your eye away from the woman in the buggy, the black and white tends to help to meet the original objective of the original street observation. The final shot looks like this below.

Queen Elizabeth 2

Today was the last day the QE2 cruise ship would ever be in North America. The 40 year old oceanliner is being retired and will survive on as a floating hotel in Dubai. To honor the end of the line(er), a fellow Cunard ship, the Queen Mary 2, joined the old QE2 in New York Harbor and started on a joint trip across the Atlantic. This would be the 806th and final trip and across the Atlantic by the QE2.

I happened to be in a business meeting in a lower Manhattan skyscraper at the time of the engagement of the two ships. I knew that our 37th floor conference room was well positioned to see the event unfold during the 5pm-6pm meeting. I alerted the participants and we would grab peaks out the window as we anticipated the arrival of the ships while we spoke about technology.

First the Queen Mary 2 (above) came into view appearing between the buildings as it approached from the Brooklyn piers. It waited for the QE2 to come down the Hudson for the rendezvous and then head past the Statue of Liberty and out to sea.

While it waited, the Queen Mary 2 spun around in a section of the river that seemingly didn't have room for its size. And, it waited some more. After about 20 minutes, the QE2 appeared between the buildings. Dwarfed in size by the Queen Mary, which a few years ago was temporarily the largest ship in the world, the QE2 pulled up alongside and together they made their way through the approaching darkness and out towards the Verrazano Bridge and to the Atlantic.

Angles

Look up, look down... you might see something differently. Depending on the angle, a view of a common place may become something interesting.

For instance what's beyond the surface of that puddle down there? Or, what's on the other side of that reflection. Or, what does that person look like from an angle looking straight down?

Here are some examples. To the left, is a guy standing on the other side of a street puddle. He was actually reflected upside down, but when the picture is rotated 180 degrees, this picture spins him around right side up but as seen through water with a bit of a surrealistic edge.

Looking down from an elevated plaza down on people passing by on the sidewalk below shows the tops of heads (I saw a bunch of bald spots) and hats. The shot below seems to me to make this guy look like a gnat. A bug guy of sorts.