Prospect Park Zoo, 5/22/10

The Prospect Park Zoo is only a few blocks from my house, but someone in all the years living here I never visited. Until now. The zoo is small but very fun and interactive. Not a lot of exotic animals, but the ones that are there are lively and close up. Everything is arranged in a circle around a the central sea lion pool, so the visit is easy — you won’t get tired or lost like at the big Bronx zoo. Kid-friendly and highly recommended for an easy afternoon.

Hanami, 4/23/10

After a hectic work week I managed to get to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and get some photos of the cherry blossoms before they drop and before the crowds descend on the esplanade for Sakuri Matsuri, the BBG’s annual Hanami festival.

Faces of Holi, 3/7/10

Last week was one of my favorite annual events, the Hindu spring festival Holi (also called Phagwah or the Festival of Colors) out in Richmond Hills, Queens. It was my third time attending, and in addition to group photos I also concentrated on a series of portraits.

The weather was beautiful, with bright skies and a bit of a breeze to kick up the colors. Enjoy the photos, and if you see one of yourself in there post a comment and say Hi!

Excitement, euphoria (Stage 1)

Disenchantment (Stage 2)

Search for the guilty (Stage 3)

Punishment of the innocent (Stage 4)

Distinction for the uninvolved (Stage 5)

Hidden Harbor / Working Harbor Sunset Tour, 2009

Last night I went on a sunset cruise through New York Harbor with Michael and his parents. The Hidden Harbor Sunset Tour was sponsored by the Working Harbor Committee, and for two hours the guide pointed out and explained tug boats–both pushers and pullers, graving docks, floating drydocks, container ships and ro-ros, ferries, fireboats, bridges, barges, tankers, cranes, warehouses and other industrial maritime features. We saw a lot of water traffic, and the guide pointed out that although there are much fewer container ships these days they are much bigger. It was awesome to see everything so close up.

Our boat started at the Pier 16 near the Brooklyn Bridge, and we sailed around the edges of Brooklyn by Red Hook and Sunset Park, and even went into the Eerie Basin for a bit. Next we passed Governors Island on our way to Staten Island, through Kill van Kull and past Snug Harbor. After slipping under the Bayonne Bridge we traveled up to Port Newark and Port Elizabeth. Finally we headed back, passing the Robbins Reef Lighthouse and the Statue of Liberty.

The weather was absolutely perfect, and the harbor looked bright and vibrant. I’ve posted quite a few photos here and will post more in the series over the next few days.

Gay Parade NYC, 2009

This year we arrived at our favorite spot before the parade actually started, so managed to see Dykes on Bikes! But the early start meant we also got tired of standing and I left about 3 hours into it … even though the parade was only half done. Other highlights were seeing my friends march with GOAL, and of course the after-parade scene in the West Village where revelers were all too eager to pose for the camera.

Farmers Market Photos: 5/30/2009

The farmers’ market at Grand Army Plaza is really picking up steam.

After dropping off a bag of clothes at the clothing recycling booth, I paid a visit to the sexy Madura mushroom man (above) and picked up some baby bellas and another fungal delight I forgot the name of. He promised it would taste “nutty.”

Next on to the Tellos Green Farm egg lady, who was selling blue-green eggs. When asked, she assured me with a straight face that they were from blue-green chickens.

I stopped to look at the asparagus (so big!) but ended up buying a bag of spinach instead. Hoping for those Popeye arms.

Check out the full photo series for more!

Beach 116 Street, 4/26/09

The weather was great and the train ride wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, despite all the routing changes. The beach was pretty crowded even though all the “Beach Close” signs were still up. Stay tuned for more photos to be posted later.

Map of trip via Google Earth

Holi, 3/15/09

Today was my second time attending the Hindu spring festival Holi (also called Phagwah or the Festival of Colors) out in Richmond Hills, Queens.

Last year I had no idea what to expect, and it took me a while to get into it. I was also worried about dust on the camera. This year I planned ahead and made a clear plastic camera cover.

There’s a short and sweet parade, mostly for sponsors and politicians. But the fun really starts at the end when the crowds gather in the park to exchange colors. Everyone goes a little wild, with kids throwing colored powder, baby powder, and also color liquid at eachother. The teenagers get really crazy, but the little kids and grownups get into it too.

The rowdiness is fun but never gets out of control. Everyone is smiling and laughing. The festivities really bring people together, and total strangers have no shyness about approaching eachother to apply colors.

In the photo of me above, each unique color was gently and lovingly applied by hand by a different total stranger.

Escalade EXT, 3/14/09

Went solo today, so made a very fast efficient trip. Sprinted to the G train, got off on Broadway and walked west, then up and down the streets of south Williamsburg until I got to the bridge, then over to Bedford and south again to Broadway, then east back to the G train. Round trip was about two hours. I took a total of 225 shots, including about 50 of a single, very interesting textured wall. More later, but here’s one for posting on Atomische tomorrow.

Winter Beach, 2/28/09

Yesterday I went on a photo safari with Trevor. He selected Coney Island as our destination, which was a great choice. I love the beach on a winter’s day. It was a little gloomy for photos, but just sunny enough. We started at the 8th Street/Aquarium stop, and walked to the very east end of the board walk, all the way to Sea Gate. (Talk about odd–I really need to figure out how to get into Sea Gate for some photos.) Along the way we diverted out to the end of the Steeplechase Pier. My eagle eye spotted a distinctive box in one of the trash cans, and sure enough it turned out to be the container that crematoria give cremated remains in. So we missed an ash-scattering ceremony. I wondered if perhaps the recently departed was one of the hard-core fishermen that hangs out there in the summer.

Cheer New York is looking for male fliers. (Well, who isn’t?) Speaking of fliers, I’ve donated the use of a photo for their flyer (above) which you may see around town soon.

Newton Creek Superfish, 8/27/08

Three big photo-opportunities happened for me last weekend. (1) A long photo-hike through Sunset Park where we got harangued by a security guard and narrowly avoided getting bothered by police — luckily some law-breaking kids diverted their attention from us. (2) A four-hour marathon of fashion and flash photography at GMHC’s Latex Ball — a totally new experience for me. (3) Another long photo-hike through Williamsburg, where Trevor DID get busted — more on that later.

Unfortunately, on Monday morning my motherboard fried, and my brand new super-duper Photoshop computer is on it’s way back to Shuttle for brain surgery. So I won’t be posting many of the photos any time soon. My old setup is just too slow and painful to process the 25MB RAW files that the Canon 1DS MkIII makes.

Anyway, here’s one photo I took the time to process. After crossing a train bridge over the Newton Creek to see some graffiti, we noticed this effluent pipe with tendrils of black gunk slowly streaming out. Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea. Lots of fish swimming around it too — but they were too small to see if they had three eyes.

A post on yesterday’s City Room blog at NYTimes.com I see that the EPA is going to “develop a sampling plan” there, perhaps the first steps towards making it a Superfund cleanup site. Woohoo!

Today I took my nephew and mom to Coney Island and the New York Aquarium. Overall a fun day, although a bit hot. Ate at Nathan’s, walked the Steeplechase Pier, rode the Polar Run, saw some freaks and Shot the Freak. Well, Joey did. I almost put a dollar in the Waterboard Thrillride but chickened out.

It was fun to watch this group of intrepid boaters put their canoe in the water at the end of Huron Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. It was a little tricky for them — this wasn’t an official NYC Water Trail landing site. After one dip in the East River, they managed to launch o.k.

This morning’s big above-the-fold headline in The New York Times is an important story about how people get short haircuts in the summer. No simple trend piece, this one took a writer, four reporters and two photographers to complete.

In other news, nowhere to be found on the NYT home page: McCain’s economics adviser, Phil Gramm quits amid scandal; McCain’s security adviser, Stephen Spoonamore, puts forth evidence that Diebold CEO rigged Georgia governor and senate elections in 2002.

I know it’s Saturday, but I’m still scratching my newly-shorn head over what the NYT is doing. They even admit right in the caption that “It’s not exactly news…” so why are they printing it? Someone please clue them in to the dirty trick of announcing embarrassing news on a Friday evening.

Saw some bulbous bollards yesterday in the Meat Packing District. Don’t know why I find these things so compelling. The people eating brunch in all the surrounding cafes thought I was a little odd.

Click here to view more from the series.

If you haven’t been to PS1 for a Saturday Warm Up recently, now is a good time to go. The current outdoor installation is P.F.1 (Public Farm One) from the WORK Architecture Company. Not as splashy as last summer’s art (groan — I know) but perhaps more visually impressive. Inside the museum there are so many great and interesting pieces, I’m definitely going there again in a couple weeks. Well worth a visit to Queens, but best viewed on a Saturday.

This week marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. The story behind his exploration has always fascinated me, since reading Voyage of the Beagle as a school kid. Two years ago the American Museum of Natural History in New York City had a great exhibit dedicated to Darwin — with live animals to illustrate. And last year I had the great fortune of traveling to the Galapagos for a ten day expedition.

George Takei + Brad Altman, originally uploaded by Atomische.com.

Get soaked, steam a little, dry, repeat.

Despite the rain, or perhaps because of it, I had a very enjoyable time at the 2008 Gay Parade. Instead of our usual spot we decided to head uptown a little — 27th street — and found a great area on the corner where we could take photos head-on. It was a lot easier to engage marchers from behind the barricades. There was plenty of room too, so no standing motionless for hours. More photos coming soon!