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.

I’m thinking of selling my macro lens and ring light flash, and perhaps even the 30D and 10-22mm wide angle zoom lens. I have only used the macro lens twice, and while the photos are impressive the technique itself doesn’t really interest me very much. I think part of the problem is that the focus needs to be excruciatingly precise for the images to work, and I just don’t have the patience.

Many more macro photos here

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.

As Bush has reminded us countless times, he’s not very smart. Here’s a video of McCain warning us that he’s actually a little dumber. From The Jed Report

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.

Next in the series of photographers I admire is Shen Wei. I first noticed him when coming across photos from a recent project of his called Almost Naked, a series of amazing intimate portraits, with a few interesting environmental/still life photos mixed in. As with the Jesse Burke, the emotional frankness of Shen’s photos really speaks to me.

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!

Just got my 2007 Green Power Certificate, which shows how I bought 4858 kWh of wind-generated electricity last year. That’s just a little over 13 kWh per day, which isn’t so bad considering I work at home. I haven’t been tracking the exact costs over time, but despite the small premium paid for wind power, my bill has actually been lower. Probably had something to do with the new refrigerator. I only wish Con Edison Solutions had an ‘account billing history’ page to keep track of these things.

Wind power is already available and isn’t as disastrous as John McCain’s national park drilling plan.

Today while checking out the shows at Humble Arts Foundation I came across the photographer Jesse Burke.

I don’t often do portrait photography, mainly because I’m not naturally comfortable with people in general. The process of getting to know someone takes me a long time. Even with people I know very well, the photo shoot itself becomes awkward and unproductive. But see a lot of potential there, and really hope that with a lot of practice I can eventually get good at it.

Jesse Burke’s photos really speak to me. Partly because it’s familiar: the faces and scenery remind me a lot of my time in Wisconsin. But also because the emotions he brings out in his subjects are those that often stay hidden.

Yesterday I went to the Folsom Street East fair — New York City’s little cousin to the famous San Fransisco event. It was a great day for a kinky event. Hot enough for the exhibitionists to feel comfortable wearing next-to-nothing, sometimes just a smile. The rubber and latex lovers didn’t duck for cover during the brief downpour.

Yesterday I went to the Mermaid Parade out in Coney Island. Hugely crowded. In fact, so crowded that I skipped the parade itself, and so missed the song-and-dance part of the show. I did see many amazing costumes in the staging area though. Which is the main reason I went. See my Mermaid Parade page for all the photos in one place.

On June 9 Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) spent 4 hours reading into the Congressional Record 35 articles of impeachment against George W. Bush. Interestingly, those articles (63-page PDF via Coral CDN) include not just complaints about signing statements and the war in Iraq, but also charges that the President “Sp[ied] on American Citizens, Without a Court-Ordered Warrant, in Violation of the Law and the Fourth Amendment,’ ‘Direct[ed] Telecommunications Companies to Create an Illegal and Unconstitutional Database of the Private Telephone Numbers and Emails of American Citizens,’ and ‘Tamper[ed] with Free and Fair Elections.’ These are issues near and dear to the hearts of many here, so it’s worth discussing. What little mainstream media coverage there is tends to be brief (USA Today, CBS News, UPI, AP, Reuters).

I have three photos hanging in the group show “As We See It” currently on display at The Center. The show runs all summer, but the opening reception is Thursday, June 12th at 6pm and you are invited!

Visit my profile on the NYCPhotoClub web site to see my artist statement and other information.

As We See It
Fourth Annual Photography Exhibition
June 9 - August 21, 2008
Opening reception: Thursday, June 12, 2008, 6-8 pm
The Center, 208 West 13th St, 2nd Floor, NYC

Had a very successful walk-around in Tel Aviv today, and saw much graffiti including stencils, tags and a few murals too. Erez is helping me translate some of the text. Processing them is a pain on the laptop so the rest will have to wait until I get back to NYC next week.

Just got back from the far south … stayed in this hut near Mitzpe Ramon in the desert, with no electric or plumbing.