flickr and another slightly more obscure capture form the same day on flickr here!

A classic view of the waterfront in Red Hook, Brooklyn, involves the old trolleys that sit in front of Fairway. They are presumably waiting for the day the Brooklyn Historic Railway Association (BHRA) manage to push through their plans for the resurrection of a trolley service between downtown Brooklyn and Red Hook. Then they can be towed off into a dignified retirement or restored for a museum. However, BHRA folded in the early 2000’s and the Brooklyn City Streetcar Company took up the mantle. BHRA is back up and running, and the streetcar/trolley idea for Brooklyn is regathering momentum. Last year Mayor Bloomberg suggested his administration would be seriously looking into the feasibility of putting streetcars back in service due to their cost and infrastructure being less than that of laying down extra subway lines – link via NY1 – and Brooklyn Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez added her voice too. I personally like the idea of putting them back on the streets. Ok, granted, I don’t have a car here but the subway system does need some alleviation of crowding. This may be an efficient way of doing that. I can’t imagine it being like San Francisco where in my one experience the streetcars were overrun, mainly because the MUNI is the only form of light rail/streetcar transport around the city itself. I also think it will add more charm and maybe some tourist business, which will bring more interest and dollars to Brooklyn. People will come to see the streetcars and ride them to or from the water taxi in Red Hook to see the great view of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty.

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I managed to get out shooting on both Saturday and Sunday last weekend. Saturday was spent on the photowalk in Gowanus with for the LOVE of BROOKLYN. You can a picture from that in the previous post here, as well as a few more on my flickr photostream. The photo above was taken on Sunday, when I went to Red Hook with my wife for our own little photowalk. We had a great time wandering over from the Smith and 9th Street subway stop over to the waterfront by Fairway on Van Brunt Street. There’s some really cool redevelopment of the waterfront, warehouses and piers going on. This shot was taken as the sun was setting over Bayonne, NJ. There were no atmospheric clouds in the sky but a clean sky, with a bright, warm sun is still dramatic and I find the silhouettes of the shipping cranes fascinating as you may have seen in another previous post of mine.

Just another quick reminder that I have two images in the PDN Faces portraiture competition, Mian Kay and Talks Too Much. If you would like to vote for them, and haven’t already, you can do so in the “People’s Choice” section of the competition. It is verified by email so make sure you check your spam folder if you don’t see the email come in and click on the link they send you to complete the voting process. Thank you.

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The title of this photo is taken from part of a line I once heard in CSI:NY. Why? Well I just think that this doorway and outlet, on location at the back of a warehouse along the Gowanus canal seem really creepy with all the peeling paint and rust. I could just imagine a suspect hiding out here with their victims. God knows what would come out of the rusty outlet in that case… It is an area I imagine Scouting NY would have a lot of fun looking around, especially after mourning the death of the dank and mysterious NY alleyway recently.

Anyway, this shot came from a photowalk I went on recently organized by the good folks at “For the Love of Brooklyn“; Jill, Adam and Peter. About twenty Brooklyn-based photographers met up at the Draft Barn, indulged in a beer or two, then headed out to see what we could make out of Gowanus; a bleakly industrial neighbourhood in Brooklyn. The Gowanus canal has recently been in the news as it has just been designated as a Superfund site by the EPA, meaning it might actually get cleaned up. There were signs of some cleaning activity as a pipe has been laid along the length of the canal in the water. The photowalk was a great time. In the days since it has been great to see everybody’s shots and each person’s different perspective or style on flickr.

Just a quick reminder that I have two images in the PDN Faces portraiture competition, Mian Kay and Talks Too Much. If you would like to vote for them, and haven’t already, you can do so in the “People’s Choice” section of the competition. It is verified by email so make sure you check your spam folder if you don’t see the email come in and click on the link they send you to complete the voting process. Thank you.r

(a poem, to wish my Ed a happy birthday)

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John Batdorff recently wrote a post asking his readers where their photographic journey began. I wrote a bit of a rambling response in the comments to his post as follows:

“Sorry if this goes on a bit but it’s a great post John and I feel like sharing today…
The “I might be good at this moment”: “Snowdonia Sunrise”. Back in 2004 I gave a photograph I took to my then not-quite girlfriend (we hadn’t had “the talk” yet), which less than a year later I had sold to someone else who saw it up on her wall. It was an 8×10 of the sunrise over the mountains on the morning I left the UK for NYC in Jan 2003. Seven years later I’m still in NYC.

The “I’m Really enjoying this” moment #1: “Uffizi Gallery”. Shooting in Firenze [Florence] while on holiday with my now girlfriend using a Yashica 35mm and rolls of B&W film.

The “I’m really enjoying this” moment #2: “5am at Angkor Wat” Having bought a DSLR for my 30th in 2007 it wasn’t until late in 2008 while on honeymoon in Cambodia that I had that same “Yeeeah” feeling as in #1.

Still, it took me until half way through 2009 to have the real epiphany, that I wanted to indulge time and effort into this and not just take my camera up now and again. I can’t pinpoint the exact photographic moment right now, it might well have been going back over those photos from our honeymoon. I’ll think back more later tonight and maybe do a companion post on our blog to this. You may also be able to detect another theme here. My wife had a lot to do with dragging the creative left brain back out of me.”

This is a fairly poor scan of a 6×4 35mm print of the aforementioned photograph taken on the morning I left for New York, taken with the same Yashica 35mm I was using in Firenze later on. The 8×10 is now hanging in our apartment.

Don’t forget, I have two images in the PDN Faces portraiture competition, Mian Kay and Talks Too Much. If you would like to vote for them, and haven’t already, you can do so in the “People’s Choice” section of the competition. It is verified by email so make sure you check your spam folder if you don’t see the email come in and click on the link they send you to complete the voting process. Thank you.

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As it warmed up this weekend the snow began to melt, forming small puddles around the handball walls in the Bishop Loughlin HS schoolyard. Up to that point the snow in the schoolyard had been pristine, white and smooth. It was also great to get out for a walk around the neighbourhood as the sun went down, lending a warm glow to everything.

Don’t forget, I have two images in the PDN Faces portraiture competition, Mian Kay and Talks Too Much. If you would like to vote for them, and haven’t already, you can do so in the “People’s Choice” section of the competition. It is verified by email so make sure you check your spam folder if you don’t see the email come in and click on the link they send you to complete the voting process. Thank you.

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Back during our trip to Angkor Wat we had a fabulous guide, Kay (pr. Kai), supplied by the Villa Siem Reap. They employ Cambodians from the area in an effort to promote responsible tourism. You can see their policy here, and we had a fantastic time staying there. Kay was really friendly and enthusiastic, even when he found his English getting the better of him. The day was a hot and muggy one so at various points we would stop, take a rest and he would continue to explain various facts and histories of the temples and area to us. We made sure he stopped in at the Villa for a beer with us afterwards, he deserved it.

On another note this is one of two images I have submitted to the PDN Faces competition, my first ever entries to any sort of photography competition. This one is entered in the environmental portraits category. The other, which you may remember from a previous post, has been submitted into the animal portraits category. I revisited both photos to process them so they fit into the compeition uploading and photograhic guidelines. I would be very happy if you made your way over to the “People’s Choice” section of the competition and voted for me, if indeed you think my photos are worth the vote. However, I don’t want it to be a popularity contest based on who you know – I would prefer it to be based on the merits of the photos. You can find some outstanding photos by other photographers by clicking on the link on the left of the page at PDN. Thanks, and happy viewing.

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On Sunday morning I managed to get out to Prospect Park for the first time since we moved to Brooklyn. I had a nice, if brief, walk in the morning around the south end of the park. I passed a number of runners along the way and paused to take photos here and there. It was bright and sunny and therefore pretty warm so the snow was clearly starting to melt. That made it all the more pertinent that there were a series of these signs all around the lake.

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During our trip to San Francisco we were able to head out to Lake Tahoe with our friends to ride some west coast powder, instead of east coast ice. Our friends are in a house rental near Squaw Valley and have passes there so that was where we went both days. It was so much fun. It snowed throughout the first day we were there, making the light on the mountain a bit flat, but we skied/rode through it and earned a good feed and drink afterwards. We stopped in at a place on the shore of Lake Tahoe and while we waited for our order I stepped outside to admire the landscape. The clouds were still tumbling over the mountains from the passing storm but were starting to thin out – the next day would be glorious. As the sun lowered in the sky the light split through some of the low clouds for a minute and illuminated Heavenly mountain resort, right across the lake from us. It created a dramatic juxtaposition between the angry clouds above and the gleaming mountain, so aptly named. The whole scene made me smile.

The first photo I took out in SF with Julie of julieliveshere/ilivehereSF:/CALIBER. We’d only just walked around the corner when I stopped Julie and Alli because I was captivated by the theater and this angle. Turns out the Roxie is the oldest theater in SF, having turned 100 last year. It is an independent theater that participates in many “‘FESTS” including INDIEFEST and more. Apparently it has been through a few incarnations before the name “The Roxie” was settled on in 1933. For more info see the about page at The Roxie and Wikipedia. While finishing the processing on this photo I just happened to be listening to Neko Case, who we saw in concert last November, and what with the Saints winning the Super Bowl I guess I had a Southern thang going on. Thus, I liked how this photo looked using the “Born on the Bayou” Lightroom preset with some tweaks, although I could just as easily left it with minimal processing. However, this seemed to evoke the history of the theater and my mood now and at the time of photographing it. Have a great weekend.