New York City Noir

Hard Times in New York City

The unemployment rate in NYC hit 9.5% today. 

I took these pics a few months ago on a Nikon Coolpix 7.

 

Fresnel for Fashion

 

The Speedotron fresnel spotlight, which I have mentioned in earlier posts, is excellent for fashion as well as fine arts.  It casts a strong light on the model and clothes and creates a dramatic effect well suited to fashion.

The model for these photos, Jing Li, is not only a beautiful woman, but a great news reporter/anchor as well as can be seen by following the link to the youtube video.  I was lucky to work with her.

May 2009 Japan Day in Central Park

 

Japan Day in Central Park was at the end of May.  There were stage performances, displays of crafts, and free food and bottles of iced green tea.  It was a really friendly scene with Americans and Japanese sharing a sunny day. I bought a beautiful t-shirt showing a flight of wild geese -- the proceeds from the sale are going to be used to plant cherry trees around the Central Park reservoir.  I'll be able to see sakura each spring even if I'm not in Japan.

 

I met my friend Li at the festival and held the videocam for her while she interviewed the Japanese ambassador/consul-general.  As Li set up, I spoke briefly with the ambassador.  He was very patient as I rambled on about how much I'd enjoyed my last visit to Tokyo and how great I thought Japan was.

NYC Fireworks

 

I was in the West 80's and too far uptown.  The fireworks barely broke over the rooftops far to the south.  All the technical data is the same as in the post below.

Moonglow over Central Park West

 

I was on the roof of a building on Columbus Avenue about 9:00 pm hoping to photograph the July 4th fireworks.  Turning to look behind me, I saw to the east an almost full moon rising.  About ten minutes later, the fireworks still had not begun; but by then the moon was positioned directly behind the Beresford's northwest tower.  I shot a five second exposure with the Nikon 18 -200 DX lens open to f5.6 and the D200 (mounted on a Tiltall tripod) set to ISO 100.