New York City Noir

Real Estate Interests in NYC

An article by Mike Lisberg in today's New York Daily News reports that New York real estate interests broke election laws by making unreported contributions of $750,000 to the Independence Party while Mike Bloomberg donated his own illegal $1.2 million to the same party to be used later in his reelection campaign. 

If anyone has any doubts about what New York's real estate interests got in return for the money they've poured into NYC politics, he or she has only to take a walk in the East Village.  The Dubai Hotel and Cooper Union buildings are architectural monstrosities that have nothing to do with the character of the neighborhood in which they've been plopped down.  One can only imagine what went on behind the scenes to convince community boards to look the other way and grant approval for their construction.

The Bowery was one of the most enjoyable walks in NYC, an area where original architecture from the 19th century could still be viewed first hand.  While I realize how dynamic and ever changing NYC is, there's no excuse for willfully marring the character of neighborhoods with futuristic buildings that lack any aesthetic appeal and that do not even make an attempt to integrate themselves into the community.  Instead, they've been shoved down the throats of East Village residents by corrupt landlords.  These buildings do not represent either improvement or revitalization, only destruction of the city's heritage.

Around NYC: Gewandhaus at Carnegie Hall

It was an enjoyable evening, not great though.

Nikolaj Znaider was the soloist on the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto and performed well on the sarabande from Bach's Partita #2 that he gave as an encore.

For my taste, the Dvorak #9 in the second half was too loud and strident.  The same approach, though, worked better for Beethoven's Lenore #3 Overture which opened the program.

More Snow for NYC

It's been snowing for two days and, so far, we've gotten over 21 inches in Central Park.  These photos were taken this afternnon around 1:00 p.m.

 
 

Testing the S90: Dancing the Old Soft Shoe

This shot of a street performer was among the first I took on my new Canon.  I'd already, before releasing the shutter for the first time, set the format to RAW and the exposure mode to aperture priority.  I'd left the ISO and WB settings at auto.

The shot below was taken by sticking my arm through the bars in back of the Central Park Boathouse.  I always go for the photo of a lone figure in a crowded city.

Canon S90

To replace my Nikon Coolpix 7, I went looking for a point & shoot that was also pocket size, but which also had full manual controls and was able to shoot in both RAW and jpg formats.  I looked first at the Panasonic Lumix LX3.  I thought this was actually an excellent camera (it's supposedly the same camera as the Leica D-Lux 4 but at half the price).  It had the manual overrides and the RAW capabilities as well as a Leica 2.0 lens with an equivalent focal range of 24 - 60mm.

At B&H, though, I decided to do a bit further research.  To the store's credit, there are a number of very knowledgeable reps who were willing to spend as much time as necessary (in this case, about 45 minutes) to answer all my questions and make recommendations.  (Note: These "knowledgeable" people sit against the far wall on the second floor.  Do not ask any questions of the employees who sit at the camera displays themselves in the middle of the sales floor.  They are nice people but their knowledge of photography, to put it kindly, is limited.)

It was the B&H rep who first brought the Canon S90 to my attention.  Although a bit lighter and smaller than the LX3, the S90 shared most, if not all, the same features, including a 2.0 lens.  ISO on both extended from 100 to 3200 on similar size sensors.  Both cameras were the same price ($400) and it was pretty much a tossup between the two.  What finally decided me on the Canon was the focal range -- equivalent to 28 - 105mm -- which was not quite so limited as that of the Leica lens.  Essentially, the Leica lens went from wide to long normal, while the Canon lens extended to short portrait.

Tribeca

These are probably the last pics I'll take on the Nikon Coolpix7.  The jpgs I got from it were actually good quality, but the camera itself was too limited with only auto mode and no controls.

 

Chinatown Lunar New Year Parade

The Year of the Tiger began on February 14th and Chinatown celebrated with its annual parade.

Unlike Fifth Avenue parades, the Chinatown parade has no real route.  For reasons I'm not certain of, the parade centers on Mott Street immediately above and below Canal Street.  Much of it consists of elegantly costumed dragons moving in and out of buildings while volunteers use hand held guard rails to keep back the crowds.  The lack of a fixed parade route, the narrowness of Mott Street and the packed crowd of onlookers makes shooting very difficult. 

I shot on a Nikon D200 with a DX 18 - 200 zoom.  I set the ISO to 400 and generally left the lens as far open as possible.

HDR and Noir

I'm trying to use HDR to represent digitally the dark vision of NYC I want to describe in my writing.  Whenever I imagine the city, it's always lit like a sinister film noir from the 1940's.  I intend to put low res versions of HDR pics in my writing when I publish it online or in Kindle format.  Photos like these will help show the city the way I want to reader to see it.

Madison Avenue in the Snow

More pics from yesterday's snowstorm.

 

NYC Blizzard

When I was last out, less than two hours ago, midtown streets were generally clear, at least in the Grand Central area.  Just the usual huge puddles of slush at every corner.  Earlier, from about 1:00 to 2:00, I shot 47 exposures on a NikonCoolpix 7 and then edited them using PS filters.