The cross streets of New York City align directly with the sunrise and sunset at certain times of the year. When I’m walking to work in the morning these days and I glance to the right at intersections I’m met with the intense rays of the sun, blocking out nearly everything in sight, even with sunglasses. Crossing against the traffic signals on days like today requires a New Yorker’s certainty that everything is negotiable, even the physics of a speeding cab that may or may not be rushing out of the blinding light to strike you down.
Blog
New York Yankees Foundation
Last week the New York Yankees Foundation held a reception at the Ernst & Young headquarters at Five Times Square. The purpose of the event was to promote a foundation dinner ($50k per table) benefiting various charity projects funded by the Yankees. The Commissioner’s Trophy was brought along so that people could have their photos taken with it as well.
It mostly a grip and grin assignment and pretty run of the mill. However, at one point I wandered over to the trophy and happened to catch a great moment. Bud Selig’s signature is engraved in the bottom of the trophy and the former NYPD cop who guards the trophy tilted it up to show the bottom. The group of guys were clearly big Yankees fans and were very excited to see something that most people don’t. It was one of those occasions where I was in the right place at the right time and made a great image. I don’t aspire to be a reportage photographer, but I certainly do appreciate these little snapshots (literally) of the human experience.
Random Goodness: Scenes from New Year’s Eve
When the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve 2009 and we started were swept into 2010, I was at a party with some of my dear friends in the West Village. I had my G9 camera with me, but I didn’t take too many images, and to be frank, the ones I did take were nothing to write home about. But today I was getting ready to erase the card and realized that there were some hidden impressionistic gems hidden in the mix. Full disclosure, I didn’t take these images (since I believe the darkish blob of laughter on the right is me) but I felt they were worth sharing.
I love finding stuff unintentional art!
Five Reasons I Stopped Using Facebook
I have been getting into micro-blogging as a way to self promote and to share ideas. Twitter and Facebook status updates served me well over the past couple of years. When I don’t have time to write a long blog post, micro-blogging allows me to share links and observations easily. I started out using Facebook status updates, but recently I made the decision: I was going to stop using Facebook entirely and do all of my micro-blogging on Twitter.
I could go on and on about how much I’ve grown to distrust Facebook but even as I was writing out a long discussion about what I don’t like about it I got exhausted and bored, so here’s the top five reasons I stopped using Facebook:
1. Exposure
I use micro-blogging to help with promotion of my work. If people follow my tweets they are more likely to RSS my blog and to link back to my blog. Facebook, being a closed system means that I will only be talking to the people that I already know. Yes, I could have a public Facebook page, but it’s still in the clutches of the evil empire. The genius of Twitter is that it’s open and it’s everywhere.
2. Critique
As I mention in #1, the only people who read my stuff on Facebook are the people that I already know. This means when I post photographs, I get the wonderful and supportive comments from my friends and family. This is a great ego boost, but in reality sometimes you need strangers who have no vested interest in you personally to tell you that your photo sucks. I have lots of people to tell me what I’m doing right. To improve I need people to tell me what I’m doing wrong.
3. Tedious Friend Requests
One of the things that I can’t stand about Facebook is the ubiquitous Friend Request. Sure, it is neat to hear from a long lost friend or reconnect with someone who slipped off your radar. However, 90% of the friend requests that I get are either people I barely talked to in high school who friend me simply because they recognize my name on someone else’s list, or they are coworkers who think it’s necessary to friend me even though they see me every day. The former usually never even go beyond clicking the friend button, and the latter use Facebook to resend me the same email chain letters and internet hoaxes that they’ve polluted my email inbox with. When someone wants to follow me on Twitter, they don’t have to ask my permission.
4. The Illusion of Privacy
The reason that it’s ok that total strangers follow me on Twitter is because I’m not posting anything on Twitter that I want to keep private. As a culture, I think most people who Twitter understand that. Facebook users do not. I am constantly amazed at what people post on Facebook. Do you have an intimate knowledge of all 459 of the people on your friend list? Do you trust their internet security practices? Are any of your friends likely to say something you don’t want your other friends, family, or coworkers to read?
Facebook recently changed their privacy policies from private by default, to public by default. Gawker has the full run-down.
5. Facebook sucks
Need more proof? Take a look at this growing list of issues that have surfaced over the last few years about Facebook.
I’m not starting some big, anti-Facebook campaign. I haven’t deactivated my Facebook account. Not that it would matter if I did, because the Facebook user agreements mean that they own my data and can keep it forever. I am no longer updating my account though. I just don’t feel comfortable using it anymore.
I think that Twitter is a better way to go.
Underneath the California Sky
In the fall when I was out in San Francisco shooting for Connect magazine, I met up with a friend of mine and we climbed the hills across the Golden Gate Bridge and looked out at the sea. The ocean is one of the things that never ceases to amaze me about the west coast. And the sky seemed so large that day, perhaps because we were up in the hills. Breathtaking…
Christina
Dr. Girlfriend and I love our apartment, but it is on the dark side. There isn’t a great deal of light from the windows. However, for a few brief moments a day the sun is angled properly to squeeze between the buildings around us and some gorgeous light muscles it’s way into our living room.
Susana Raab – Consumed
I have been doing a lot of thinking about food and diet recently and I have an idea for a project which is bouncing around in my head with all the other noise. I’m not exactly sure where it’s going or how to tackle it, but in the mean time, check out this series by Susana Raab called Consumed which is a focus on the fast food industry in America. Love it.
Walking to Work
I’ve been walking to work for the past couple of months (excluding the very snowy days) and have been loving it. In addition to getting about four miles of additional exercise each day, it offers me a chance to wake up and spend some time in the sunlight before cloistering myself into my cube each day. In case it’s not obvious by my Twitter feed there isn’t a lot of work these days so my cube time is starting to weigh on me. Needs fixing, thats for sure.
Walking to work also gives me a chance to shoot (when it’s not too cold). I generally don’t get out my SLR when I’m walking to work, but I use my iPhone a lot. I am loving this shot that I took this morning a scant 25 yards from my front door.
I love love love the visual of a blurred cab driving by. Not sure why exactly, maybe just my love of this city.
Kathy Betty, Owner, Atlanta Dream
A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to fly down to Atlanta to photograph Kathy Betty, owner of the Atlanta Dream (WNBA). It was a great experience working in a tough situation where I had virtually no brief about the shoot and had no idea what to expect when I got there. As I’ve mentioned before, being able to adapt and think quickly when faced with adversity on a shoot is key. In fact, there are very few shoots that go off without a hitch. The more prepared you are, the better your experience will be.