The High Line

This afternoon, at the end of a lovely portrait session starring a charming 2-year-old, I found myself atop New York City's High Line, and just had to take the opportunity for a stroll.

It was a perfect late summer day in New York - cloudless sky, warm air, cool breeze - and the sun was shining all over the place, literally. For those of you not familiar, NYC's High Line is old railroad bridges [turned urban park-space] that wind over, under, and through the buildings of Manhattan's west side.

It is located near the Hudson River, so as the sun went westward this afternoon, the nearby buildings reflected bright, beautiful light in all kinds of directions off the windows of the surrounding buildings. The result was something like movie set lighting, only more abstract.




I was fascinated with the way the light was playing into the landscape - I learned that much of the foliage was salvaged from the real growth that occurred on top of the once-used elevated train tracks, that had been left to the elements for decades, until the High Line's recent renovation. While there was something slightly artificial about the way it was bouncing around due to all of the reflective surfaces, it was still natural light, in that its source was the sun. It gave the whole scene a rather magical feel.




A tangential highlight to my excursion was running into a few friends as I tried to make my way out of the park - a ran into a friend of mine, and then a couple I'm friends with - and had one of "those" New York moments. My mom never used to believe me that in a city of eight million people you could, very often, run into people you know. Well, this one's for you, Mom: this afternoon, I ran into three people I know in five minutes' time, amidst wispy and flowering plants and heavenly light, hovering over West 18th Street.

So, the High Line is a truly magical place.

Hometown Culture Shock - Emerging from Vacation

For a brief moment today, while I was walking up Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, I found myself caught in a blissful void somewhere between vacation and real life. As I came out of the subway at Union Square, I had stopped and bought an apple and some cider, and I had a great playlist going on my iPod, thanks to my favorite technological development of late - the iTunes "genius" function. In wanting to fully embrace the beginning of spring, I bought some pansies for my fire escape garden, as a miniature emulation of the blossoming yards I had just seen on vacation in New Orleans this past week.


I was walking up Fifth experiencing New York City still in vacation mode - as if I had managed to bring the version of myself I had become in New Orleans back to New York. Teenagers shouted at each other from either side of me as we passed, cars ran lights and blared their horns at pedestrians, and respect for others' individual personal space was held in integrity by absolutely no one. For some reason, eating my local apple, enjoying the music in my ears, and still feeling like "New Orleans," all of these things seemed absolutely delightful. I was thinking, "Isn't New York so quaint? Look at how rushed everyone is. Isn't that interesting?"

Somehow, the logistics of running my business, the tasks of nurturing the nuances of my crafts as an artist, and even the moment-to-moment stresses of day-to-day life were paused for a moment. New York seemed fresh and distant - like I didn't really live here. I had gone so far into the experience of my vacation, that I forgot who I was before I left!

Within minutes, I was at my usual photo lab, consulting on a print order, and learning about new paper stock and printing technologies. And after that, I had some banking to do, and some emails to respond to. So, the moment itself turned out to be just that - a moment - when I had seen my entire life differently, as if it is not all so permanent, not even the way I choose to see things every day.


But I like to think that that energy I felt in my "void moment" has stuck with me, that it was present in my interactions at the photo lab and at the bank - that I am now just a little bit of a new version of myself - and that everyone I meet is meeting someone new. Life feels fresh that way!

I like the idea that I am emerging again: that as the climate of the world has begun to shift in so many ways, I am entering a fresh place from a fresh perspective. I am not the same as when I left a week ago, and it is not the same New York that I returned to. Everything is always shifting, and when I was still enough for a moment, I felt it. What I felt was not scary. It wasn't even unfamiliar. It simply was. And, it was interesting. I was invested in my experience in that moment. Instead of frantically looking back, then looking ahead, seeing the huge difference between the two, and balking at the change... I just found myself having arrived at the present moment, and finding it curious.

(P.S. Vacation photos and story coming soon!)

Flashback - Top of the Rock Field Trip

Recently, tucked safely within my Voigtlander, I came upon a roll of undeveloped film from an excursion I took with my parents to the top of Rockefeller Center back in September. I have been to the Top of Rock on a couple of occasions, and it never ceases to thrill me - it certainly provides the best view of the Empire State building from within the city - and something about the giant towering antennae hovering overhead and projecting television signals up to satellites that broadcast to millions, always makes me feel like I'm really at the heart of something.

I wanted to share a few of the shots I took this time around - trying to see the Top of the Rock from a slightly different perspective. There is something uniquely fun about developing a forgotten roll of film, and suddenly recalling what one was thinking about and experiencing at the time that one shot it.


I recommend this spot to all of my out of town guests. And, it's no joke - you really must try one of those binocular devices - you can see so many cool things all over the city for just 75 cents! (That's so cheap, they don't even put cent symbols on keyboards any more!)

Of course, you will have to pay to get up there first. But the rollar-coaster-like elevator ride is entirely worth it, in and of itself.

View a shot from my last trip to the Top of the Rock by following this link to my blog entry from last December.

Fall Kids' Portraits - Part 3

One final set of kids' fall portraits!

This one was particularly fun because of the angle of the sun during the shoot. Once again, this little one found a twig - it had leaves and an encased nut attached, but it was a twig nonetheless.

I'll let the photos speak for themselves about how much fun this shoot was!

I am honored to have had the pleasure of serving my clients by photographing their beautiful children this fall - and want to thank them for allowing me to share the results with you.

Fall Kids' Portraits - Part 2

Prospect Park was simply beautiful this fall - full of color and light - and with some mild November days, it was the perfect setting for these portraits of an energetic little guy and his parents. (Click on any of the photos for a larger view, and hit back to return here.)


What I am learning from photographing kids ages two and under, is that they love sticks. What is it about sticks? They're fun to run with. They're fun to hold. They're fun to use to poke at things. Sometimes I wish I was so easily amused, and that all I needed was to find a stick and run gleefully through the trees...


Time and again, working with little ones reminds me of our light-hearted true nature. This child's smiling eyes were so endearing, and his nature so honest, that when I looked at him, I couldn't help but think, "Perhaps life is not so hard, after all." Often I wonder if kids like him - able to change an adult's attitude with merely a glance - have any sense of the joy they bring to the world. Does he even begin to fathom his tremendous inherent value?


I couldn't hurt for all of us to remember our role, as bringers of delight! I want these photos to remind me to smile more, and I hope they'll do the same for you.

Fall Kids' Portraits - Part 1

The changing of the seasons in New York this fall has been absolutely bursting with color! I have had the pleasure of photographing lots of kids' portraits against this stunning backdrop, and I wanted to share some of the highlights (this is part 1 of a 3-part series of portraits).


This shoot took place on the far side (coming from Manhattan) of Prospect Park, where horses meander along the trail by the water on their way back to the nearby stable. It was a gloriously sunny day, and the 1-year-old subject was more than delighted to see a row of horseback-riders rambling by.


We sat in the shade and played in the leaves, and as 1-year-old's do, this one kept finding sticks and trying to eat them. (No amount of hearing the word "Yuck," could convince her otherwise.)

She was a delightful subject and would sit and look right into the camera, or glowingly at her mother. Talk about merging work with pleasure! It was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon, and I found myself in total appreciation of the fact that my career consists of being willing to bask in the sun on a mild fall day, and play in the leaves with a 1-year-old. What an honor to get to spend an hour with this beautiful, little girl.

The Williamsburg Bridge - New York City

One of my favorite things to do is take a walk over the Williamsburg Bridge. It is the Northern-most bridge of the three bridges connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn, with funky industrial-era architecture (it was completed around 1896). The bridge connects my current neighborhood of Williamsburg with my previous neighborhood - the Lower East Side. Combining the time at the two residences, I've been making bridge treks for about six years now!

I find the 20-minute walk to be very meditative, and have taken a lot of inspired photographs on the bridge in all this time. There are cool views of the mid-town and downtown Manhattan skylines, DUMBO, and Williamsburg. Plus, you can watch the boats and barges coming and going along the river and out to sea.

The photos in this post are the most recent ones I shot on the Williamburg Bridge, using just a little, plastic, panoramic camera. (It's a long walk, so I often get creative, instead of carrying heavy equipment. I've taken plenty of cool shoots on my cell phone!) Right now, there is a lot of construction going on in Williamsburg, and there is an amazing view of a huge crater at a construction site. That particular day, there was also a boat-plane soaring over the East River, getting ready to land. You could see it in the sky, looking tiny against the huge bridge girders.


Walking the bridge gives me a lot of perspective on city life because it allows me to be out in the fresh air and looking at the city from a distance. Of course, there is a lot of pedestrian and bicycle traffic on the bridge, so it isn't exactly an escape, but it is simply a way of stepping back and seeing the city in its glory. You can really appreciate how vast and dense New York City is, how much human brilliance and strength went into building this place. It reminds you of the pioneering spirit that created it - one of the greatest cities in the world - and it reminds you that all the pushing on the subway, all the determination to work one's way through a crowded sidewalk, maybe have their own reason after all, and don't have to be regarded as a nuisance. They are, in fact, symptoms of the same pioneering spirit, of people who will not be stopped, people who came to the city to pursue their dream.