This was the first shot I set up that morning. It was about 6:00 am on a Sunday in Tribeca. Among other things, I was using a Promote Control for the first time, so my set up took a little longer than usual while I made sure I had everything arranged properly. While I was fiddling with settings, a cab pulls up halfway down the block and a very well dressed and slightly tipsy Englishman emerged. Before heading to home, I presume, he wandered over to me and asked “What do you see here that’s worth shooting?”
I should be more gregarious in such situations, but when I’m in working mode I hate to be interrupted, so I engaged him politely but as little as possible. I mentioned the early light, glowing windows, and interesting buildings across the street. He asked if the lens was a wide angle and I confirmed that it was, which opened him up a little to what I was doing, but I have the sense he still had doubts. He was not insulting – he really was curious to see what I saw. I should have handed him a card but didn’t. Now, I would be curious to learn what he sees now. But like I said, I was in work mode.
The encounter was not discouraging. One of the challenges of photography is making interesting photos out of subjects that others do not see, and practice improves this skill. I actually didn’t think this was that non-obvious, but you never know until somebody tells you otherwise.
Anyway, this is North Moore Street. The street signs all read “N. Moore St.” Twenty to thirty years ago, those supposedly in-the-know explained that the street was not North Moore Street, but named for someone, Nathaniel Moore I think, and that only the ignorant (roughly 90% of people) called it North Moore Street. Well, guess what, it is North Moore Street, named after Benjamin Moore, the second Episcopal Bishop of New York, who has nothing to do with paint, as far as I know. There was already a Moore Street way down by Battery Park so this is North Moore.
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DARYL (BUTCH) BUTCHER
6 Sep 2010Very good. I can actually smell “city”. Nothing like sweet alfalfa and not like a pig lot, but a smell all its own.
I am really a high-tech. nerd but I struggle with web sites. I will probably start a blog on my site before too long. You will be hearing from me as I get totally lost. Yesterday and today I had to struggle to manage the site I already have because earthlink abritrarily changed the ftp access URL. Now, how was I suppoded to know that? I can put integrated circuits on Mars, on their way to Jupiter and working on things for Europa but web site obfuscation confuses me no end.
DARYL (BUTCH) BUTCHER
6 Sep 201010 hours into WordPress and ProPhoto3 and nothing works. Almost not a single panel looked or behaved as advertized. The last desperation step (manually uploading ProPhoto3 and then selecting it for a “theme”) only resulted in WordPress bringing up complety blank frames when before that simple operation everything appeared to be working. ProPhoto3 ASSUMES an endless stream of conditions that are not correct. Two very polite queries to their help have gone out. This is not quite as bad as setting up a wireless system but it is getting close.
mark
6 Sep 2010Sorry to hear about your ProPhoto troubles, Butch. I’m sending you an email.
James Howe
7 Sep 2010Interesting shot. The wide angle almost gives a sense of motion to the shot. Interesting story about the shot, particularly the bit about the street name.
mark
7 Sep 2010Thanks, James.