Weekly Photo Challenge: Solitary

The weekly photo challenge: Solitary hosted by Cheri Lucas at WordPress.

A single picture seemed about right.

(Oops. there are figures in the drawings.)

Weekly Photo Challenge: Everyday Life

everyday-life-1 lottery everyday-life-dinner murphy andys-dads-screws pine-tree lottery-1 container-of-milk mark-vacuum school-bus Anna traffic by central coffee-pot Everyday life.

Selected a dozen shots for this Weekly Photo Challenge. The photographer who created this challenge, Jon Sanwell, suggests walking around and shooting people in a variety of settings throughout the day. One of my decisions was to mix it up, peopled and unpeopled shots but the trace of humanity in the unpeopled shots.

What I documented-

Walk the dogs, cook breakfast, make coffee, catch the school bus, sit in traffic, run out of milk and go to the market, home repairs (thanks to Andy’s father’s screws and nails collection in her basement ceiling)feed the dog, put out the trash, buy a lottery ticket, gather with the family,dine with friends. Everyday life can be so fine.

One World Trade Center- It’s Even Taller Now

I shot this of One World Trade Center AKA Freedom Tower, as I left Manhattan at Easter time.

Why I didn’t take an updated shot last month when I was visiting my sister I can’t say. You can watch the change in the skyline from her apartment window. The progress.

The view from Mary’s apartment window.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Free Spirit

This week’s challenge of free spirit was exactly that- a challenge!

Here’s a gallery of free spirit (to me) as I perused the archives, thinking about the definition.

My interpretations have a wide range of the meaning- including a feral cat, The Angel of the Waters Fountain in Central Park, Andy Warhol, a motorcycle guy choosing to go helmet less- free spirit not limited to flower children dancing at Woodstock or Haight Ashbury. I should have gotten a few of my friends to pose and I don’t have consent to post some shots I already have but I when I think free spirit, they come to mind. Next week is the Art Fair in the Park in Mellon Park Pittsburgh so I’m thinking an opportunity for new images of free spirit.

I found this quote on another blog but when entered this text it says author unknown-

“Free spirits are inclined to explore life and taste new experiences that hold true to the deepest parts of themselves vs. being influenced by what the masses around them are doing. They are often people who think freely and have the courage to hear their own voice and follow their own integrity.”

One of the feral cats we were able to capture, get fixed and inoculated. There are two and we feed them on the back porch. Our neighbor Ann had cats, cats, cats and then moved to a home and then passed away and we inherited the two that called this neighborhood, home.

Concert goers enter the Altar Bar, a repurposed church in the Strip District of Pittsburgh.

Italian Festival in Bloomfield.

Shohei Toyoda performing in Worthington OH

Angel of the Waters Fountain, Bethesda Terrace, Central Park New York City. It was featured in the movie Angels in America. In fact, it’s been featured in many movies.

You might remember this shot from the Andy Warhol Museum as I was leaving at night, the party was just starting.

Photographer friend Joycie in Grand Central Station.

Bleecker Street Sign

Another urban shot from last week in NYC. I was walking by this scene and had to photograph it.

It’s a cash only, no slices, no reservations, coal oven pizza place but I won’t add their name cause I am sure this is not their best look. The restaurant grading system is prominently displayed in every window in the city.

And if you liked my Positivity Helps shot from the Urban Challenge, the challenge creator, Terence S. Jones, has added it to his collection of urban images. You can go onto his blog here and click the heart button on the photo. Thanks.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Urban

I could sift through thousands of urban photographs for this week’s challenge: urban.

There are the suburban shots of the family in my file folders, too.

Choosing a cohesive urban series was my personal challenge. The most searched term on my blog and a true urban image is NYC Rooftops at Night which I posted in 2009.

I live and work in the city of Pittsburgh, driving across bridges and past demolitions, playgrounds and chain link fences. There are skyscrapers and empty lots. When I visit my sister in lower Manhattan there are hundreds more images to shoot and file. And why not throw in a couple from Zagreb where Matthew lives?

So much for a cohesive series. Here are my urban selections for this week’s challenge. A couple will be familiar if you’ve followed me for more than a year.

The Swimming Pool in Raging Bull

My sister walked with us from the Parking Lot on the West Pier. We walked down St. Luke’s Place as we made our way to her apartment. Film locations abound in New York City but she thought this one especially interesting looking at night.

Mary goes to the library and can watch the swimmers right from the library window.

AND- Audrey Hepburn’s Wait Until Dark was filmed across the street on St Luke’s Place.(click to see location)

The pool location is Carmine Street Pool(click to see the scene from film) and it was about two am Monday night/Tuesday morning and really dark. There were some bright spotlights, too, and didn’t have time to monkey around with the ideal settings.

I set the camera on the timer so I didn’t get camera shake. Propped it on a concrete ledge of the fence base.

I took it from the angle where the Keith Haring Mural wasn’t visible and didn’t go back in the daytime as I’d planned. Next trip.

A personal note-

Drove home from NYC Thursday afternoon and Friday morning at 7:30 I start a new job as the Digital Photography Teacher at Carrick High School. After 20 years in Elementary Art it is going to be different and I am quite excited. Thanks to everyone for the good wishes and emails and for following the blog, leaving thoughtful comments and being patient when I don’t reply to each note. Making adjustments to the daily post as no more staying up past midnight to blog since I have to leave my house so early.

The Cigar Maker

We went to dinner at Havana Alma de Cuba on Christopher Street in the West Village. Mary ordered the Hemingway- mussels, shrimp, calamari, scallops in a green sauce. I had the green plantain crusted red snapper, avocado and sofrito sauce with black beans and yellow rice. Flan for dessert.

Right next to our table in the front of the restaurant, a man came with a wooden box, a press, some tools. Tools for cigar making.

He unfurled large leaves of tobacco and began to roll cigars and cut them. The insides were in the wooden molds.

His hands were a blur. I asked if I might photograph him and he agreed. He told us the leaves were from the Dominican Republic. The cigar pile grew. As we prepared to leave he gave us a few cigars and matches in a bag which I gave to my son for some celebration or occasion. Our grandfather smoked cigars on the front porch when I was a kid. The smell of cigar smoke is strong but nostalgic. One whiff and I can be in that memory. See him in a straw hat. No one was smoking cigars on Tuesday night but it was fascinating to watch the hands of a master roll and cut them.

The Family Jewels in NYC

New York City- Tuesday August 21st. School starts for me in Pittsburgh on Friday so this is the LAST of the summer vacation.

My sister and I were shopping for a corded landline. Good luck with that! You think you have something in mind but your choices are dictated by what is produced AND what is in stock. But that ‘s another whole story.

As we walked by this Vintage Clothing and Accessories store on West 23rd Street, The Family Jewels, we saw a young woman working on getting the padlock out of the security gate. We chatted for a minute and said we’d be back. The vintage tablecloths caught our eye.

Meet Liz. She graciously consented to be photographed. She patiently explained the different ways they procure the vintage items. And you know how I like to ask people how they get started with their collections. She has a collection of poodle items that were gifts from friends who know she likes poodles. She had a poodle and that’s how it all started. See her tattoo and necklace! She had the most beautiful green eyes, too. Thanks, Liz!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Wrong

A flag in tatters. Montclair, New Jersey. Corner of Claremont and Valley Road. A revolutionary marker at the site commemorating George Washington’s Temporary Headquarters.