Midwinter

I bought a new camera. I had been planning on buying a cheap video camera to mimic security camera footage for another project I am working on. But the man at B & H led me down the line of display cases to a beautiful camera with a Leica lens that also shoots video. His selling argument was that I could always shoot at a lower quality to imitate security footage.

The camera is a huge improvement over my 10 year old Canon. I wandered around a little bit trying out the camera. It makes me so happy that L'impasse (dead end) is still on 8th street. There used to be lots of crazy clothing stores and funky shoe stores, now only a few remain. I would love to see the Valentine's Day date involving these outfits.

A tropical rain storm interrupted my camera exploration, and despite various groundhog predictions of spring, winter returned. There has been a spate of decorative snow, sticking mostly on trees and grass, leaving passges clear. The best kind of snow for the city really.

The elm trees in Union Square were so pretty.

The sad blue building hasn't looked this good since the misguided addition of a glass curtain walll obscured all its cast iron details.

It was about here that I realized that I could change the image format between square, rectangular and panorama. Unfortunately, I also changed the image size so all these pictures are only good for the web.

I am getting more familiar with the camera controls.

A little later, the sun came out and all the snow melted off the trees, water cascaded down branches and the awnings sparkling in the light.

Spring With Red Highlights

For a while it felt as if spring would never come. Finally, the trees started flowering, but the weather turned cold. Today seemed like the perfect spring day.

The oversized ad featuring Kate Moss did not irritate so much when framed by pear blossoms.

Something about the light made the reds pop out.

These are the only pictures I have from the past month where the snow does not dominate. I had beautiful pictures of the last winter storm. The snow melted so quickly this week that the pictures do not seem relevant.

It will rain tonight and tomorrow. I hope it will wash away some of the filth and detritus that the melting snow has uncovered.

I would see this tree from the J train in the morning. I love the graceful way it carries its plastic bags.

Just a little morning light on the discount store.

Blue February

Usually I like February. When the sun is out, the light is beautiful, there is usually a good blizzard, Chinese New Year, Valentine's Day. But this year it has been so gloomy. Icy cold days followed by pitiful snow mixed with sleet.

The frozen sidewalk near my house has aquired a layer of grime that offers a little traction.

The piles of snow have strata of grey representing each miserable storm. Although I had work to do on my new street art idea, I could stay in the gloomy house. So I went to Central Park, which usually restores my sense of New York.

I started out near the Metropolitan which seemed like the right place to be on a cloudy day in February.

Everything felt different inside the park.

I have been noticing the bleached bark of the London Plane trees.

They are a bit luminous.

The sun fought its way out adding a little glitter to the frozen puddles. The day became brighter but the sun never really got free from the clouds. I hope the weather turns less punishing.

I really wish I had these bushes in my garden.

More Ice, More Cold

Our latest winter storm varied between snow and sleet, leaving a fine icy glaze on everything and throwing the subway system into a Victorian swoon. I love the ice coated trees shining as if they were made of glass. It is only noticeable with the sun behind the ice, so it makes photographs difficult.

I am still scouting around the Holland Tunnel trying to find the right view for my dream picture.

It was so cold out, I get chilled when I look at this picture.

May Flowers, and Maple

In the cold days of March, I bought a glossy magazine on container gardening and dreamed of spring. This pot was inspired by one of its ideas. I planted the flowers a few weeks ago, but it has only recently been warm enough to sit outside.

I have always loved lobelia, with its tiny blue flowers. I would feel sad when the summer heat would scorch it to dust. It turns out that lobelia is more of a spring thing, no need to feel guilty.

I am fascinated by the thin black lines on the violas. I could stare at them for ages, they look as if someone drew them.

The maple leaves have unfolded right about the same time as last year. 

This leaf picked up its color on its own. I did not even color correct it.

I have had trouble getting back into a working rhythm even though there are lots of things I want to work on. I figured I would start with some spring flowers and build from there.

Spring is Budding

In one of the early signs of spring, the crocuses that I planted last fall are coming up. They make me happy every morning when I leave the house.

In the city, the trees are on the verge of blooming.

Even my neighbor's apricot tree is getting ready to put on a show.

I planted bulbs in my garden, but they haven't come up yet. Only this barberry is waking up so far.

On a totally different topic, the grey patch between these windows looks like the number three.

Yellow and Green

I have been noticing a lot of green and gold this fall.

It looked good on the garden weeds.

This was one of those afternoons when the sun bounces off dark clouds and the colors are really rich and saturated.

While we were electing our communist mayor last week, the young son was home from school. So I took him up to Central Park to climb on the rocks.

The elm trees, something of an obsession of mine, were at their autumn peak.

I tried to photograph the young son leaping around, but it came out as a blur with no child visible.

We wandered around the ramble, and for a moment he felt a little lost.