When I walk around New York doing my flậneur thing, sometimes I come across an interesting spot or intersection back to which I'm drawn. I love these spots because they give me a chance to sit and work the street environment with some depth while I enjoy a good cigar. I experiment with different prime lenses by waiting for a subject to reach a particular spot where I know the composition that a particular focal length will give me.
This past Saturday, after visiting the Photo Expo show at the Javitz center (for the second time) I went back to the Meatpacking district at the intersection of Chelsea and the West Village. I discovered a spot last week that I thought was bursting with possibilities, so I wanted to do a reality check. It was better than I had remembered.
I've been planning to get to the Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village this coming Wednesday evening. In preparation for it, I purchased a flash for my X-Pro1 camera, and at the photo show found a diffuser to fit over the flash. I took the whole rig with me to experiment with, and the results were very pleasant. Using a flash for street photography, unless you are Bruce Gilden, is contradictory. It's like shouting at people, 'Hey, I just took your picture!' That's not my usual style, so at first I was a bit uncomfortable. Surprisingly I found that quite a few people responded nicely to me, and I became engaged in several conversations with people who had questions about the XP1. Jon, the person on the left, talked at some length about his experience as a press photographer. Turns out that he knew my photography mentor, Mario Cabrera. But just like everyone else, hasn't a clue as to where he his or what he's doing.
Mario, please call home!
Jon and Tim
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