Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Prince Street Doo Wop

Treasures abound on the streets of SoHo in New York City. It's not unusual to find a group of musicians busking on a side street, but this past Saturday there were three groups at different locations. I'd never seen nor heard Select Blendz. Their sound was quite refreshingly different - a mix of soul, blues, and doo wop. And their choreography and body expressions made watching them perform totally entertaining. I wish you could hear the music they made.












Sunday, January 13, 2013

Saturday Photo Walk

Saturday was an unusually warm January day for New York. I walked from Canal Street through Little Italy, SoHo, Greenwich Village, and up to Penn Station. I had the opportunity to engage a panoply of characters shooting both anonymously and engaging the people in conversation. On Prince Street in SoHo I listened to a quartet of men, accompanied by guitar and bass, sing a mixture of doo-wop and blues songs - those photos to follow later this week.

I did more experimenting with the Fuji Optical Image Stabilization and I think I finally came to a reasonable understanding of how to use it effectively and not run down my battery power too quickly.
As I've mentioned in previous posts, there are two settings for the OIS - for continuous and intermittent engagement. I much prefer the continuous mode, as it provides a much quicker response. There's a switch on the 18-55mm zoom lens which allows for turning the OIS on and off. Since my usual mode of shooting is with a shutter speed of 1/250th second, I can disable the OIS so it's not sucking up battery power. When the ambient light shifts so that I have to use a slower shutter speed - 1/125th second or slower - I flip the switch to engage the OIS and I'm good down to 1/30th second. 

Chillin' on Grand Street



Puffing away on Prince Street