Just For Fun Today

Took a walk just for the hell of it, today. Needed to deliver some prints in Greenwich Village, and I stopped into a gallery to see some photos. Then went out to shoot. I had the Fuji hand grip on my X-T1 (not the battery grip) for the first time, and because it was a gray day I used the 23mm f1.4 lens to optimize flexibility with the flat light. Because of the extremely shallow depth of field, I find it difficult to work with the aperture wide open. So that's what I did, set the f stop to 1.4.

I thought the hand grip would give me a bit more traction with the camera, but I didn't like the extra weight. Since the grip is fastened with an allen screw, and I didn't have the wrench with me I was stuck with it for the afternoon, but when I got home I took the grip off to remind myself of how the camera handled without it. I guess it depends on the size of one's hand, but I really don't need it. I may sell it down the road.

The experiment at f1.4 was a challenge because the focus has to be spot on, which is difficult with moving subjects. But this guy wasn't going anywhere.

New York Is A Summer Festival

Once the weather gets warm the weekend streets of New York turn into a stream of block parties. This past weekend there were parades and street fairs all over, causing major traffic problems. I had a chance to walk through the Ninth Avenue Food Festival, which stretched from 42nd to 57th street along Ninth Avenue. When it first began this event was a celebration of the many varieties of ethnic restaurants that line the avenue. Each would have a presence on the street. Nowadays, the restaurants all have sidewalk tables set up, but the vendors that take over the street are all concessions that appear at every street fair in every neighborhood of the city. No matter, it was mobbed on Saturday. And I enjoy taking shots of people stuffing their faces.