Still Practicing

I'm working on this learning curve for the XT-1, 16-55mm combo. Some days I can do no wrong, other days everything sucks. One thing for sure is: the more I work it, the less un-sucky the pics get.
Today was not a banner day for me, but still got a few good shots.

When I saw this guy walking up Fifth Avenue, I immediately thought of my old friend and bandmate Steve Arkin, banjo virtuoso. I wonder why ...

I wonder what this guy did that made him look so guilty:

International Womans Day Pt. 2

Continuing with the thread of yesterday's post, here's a collection of photos of the actual march of people with signs.

I found a lamppost on Broadway, pushed a trash bin up next to it and climbed up to get a good angle.

XT-1, 16-55mm, International Woman's Day

March 8th was International Woman's Day. I'm not one for large crowds of people, they kind of freak me out, but I thought it would be a good photo opportunity to work some of the winter acquired rust off my brain shutter finger. I did a lot of this stuff for years. Squirming my way through the crowd of photographers, all trying to get the same shot, just to get a good angle. Running backwards at the head of the parade while trying to get some interesting shots of the marchers and avoid tripping over the cops (who constantly reminded me to keep moving). I remembered very quickly why it was that I disliked that work so much.

But at the rally near the United Nations Headquarters in Manhattan, thousands of people (mostly women) gathered to listen to some speakers and form up for the march. It was a great opportunity to mix with the crowd and shoot. I filled up an entire 16g SD card (about 400+ RAW images), and by the end of the afternoon I was buzzed.

I split the images into two groups (for no reason other than I didn't want to post them all on one day): head/portrait shots and shots with banners and signs. The second group will be in my next posting. Some interesting juxtapositions there.