I was struck by the way the new Apple Store on the Upper West of Manhattan side seems to illuminate and warm the whole block, so I went searching online for images that showed how it really felt. I thought there would be tons - it's a spectacular piece of architecture - but aside from Apple's own institutional-white shots, there weren't many at all, and none by artists or architectural photographers. So here's my version. A warm, inviting hearth in the middle of cold, structured Gotham. It almost looks like CG where a guy on a mac designed the Apple Store and some guy on a PC designed the rest of the city around it. I'm going back again when I can get roof access - this was taken through a dirty movie theater window.

This image is called "Solitary #5". Solitary, as in "confinement." #5 because I edited four images before this, which, though nice images of the cold and snow, all contained elements of the beautiful. This one isn't. It's flat grey, cold to the point where you feel it, and separates starkly the stacked cell apartments from the frigid, lifeless New York outdoors. "Another week in the hole" it says, and that's how New York feels today.

Enjoy.

Grand Central is something of a beast to shoot in - massive banks of daylight but with and incredible amount of tungsten lighting inside, people moving unpredictably all over the place - but what an awesome venue.

We took a ton of shots, but I found myself having difficulty finding the right exposure and angle in a lot of them - there were almost too many options. Alas, quite a few great images resulted, so I thought I'd share one or two. This is Terri & Guan, a young couple slated to be married June 19th, 2010.

Here is Yasmin. You may be seeing more of her here in the coming weeks and months - I'm slated to do an engagement shoot with her and her fiance Harley, and then shoot their wedding in September. More on them will be coming...

There's a looker...

Taken in Caye Caulker, Belize. She likes the B&W version better.

Back from abroad, I'll be posting a few more of the Concrete Autumn series before moving on to new subject matter. I've shot hundreds of images for this series with a very distinct vision for it, but have largely been disappointed by what I've brought home in the camera. The images have been too overwhelming, too much autumn, not enough New York structure. This image, however, strikes a nice balance between the two. I'd like to post more commentary on this, but I'm obligated to other work for the rest of the day and I'll want to move on and post something new tomorrow. I have many images from Mexico and Belize that I'd like to move on to.

Today Autumn feels like it's coming to a close. It's in the 40's with a frigid wind chill and and occasionally sideways rain, despite the forecast being for cool, cloudy skies only. The radar this morning looked like a small hurricane had its calm eye right over the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Rain was all around and would inevitably move over our position, but leaves were falling off the trees on my street at a rate that made me think that this may be one of my last opportunities to shoot for the "Concrete Autumn" project. So I ended up shooting for about 45 minutes under the shelter of the overpass as it began to rain.

This is the first shot I pulled from the camera. It's unorthodox in its composition with respect to the stop light, but I like it much better than the other, more perfect rule-of-thirds compositions that I'd taken of the same subject matter. The low, slightly out-of-focus, incorrect framing of the signal makes the scene feel more authentic. A stunning architectural achievement next to stunning autumnal colors would just have been too much. This is New York, and a shitty day in New York to boot, so this image has to have a scar. It needs to be imperfect, else it wouldn't feel real.

If you're curious, this was taken under the Henry Hudson Parkway almost immediately next to Fairway (the best grocery store in Manhattan), on 12th Avenue at 130th Street.

Concrete Autumn #7. Yes, I skipped a few numbers here. There are images that correspond to the missing editions, but I'm not yet sure if I like them enough to post them. We'll see in the next day or two. This project will, whether I like it or not, come to a close very soon. Shortly all the leaves will be gone.

The second in this series. I like this less than the first, but it's like a big steak covered in bearnaise - not necessarily complex or interesting, but satisfying. This was taken in Bryant Park.

UPDATE: 11/12/09 - The more I look at this the more I think that this doesn't fit at all in the Concrete Autumn series. Staring at the 13x19" print I made of it, I've started to think of this as a more modern take on hell. If the devil were to design a city for those condemned, it might look much like this -beautiful at first glance, but with views of eerie red trees from perfectly ordered buildings containing flames of hell, emanating from toaster oven-like lighting fixtures in the ceilings.

Thanks to my brother for pointing out that the buildings looked like they were on fire, and that it was a bit creepy. I'm definitely not sending a print of this to Amy's mother now.

The first of a series tentatively titled "Concrete Autumn," showing my contrasting loves of industrial and architectural structure and grime with the fall colors that look all the more stunning when shown next to it all. If anyone has a more inspiring title for the series, or for this image in particular, I'd love to hear it.

The Javits Center isn't much to look at from the outside. Inside, it's quite impressive. Exhibit A above. This was taken as I was leaving the 'PDN Photo Plus Expo," to which I had a free pass. It's all tech stuff, so there were innumerable photo geeks there, and not the good kind. After strolling around for a few minutes looking for the best angles to shoot this beautiful subject matter, I'd found that I'd attracted a following of fat middle-aged white guys with beards and Japanese dudes with with genuine Nikon photo vests and shiny new D3's. As soon as I was done shooting, they'd move to the same place I had been standing to take the same shot, that is, if they hadn't already chimped up next to me and started clicking.

I suppose it's a bit late to start, but the passing of summer is now just sinking in. Leaves are piling up on the curb. That "dead foliage" smell is permeating everything. I feel like the dog who hears his owner coming home after rooting through the kitchen garbage can. In a short while, life is going to suck. Winter in New York is coming.

A toast to June, July, and August - something I'll repeatedly drink to for the next eight months, or until my winter-in-mexico plan hatches.

The new Yankee Stadium. It's a hell of a building. Should be for $1.5 billion. This is part of the images set that I gave to Mike Rajendran and Joanna Rothchild, the couple that had asked for my creative services at their recent wedding. The building is a bit funny in that the straight-on view of this entrance doesn't yield a perfectly symmetrical result as one would expect. This is a 5-shot HDR, with the vertical and horizontal lines straightened to present a more orderly architectural image. Yeah, it's still just a smidge off. Sorry. Lots else to do...

So despite the phenomenal fee that the Yankees charge for a wedding to take place there, they wouldn't let anyone on the field. The best they could do is allow some photographs to be taken from behind home plate. Initially, they weren't even going to let the photographers on the field - we were going to have to shoot from the stands behind the screen. Fortunately, we did get a minute on the grass behind home plate. And by a minute I mean quite literally a minute, so working quickly I took a few dozen images, 7 of which composed this HDR. It was harder than I was thinking it would be to find creative compositions like under the time constraints of a wedding, but I did get to put together about a dozen very interesting shots like this that the bride and groom (Yankee fanatics), were quite pleased with.