Street photography
Took lil' bro' out last night to work on his photography. Teaching him about the constantly changing lighting conditions at night...and finding/using available light when shooting street portraits. Here are a few I managed to snag myself, including one of my apprentice! lol! He got a bunch of great shots as well and had a BLAST meeting and hanging with people downtown. (stay tuned for his blog to see some of his work! ) #NYC #NIKONNIGHTS
On my walk in Washington Heights this past weekend, I came across a small bodega with a rather large assortment and display of flowers up front. The sunflowers trumped all others and were truly a beautiful sign of Spring and great days to come. The man attending to the flowers was deep in his work when I took the time to ask his permission for a photo. "Si" he said and continued with his work as if I wasn't there. But then, out of nowhere, knowing I was there, camera pointed, he suddenly put a flower up to his face, playfully hiding behind it and giving me a grin. I laughed of course and thanked him for letting me bother him. Wasn't until I uploaded the image later that evening that I appreciated his sense of humor. Below is another crop. (Nikon d800, 50mm)
Sitting in SoHo, smokin' a stogie and this man appears in front of me. He begins to....read me...sort of...in some psychic way. Was interesting at first. I played along. Being a NY'er of course....I figured, this is a hustle of some kind and at some point, he'd want something. I let him continue. He read my palm and said all sorts of magical things and then said a prayer. He told me of great success to come and that I needed to do certain things. I marveled at some of what he said. He seemed to know certain things and sensed much about me. Then, he scribbles something on a pieces of small paper, crumbles it up and puts it in my palm telling me to close my hand. He then asks me to name an animal. I say, a lion. He then says pick a number between 1-47. I pick 12. Another prayer and some more spiritual talk and he then tells me to open the paper to see if the fortune he sees for me and the energy is indeed true. I open the paper and it reads: Lion, 12 and has a symbol or two scribbled. I couldn't believe it. Now, I'm thinking to myself "this guy is obviously a street magician of some kind. How the hell did he do that!?" But, really, his energy and his overall wishes for me and the peace he seemed to project, made it all good. He did of course then ask me for money. He was thinking $60, $80. I had six bucks in singles on me. I just assumed he wouldn't take a credit card. After handing the money, he wanted to give me a spiritual stone of some kind which he indicated was "the lion's eye!" Thing is though, he asked me to give him something for it. A trade of some type. I honestly had nothing to give him. All I had was my camera bag and my camera. So, I said "let me take your picture. I will send it to you and also send you some other type trinket." He agreed to let me take his picture quick. I didn't get the lion's eye stone but it was all good. Honestly, that made my day.
