Cultural Encounters: Arts in New York City

What do you see on every other corner in New York City? A bank? A Deli? No, no, no—none of those, the answer is Starbucks. Every morning, you turn to your local Starbucks for a morning drink; everyday after school, your friends may ask you, “Let’s go to Starbucks”; every once in a while, you crave for the newest flavor on the Starbucks menu. The fact is—if you haven’t had a Starbuck drink yet in your life, you are not a New Yorker. That is why, when my friend asked me last Friday if I want to grab a drink at the Starbucks nearby, I immediately related this instance with the street photography project. What can be more reputable for daily life in New York City than Starbucks?

Starting as a little café in Seattle, Washington, it has become one of the major coffee chain stores around the United States and the world. Literarily, there is a Starbucks every two or three blocks. No matter how much money you have in your bank account, it is just always a good idea to have a cup of Starbucks on your hand, particularly in Manhattan—you know, coffee looks like a “high-class” thing, not to say Starbucks coffee (Though it IS very expensive, but who cares! Everybody drinks it). It has become a sign of social status.

For me, Starbucks is an excellent place for chilling and doing work. It is comfortable and relaxing, which is the environment they intended for their costumers. Having been to several different Starbucks in a variety of places in New York, I have always wondered what people are actually looking at when they are relaxing. So, for my project, I want to show the different sights people see when sitting in a Starbucks through my photos, and also the reasons for people to go there. I try to use a number of angles when shooting, just so I can get the best possible view people see in their seats. I am thinking from the viewer’s perspectives. What are they thinking when they see the view? What do they want to feel when looking out the window? What kind of atmosphere are they looking for when they have a cup of espresso and a book on hands? There are the guiding questions for my journey, which actually help me in numerous ways, including the time when I am deciding my sites.

It was kind of difficult to decide which Starbuck I should go to for the pictures. I wanted to capture the distinctive culture around New York City, but there are way too many locations to choose from. As a result, I made a list of all the views I want to go, and then subtracted them to a number of twelve. To make it to all the places I wanted, I had to spend a whole day taking the subway up and down—even so some of the photos I had to wait until Monday for completion—I was glad that I waited until then.

On Monday, I have two more pictures to take, one from inside Baruch and one from nearby. I took the photo as soon as I arrived at school. It was a nice timing since everyone was lying on the sofas and being lazy. It was perfect for my theme, although I didn’t know that at the time (just a heads up, I didn’t know what exactly I was doing until I put all my pieces together). However, the next photo took me a while. Since it was the first day of the week, I had to run for many of my classes. Before I knew it, the sun was setting. That was a really bad sign because I wanted to keep all of the lightning in my photos spontaneous, which I could no longer do.

I was thinking to myself, “Oh well… At least I tried. I’ll just do this and then go home.”

But then, when I got there, there it is—a masterpiece right in front of me. The sun had just got down, and the light was dim, but I knew it at the first sight that it matches side by side with my message. That’s when I suddenly became clear what my theme is: Peace through your Starbucks window.

Thinking back to all the times that I visited New York City as a child, one image always comes into my mind: landmark clocks. The city that never sleeps is famous for monitoring time like no other, simply because time is a priceless commodity. As the clock strikes 7 in the morning, the streets become flooded with busy people, rushing to their jobs, schools, or to sightsee. But even as the clock strikes the same hour at night and continues to tick, the city sees just as much commotion and movement.

New Yorkers are characteristic for being fast and impatient. When each second represents money either earned or lost, time is of high value and importance. It is not surprising to see clocks on the main streets and avenues of New York. Many of these buildings, built before the invention of electronic devices, had a clock incorporated into their structure. It was convenient for the passing pedestrians to look up and identify the hour.

Times have changed and the world developed, ushering New York along the path of leadership in many global functions. As the financial capital, New York City serves as the bookkeeper of international trade. The iconic 5^th Avenue is home to not only a plethora of different clocks that run in the eastern standard time zone, but also a great number that represent all the worldwide time zones.

Perhaps the most remarkable feature of time in New York City is the ways in which it is honored. Clocks here are not merely thin hands and dull numbers, but a symbol of strength, perpetuity, and even celebration. Oftentimes a clock is the focal point of an entire building, as magnificent as the other parts of it may be. Both historic structures and landmarks of the city, the Grand Central Terminal and Helmsley Building flaunt their beautiful Beaux architecture with clocks as their central pieces. Grand Central Terminal, built in the late 19^th century, displays a golden clock upon which the winged Mercury, grasping a sword in his muscular hand, stands prevalent amongst Roman gods and cornucopias of wealth. Likewise, the clock in the center of the Helmsley Building is adorned by the figures of the mighty Jove and the delicate Juno, seated as the symbolic connection between men and women. In a bigger scheme, these clocks serve as a portal between the rich homogeneous culture of the classical Roman civilization and the heterogeneous identity of New York City.

This multitude of clocks that stand on busy streets watch over the whizzing crowds of people, taxis, and tour buses. The thousands of ticking hands mark moments in history as they are made and inspire us to search into our past. They have witnessed New York in its creation, its current booming splendor, and will continue to look upon the city’s developments in the years to come.

Understanding the significance of clocks in New York City culture, I knew that they would be the subjects of my street photography project. I was unaware, however, that the different streets and avenues of Manhattan would dramatically differ in the amount of clocks that they contained. I first walked east along 42^nd street and was unpleasantly surprised when I did not encounter any clocks, let alone noteworthy ones. Shoulders slumped, I turned onto 5^th avenue in search of my subject. Within a few minutes, I turned my attention to the street running to the right and saw a massive building in the distance. Curiosity led me towards it, and I soon discovered that it was Grand Central Station. The building was a stunning sight amongst the lean skyscrapers that filled the road before it, yet I couldn’t see a clock. I approached a police officer that was directing traffic and asked if he knew of any big clocks in the nearby area. He game me a smirk. “Big what?”

“Big clocks”, I spoke up.

“Ah, there’s one around the corner”, his finger pointed to where I should go. As I turned that corner, a smile crept from my left check to my right. I saw my first clock. It was almost like stalking prey, I must admit. I ended up taking about 30 pictures of it, slowly moving from one side of the street to the other and changing my camera from landscape to portrait position. I sometimes stooped down to one knee to see how the building looked like from my viewfinder. If I was going to photograph something so amazing, I had to make sure that the angle I chose did it justice. Surprisingly, most people didn’t mind when my camera was pointed at them or when I stood in the middle of the street and blocked their way.

The biggest learning experience of the day was realizing that New Yorkers are surprisingly nice people. There were several instances when I got lost, and all were happy to direct me back to 5^th avenue. Especially pleasant was my conversation with a city worker at Rockefeller Center. When I reached the ice-rink, I felt a bit bombarded by the decorations, beaming tourists, and screaming fan girls across the street at the NBC building. The only place that looked relatively less crowded was behind the Christmas tree, as it was still being set up and not much of a sight to behold. I found an idle city worker there and asked him where I could find a big clock.

“Do you need the time?” he looked puzzled. I explained to him that I was photographing big clocks, and a wave of understanding came over his face. Taking some time to think and look around him, it was evident that he was genuinely interested in helping me. “Oh, there’s one!” he eagerly exclaimed when he saw a clock impressed into a nearby building.

Grateful, I continued on my quest for clocks. Within several hours, I had photographed more than I ever expected to see and turned towards Baruch. Walking down Park Avenue, with my camera dangling off my neck, I was approached by a stranger. A fairly young man with a thick southern accent, he asked me if I was also walking towards the Empire State Building. He assumed I was a tourist, what with my camera and large book bag.

I shook my head. “No, I’m sorry.” I continued to walk ahead while he attempted to understand the map on his iPhone.

A few seconds passed and the stranger caught up to me again. “So what are you in New York City for?” he had a kind smile on his face.

“I’m doing a photography project for school. Taking pictures of clocks.” I gave a toothy grin.

“Oh, that’s awesome. Are you going to do photography when you’re done?”

“I’m not planning on being a photographer, this is just a small project for one of my classes.”

His smile subsided. “But you are planning on going to college, right?”

So this stranger expressed concern about my education. In that refreshing moment, I finally believed that the world was not a dark and lonely place. It, in fact, contained many people that cared about the well being of others, even if they didn’t know them on a personal level. It was a heartwarming realization.

Aside from pleasantly interacting with strangers, I became more aware of the challenges that photographers face. Before I shot a photo, I had to consider the amount of natural light that hit my subject and how far I stood from it. Although my focus was on clocks, it was important for me to consider all the other factors that I wanted to include in my photograph.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what theme I was going for when I was taking photographs of my neighborhood. I never explored it in the first place. But when I did for the project, I noticed a clear separation of the type of environment the people lived in before and after going through the bridge on Park Avenue and 124^th Street. I knew that the Upper West Side is going through gentrification but I didn’t know that it has extended to some parts of the Upper East Side already. The contrast between the eerie silence and cleanness of the environment past the Park Avenue Bridge and the tense loudness and dirtiness before the Park Avenue Bridge (the side where I live) became my theme. I was much entertained when I walked around the neighborhood past the Park Avenue Bridge because it gave off such a different aura than the Harlem I lived in. I guessed it gave me some hopes that perhaps the rest of Upper East Side in Harlem would also become a better place to live in.

Why did I choose Harlem? It wasn’t just because I lived here, but because I’m new here. It has been about eleven months since I moved from Chinatown, Lower East Side, to live in Harlem, Upper East Side. To be honest, I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of living in this neighborhood before moving here because of all the rumors and chatters about how dangerous Harlem was. However, it was a better option living in Harlem in a government supported building than in Chinatown, paying expensive monthly rent. I was quite concerned about safety when my family moved here. For many months, I didn’t want to get involve with anyone so I avoided eye contact and walked fast whenever I leave or come home. Hence, I have only traveled one path and never explored my neighborhood. But now I must not avoid and face reality. If I’m going to live here, I might as well know what sort of place I’m really living in. And that became the basis of my street photography project.

I began shooting photos from my apartment on First Avenue and 122^nd Street, retracing the path that I usually take to the 4, 5, and 6 train station on Lexington and 125^th Street. But this time I would walk on 124^th Street instead of 125^th Street. One of the first photographs that I took was of a group of people hanging around a store and an old looking apartment building. It seemed like a gathering to me. That was not the first time I saw a group of people hanging out there but it always left an eerie feeling, making me wonder what they were doing there. In contrast to what many people thinks, Harlem is actually a quieter place than you think – nothing like Chinatown. There are people walking, waiting for buses, but rare to see a loud conversation go on for long (I haven’t seen it). So my challenge for this project was to avoid being too suspicious for holding a camera and taking pictures of people. Hence, I felt like I had to be cautious when taking photographs in my neighborhood so I stood on the opposite street to take it. I didn’t dare go up to them to snap a shot. It was then that I saw garbage lined up in front of the building the group of people was standing (but on a different corner – they were standing on 2^nd Avenue while the trash was on 124^th Street). It really made me realized how dirty the place really was. Looking about, I saw a bunch of wrappers, papers, and bags all over the streets. It was a fact that I knew but didn’t confront. And that struck me: the trash, dirtiness, and poorly maintained buildings were distinct marks of what it was like to live in Harlem.

That all changed when I walked past Park Avenue Bridge. The environment seemed to have suddenly shifted. Trash papers were seen less and fewer people were in groups. The buildings looked newer; not to mention the many trees planted on the streets. There was also a very spacious and beautiful park one avenue past Park Avenue on Madison Avenue. When comparing the two sides, it almost felt like there were two different worlds separated by that one bridge on Park Avenue. It was also here, right after I crossed the bridge to take photos that I ran into trouble. A person seemingly on guard or lookout pointed at me and said “Did you just take a picture of me?” when I was trying to take a picture of the street with people and the buildings, a shot in which he was in it. I was on guard before from the glares I got while just holding a camera and walking around 124^th Street and Lexington Avenue. Despite that, I flustered and stupidly said “Yes.” He was the first one to confront me. He told me to delete the picture of him and I almost did until he turned around and walked back to his position. I thought I shouldn’t be obligated to delete it since I had no intention of taking a photo of him; he just happened to be in it. In any case, that was a little something that happened to me as I was taking photographs for this project.

Although I took many photographs, I hope the thirteen that I picked show the sharp contrast between the two sides of the Park Avenue Bridge. I will end the project with a photo of a building on 124^th Street and 2^nd Avenue that is newly build and probably not rented out yet to show that change is coming to Upper East Side of Harlem as well. Hence, this way I would be able to capture the aspects that define my neighborhood and the other side of it.

The reason for choosing my theme of red for my street photography project is because red is a color that represents boldness, or alert, which should be a color that grabs the attention of an observer. My camera has a functions setting to only capture one color in its field of vision and leave the rest of the picture in black and white. I thought, this setting on my camera would be perfect for this project. I could make all items red stand out more than it normally would.

The title of my Street Photography Project is “Paint the Town Red”. In my photographs, I captured the red essence in each scene by eliminating color in the background. The photos were taken in the span of a month, from day to night, in my daily routines traveling from home to school and from school back home. The slideshow is ordered in a chronological sense in a day’s activity. Day photos are placed at the beginning, while nighttime photos are placed at the end.

My point and shoot camera was always conveniently placed in my right-hand side coat pocket, ready to snap a photo. To take these pictures, I looked out for any large outstanding groups of objects in the shade of red or of a similar hue. Many times, the red is usually a garment on a stranger, and I must carefully snap a picture before or without them realizing for the picture to remain candid. Only candid photos, I believe, capture the true essence of the streets of New York City. No picture of a still taxicab or an empty train station can grasp the idea of the busy nights in the Big Apple.

With a digital camera, I was able to take many precautions before taking each photograph. One thing to look out for was that the lines in my photograph were straight and the perspective looked aesthetically pleasing. Another difficulty in taking these pictures was the timing. Since my subjects were strangers, I could not control where they stood, how they stood, and how they looked on camera. I would have to shift myself to get the right angle. Often times, I had to crouch down or move in a particular way to capture exactly what I wanted. Most of the time, after seeing something of value, and before actually capturing the instance, I would have formulated an anticipated picture in my head of what I envision my outcome to look like. Then I would take multiple pictures to match what I had in mind.

It was rather easy for me to take pictures, since red is such a common color. I was able to find red everywhere I go. Instead, the challenges to me in putting this project together was naming each photograph and deciding on the final twelve that get to be shared. I found it tough to decide on a final twelve when I have about a dozen snapshots for each day of the month I spent taking photographs. I wanted to display all of my artwork and share what I encountered each day. Although in the end, I chose what popped out the most to me from each set of photos. I am satisfied with what I was able to capture of the Big –Red- Apple.

During this project, I performed some activities that I never thought I would. I never thought I would be taking pictures of people without them having knowledge about what was going on. The idea for this concept was inspired by the in class presentation we had on the photographer Walker Evans. During the presentation, we learned about how he discreetly took pictures on NYC Subways, without letting people know what he was doing. I decided that for my project I would “go underground” just like Mr. Evans, both literally and figuratively. I wanted to capture the typical people we see everyday on subway rides. These are the people we have seen so often that we do not give them a second thought, such as the businessmen in suits listening to music, or the people heaving suitcases to get to their vacation destinations.

As Walker Evans wanted to show the true sadness of the Great Depression through his photography, I wanted to capture average New Yorkers going about their daily activities. My goal was not to expose anything sinister but rather to show many types of people that are always in our sights but often overlooked. The feeling of realism is very important to me, which is why all photos except for one are completely natural and not staged. Consequentially, there was not much professional technique in my photographs, as demonstrated by many other photographers we studied. My goal became to make each photograph as natural as possible.

What someone does during a subway ride can tell a lot about them. There are those who close their eyes and listen to music, wanting to relax and drown out the rest of the world (this is the category I belong to). Then there are those who like to read or study to make the most of their time, or the ones who simply stare into space, deep in their own thoughts. No matter what people are doing, there are certain activities that are going on in nearly every subway car.

This was the first time I would be photographing people without their consent or knowledge. I found it to be extremely awkward at first. I had to maneuver my phone so that no one would see that I was taking the picture, but expose it just enough so that there would still be a chance of me getting a decent shot. The week before Thanksgiving basically consisted of me riding the 6 train up and down for an hour, then walking across central park to get some fresh air, and trying the 1, 2, or 3. I even ventured onto the LIRR between Penn Station and Jamaica Station to get a broader perspective.  In the beginning of these adventures, many awkward situations arose as a result of my attempts to photograph people. At one point I was trying to take a photo of a man reading a Korean newspaper heading downtown on the 1 train. Standing in front of the doors, I pulled out my weapon of choice (the mighty iPhone) and started the camera. The lady standing to my right noticed this and stared relentlessly, as if daring me to take the shot. Petrified and not wanting to attract any more attention, I got off at the next stop and waited for the following train. The one lesson I took away from this venture was that in order to get what one wants, one needs to be relentless. If one person catches you, you stay calm and wait for the next train.  Hopping trains has its thrills, and I can now say I have been deep into all boroughs but Staten Island.

I took nearly forty photographs, and it was difficult deciding which ones to keep.  In the end, it was not the perfect photographs that stayed, but the perfect moments. In most of the photographs kept, my brown jacket is seen in the corner. The downside of using this technique when photographing is that one is not always in control of the quality of the end product. However, I tried to find the right balance of aesthetics and realism.

Throughout this project, I was in awkward situations, frustrated by blurry photographs, and angry about missed opportunities. However, I believe that I was able to capture the images of typical New Yorkers that are overlooked by the hustle and bustle of the busiest city in the world.

http://prezi.com/lrowrp5xox7u/everyone-sees-them/?kw=view-lrowrp5xox7u&rc=ref-3028451

This street photography was complex, yet simple at the same time. It was difficult for me to think of a theme because New York City has so much to offer. It was challenging to focus on one subject because there would always be another scene that was more appealing to the eye. In addition, themes seem to overlap each other, making it even more difficult to find photos that would clearly represent my theme. However, this old versus new architecture theme developed over time as I began to take more photos. As I walked down various streets in the city, I found myself captivated by the beauty of buildings at night or under certain light. My experience is similar to that of Larry Sultan’s (author of a passage from Photography Packet) in that I did not know what I wanted until I took multiple photos. I chose this theme because there are buildings everywhere in NYC. However, I rarely stopped to look at these structures because they all look the same from the ground level. However, if I stopped to assess my surroundings, I would realize that every building is unique in its own ways.

This part of the project gave me the opportunity to travel to various areas in NYC. Old buildings seem to be common among new neighborhoods, or rather they would stand out more. I was also generally pleased with the quality of the photos because they were taken with my phone. It was difficult to zoom in due to the settings of the camera, but the shutter speed was quick. Images were not blurred when they came out.  When choosing locations, I focused on old buildings that seem to be in the center of new ones. This allows for a more apparent comparison of the two buildings’ conditions. In various images, I focused on how older buildings tend to be taller than the newer apartment buildings. Isolated buildings were more interesting to observe because their features would be more apparent. In these photos, newer buildings are often set apart from older buildings, which were connected to each other.

Issues I came across when I was snapping photos of various buildings in the city were lighting and positioning. It was difficult to find the perfect spot where I can capture the entire background. In a couple of photos, I had to decide what I could leave out of the frame and what needed to be kept. Every time I shifted my position, the lighting would change slightly. This forced me to readjust the screen and reassess what should be in the photo.  For many of the photos in this set, I wanted to follow the Rule-of-Thirds. However, this was not easy to accomplish because these tall buildings would take up most of the frame. It was also challenging to experiment with different depth-of-fields because I was unable to adjust the camera’s setting.

Also, I depended on natural light when I took photos. As a result, many photos were dimmer than what I expected.  Noticing this trend, I was able to utilize the light to illuminate many of these buildings. For example, in the photo of City Hall, I was able to use the shadows of the new buildings on the side to highlight the outline of the old building, which is positioned in the middle. Many photos in this set utilize this method to accentuate the difference between the old and the new.

The final challenge I came upon was choosing the “right” photos and organizing them in a way that made sense. When I first uploaded all of my photos into the computer, I had a lot more than twelve photos. Some were duplicates of the same position, while others were different angles of the same building. It was difficult to narrow down to the final twelve. I had to find photos that did not just look “nice,” but also worked well with other photos. When juxtaposing two images, I wanted to create a flow. I wanted photos to transition well from one type to the next.

I enjoyed writing captions for these photos because they did not have to be mediocre captions. Rather, I was able to include my voice in them. These captions also highlighted what I wanted my audience to notice in the photo. Together with the contrast between light and shadow, the audience would know what I wanted to focus on in each image.

I like the experiences I earned from completing the Street Photography project. I learned that photography is not about capturing the pretty moments. Rather, it is about letting the subject come to me and exploring it through different angles and techniques.

There are so many magnificent things to photograph when it comes to New York City, so how do I even begin to find one specific theme? I had plans to go out with some of my friends the other day and I brought along a camera, hoping that something of interest will arise. I would say I am quite lucky to have found some beautiful objects to take pictures of. In the end, I ordered my photographs in the presentation in a way that can be told as a story.

At home, there are a few cameras for me to choose from; there’s my mom’s Canon digital camera, my dad’s DSLR, my brother’s Canon DSLR, or my iPhone camera.  Why did I choose my brother’s camera in the end? I have only used the camera once a while back with not too much familiarity, so I decided to give myself a challenge. The lens, in comparison to that of my dad’s, is significantly lighter. The quality of photos, is also potentially better than what my mom’s camera can capture. Thus, I trekked to the city with the Canon DSLR and started to play around with the settings.

Before I started photographing away, I had looked at some photos online of professional photographers to get an idea of some techniques I am able to try to imitate. Some were also featured in Max Flatow’s photography presentation, which include the rule of third. I also made use of the depth of field. Something I noticed in certain photos was the way light was captured. One of the terms I defined in a previous assignment was bokeh, which is the way a lens can blur an image, particularly any light. There are many examples of bokeh in my presentation.

At first, I had a few themes in mind which turned out to be quite boring for me to capture. These themes, such as different foods offered in New York City or the different footwear worn by everyday New Yorkers, didn’t require much work when it came to taking pictures. It was also difficult to capture a picture of a stranger’s food or shoes without having to have an awkward confrontation. In the end, it was the challenges that I had to face that gave me an idea of what image to capture. Who would have known?

The first problem that I encountered was the time. In one of my photos, I pointed out the fact that the sun goes down quite early these days and I was caught at a bad time. It was starting to get dark and it was hard to capture a picture in a good light. I am not a fan of flash, so I decided to use other settings so that there would be enough light. I changed the shutter speed setting so that more or less light could be caught, depending on how I wanted to present the picture, which in turn, presented me a small opportunity.

Another one of the biggest challenges that came across while doing this project was presented even before I took my first shot. I was using a camera that I was very vaguely familiar with. Instead of keeping the setting on auto like I used to do most of the time, I decided to test myself and play around with all the functions and settings. My first shot was extremely horrific; the subject could hardly be made because of how blurry and shaky the photo was and the lighting was so dark that some things could not be differentiated. It took me over twenty shots to finally get a stable picture, but that didn’t mean I was satisfied with the way the image came out to be.

This challenge, not only introduced to me a potential theme for my slideshow, but also turned out to be something that could help me personalize my photos more. I mentioned earlier that I really enjoy bokeh and the way it looks. As the skies grew darker, the city lights came on, as well as the lights on the Christmas tree in Bryant Park. This gave me a chance to catch some bokeh in the background while changing up my depth of field for different subjects.

This Street Photography assignment really gave me a chance to play around with something unfamiliar to me and tested my capabilities. I have always been interested in photography but I have never had a reason or motivation to learn how to use a camera to its fullest potential or to pick it up as hobby.

My theme was “Longboarding and the City.” All the photos taken were during my everyday routine of living in the city. They range from the Deer Park train station to Madison Square Park. I actually consider the Deer Park train station part of “the city” because it’s how I get to Manhattan (I know it sounds absurd.) Some of the pictures were taken on foot and some of the pictures were taken whilst riding my own longboard. I ordered the pictures in my slideshow from the beginning of my daily journey to the end. I usually see longboarders on my route from penn to school, so I figured it would be a decent and different topic to photograph. I tried to create a small sense of my daily journey and how longboards are actually a huge part of my life (and the lives of others.)

Longboards are a perfect mode of transportation for the city for plenty of reasons. For one, they are fast. They may not look it, but they can easily get you up to forty miles per four if you find a decent sized hill. The long decks and the wide wheel bases help stabilize the rider at high speeds. It is scary, but can be seriously fun. As long as you don’t fall, then I guarantee great amusement (sometimes falling can even be fun if you’ll believe it.) Another reason that they are perfect for the city is the portability of a board. It would be mighty difficult for a person to carry a bike around everywhere. Carrying a board, on the other hand, is easy and manageable. Apparently Baruch even has a rule against having any kind of ‘cycles’ in the school. I found that out when I brought my unicycle to school. It is inconvenient but at least I am allowed to bring a longboard in the building. The third reason is that longboarding is fun. My high school friends and I would go on midnight skating runs and there was never a dull moment. Skating is extremely fun in general, so skating in the city is no exception. There are always different streets to ride and fun to be had.

The combination of these factors makes longboarding rather important to me, so it was fun to work on this project. Photographing different longboarders helped me see how many skaters there actually are in the city and how important longboarding actually is to Manhattan. It is a widely used mode of transportation and is very efficient. I’ve made it from Baruch to Penn station in five minutes flat, which isn’t bad. However with all of the perks of skating and the fun of the project in general, there were still plenty of difficulties with this project.

One of the greatest challenges was actually snapping the photo. I saw plenty of longboarders but by the time I whipped out my phone to take a picture, the skater was gone. It was very frustrating because I would have a great shot lined up one second, and the next second the skater disappeared behind a building or a car. This wasn’t a huge problem when it was warmer out because there was always another skater around the corner.

This leads me to my second problem with my topic. Being that it is cold out, there are less and less skaters everyday. There are still some, but much less than there was when I began the project. It became frustrating because if I missed a shot, the next opportunity for another wouldn’t be for a couple of days. To compensate for this, I kept my camera in a more accessible pocket so it was easier and quicker to snap photos. My success rate rose.

Another problem was blurriness of photos. Being that longboarding is an activity that is constantly full of motion, photographing it with a cell phone was rather difficult. The shutter speed of an iPhone is apparently rather slow, so taking high quality pictures of movements was very hard. I had a couple of great ideas but once I took the photo, the picture was extremely blurry and unusable. It was a nightmare. At least I incorporated a video into my presentation.

The only thing that I need to change is that a few of my pictures wouldn’t load into the PowerPoint. So I’ll have to add them in when I figure out how to format them correctly so that they will work. i’m not sure why they were screwed up, but they were.

Being that longboarding is full of movement, why not include a video? I originally planned on going to Central Park to skate a large hill but when I arrived, the hill was covered in leaves and I surely would have fallen and hurt myself. Wouldn’t have been the best plan. So instead, I ventured to Times Square and did a small first person video to give a taste of how longboarding looks to the rider. It is difficult to navigate the many people and cars, especially in Times Square, so I thought it may be interesting. I was going at a slow speed because of the high volume of people and cars that day. I still think the video is a tad interesting though. All in all, the project was fun and I wouldn’t mind continuing to take photos for fun. Why not right?

I chose to photograph the different watches New Yorkers wear. The reason I chose this topic is because I am big fan of tem so I thought this was going to be easy. But it wasn’t.

The first issue that I experienced was that it was very hard to go up to people on the street and ask them if you can take a picture of their watch. One man screamed at me, while one lady said “no” because she thought I was going to steal it. The borough that I experienced the most problems would have to be Manhattan. The people were always in a rush. They would ignore you or worse, they would stop, listen to my request and would just keep walking away. That is why I tried to remain in the “suburban” boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens.

Even though I found a fpeople from the street, it was still a challenge. I had an issue with a Quartz (battery powered) watch a man was wearing. The watch had a seconds hand. Unlike Automatic timepieces, where the hand sweeps continuously, a battery watch sweeps for one second, then it stops, and then it goes again for the next second. Each time I tried photographing his watch, the seconds hand would cause the entire picture to be blurry because the camera would capture it in motion.

I thought that I could be like Walker Evans and take pictures of people’s watches on the subway or on the bus. Sadly, that didn’t work. On the L train one day, I saw a middle aged man sleeping next to me with a beautiful Bedat & Co (one of the top tier brands) watch. I took out my camera and started focusing on it. From the corner of my eye, I saw everyone on the cart looking at me. I tried to fake it by pretending to look at my gallery. Their eyes were still fixated on me. I realized what was wrong. As I was focusing and zooming in on his watch, my camera lens extended by an inch. I was embarrassed. So much so that when the man woke up, I didn’t even ask him if I could take a picture of his arm.

After the incident, I was pretty depressed. So, I went to get a burger from my local diner. As I was eating the burger, there was an elderly lady sitting in the table left of me. I saw she wearing a watch and asked her if I could take a photo of her hand. She looked at me and said, “This cruddy old thing? Yeah why not?” Relieved that she allowed me to take a photo, I snapped a few pictures of her timepiece and thanked her when I was gone. That episode with the lady gave me an epiphany: Why should I go out to the street and look for people when I can go to a coffee place and wait for people to come?

From that diner, I headed out to Dunkin Donuts where I really understood the theme of my photography. Are watches practical nowadays or is it a fashion piece? One girl in her twenties was wearing a watch with colorful designs resembling almost like a child’s watch. Also, that watch wasn’t even working. She said the only reason she wore it was that it matched her outfit. Another female was wearing a Bvlgari watch. I didn’t know if it was real or not, but I asked her, “What’s the time now?” Instead of looking at her watch, she took out her phone and told me the time. A man saw what I was doing and he showed me his “watch”. He took out his phone and put on his wrist and said, “Here you go. This is my timepiece.” I couldn’t resist. I took the picture. In my opinion, that photo was the worst in terms of quality, but it was the best in terms of impact. The role of watches has changed dramatically in the past twenty years. People back then didn’t have any IPhones so the only way to know the time at an exact moment was by looking at their watches. Now, for most of us, our phones became our watches.

My theme was “Preparing for Christmas along 5th Avenue” mostly from about 59th street to 50th street and over to Rockefeller Center. I started by taking the R train to 59th street and 5th Avenue and walked along 5th Avenue, taking pictures of Christmas related scenes and objects until I got to Rockefeller Center because I knew I wanted a picture of the plaza tree. My slideshow shows that some places are already decorated and ready, but some are not. The captions on each one hope to slightly carry on a story, where some photos are bunched together and the captions attempt to bind them to make more sense.

I chose the Christmas in progress theme because I knew that it was still too early for a full Christmas theme since not all the decorations are out yet, and because Christmas is my favorite holiday. I wanted to capture getting ready from the very beginning of the slideshow and wanted to end with it. That is why the candy canes and the unlit tree pictures are placed where they are.

After the first picture, I wanted to show the grander decorations on buildings and in storefronts such as Tiffany and Cartier – places that decorate every year. I consider these the grander decorations because all of those stores sell expensive jewelry and watches, making them very luxurious. But I also wanted to make the slideshow more personal, showing the actual streets from holiday shopping bags, to homeless people to even street signs. I also thought that this would be a refreshing break from just seeing buildings. I tried to be creative and show a variety of ways that 5th Avenue was preparing rather than just trees and lights, so the sequence of the shopping bag, homeless man and street sign illustrate that. After that, I wanted to focus on a little more traditional decorations with the reindeer and red ornaments on The Peninsula. But again, I wanted to contrast the grand and the ordinary, so this picture is juxtaposed right before the picture with the two simple lit, small trees.

Continuing that traditional theme, I definitely had to include Rockefeller Plaza. The angels shown are lit every year and brighten the plaza. But the tree completes my theme of Christmas in progress since you can still see the scaffolding up even though the star is placed on top. Throughout the presentation, I tried to show both the grand and ordinary elements of decorating for Christmas and I placed the pictures to show that – from the luxury of Tiffany, to a simple man asking for money in a Santa hat.

Some of the challenges I faced were trying to show Christmas in progress in a variety of ways. I didn’t just want to show storefronts, or just evergreens or just lights, I really wanted a mix of everything from simple to complex. Finding all those was pretty difficult, especially because it was cold out. But it forced me to be a little creative in what I was seeing. I wasn’t expecting to take a picture of a Uniqlo shopping bag, but I saw it on the street and knew I wanted it for the slideshow. Asking a lady to take a picture of her bag was a little awkward. But she liked the idea and let me take a photo. Getting a decent shot of the homeless man was also a challenge because I didn’t want to have that awkward encounter. So for that picture, I needed to wait for a while for a clear opportunity between people walking by so that I could shoot the picture without him noticing me. Shooting clear pictures was also somewhat of a challenge because 5th Avenue is crowded. Some of my shots were ruined because people walked in at the last moment. That got annoying because of the weather. But even though it was cold, I took a lot of shots and even choosing which twelve to put in was hard. It required a lot of thought but in the end, I like my theme and the flow of my photos.

Natural and Manmade Beauty, both awesome in the literal sense of the word; that is inspiring awe. However there does seem to be some tension between the two. Where one thrives, the other shrivels. New York City, Manhattan, in particular is a mecca of man-made feats. Huge skyscrapers and strong sturdy all-brick buildings are testaments to human achievement. However, we are reminded that theire is a natural force; one much stronger than our own. Experienced by Storm Sandy, we understand we cannot control nature and its power is often overwhelming.

            I took some creative license when attempting to capture my scenes I wanted to present. Although our assignment was “street photography:, I decided to be a little bit more creative. A street can be a road, highway, or path and each of these words has a totally different connotation. A path is a small human encroachment onto that which is nature. I picture a small dirt walkway that winds through forests or parks. Streets intrude further upon the natural beauty, and highways often blot out nature entirely. My home in Saint Louis and my residence on 97^th and 3^rd could not be more opposite. In Saint Louis, we live on 4 acres of grass and trees. Here, I live on the 15^th floor sharing a one-room residence with a roommate. There is no outside place to call your own or somewhere you can be guaranteed silence.

            Because I’m in New York City, and there isn’t very much natural beauty to capture. I decided to shift my focus to human architecture and the building that have become evidence for man’s innovation and power. Many have stood for over 100 years. I chose to focus most of my attention and time to the NYCPL (New York City Public Library). I love the old meticulous design of the building; the ornate staircases and floors.

            My photos spanned a few different scenes. One of my favorites was taken from the plan near Saint Louis. I love the winding river and the plains. It is very stereotypically Midwest. I took one picture of a tree almost blurred out by sunshine. It reminded me of a sunny day in the country.

            The major challenges I encountered was trying to get photos at interesting angles and deciding on which scenes to shoot. I shot probably 75 images, finally choosing about a 15 or so.

            I am very proud of how the photos cam out as I wasn’t expecting my IPhone camera to take such detailed shots.