More of the island of the Coneys:

I LOVE the vignetting on this one:

Really, really, its not. Really:

Man Ray, nee Emmanuel Radnitzky was a photographer who was born in New York City and spent the majority of his career in Paris. He was a failed portrait painter who went to on to be a photographer of international renown. I for one love him because one of the reasons I started taking photos was that I couldn’t draw to save my life.

And so hence, in appreciation of my hero:

Harlem. Ah, Harlem, usually a place I pass on the way into Grand Central. I always want to visit, but it the part of the city I know the least. For the Harlem portion of my island vacation, I had to sort of chart a course, where my traveling companion and I would see the most of the area. Even though, we didn’t get to see what turned out to be the best part, but we got to see a lot of it.

OK, not a typical Harlem view, but here we are:

There were some lovely photos of the lovelier Reverend Al Sharpton dancing gracefully after it was announced the King of Pop had passed:

Speaking of him:

Harlem is also a place of vintage beauty:

And a beauty that can be lyrical as well:

Of course the family was none too happy with me taking their photo, but I felt like I had to, like most of the time in these situations. Everyone was sitting so perfectly I had to do it.

Moving right along, wouldn’t be Harlem without at least one or two of these:

Fun stores:

And this is where we say goodbye:

Get ready for two massive entries. This is the first one.

So, on my island vacation, I had to visit a couple of cultural institutions. I have to admit that I am bit of a museum nerd and of course whenever I have a captive audience to explain modern art to, or the history of a museum, I take advantage. Pedantic, guilty as charged.

First up, that giant parking garage up on 80 something street and 5th avenue:

From above. Now from below:

And now a word from our studio audience:

This last one was difficult:

This was one of those shots that you spot that really amazes you and you snap, snap and snap until you think you have the essence of the shot. With this though, the post-production was somehow very difficult. I couldn’t get the exposure quite right and had to try quite a few times just to get it right.

OK, so I thought that Jack the Ripper and Dickens lived in the same time period, but alas according to the ‘nets, they did not.

Anyhow, this photo does sort of look like some kind of a photo from England during the industrial revolution:

But I actually took this on the upper east side near the UN. Photography. You never know.

Doesn’t this look like it belongs on Law & Order:

And please, for a second consider that it took me a week to figure out where and how to go with the processing for this photo. It was driving me quite mad, but finally, I realized where it needed to be. Ah photography. A demanding, demanding, demanding mistress.

You travel to extremely exotic places and see unusual things in their natural habitats. It is always interesting to observe such creatures in the wild.

With that said, here is a photo of a truck in an alley:

Also, wouldn’t this look cool on a t-shirt? Just think it over, my fan(s).

No, not really, but it seems to turn out that way:

Although if you want to know the truth, no one makes the photo jealousy come out in me like Margaret Bourke-White. Nobody.

You need to notice the little things in life: