grand central photos

Fried Onions

/ nataliar77 / Leave a comment

You can’t capture a smell on film, but I wish I could have today. In the aftermath of the ‘splosion, the air conditioning in the Graybar building was turned off. Middle of summer in New York, which, as I said, resembles Ghana is temperature, and we have no air conditioning.

And you know what? I LOVED IT. Yeah, the office smelled like fried onions for most of the day, more so where it was hotter in the office, but we got to open the windows and I got to do something I have wanted to do since I’ve been living in New York — basically, swing out of a window and take photos.

I’m afraid of everything in life. Whenever I fly, I have to tell myself “you have more of a chance of hitting the lotto than dying in a plane crash,” but then I am white knuckled when I hear any sound the plane makes. “Turbulence is normal, Turbulence is normal.”

Don’t even get me started on my whole fear of snakes.

But for some reason, heights do not scare me. I saw these open windows, braced myself as well as possible and took the following photos. Again, NOT ARTISTIC AND NOT INTENDED TO BE. But this was a lot of fun.

Here goes:

Remember, this is what the Chrysler Building looks like from the street:

Here’s what it looks like out the window of my office, with almost no zooming required. The CEO of our company has the corner office with the window and the amazing view, of course. Me, I gotta swing out of a 25th floor window to see this. Whatever. Here are the pictures:

Yeah, I know, I’ve taken the sun bursts on the top before, so I know this is kind of boring. But it was amazing to be so close to the building.

Here are the ones that I’d probably never again get to photograph:

In these next two, the brown brick is actually the brick of the building I work in. I didn’t notice it until I took another look at the photos. I don’t know why I am mentioning this. I just liked it.

Here’s more stuff:

Here are some more views:

YES, not the most artistic work in the world, but the best I could do with about 7-10 minutes to shoot, my boss and I trying to finish our afternoon work and of course, the higher ups probably wondering why in god’s name I was doing. All in a day’s work in the greatest city in the world.

The story of the ‘splosion

/ nataliar77 / 2 Comments

What a nice day I had yesterday. First, I got awoken at 7:03, a full 17 minutes before I was supposed to, by some of the loudest thunder I have ever heard. I got soaked on the way to work and waited an hour for the train.

But that was only the beginning. Regular day at battle-stations private equity, but then I get home and I see that there was some sort of explosion in mid-town Manhattan. Didn’t pay attention, because as my mother says, everything is always about me. Everything.

I thought “mid-town, I work in mid-town.” I wonder if it was anywhere near work.

Near work? NEAR WORK? More like at work. A steam pipe burst at 43rd and Lexington Avenue. I work between 42st and 43rd and Lexington. So, the ‘splosion was pretty much in front of my building.

I didn’t see the ‘splosion, but of course I got to feel the after-effects. Our air conditioning was turned off, making the air in the office pretty much stand still. My boss said I could go home.

I went out to run what turned out to be a completely futile errand, total waste of time, but of course, as usual the consolation prize for my aching feet was the opportunity to take some photos. THESE ARE NOT ARTISTIC PHOTOS. They are just kind of a chronology of what I saw.

There were cops EVERYWHERE. They were cops for ten blocks in each direction from Grand Central. Therefore, any photos of the ‘splosion were limited to these:

And another:

Ready for more? I thought so:

New York’s Finest wearing this great masks. The whole area was still covered in dust. After 9-11, the city has really gotten strict about what these guys who run into the fire, rather than away from it breathe in. So, here’s some of the boys in blue in their gas masks:

And, the city, that is usually a zoo was completely empty. I’ve never been able to see as far on these streets that I could after this unfortunate occurrence:

Utterly empty. You can’t usually see this far on these streets. They are usually totally blocked with traffic. I’ve never seen this before.

Not to mention the scene in front of my beloved Grand Central:

Usually this place is insanely thick with traffic. Insanely. It was weird seeing it without a bunch of cabs that go off duty at 5:30, when everyone needs them.

Also, here are some left-over residue from the ‘splosion:

And because this really isn’t related to the ‘splosion, a herd of people stuck in the rain, trudging their way to Grand Central. Yes, its a mediocre photo. No doubt, but you can also see the raindrops:

Well, there you have it. Just your typical day on Lexington Avenue. Thanks steam pipe built in 1928. If the air conditioning is still off in my building tomorrow, I am finding Mayor Bloomberg and making him sit in my Ghana temperatured office. Just for kicks.

People things

/ nataliar77 / Leave a comment

Ok, a lot of people have commented that there are no people things in any of my photos. Well, so, I’m posting some photos with some people things in them and then there will be an editorial comment on all the commentary. See, see what I did there?

Anyway, some photos of my favorite place with people things in them:

I mean those appear to be feet and calves and they appear to be attached to a person of some kind. That counts as a people thing, right?

Ok, you wanted more, so I’ll give it to you:

People things in all of these photos. All of them. Ah, you mean not random people things that wander into my shots. Truth be told, I want to photograph people, but I love taking photos of them doing natural things or contrasting against a background. This for example illustrates that:

I did a little cropping here, but you get the idea. People things. I meant these people no disrespect. Their dress and manner reminds me of another time and I liked the contrast between them and the modernity of the background. I turned around, snapped a photo and moved along.

Later, I saw the same family and whipped out the old digital and wanted to get a shot off. The woman in the photograph angrily admonished me about taking photos and she was right. I hadn’t asked permission and that group of people is probably subjected to many a strange stare from one and all.

It struck me though that my favorite photos are ones like this. Unposed people in what they call “captured moments.” Of course, getting such photos is extremely hard because the people you want to photograph are going about their casual lives, not wanting them invaded by a camera.

Photos don’t need people in them to capture a feeling of a place or an emotion. Trees can capture emotion and feeling as well as pictures of people. People though, they tend to talk back and not want their picture taken. This is one of the most annoying things about photography. People constantly telling me that they look fat in photographs or refusing to even be photographed. Maybe I’d have more photographs to put up here if people didn’t run in the other direction when I tried to take their photo. I don’t post posed photographs up here that have no context and aren’t interesting. This isn’t the MySpace of some college co-ed. This is my photography site for my ideas.

So, the complaining about the lack of people, it could stop. People, they tend not to want to be photographed. Trees tend not to mind. And, they don’t talk back or tell me they look fat.