Week 15
April 18, 2016
Flatiron Building
Madison Square Park
Train In/Out: Stratford, CT
Miles walked: 7
Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M1, m.Zuiko 12-40mm PRO, m.Zuiko 8mm Fisheye 1.8, tripod
My first trip to the city for this project that I didn't bring my winter coat!
My general goal for the day was to head down to the Flatiron District, around 23rd & 5th Ave. From Grand Central, I decided to walk Lexington Avenue south (because I can find Lex now, ha ha) - no really, I wanted to walk it south because it runs into Grammercy Park.
You didn't hear it from me.
Blurry, but I can't believe these are making a come back! I had them in high school, I was so excited to get them. I think I played tennis in them.
I like this relfection selfie because the curvature of the metal takes like 20lbs off of me! From now on all photos of me will be done at this metal thing on Lexington Avenue. And look, short sleeves!
This man struck up a conversation with me. He's the Safety Manager on a construction project going on across the street. He was funny telling me a bit about the things he has to advise his crew about when it comes to their own safety. He said he's been working in the city for 40 years. In this pic he's looking up some photos to show me. He found the picture with his crew on a ladder that was a safety concern, and then he flipped through a few more pictures and I saw the most lovely city pics of tulips on his phone! He's quite the iPhone photographer although I don't believe he had any idea how good his eye was. :)
This was the construction site he was over seeing. I don't like this image. Can you tell why? #awkward
This triggered in me, "OMG where is your Mom or Dad"? Adorable young man walking alone. But I must remember, these kids grow up here. This is normal! And at this point I'm a block away from Grammercy Park, a very exclusive area of NYC.
The entrance to Grammercy Park. It's private, only residents of the area with a key can get in.
Peeking in. Lexington Avenue ends at Grammercy Park. The park spans about a block. Lex continues after the park, but it's called Irving.
The flag is a bit hard to read, but it says "The Players". So they're not bashful about expressing who they are in this Grammercy neighborhood.
To quote the theplayersnyc.com website: The Players is a private social club founded in 1888 when Edwin Booth, the greatest American actor of his time, purchased a Gothic Revival-style mansion facing Gramercy Park and commissioned architect Stanford White to transform it into a certain club "for the promotion of social intercourse between the representative members of the dramatic profession and the kindred professions of literature, painting, sculpture and music, and the patrons of the arts."
Dude, you are totally dragging that dress!
This almost didn't end well. Two more images to follow...
Notice they are gripping at about 2/3rds of the way down on that glass. Yeah, it pivotted! But they caught it.
It was me and another man that stood there and watched this unfold. We were both relieved it had a happy ending.
Great Dane. She finally stopped and I asked if I could photograph the dog for a moment but she said it wasn't her dog so she said no to me taking a picture. It was like walking a pony through Manhattan! The amount of drool coming off his mouth was phenomenal (not in a good way).
Lean In.
No political statement implied, I just liked the creative use of the bumper sticker!
Except you're not a single Mom, you're a guy.
It's the Shaggy DA! I wonder how many people remember that reference? :)
Made it to the Flatiron Building. I really love it around here. There's a cool vibe and that building is so unique.
There's a dog park area in Madison Square Park. Cujo was there.
Across the street from Madison Square Park is Eataly. Eataly claims to be the largest Italian marketplace in the world, comprised of a variety of restaurants, food and beverage counters, bakery, retail items, and a cooking school.
There's a restaurant in Eately devoted to Nutella.
Headed out of Eately and back to Madison Square Park for some people watching. Loved these pants!
After people/dog watching in the park, I decided to walk over to Adorama, a camera store, to check it out. This was on the way. I used to play a lot of tennis. The ball looks like it has a sad face which is what I had the last time I played tennis. I got hit by a ball in my calf (sadly, it was intentional, aggressive net player). I was hit so hard it caused my calf muscle to seize and gave me a blood clot. Some Moms who play tennis think they are heading to Wimbledon.
Adorama's display of old cameras.
My next lens, just looking for an Olympus adapter.
Earlier in the day I walked by Trader Joe's. This store in the Chelsea/Flatiron area was a big store, and busy! I went in mid-afternoon with no problems.
After leaving Adorama, I walked by Trader Joe's again, maybe around 5pm. There was a HUGE LINE to get in to shop! I have never seen a line at the entrance to a grocery store. Couldn't get a great shot of it but the line extended quite a ways to the right. My guess is you had to wait around 30 minutes just to get in to shop.
Hmmm...
It can be surprisingly hard to find a cute little pizza place sometimes. They are not mixed in with the higher end stores which is what a lot of the Flatiron had. But heading east of Madison Square Park on 23rd street I came across Frank's Pizza, a little hole in the wall place. But there were people in there eating which I prefer because it tells me at least a couple of New Yorkers approve of the pizza.
The sign pic is kind of a joke. My husband and I love old pizza / grinder shops in Connecticut that still have signs from the 1970's. This had one so I snapped a pic. Somehow the best food is at the places with these old signs.
Verdict on Frank's pizza? Really good! It was different than the 10th Ave pizza that has been my favorite so far, but right up there with that pizza.
I must mention that on Saturday my husband and I went to the NY Botanical Garden in the Bronx. Since we drove in, we decided to explore Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, which is the "real" Little Italy of New York. We had a slice of pizza at Full Moon Pizza. It was the best slice of pizza I have ever had. Thin crust, amazing sauce, not too much cheese, nice seasoning. Perfect. So my 52 Magic Mondays have the bar set really high to beat that slice in the Bronx.
I've seen people doing this before. It's a kind of Buddhist meditation. They hold difficult poses for a long time.
I met this doggie and his owner. His name is Agador and he's adorable, and a bit of a celebrity dog! He has 6400+ Instagram followers. I have 40 :( I talked with his owner, Alan, for a while. He was asking me photography questions. I always love to talk shop!
In case you want to follow him!!
In case you want to follow me!
Agador had quite a few admirers.
I enjoyed watching Alan slip Agador into his backpack like he was slipping a text book in his bag. The dog knew the routine. I hope to run into the two of them again!
So it was a rather uneventful day (OK, a little dull, sorry). But it ended well! The next couple of pictures were my real goal for the day, finally doing some night photography. On this trip I focused on the Olympus Live Composite feature. It lets me take an exposure over and over, the camera only adding any new light it picks up. I can watch the image "grow" on my LCD monitor as more light is detected and then I click the shutter again when I feel the image is done. In this case I positioned myself at the edge of a seating area by the road. As luck would have it, it's all one-way around the Flatiron building so all I was getting was tail lights of the cars and buses zooming by (much easier to photograph than oncoming headlights). I took a number of shots and got a few keepers, and one messy but fun one which I will save for last.
This was probably the best shot of the night.
Very happy with this one. The Empire State Building is peeking out.
I was too close to the buses that were going by in this shot, but I still think it's a fun image. Crazy how the color smears across the image due to the long exposure time.
Until the next Magic Monday!
...and please say hello using the form below. Sometimes it's lonely out on the streets of NYC. I truly appreciate the feedback I get.
xo,
~MC
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