Archive for the ‘Photowalks’ Category
festering wounds
It’s National Cupcake Day, in these United States.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Stop, listen, and look. That’s what I try to do whilst moving about the world, with the occasional “sniff” thrown in as well. Stunning to me is the fact that so few actually monitor their environs as they navigate the great urban hive these days, with their mental focus zeroed in on the little rectangles of glowing glass we all carry. This has been a growing issue for years, but of late, I’ve noticed people intently watching television shows on their devices while walking along and crossing the streets of New York City.
What is wrong with all of us?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Caution is something one urges, constantly. Pay attention to your surroundings. Not paying attention is how we’ve arrived at this societal crossroad, and I fear that while somebody is catching up on “Breaking Bad” they will miss the freight train barreling right towards them.
Citizen Mitch despairs.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Go. Outside. Talk to people. Put the device down for a few minutes and let yourself feel things. I know it’s scary.
Just do it.
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photostatic copy
It’s National Hot Cocoa Day, in these United States.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It is quite amazing, really, the stuff you find scattered around the streets of Western Queens. Intentionally castoff manufactured items, or simply lost ones, abound. Recent effort found one wandering home via Sunnyside and this anamorphic headgear was simply staring me down as I approached.
Can’t blame it, I mean… look at me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On the same day, this little assortment was encountered. This is clearly NOT the work of the Queens Cobbler, a local serial killer who leaves behind single shoe totems to mark their ghastly activities, as the shoes are in a pair and the Cobbler has never been known to leave behind kitchenware.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Captured a few weeks ago, the shot above does seem to bear all the evidentiary trademarks of the Queens Cobbler, however.
Someday, the Cops will batter down a storage room gate somewhere in LIC and find the lair of this footwear obsessed predator.
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sinister matters
It’s National Ambrosia Day, in these United States.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just a single shot today, depicting the most photogenic of NYC’s Subway lines entering the Queensboro Plaza station in LIC.
Tomorrow night, at Jackson’s Eatery Bar in LIC (which sits atop the Vernon Jackson stop of the 7 line at 10-37 Jackson Ave, Long Island City, NY 11101), Newtown Creek Alliance’s holiday party will occur between 6 and 8:30 p.m. Come with?
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second search
It’s National Have a Bagel Day, in these United States.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As much as I enjoy a good dystopian nightmare, a humble narrator is somewhat ready to shut the doors and lock the windows these days. Sheesh. “Best thing to do is lose yourself in work” and ignore everything else I always say, which is why one recently found himself perched on his porch with a tripod mounted camera while the so called supermoon hung squamously in the cloud stained skies of western Queens. The thing that drew me to set up the entire rig was actually the presence of the fast moving atmospheric system, rather than the presence of the satellite itself. The aural light passing through the clouds was just fantastic.
If I actually had a brain in my head, I would have shot some video of it as well.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is the time of year when one feels as if he’s running at full speed but not making any headway. The tyranny of the now, the banal, and the pedantic is let loose. I owe everyone something, but the concurrence of an empty pocketbook and a complete inability to get anything substantial started – let alone delivered – means that all are disappointed.
The winter of my discontent has arrived. Bah.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The moon shots in today’s post, since I know someone is going to ask, were gathered with the camera mounted on a sturdy tripod and outfitted with a 300mm lens. The first shot was gathered at ISO 500, f.9, and a 1.3 second exposure (I wanted the clouds to “shmear”). For the one directly above, the rig was set to ISO 800, at f7.1, and the exposure was .3 of a second. The usual problems encountered with a bright moon, dark sky, and the counter movements of both planet and moon, and the quickly blowing clouds were all calculated into the equations above.
Procedure demands that you first do a few test shots of a scenario like the one pictured in today’s post to find the right exposure triangle(s), then you need to reorient the camera to where the Moon is going to be in a few minutes rather than where it was while you were doing your test shots. Remember that the moon is moving quite a bit faster through the sky than the naked eye would suggest, but you find that out fairly quickly while looking down a telephoto “soda straw.”
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given much
It’s National Brownie Day, in these United States.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As a note – this post was originally meant to be published yesterday, and was written in two distinct sittings – I’ll get to the reason why a bit later at photo number five…
So – The other day I was hanging out with a photographer pal of mine, and she asked if I’d be interested in going to “shoot the 7” with her, an entirely wholesome activity of the sort which one readily agrees to. We met up in Astoria, rode to Willets Point and then back to 103rd street, where we debarked the train for luncheon at an eatery of my acquaintance which serves food of the Latino typology. One torta later, we were back on the 7, riding to and fro while chasing opportune lighting.
Who do you think I run into?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At the 40th Lowery Street stop, Santa Claus was waiting for the train to arrive. One greeted this seasonal master of the elves, and inquired if it was kosher to collect a shot or two of it. Never piss off Santa. He’s not always a nice guy, and you don’t want to end up on that naughty list. Incidentally like god, Santa is an “it,” not a “he,” as metaphysical beings are not gendered. You don’t refer to the burning bush as “him.” What you see when a Saint, Angel, Savior, or Djinn presents themselves is all that the limited senses of men can perceive and interpret of the thing, the event horizon of something existing in multiple dimensions simultaneously, which our brains can only render as being a jolly fellow in a red suit. Santa is a dragon, an exploding star, a single quark – all at once.
The eidolon of the Yule answered my request in the affirmative, and it didn’t even cost me a glass of milk nor a cookie.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It is opined that the children this creature (whose syncretic origins tie him back through time and space to the Pagan God Odin in the northwest of Europe and the 2nd century Saint Christian Nikolaos of Myra) defines as “good” receive toys and other decadent gifts. Those whom it has arbitrarily labeled “bad” receive a lump of coal. Occultists and certain Christian sects will inform that Santa is not this entity’s true name, and that “Santa” is just an anagram.
It is said that there are a pair of brothers who used their lumps of coal as the seed with which they founded a petrochemical empire, and rose to National political prominence. When life, or Santa, gives you lemons…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I wouldn’t be me, incidentally, if I didn’t try to ruin Santa Claus for everyone else by talking about the deep historic roots of the entity nor remind all of you that there’s a difference between the Mediterranean and Near Eastern “Christmas” and the “Yule” celebrated by the barbarian Normans. Most of what we associate with “Christmas” is actually Yule.
Christmas Eve was once called Mōdraniht by the same Northern European cultures that believed in Norns, Hamingja, the Fylgjur, and variants of Odin. These same people also dug Thor and Freya, whom they turned into Saint Michael and the Blessed Virgin Mary in Christian times, but there you are.
from wikipedia
Scholars have connected the month event and Yule time period to the Wild Hunt (a ghostly procession in the winter sky), the god Odin (who is attested in Germanic areas as leading the Wild Hunt and, as mentioned above, bears the name Jólnir), and increased supernatural activity, such as the aforementioned Wild Hunt and the increased activities of draugar—undead beings who walk the earth.
Mōdraniht, an event focused on collective female beings attested by Bede as having occurred among the pagan Anglo-Saxons on what is now Christmas Eve, has been seen as further evidence of a fertility event during the Yule period.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Now, as to the question of why this post originally meant to publish yesterday on National Cotton Candy Day rather than today… HOLY SMOKES was a humble narrator laid low by some sort of rapid onset stomach bug after attending a Christmas party in the City on Tuesday. This felt a bit more like food poisoning than a virus. I blamed one of the Billion Oysters guys, whose hand I shook when he took a break from shucking shellfish for the Xmas party, while laying there in a hallucination plagued state as my digestive system purged itself. It could also have been touching something on the subway, but I needed someone to blame, so the oyster guy got the nod.
“Both ends” of my inner worm were exit points, if you know what I mean.
Couldn’t hold down a sip of water, and I enjoyed deep bodily chills as well as fevered sweats while repeatedly running towards my porcelain throne. The time in between explosive exhalations was spent sleeping and suffering. Over a 24 hour period, all I could hold down was a bit of Gatorade, a banana, and about half a bottle of Pepto Bismol.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At this moment, one seems to be on the mend, but bodily weakness and a general turpitude prevails.
Imagine it… a humble narrator so enamored of a waterway plagued by raw sewage… laid low by a simple handshake.
Upcoming Tours and events
Calvary Cemetery Walking Tour, with Atlas Obscura – Sunday, December 10th, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Explore NYC history, hidden inside sculptural monuments and mafioso grave sites, as you take in iconic city views on this walking tour, with Newtown Creek Alliance Historian Mitch Waxman – details here.
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