Sliver of Light

Another cold sunny day. I hadn't been out to the streets with my camera for a while so I forced a quick trip. Close by is an elevated plaza that serves as an excellent perch to observe the street traffic. This time the light coming from the south up the avenue illuminated the walkway in a singular strip. I planted myself at the plaza's corner for ten minutes and grabbed these shots. Then quickly returned to my warm building.

Distinct Activities

It was a rare warm February day and I took a lunch time stroll along the river looking towards Jersey City (the tower in the distance). I was watching the work being done by the two men on the crane on the huge torch (I think based on the Statue of Liberty which is out of frame off to the left). I noticed in the picture all the distinct individual activities happening. Besides the torch workers, there is an overall balance to the others. None are in groups, and all have their own agenda.

Exchange Spotlight

In the winter on sunny days, the light in comes in at extreme angles. In Manhattan, the morning light creates very long shadows. At lunch time, one block can be bright and the next dark. The New York Stock Exchange, with it's flags, is on the corner of Wall Street and Broad Street. Nassau Street forms a slight hill before turning into Broad. This creates an interesting hump where figures can be seen juxtaposed in front of the flags of the Exchange. Yesterday's light lit the flags as a spotlight and it looked like this.

Times Square Snow

Times Square Snow
Originally uploaded by jfraissi

The Flickr photography site monitors how many "Views" individual pictures get from their community and assorted search engines. It's interesting to see what attracts the most interest.

After a year, this shot of Times Square has finally taken over the number one spot from one titled "Financial District People". Undoubtedly the jump in traffic at this time is due to seasonal searches.

There was originally a color shot, but there is something about a colorless Times Square that makes the shot unusual.

Opposite Vantage Points

With the Pittsburgh Steelers being in the Super Bowl, thoughts of the city came back to me. I know that each time I see a picture that I've taken, I am transported back to the moment that it was created. I can remember the activity of snapping the camera, the circumstances, and the perspective. I find this uncanny since I am rather sketchy on names and facts in particular.

One night earlier this year I happened to be in Pittsburgh, a photographically interesting city that I was totally unfamiliar with. Out of a search for lodging in a geographically relevant place for our purposes, the Renaissance Hotel was our home for three days. It was nondescript and urban from the street view. Looking up the street from the front of the building, it was seen to be positioned right in front of a bridge, the Roberto Clemente Bridge, I later found out was its name.

When arriving at a hotel, it is normal to look out the window. I found a most unusual view which was totally unexpected. Through an arch cut into the building, there was a direct view of the bridge framed perfectly by the walls of the hotel. I waited until the evening and took the time exposure here.

I knew that PNC Park, the home of the Pittsburgh Pirates was on the other side of the river. And, I occasionally would see a ball game with the magnificent cityscape and view of the bridge over the outfield wall. Well, it finally clicked in my mind that the hotel, which was strategically perched right by the bridge should be in the view during games. And, upon careful examination, I became aware that my actual room on the 7th floor is visible during any Pirates game.

It may be insignificant in the scheme of things, but whenever I will ever see a baseball game in progress in Pittsburgh, for the rest of my life, I know I will remember the picture of the bridge from the hotel room with all its details.

Best of 2008

There's a New Year's update on my main website Fraissi.net :

----> There are now pictures posted which feature the Top 10 of 2008. Here's the link:

http://www.fraissi.net/Gallery/top_10_photos_of_2008 .htm

I found that subjects have evolved somewhat over the course of the year. Some previous themes were related to landmarks or different perspectives of particular areas (perhaps I’ve exhausted some of the major categories associated with the New York City area). Anyway, I am now very interested in Street Photography and these reflect this. The newest photos are frequently pictures of strangers on the street, many translated to Black and White. Besides being interesting to myself, I’ve noticed that when I post these pictures to my online Flickr account, these draw a lot more “views” than the more “beautiful” types of pictures I’ve worked on in the past.

Some of the Top 10 pictures come from the most recent Street Shots series on my main site. There are also a few that are brand new. It was a bit tricky to get down to only 10 pictures, and I actually left many many favorites out (it was a very productive year, photographically anyway). Here's what made the cut. (You can click the photo's name to see it on the site’s page). You will see that some of them are linked to blog entries in which I discuss them in detail:

1. Queen Mary 2 – The Queen Mary 2 ocean liner was preparing to rendezvous with the Queen Elizabeth 2 which was making its final trip across the Atlantic. A view from a skyscraper between the buildings of the massive ship.
2. Man with Coffee – It is a lone man sitting in the window of a coffee shop. This was noticed and cropped from a picture of a completely different subject.
3. Fan Fan – A vintage-style capture of a girl behind a spinning fan at a flea market.
4. Alone – A figure silhouetted on a rainy sidewalk taken from above.
5. Watching the Tickertape Parade – Hundreds at their windows overlooking a tickertape parade for the New York Football Giants taking place below on Broadway.
6. Cig – A cigarette dangles from a man’s hand.
7. Crossing Silhouette – The silhouetted legs of a pedestrian in a crosswalk near City Hall.
8. Cigarette Swing – A classic street photography view of a stylish woman walking down a rainy street with a cigarette gesture.
9. Financial District People - The most viewed picture of the year on the Flickr account. A mixture of moods of individuals walking down Broadway.
10. Twilight Windows - As evening approaches, the glowing lights of a brownstone building provide a mixture of moods from each window.

Characters

Some characters noticed on the streets of Manhattan. It was after I selected them that I actually realized they were all on cell phones. Yak Yak Yak...

Hailing Yakker


















Cigar Yakker


















Silent Yakker

Toshi

Through my Flickr account, I received the following request:

• "My name is Mayumi from Healing World Co., Ltd. which is an independent music label in Japan. We're currently creating a series of promotional movies for our artist, TOSHI with a lot of nice pictures from over the world. We would like to use your photo "Strolling In Budapest" if possible"...

This is the picture (to the right):

Here's the part which I found of interest:

• ..."It would also be very nice if you could allow us to use it without giving you a credit, not showing your name on the movie"...
  

It is fairly standard if you're not going to buy a photographer's shot, then you at least will traditionally ask for permission and tell people who took it. The alternative is basically cheating the system and working it completely for free. Here's more:

• ..."Here's our artist, TOSHI's official MySpace at www.myspace.com/toshioffice for your reference."
  

So, I was curious to see what calibre artist Toshi might be and started some research based on his MySpace profile.

On first glance, it's a little hard to decipher since some of his MySpace material is in Japanese, but this is what we can determine. His music is Pop (you can hear that, kind of like Josh Groban), he plays concerts in Tokyo, he has CDs, his music is on iTunes (in Japan at least). Here he is on YouTube.



There are more clues from his biography which describes him as a "legendary" vocalist who has given more than 2500 concerts, has "steady and honest activities", and has created "big sensations". Toshi says, “I have seen so many people shed tears to hear my songs for as long as 8 years, and I sincerely feel that is such a blessing and a great pleasure for me.”

The biography later relates that after splitting from the band that made him legendary and going solo, they had reunion concerts at the Tokyo Dome in March 2008. The Tokyo Dome is a 55,000 seat stadium where the Yomiuri Giants play in Japan. Hmmm.... I am concluding that Toshi may be a major artist.

I further find that Toshi has 6786 MySpace friends. Looking up Britney Spears for comparison, we see that she has 505,795 friends on her space. Well, I guess he's not in her league.

At any rate, I decided to allow the picture to be used without credits (or money) out of curiosity and because he seemed to have a good heart. I did ask to have a link to the video when done.

And, in the end, he does appear to be trying to cheat the system, but since his bio says he is a "healing artist"it will be my contribution to the good of society.

Breaking for Snow

I was holed up in my office building while the snow fell. I knew it was coming down, but I couldn't see it as I was working deep in the windowless bowels of the building. In the vicinity of lunch time, I got a chance to get out and observe even though my time was short.

Taking pictures of people in the snow is not easy. Flakes end up on your lens, it's hard to move and it's cold. Fortunately, my building has an extended roof which allowed me to swing around the outside without getting too wet. Each perspective had its own aura, different then the usual Manhattan mix. Three of the four sides of the building produced subjects.

Looking east.

Looking south.

Looking west.

North was a bust.

Digital Picture Frame broken

My digital picture frame died today. I had it on my desk, and watched it flip through hundreds of my pictures over time. This was not a high quality frame. My shots that look so nice elsewhere, looked crappy here. Plus this frame did not maintain the aspect ratio, it typically made people look fat as it expanded their girth to match the width of the frame.

I had noticed that I had to constantly change the contrast and tweak the brightness settings. This was done in one degree increments in tedious steps. There was no way to easily compare the settings looked on an actual picture. Little did I know, these adjustments were the beginning of the slow death of the digital device as there came to be a scattered flickering which became quite annoying.

It's just as well that it broke, I really need to get a wireless picture frame. Most of the newer model frames have a built-in wi-fi chip that allows photos to be downloaded from the web. As a matter of fact, a company started by a former boss of mine, FrameChannel.com, is making a business of this. You can manage a feed from the web of various photographic or news channels. This is similar to how feeds are provided within some elevators in high rises.

I was asked to provide a channel for the launch last year for people around the globe to download my pictures to their own frames. Now there are somewhere around 70 people subscribing to the "Photographer - John Fraissinet" channel. However, my old, now broken, digital frame can't get it, since that frame is not on the web.

FrameChannel is banking on the holidays to sell a lot of the frames this year. They sell advertising that is embedded into the content they provide. Right now, 1% of all the content are downloads of my photos. I'm not quite sure how it is displayed (outside of the preview on the site) but it's a cool concept. They do embed ads somewhere along the line, and if they are ever profitable I would get a cut. So, I think its time to get a wireless frame.