Subway Puzzle Pieces

I had to wait a long time, for some reason, for the downtown subway to ICP the other day.  So, naturally I am standing on the platform and with nothing else to do, I am looking around.  Then I see this scene as I look across the tracks for my train, and over to the platform on the other side to the uptown platform.  I am enjoying the "windows" that appear in the concrete supports and walls. which are made up of concrete columns that hold up the station, and openings in the concrete wall that separates the two tracks.  So now I have my "checkerboard" and I keep the camera to my eye as people walk by on the other platform, all going in different directions.  The people are what make this photograph interesting, in the end,  I think.

 

The Electric Stairway

At the International Center of Photography, you take an elevator from the ground floor up to the third floor, where the exhibits begin.  Then when you have seen everything on the third floor, you take the stairs down to the second floor.  When I saw these stairs illuminated like this I nearly fell over.  It looks like some outer space thing, I think.  What makes it so cool looking, and so brilliant in design, is that there are channels under each railing and in the recess of each railing are strings of LED lights!  What a cool way to light the stairs!

 

Blinding Light

When I got off my train, I walked a fair distance to get to this new stairway that runs directly up from the Long Island Railroad concourse to the street.  A real shortcut, compared to other ways of getting up to the street in the old days. But on this day, the sun was out and a lot of scaffolding up on the street had been removed and now all of the light up on the street poured into the opening and reflected off the polished stainless steel of the escalators!  I had never seen it this bright!  It literally stopped me in my tracks.  Well, for maybe 5 seconds and then I had my camera up to my eye and stood here for a few minutes trying to get interesting silhouettes in the foreground.

Relaxing on the Stoop

 

Another photograph of some citizens of Manhattan.  When Stan and I left the International Center of Photography, we went out the back door and this is what we faced!  It is the strangest thing.  All the buildings on this side of Ludlow Street look like this.  There is graffiti everywhere, and I think that perhaps this entire block is set to be demolished at some point in the not too distant future.  All the buildings like ICP on the other side of the street are modern buildings in beautiful condition.  I only discovered this fact when I used google maps to check out this location and saw all the buildings marked in graffiti.

Riding the Subway

Riding the subway is such an interesting experience.  It's a United Nations, when it comes to riders.  When you sit in your seat, you are facing a bunch of other people opposite you.  Socially it is an unusual situation to be looking at other people face to face and not that far away from you.  So you look up at the ads or the floor, or to the left and right at other riders who are not directly across from you.  It is something I love about the subway because I love looking at people, but the rules are, you don't stare.  So you pass your gaze along and only look at people for a second and usually you don't make eye contact.  Those are the rules.  I thought these two were an interesting couple.  I love the woman's bright green NY hat and her bright red shirt.  My camera was in my lap, sideways, and I could not come up with a way to point it at them, even if it was in my lap.  I know they would have seen that and been suspicious. Then I noticed others using their cell phones vertically in their laps!  So I got my phone out of my pocket and had it in my lap, and it was tinted forward at 45 degree angle and I pretended to be touching it and swiping it, and then I tilted it back a bit until it was vertical and then I clicked the shutter a few times, and was not noticed at all.  This photography stuff is hard work!

Star Child

I went to the city today to meet Stan and see the 50th anniversary exhibit at the International Center of Photography.  After we left, we were walking down Broome Street to the subway.  We walked right by her before I noticed her and it was too late to take a photograph, so we kept on walking.  When we got to the next corner, I told Stan I had to go back to try and get a photograph.  So I walked out in the middle of the street because there were trucks parked along the curb that shielded me from her.  So then I turned around at the end of the block and walked by her again on the sidewalk, with my camera ready.  I set the focal length to 35mm and held the camera down at waist level, and as I approached I kept clicking the shutter.  After I went past her, I stopped and looked at the photographs, and I was not close enough to her!  So, out to the street again, back down to the start of the block, set the focal length to 50 mm and walk by her once more.  My pointing was perfect with the camera right at her and she was larger in the image, and I was undetected, and I got the shot.  Third time's the charm!  She looks like a child, until you look closely.  She is on a coffee break no doubt with a cup of coffee on the stairs, a cigarette in her fingers, and she is relaxing reading something on her phone.  Just a typical New York scene.

 

Our Astronomy Meeting Tonight

We had a different kind of meeting tonight.  Instead of everyone facing forward listening to a speaker, we gathered in a semi-circle and had a group discussion about the Artemis mission which will return astronauts to the moon.  It is a huge, complicated project and a number of companies are all working together with NASA to accomplish this mission.  A number of our members are following this closely, so there was a lot to be learned from different people offering information.  And instead of everyone sitting there quietly, it was a lively back and forth discussing advantages and disadvantages of the program.

We are seated this way because there were members at home also taking part in the meeting using Zoom, and everyone could see them on the projection screen at the front of the room.  It was so nice having a change of pace in how our meetings are conducted, and it was so successful that we will be trying this again in the future!