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Photo 52: A Play on Light {18}

The holidays are over and it's back to the grind. Photo 52 has abandoned the freewheeling twinkling lights and is getting back to the technical side of things. We will be spending the month of January focusing on the use of natural light indoors. This means the subjects of our images will be a) inside and b) illuminated by sunlight without the addition of flash, lamplight or other artificial light source. The topic seemed appropriate since many of us are currently experiencing some significant drops in temperature.

Plunging mercury notwithstanding, I had a very dear friend visiting this week and we weren't about to spend her entire trip holed up at home. These were taken as we ducked inside to warm ourselves up at various points throughout the day.  

If you are unfamiliar with Photo 52, my initial post can be found here. Please continue around the blog circle to see what my fellow participants are finding as we kick off the new year. Next up is the lovely and talented Julie Kiernan, who is no doubt scoffing at my complaints of cold weather from her home in Minnesota. 

window shopping

long wait for a small table

Photo 52: A Play on Light {17} - Happy New Year!

Photo 52, week 17: Photographer's Choice

The clock is ticking down on another year. I have grand plans to go back and do a year in review for personal albums and so forth but, unsurprisingly, that hasn't happened yet.

So for this week, I'm simply living in the moment. We stopped by Grand Central Terminal the other day, one of my favorite landmarks in the city. When contemplating the coming year with my two guys, the train station seems symbolically appropriate. We will journey together on adventures unknown as our home quietly awaits our safe return.  

May 2013 bring you health, happiness and love. 

Please continue around the blog circle as my fellow Photo 52 participants bid farewell to 2012, starting with my talented and wonderful friend Cheryl Sawyer.

Flying High at the Park Avenue Armory

If you have a chance to make it over there before January 6th, Ann Hamilton's "event of the thread" installation at the Park Avenue Armory is truly a thrill.  Riding the big swings to pull the even bigger curtain eclipsed the more nuanced aspects of the exhibit for this particular audience of three, but we loved it just the same.

Photo 52: A Play on Light {16} - Merry Christmas!

Holiday lights week four: Merry Christmas!

Wishing you joy, peace and a little big city magic this holiday season.    

Please continue around the blog circle to a dear friend I am very much missing this holiday season, the wonderful Kami Chaudhery out in Seattle.  

Oh, and the little guy says Merry Christmas too. 

Photo 52: A Play on Light {15} (feat. Louis L'Amour)

And now for something completely different...

We have arrived at week three of Photo 52's holiday light theme. This weekend I took some pictures of my brother's amazing band, Louis L'Amour, at the Trash Bar in Brooklyn. The bar was decked out with some twinkly red lights which, for purposes of this post, I will assume were holiday-related. Please take a moment to go "like" their Facebook page and be sure to check out their next live show! 

Please don't forget to take a spin around our blog circle. As always, my friends are finding beautiful ways to express themselves in the midst of a complex and emotional holiday season. Begin with my friend, and tremendously talented Brooklyn photographer, Kelly Patton of KRox Photography. 

Heavenward

I find myself without words today, faced with news of families enduring an unspeakable loss in a way that feels so very close to home. An image I took this afternoon somehow encompasses the chaos in my mind and desire for peace in my heart. I only wish I had more to offer.

Photo 52: A Play on Light {14}

Week two of our holiday installment! As you may guess by the relative lack of activity outside the weekly Photo 52 project, I am a little back-logged with vacation photos and trying to get organized for the upcoming holidays. This is my very favorite time of year and we just brought home a beautiful tree this weekend, so it is starting to feel very seasonal in our home. 

However, before I turn to lights on the home front, here is a final share from our trip. This time, some fun with focus and twinkling lights on a bridge in Dusseldorf: left bank, then right.

And a few extra sparkles from Rome thrown in for good measure.

Please continue around the blog circle for some additional seasonal fun, starting with my fellow photographer, lovely friend and mom to four boys, Kennedy Tinsley.

Photo 52: A Play on Light {13}

This month's Photo 52 theme is a little less structured and a little more festive: Holiday Light. My take this week is especially literal, as these are not only holiday lights, but also lights seen while on holiday. Both images were taken last week while in Rome. 

Please continue around the blog circle to see what festiveness my fellow participants have discovered, starting with the lovely and talented Kim DuPree who found some beautiful holiday spirit down in Texas. 

Photo 52: A Play on Light {11}

Photo 52, week eleven!

In our third week of investigating hard light, I decided to tackle some full sun high noon shooting. Not my favorite lighting conditions for photographing people because of the harsh overhead shadows it casts on faces. However, we had a Zamboni to check out and time waits for no man. Or boy. Or mom.

Patiently waiting.

It's here!

Please continue around the blog circle to the amazing Lisa Rigazio. Her use of dramatic light is simply stunning. If you are unfamiliar with Photo 52, click here for the initial post. 

Shop Local

Local love.

After almost ten years in this neighborhood, Christmas shopping at Domus has become something of a holiday tradition for my family.

This evening we headed out for a little stroll and stopped by to pay them a visit. We were excited to discover that their beautiful tree is already decorated and, as always, treasures abound. 

Photo 52: A Play on Light {10}

Photo 52: Hard Light Week 2

Winter flowers, city lights. When presented with something so lovely, it's hard to resist documenting it at every angle; up close and from afar. 

Next up in the Photo 52 blog circle is my friend and fellow New Yorker, the exceptionally gifted and very lovely Sarah Roemer Davis. Please check out her blog and take a spin through the chain to see my fellow Photo 52 participants' interpretations of hard light this week. 

Photo 52: A Play on Light {9}

Hard light: our subject for the month of November.  

To my mind, hard light is dramatic. It casts shadows. It can be aggressive and harsh or bright and crisp, depending on your frame of mind. On a chilly morning this week, with wind blowing briskly as countless people began to pick up the pieces in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the rising sun was all of these things.  

If you are looking for ways to help those impacted by the storm, donations to the Red Cross seem to be a reliable place to start. Additionally, closer to my heart, a dear friend of ours is from the devastated town of Breezy Point. NY. Her father is the chief of the Breezy Point volunteer fire department and her parents, aunts, uncles and cousins all live there. She has been on the ground helping this week and has just passed along information for two well organized funds that can benefit the community directly, noting that the Red Cross is focused on Staten Island and other communities in the NYC area at this time.

Breezy Point Cooperative Disaster Relief Fund
C/o Lee & Kane Attorneys
2175 Flatbush Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11234

http://www.breezypointdisasterrelief.org/ 

Alternatively, the volunteer fire department is accepting donations directly as they will need to repair all of their badly damaged trucks and equipment:

BPVFD
1 Firemans Plaza
Breezy Point, NY 11697

Thank you for reading this far, and do please continue around the blog circle, starting with my neighbor to the north, Kennedy Tinsley of Tinsleyhouse Photography, to see what my fellow Photo 52 participants are sharing this week.  I implore you to take a close look at Kelly Roth Patton's blog post as well, which contains relief fund information aimed at the Red Hook neighborhood in Brooklyn. If you are unfamiliar with Project 52, the introductory post can be found here.

Sandy

My family is certainly among the most fortunate of those who experienced Hurricane Sandy this past week. The devastation felt by so many people in such close proximity to us is heartbreaking and difficult to see. It is also utterly surreal as, from our vantage point, Sandy was little more than a rain storm. 

We are proud that our City and its people continue to display the grace and resilience they are known for in the face of this great challenge. We look forward to finding ways to help as the rebuilding begins.

Out the Window {1}

Out the Window {2}

Once the storm cleared, we made it out for some fresh air. For the most part, it was just us and the pigeons.

Hailing

At the end of the evening - same scene, different angle. She's a shadow in the light, then a light in the darkness.

Photo 52: A Play on Light {7}

Week seven of Photo 52. This week is the third in our month of backlight, and while my post is perhaps more personal than usual it partially explains my general absence from the blog and the camera. Our little guy just turned three, and his grandma just turned three plus a few, so the family has been in town to celebrate. ​We took a trip up to Storm King Art Center and enjoyed a beautiful afternoon filled with backlight, fun and love. 

Please continue around the blog circle to see what my very talented friend Lisa Rigazio has been up to this week. She has an amazing eye for texture and contrast, and uses it to bring a little edginess to her work, be it an urban scene or her two darling girls.​

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