I'm talkin' toilets here . .

I was asked by a customer who was interested in purchasing my "the old thinking room" if I had more photographs of toilets and old bathrooms etc. She was looking to frame three prints of old toilets to hang in her bathroom wall. (pretty cool idea) She loved the one I had but was having a hard time finding two others she liked to go with it. "Do you have any others you have not shown yet, or perhaps are you inspired?" she wrote me. Well, the fact of it was that I had been meaning to do more of that subject and well, with her need of a couple more prints I felt inspired enough to get out and get to it. I asked if she might wait a week or two and I will try to come up with a few more for her to see. She was pleased and I was in search of some old toilets. . .
Here are a few that I took at an old military base here in Brooklyn.
Now, there is a bit of a story behind these. One of the buildings I had ventured into was an old police precint complete witha long hall and lots of rooms. Very dark and spooky. To start things off, I had a Raccoon scare the wits out of me as it ran across the hall and out a cracked window. So there I am getting my nerves back together and setting up my shots. Must have been in there for nearly an hour when I hear a truck pull up outside, talking, chatter on handheld radios and persons walking into the slightly cracked open door. This would have to be the police. Damn, I should have closed that door behind me all the way, but I didn't because I needed some light to see my way inside. (forgot to bring flashlight) "Yeah, it's opened, gonna have a look" I hear one of them say. Now I hear another truck door slam shut and more footsteps and chatter. I'm packing up my stuff as fast as I can and thinking about my next course of action. Do I hide? Hmm, maybe but worst case scenario one of them sees me, gets startled and shoots me dead. Not a good idea. I'm thinking I should face the situation head on and make my presence known because after all the door was not locked and there were no "No Trespassing" or "Keep out" signs up on this spot. Plus, with my camera and gear its quite obvious I'm just a photographer perhaps going a bit too far for a shot. So, after several more endless minutes I gether the nerve. "Hello, is someone there?" I yell. Now I hear footsteps running out the door and someone say "Holy shit, someones in there!" OK, so now they are outside and know someone is inside. More doors slamming and more radio chatter. I am now imagining a swat team setting up outside waiting to storm the place. . . I'm wondering whether this was a good idea after all. I had better start getting to the door and showing smyself before this tension and situation gets out of hand. So, camera gear bag on my back and very large tripod in my arm I head to the door and open it rather slowly trying to look un armed and non-threatening. After opening the door all the way and stepping out I see a Parks Department truck and two park maintenance guys by the truck looking horrified. "Hey, I'm just a photographer taking some pics of old buiildings and toilets" I say. " Holy crap! My buddy here needs some new underwear. You scared the shit outta him, man" one of them says. I'm quite relieved at this point and say sorry but the feeling was mutual.
They asked me if I was sure I didn't kill no one in there and I said yep, pretty sure. These two were pretty cool and after showing them my ID and some of my images on the cameras screen they were convinced and relieved themselves. They were actually about to bolt the door up and so its a good thing I did come out when I did or I'd have been locked inside.
They told me of a building in the grounds where I could possibly get a permit and access to more of the old buildings and so I think I will try that next time :)
As it turns out, my customer loved and ordered the last two photos here to go along with "the old thinking room"

Cloudscapes

The last several days here in Brooklyn we have had some pretty dramtic skies and cloud formations. Exactly the type of conditions I like when going out shooting especially landscapes and such.

The other night we were watching "Two Brothers" on DVD with my son Kyle. Great family movie btw about two Tiger cubs and their adventures as they grow up. Great action and a tear jerker at times. . .

While we were watching, there was a thunderstorm developing outside. It was pretty dramatic but passed quickly. In its wake was some of the most wonderful skies and lighting I had seen in a while, and so even though the movie was good I kept looking outside the window and enjoying the incredible illuminations. Finally, I could not contain myself and just had to run up and down the street with my camera. There was not much of a landscape by me to go with the skies but I decided the skies and clouds alone were enough of a subject to stand as they were. So here are a few

A walk on the Manhattan Bridge

Every once in a while I like to walk along the Manhattan Bridge. What I like most is the views of the gritty rooftops of the old buildings in Chinatown, on the Manhattan side. Most find it repulsive, and I certainly understand but I always liked grit and grime and all things old, worn and decaying. Hmmm, wonder what Frasier Crane might say about that. . . ;)

Here are a few images from the bridge looking at some of the close-ups of certain things. There is a tremendous amount of grafitti, most likely because these rooftops are readily viewable from the brooklyn bound trains and taggers love a captive audience. The Brooklyn bridge can be seen in the distance in the second photo from the top.

Water Towers

As some of my followers may already know, I have been working on a series of photographs of Water Towers in the New York area. This series actually began in 2004 in my film shooting days and has been ongoing ever since. Whenever I happen to see one of these gems perched up proud on a rooftop, I write down its location and try to get there at a time of day when the lighting and sky will add to its charm.
Here are two that I came upon while venturing through Sunset Park, Brooklyn.


N.Y water tower 13


N.Y. water tower 12

Keep this place Clean!

These are a few photos that I took while venturing through an abandoned building in Brooklyn, New York. The neighborhood was Sunset Park. The last shot is from down in the lower level looking up through a hole in the floor above. I'll surely be back there as there were many others I wanted to get but the lighting was not ideal. Must go on an overcast day.
I'm hosting larger photos here via my flickr page but it seems flickr reduces some of the sharpness from the original upload. Oh well, at least they are a bit larger for viewing.

The Doll Exhibit

Thanks to Karens post at Brayton Homestead Interiors titled "Gentle Mystery" I was reminded of the incredible collection of Dolls that was on display at Space Farms in Sussex New Jersey. Space Farms is mainly an exotic animal farm but does have a museum as well that is full of antiques and various collections of interesting and nostalgic things from our past.Here are some of the photos I took of their huge collection of dolls. What intrigues me is the character in each of these, some beautiful and elegant and some mysterious and even scary. There was one that was displayed as though it had been murdered, very odd and I'm sure it was not set up that way intentionally, but perhaps overnight while the farm is closed strange things and mysteries begin . . .as in the last photo.

Is Pops for Real!?!

The reason I'm even posting this is because it happened twice in one month and I felt once in a lifetime was too many.
We all have heard the many ringtones that people download to their cell phones and use because either think that the sound/song is cool or funny or whatever but it is really about being unique and/or showing others around you what your all about, somewhat. I have heard practically every song used (heck, I even had Led Zeppelins "Heart Breaker" for a while) many different sound effects and even voices of people yelling "Pick up the damn phone" I guess while your browsing through all the possible ringtones some of these could seem funny or cool at the time, but when it actually rings when your in public it does not seem so cool anymore especially to those around you who really couldn't give a Rats Ass about you anyway.
Well, twice in one month, while riding the bus I heard a baby laughing ringtone. Sounded somewhat cute, I mean who could argue that a baby laughing is not cute. The thing is, the two times I heard this ringtone it was on the cell phone of a man at least in his 70's. . .
The first time was a heavy set black man sort of reminded me a Louis Armstrong. We were sitting on a bus and all of a sudden we heard this loud and whacky baby laughter. As we are looking around to see where it was coming from and we were practically laughing already before this man pulls a phone out of his sports jacket. The sight of this huge old man sitting there with a phone that is laughing a giggling like a baby as he is trying to figure out how to answer it was enough to get the rest of the bus to look at eachother in disbelief and break out laughing.
The other time was also on a bus but this was a little old white man with a cane. He looked like a Jewish man in his upper 70's and I was surprised to learn that he even had a cell phone, but to hear a baby laughing in his coat and see him fumbling to answer it, I started to wonder if this was becoming a trend or a reach or longing of the elderly to be young again and hope that I'm not destined to the giggling baby phone :0 Perhaps this is a light hearted prank by these gentlemens grandchildren or something?
I have since got rid of my Zeppelin ringtone and now have a very simple yet pleasing chime. I'm now very conscious of myself and any signs of a desire to have a baby giggling ringtone. . .please, not me.

Autumn within Cunningham Tower

Here is a view from within the ruins of Cunningham Tower located in a state park in Litchfiled, Connecticut. This tower as I was told by a local that was taking his daily stroll through the forest

was used as a look-out tower and had burned down many years ago. Its design is very medieval-era in its stone walls and spiral steps ascending the inner walls. Most of the sides and all of the roof are gone and so there is much lighting coming down inside illuminating the interior for this photo. What remains of the seps are evident in the upper portion of the image above the window. The interior of this stone wall ruin is mostly gray and black and set off the fall colors as seen through the opening. This photograph was exhibited as a 20x28" print last year at Gallery 364 in Brooklyn and took Best in Show. It sold as well.

Rear Window

Having come from the great blog of Lianne, at my kitchen table and reading her two part post about seeing a man suspiciously dump a bag in a back alley dumpster I was reminded of the movie "Rear Window" by Alfred Hitchcock. That in turn reminded of my photo titled "Rear Window" which was captured looking off the Manhattan bridge near nightfall. The view is of the rear of an old building in Chinatown. Inside we can see an occupant and perhaps make out a few other things such as the large butcher knife on the table in front of the window.
This photograph is a part of a window series that I had and still will be working on. I find that there is something intrguing about the window dressings, colors, contents of the dwelling that can be seen from the outside and condition of the window and its surroundings. It causes me to wonder about the persons living inside and what I can tell about them from the window. I try not to shoot windows that are open and where the occupants are visible as that sometimes ruins the mystery as well as bordering on invasion of privacy, etc. but in this case I was intrigued by the occupant and the contents of the home and overall condition of the building. It was deliberate on my part that the person could not be identified by this image. More of my window series can be viewed on my website on the "gallery" link.

Click on the image for a larger version to better make out the details.

Sailing in New York Harbor

This photograph was taken from the Redhook, Brooklyn waterfront. I love the ominous looking cloud cover over the lone sailboat with the cranes and touches of industrial menace lurking on the shores in the distance. It is one of my all-time favorites of mine and possibly so because it is one of those images that just print very nicely.
Some dodging and burning was done and also initially a conversion to grayscale with some sepia tones brought back in for the aged look, that I feel works well with this scene.