Photo of the Day

Headed to the studio
Originally uploaded by Zanalee

The great thing about extended summer hours at CUNY is that I get up early enough to see stuff like this.

Alicia Keys gave a special performance at Times Square this morning. I saw the announcement on GMA this morning so I wasn't surprised to see the horde of people as I emerged from the station on my way to work. I showed up just as she finished playing the piano they had set up for her on a raised platform but I did manage to get a few shot as she came down and headed to the studio.

Photos of The Day

I took these photos at the Central Park Conservatory this weekend. I can't tell you how hard I worked to get these just perfect. I've been shooting in manual mode on my Nikon more often and I love it. Manual is literally just shooting the way you would with a regular film camera if you can remember what that was like. There was no auto focus, no little red light or beeping alert telling you what to do. It gives you control over focus, light metering and depth of field. Fortunately, my Nikon give me the option to go back to a somewhat analog style of shooting. I don't have a macro lens on my camera but I thought I would play around in manual to get this somewhat macro close effect. It came out so much better than I imagined.

Can we talk about how absolutely miraculous the structure of flowers are? I was just in awe looking at these forms of life up close. There is so much going on in the world of plants that we don't know about. As insignificant as it may seem to us, our survival is dependent in many ways upon their ability to function in a balanced eco system. I now begin to understand why Stevie Wonder was moved to make a double album about them for the soundtrack of a small documentary of the same name. There really is a secret life there.

Photo of the Day

Becoming something of a study
Originally uploaded by Zanalee

I know I've missed a few. Believe me, I have more than made up for it today. God, what a beautiful day. The breeze felt great on my skin and the threatening rain clouds remained at bay.

This is yet another picture taken from my apt window with Cameramatic. This vantage point is as the title states, becoming something of study lately. What can I say? The sunset is amazing from here.

It's amazing what goes on between the clouds and the sunlight while we go about the daily routines of our lives. It's another world.

Hassleblad, come to me...

If you're not a camera nerd, you don't want none of this.

Okay, now that we're all on the same page, I was looking through someone's amazing film photos on flickr just now (as usual) and I mean amazing, like things you can't simulate with digital, breathtaking stuff and in the contact's profile she says she uses Rolieflex twin lens cameras as well as digital Nikons. This lead me to an ebay search for the camera my dad owned when I was a child and when I saw it I was knocked out with memories of playing with it when he wasn't around. A Roleiflex at that time was a pretty incredible thing for a child, because technically it was one of the first cameras that had a view finder that looked kind of like a screen. On occasion, when no one was home but my bother and I, I would go into my parents bedroom and pull out the Rolielex from where my dad kept it on the shelf. I would flip up the top and look down into it while moving around the room. It was a bit like watching a movie, that's all. Very simple, but I thought it was so cool! I would click the shutter, sure that there was no film inside, but clicked it anyway just because I loved the satisfyingly deep thunk sound it would make. I would also open it occasionally as if I was going to load film. It had all these fun clasps and latches and I just really liked figuring it out for myself, the way my dad had taught me. I didn't know squat about photography really. Roleis are just beautiful cameras. I always love seeing them.

Hassleblad

So while I looked at a ebay listing of one just now,  it occurred to me that I wasn't sure whether my dad had sold his or not so I called him and it turns out he did. I just wanted to be sure. And then I remembered his Hassleblad. The Swedish made, medium format film camera he bought while I was a teenager. That camera takes some amazing shots and takes the same film (120 format) as a Rolieflex so I took a chance and asked if he would ever let me use it. I felt sure he would back out of it jokingly, but he agreed readily that it would be fine! WHAAAT??

I sure hope he understands that by use, I mean maybe possibly borrow, babysit, kidnap for a bit. LOL!!

Obama, most popular Baby President Ever!

Ok, maybe this is showing my age or something, but now that I think about it even back in my twenties, one of the qualities I found really sexy in a man was his ability to seamlessly connected with children. Yes, I go weak at the knees when men I really love pick up kids and love on them and connect with them on their level in any way. So when I saw this clip this morning on GMA, I swear, my eyes got watery and just melted. And look at Obama's face! He knows he's got this! Oh, I need a moment.

Michelle, it's not too late to have one more! Please! So we can watch this all the time! Work on that! LOL!!!

Photo of the Day

Sunset in Harlem
Originally uploaded by Zanalee

Today's photo of the day is of the sky after the sun setting as seen from my apartment window. I used the camera app, Cameramatic which I found out about after harassing a poor young man in Italy whose acquaintance I made one morning as we were frantically dashing to download new hipstamatic lens on the FB page last year.

We were both posting that we were having problems and ended up trouble shooting together. He's a fantastic photographer, whose photos, for me, have a lot of intensity and weight. We became contacts on flickr and I also follow his work on the Instagram app. Recently he started using this filter and I nearly flipped for every photo I saw that he took using it.

I don't really know how to explain it, but this composition really makes me feel something, something sort of melancholy and nostalgic but not in a manipulated way. The simplicity of the over contrasted silhouette, grainy over processed due tones and film sprockets. It really makes me think of a simpler time i guess. Simple and familiar. I grew op in a house of photography and this is what it felt like.

Photo of the Day

Untitled
Originally uploaded by Zanalee

I've lived in Harlem for 3 years now and only today did I find the shoe repair place just a few blocks away! I am thrilled!

You can't high tech shoe repair! It's old school. It has to be. Cobblers are old school. I'm just so glad that the guy seems nice. I am so excited to go back and take pictures, you don't even know! I like his set up a lot. He's got a poster of MIles Davis to the right of the counter and this great row of shoe shine chairs. And of course that wonderful smell of shoe polish. Mmm! I love that smell.

I took my cowboy boots over there this afternoon. They've been collecting dust for over a year but are in great condition. I'm not about to let another summer so by without them. YAY!