pretty city: meet gary

i've been reading lately about the merits of a 50mm lens--i have a good one, but really haven't explored its use outside of...well, i haven't used it outside. i rely on my tamron zoom when i'm outdoors. i like that it allows me to get up-close to something or someone (somewhat) unobtrusively (it's sort of long, and hard to miss). but the 50mm is a lens that was standard back in the day. (henri cartier-bresson? he used a 50mm on a small format camera. clearly the thing works). so this is what i'll be taking out with me for the next several weeks. we'll see what i can learn.

it's a whole different world with the 50 mm--you have to really move around and do a lot of recomposing to get a shot. but i kinda like it.

today, i hit the madison square park area (on my way to home depot). if you stand on the northwest corner of the park, you'll have one of the best views of the empire state building. i've yet to come up with a better than ordinary shot of that landmark, but i wanted to give it a try today.

i saw this instead. a rad bike. just waiting for me to take its picture.

was this a piece of art?

detail shot, of the wheel...this is for my friend, nicholas. crazy? crazy generous, crazy cute, girl crazy...which is part of why we all love him.

tried to get the flatiron in there somehow. i took many from this angle.

and then finally the bike's owner popped up and asked if he could get in the photo.
meet gary...photogenic gary. i thanked him for his modeling...

and that encounter, my friends, made my day.
more with the 50 mm to come.