This is Provia 400, mostly over-corrected (because it’s fun), cross-processed (because I can) and pulled 1 stop (because I overexposed the whole roll by 2 stops). It’s good to know you can get away with nonsense like that.

Landon was able to successfully find the only thing in the frame that remotely resembles the color of her hair.

We’ve been to the pier. Or the almost-pier. I don’t know.

When along came a curious visitor.

We’ve been very impressed.

Also this fellow seemed terribly afraid of that floating cage.

All that activity got us hungry. We ate at Penny’s Palapa!

And spent some nice time with a man wading unceremoniously in this tide pool full of disgusting objects. The ocean is right there, my friend.

This adorable portrait.

Some sand in various shapes.

These are good times.

But first it’s time to be silly.

Getting back to business. This is my uncle.

He’s doing that.

Hi, I’m having a nice time in the sun.

See I told you.

Hotdogs ready in 5 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Impromptu ‘on our way to havin’ hotdogs’ dance!!!

Those people in the background were very loud and disturbing. Sorry, but some people came to the beach for some relaxation not listen to the twenty most fabulous stories about your stupid dog.

But wait, what’s this? Is that…

Look, it’s coming this way!

The Canadian Coast Guard hovercraft.

Now I must admit that this had me excited, and I will explain.

But first, a bit about rocks.

Standing on them is a good idea.

Ah, see. Satisfying, isn’t it?

Okay, that’s great. Can we go look at this hovercraft now?

I don’t know. Once you’ve seen one hovercraft, you’ve seen them all.

Well, when I was a boy I was treated to the same surprise on the same beach. I remember this fascinating experience quite fondly. That caused me to go in to snap mode. The perfect time to have a Nickelodeon Photoblaster hanging off the neck.

Hoping that doesn’t end.

But all things do, and we relive them on our point and shoot LCD displays.

Well hello. See that phone on the table? It would never take another call. How’s that for mysterious.

One day when I was sitting in the park I took a picture and a guy in the background looked very unimpressed.

Getting some fishing in.

Coffees. I can tell that I was reading Gravity’s Rainbow at the time, because there is also a dictionary on the table.

Hm, I wonder what will come next.

I’ve just completed a race in my second racing season, driving for Scuderia Toro Rosso this year at the Turkish Grand Prix, in Istanbul. At that link there is an informative lap diagram with numbered corners that may help you follow this post.

For an introduction to the circuit, and a chance to meet an individual represented by one of the AI drivers that I battle with in this race, you can preview A Lap of the Istanbul Grand Prix with Mark Webber. Yeah! Mark is awesome. In addition to being the only driver in the paddock with the balls to come out and say that taking Formula 1 to Bahrain this year is a moral catastrophe, he also does an insane amount of cocaine. Which we can’t fault him for because clearly his teammate Sebastian Vettel drank all of the Red Bull!

Well, I wonder where I was. Oh, I drove a great race today, and the circumstances allowed for a lot of fun. While watching back the replay of the race I began to make screenshots to highlight some of the moments. Before long I was thinking that I might as well put this on the internet somewhere.

Allow me to set the stage. During the practice sessions leading up to the race I had refined the set up of my car to a point where I was feeling confident through every corner except the multiple apexes of turn 8 as Mark helpfully illustrated above. This is possibly the most challenging single turn in Formula 1. It’s very difficult to perfect this corner because it must be driven right on the edge of the performance limits of the car for a significantly sustained period of time. Normally a corner has a single apex. You approach, brake, hit the middle of the turn and as your demand upon grip in a lateral direction reduces, you can afford to invest more force through the tires to move in a forward direction. Turn 8 requires a constant compromise between the application of the throttle and several finite adjustments to the steering as the driver negotiates the most efficient line through four apexes, and the intervals aren’t equal.

In real life, the driver must endure pressure up to five times the force of gravity for 9 seconds while holding their breath to prevent their lungs from collapsing. Unfortunately, video game simulations haven’t yet reached that point, but they do factor for variables such as fuel weight and tire wear and they do at least attempt to model the sophistication of a Formula 1 car’s aerodynamics and suspension systems. My point being, it is difficult to get it all dialed in right, even in a game.

By the time qualifying rolled around, I had only begun to imagine how I was going to be taking this turn throughout the race, but my lap times were dropping. I made it past the first two elimination rounds of qualifying in to the top 10 drivers, and the final round of qualifying. Then the sky opened up to make way for rain. Qualifying 3 began as water built up around the track. I chanced dashing out with dry tires in hopes that I could place a single hot lap before wet tires were absolutely necessary, and by some manner of luck, I completed my best lap of the track yet at 1:28.765s. No other drivers caught the last of the dry conditions and thus I earned myself pole position.

Why am I talking about this. Well I don’t know. Let’s look at what happened in the race. At 40% distance, this will be 23 laps. All simulation settings enabled.

A bit of wheel spin as the lights go out. Now although my car says Red Bull on it, I’m not actually on team Red Bull, I’m on team Scuderia Toro Rosso, which is basically a junior team for Red Bull.

In the lead as I hit turn 2. Now the way to tell these 2 Red Bull teams apart is the muted yellow tone on the nose cone of my Toro Rosso compared to the bright yellow on the Red Bull. The charging bull on the Toro Rosso is also a fully drawn in design whereas the Red Bull is a simple vector graphic.

Under pressure early on not only from Vettel in the Red Bull behind me, but Webber in the other Red Bull hidden in behind while Hamilton in the McLaren also looks for a gap up the inside.

But as Vettel aggressively tries to take me on the inside of turn 3 he takes too much kerb and ends up facing the wrong direction, destroying the front wing of Jenson Button’s McLaren in the process. And Travis Blanston, sailing smoothly away with just Webber to worry about.

Correcting a short off-track jaunt as I push hard to try to build a gap between myself and Webber in the early laps.

Leading down the front straight, the field spread out slightly after the first few laps. But I brake too late into turn 3 this time and Webber just barely manages past.

Nailing the final exit of Turn 8 running flat out. One of the things that makes turn 8 fabulous is that it leads out on to two long straights so if you wreck your exit you’re going to lose a lot of time at high speed. This time I get it just right, which gives me a great opportunity to take first place back.

Committing to pull out from the slipstream to a late brake down the inside of turn 12.

Webber, refusing to let up as I force him around the outside. But it’s not going to be easy, because the track is about to snake back and forth through a low speed chicane giving Webber a second chance with an inside line of his own.

Side by side through turn 13 as we prepare for the final corner before the front straight.

My turn back through the inside and this time I make it stick.

But I fumble again, overbraking into turn 7 which lets Webber carry his speed around the outside.

As we go side by side into turn 8! Because the ideal line through turn 8 is so much faster than a poor line it’s a superb place to defend your position, there’s just no way around through there. But to go in side by side is completely different, and faced with such a tight angle on the inside he’s forced to break early and let me through.

Here you can see how far off the rubbered-in racing line Webber is.

As I come down the front straight on lap 8, Vettel and Alonso pull off to pit for new tires. This was actually my scheduled pit stop as well but I felt confident with my pace and my tires were still feeling good. I need to do everything I can to build a gap to Webber before my pit stop. He is still on my tail with Hamilton in tow now who has caught us up while we battled all across the track, slowing us down.

But on lap 9 I take myself off by giving  just a little too much throttle through the final chicane. At this point I had planned to stay out for another lap before pitting since I didn’t feel my tires falling off too badly and I wanted to minimize the risk of running in to traffic that would hold me up in the pit lane.

But having been spooked by this off, and with the pit lane right in front of me, I have mere moments to make the call. Wager another entire lap on these tires, or put a fresh set on to restore the confidence I need to take these positions back.

I dive in to the pits, following Webber and Hamilton who made the same choice. And by the looks of it, one of the Ferrari’s is also coming in.

The pit crew spring in to action as I pray for a quick stop.

My crew holds me just briefly as they allow for Webber to roll by and I’m out in 5.8 seconds with 4 new tires.

And then looking back I realize that I’ve somehow jumped Hamilton in the pits, which has made my job a lot easier.

But Hamilton hasn’t given up either as he puts a very aggressive move on me  in to turn 7. Just like last time with Webber I chase him hard through turn 8 to give myself an opportunity to pass down the straight.

I slide down the slipstream with a little more top speed on Hamilton than I expected to have.

To make matters worse he brakes very early and deprives me of the space I need to pull out from under him. And despite it being only a light tap, I pay the price.

Or do I? Yes, that’s a magical floating front wing. I bet Adrian Newey will be interested in what my team has managed to do with our aerodynamics package!

And for the next several laps, this is the best view that I get of Mark Webber up ahead. This gives me a good opportunity to drive by myself and develop a rhythm.

I reel him in mere tenths of a second at a time, but becoming uncertain how much longer I’ll be able to keep up the pace as my tires begin to age. I have to make them last the rest of the race.

And as I round turn 9 in to the back chicane I come across a surprise.

Webber has spun himself out.

And I’m through back in to the lead. I’ve got just 6 laps to go now.

And then the final challenge. After a disastrous start, Vettel has charged back through the field and found his way in to open air behind me. I flip my fuel mixture back to fast mode and Vettel and I start trading fastest laps.

But it will be this way until I cross the finish line, still with a healthy gap of 4 seconds, 122 kilometres later.

And the final results. Hamilton and Button, nowhere to be seen. I know Buttons race was ruined when Vettel dismantled his front wing (Vettel got away from that with no damage, at least he didn’t pit for it), but I’ve no idea where Hamilton disappeared to.

Back in the Toro Rosso trailer getting cozy, checking out the championship standings. It’s pretty much all Webber and me this season. So Istanbul is over for another year. Up next, the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.

Coming up next, a collaborative portrait series of mutual pride. Crossing the water to the other land.

Well, this ones special. The ferry pulling in just after dusk at the end of a long week and ready to disembark. It’s a portrait of coming home.

And when I got back from New York, my ladies were waiting for me.

We made a fancy gathering on the coast in the Straight of Georgia.

My sister and I just having a real nice time on the rocks.

While we were hanging out on the grass a little bird came to visit.

He seemed very interested in our company.

And we became friends.

Deciding that a self portrait here into the sun was necessary.

Une cousin.

Guess I neglected to wind that roll in far enough. Some good family portraits coming up.

Rocking the Pignose.

Welcome back to my blog,. this is DUMBO.

Shots like these, I never know if there is a right answer to the question of which one do I prefer. But since it is my blog I can be redundant.

Here’s shteyn. Putting a face to those internet identities I’ve known over the years is one of those special highlights that I love about having the opportunity to travel.

And all the time I was in New York I was keeping my eye out for some real Brooklyn pizza. Well shteyn brought me here and we found our sweet satisfaction. Of course, we had to be patient. The lineup went down the block and it took a while to get in, but we had a great time.

That’s solid proof that it was good, right?

Afterwards we went to the local socialist cafe for some coffee and had the chance to enjoy some live music.

Later that night in the metro.

Randy and I decided to go up for a midnight view from the Empire State Building. Word.

Getting a bit wankish.

It was pretty chill up there, great time to go, especially since we did the top of the rock during the daytime.

Pretty sure that was 1/2s. Took a while to calm my nerves for that one but I wanted it desperately.

Peeping the lobby after returning to Earth.

Looking straight up just outside the main entrance.

Randy was real excited to find Derek Jeter in the metro, although I didn’t know who that guy was.

So on the last day in New York we returned to the cathedral where we didn’t miss the vertical tour this time.

I made this shot inside the roof. Basically, between the ceiling of the cathedral and the true roof. And to keep that old structure in tact they have implemented some quite elaborate engineering but you’d never know it from the main interior or even the exterior of the cathedral.

Some signs of the interesting themes that are found throughout the cathedral.

Scoping some dudes as we headed back to the hotel to grab our items and check out.

Yeah that’s on the negative so shut up. HI MY NAME IS NIKON I’M GOING TO MANUFACTURER A DEDICATED 35MM FILM SCANNER THAT CAN’T SEE THE WHOLE FRAME, HEHE OKEY 8D

Sometimes you just have to do some construction on your subway.

Sookie. Bill. Vampire Bill. SOOKIE.

Who’s that guy? Dunno.

At this point I remembered to make a photo of these steel curbs. I guess that’s better than laying new concrete all the time. Did you know that the invention of concrete allowed Roman engineers to accomplish the construction of the Colloseum?

New York was a shock to my senses, I could only imagine what it would be like to visit when I was a little guy.

For our last meal in New York we decided to go to Times Square and eat at McDonalds. We had actually eaten quite well for most of the time that we were in town, so we thought why the fuck not. Well, then we realized that we had to spent the next few hours on an airplane and we were no longer so proud of our great idea.

Here I am peering through the golden arches out on Broadway.

Once again, I was amazed by the efforts of the folks who work to keep New York clean.

One interesting performer who was actually asleep until I walked up.

When in New York please keep in mind that you have a chance to win $10,000 if you’re lucky and witness a cop being shot.

We ended up taking different flights home because Randy checked his luggage. Our flight was delayed over and over and I was able to transfer to a different flight because I was carrying my bags. Actually it was quite fortunate for me because Randy was forced to stay an extra night in an airport hotel. If I’d been stuck as well I would not have made the cute photos that you’ll see in my next post.

One day I was walking across the street and a motorcycle with a movie camera came around the corner.

Sometimes you just have to sit on a milk crate in the street.

While marveling at the texture of the street a taxi passed by. (surprise)

Inside MoMA. A security guard texting and nobody notices! Save the Leica.

That’s actually a view from one of the windows in MoMA. Loved that facade.

If you don’t already know what this is you probably don’t care. But on the left is the “companion” piece to Orange Car Crash Fourteen Times which gets my thumbs up.

Possibly my favourite piece at MoMA. Incredibly happy that I rangefindered the framing appropriately.

Nothing original but might as well.

An extremely rare specimen of Homo Photographicus. I was very lucky to spot this one amidst its hunt.

I think that was near Adorama. It was nice to buy some trix for a decent price.

Later I went to visit Strand and was fortunate to have Olivia’s help to find some rare books that I’d been looking for. Unfortunately I couldn’t find Ben.

Making metro art.

That art, courtesy of Central Park.

I was on my way to the Met to get grenades dropped on me from the second level in a room without an exit.

It’s Kodak Ektar 100 by the way.

Artemis.

Dionysus.

Young Hercules.

Neopagan.

Death of Socrates.

I may have been aiming for the most nonsense in one frame.

pod hotel where we stayed. Good place to do NY on the cheap.

Roof of the hotel.. just about the same view as one of the night shots from my last post.

Heading to Brooklyn.

Walking through the streets as the sun set.

Looking back.

Perch Cafe. There’s Kyle in the background. You may have known him from dA or perhaps he made you famous.

Being in the hot metro.

Being impressed by the metro’s abundant advertising.

We didn’t do too much shopping but that was one of my favourite stores in NYC.

Maybe subtle.

She was a real beauty.

Well, that’s almost everything. I have a couple more rolls to go through which feature more cute photography. Then I’ll have a good reason to develop the rest of the film in my fridge that I shot since NY. As always, thank you and please come again.

I’ve been stuck at this turnstile for some time, but it’s finally time to pass through. Back in New York, this was the familiar sight to the end of each night as I left the metro. And for the longest time it’s been the familiar sight every time I load up Lightroom and remember the mess of files that I needed to organize in order to continue with this blog. Some things happened. I lost my job after I got back from my trip, and then I found a new job but throughout that experience I never fully gained back the motivation and energy to focus on my photographs.

And then I started receiving some spam from a venue in Brooklyn that I went to while I was there and I started to miss NY a lot. So for you and I, here’s a further taste.

One thing I loved about this hotel was the open access to the roof which had a beautiful view of the city in each direction. A great place to unwind after the long days of ‘vacationing.’ In a place like New York you’re trying to do everything you can each day.

On Tuesday morning I ate my breakfast from this window while I watched the day in progress.

Plans for today were a) to meet a contact from craigslist to purchase some of these things. I’d been watching out for more of these things for years since Kevin gave me one of the two that he found on eBay back in the day. So while I was in New York I somehow fluked out and came across a craigslist ad for them by mistake. His name was Frank. Filmcase Frank to be exact. And for $10 I had 2 more x-ray proof cases to protect my films on the way back home. So I bought more film. And b) Museum of Natural History. c) Perhaps spend some time in Central Park.

It seemed ridiculous to photograph fake animals but they were too photogenic to ignore, really.

Action shot.

He was a nice man.

MoNH was amazing but I don’t see how it’s possible to see or absorb everything there in one day.

We strolled through the park a bit after the museum. She’s trying to lean out of the frame on the right.

There was a photographer behind me shooting a Hasselblad who captured me capturing this. I tried to search the net for it afterwards but never came up with anything. I bet his blog is way behind too.

Some folks were helping children make giant soap bubbles. I really enjoyed observing their amazement.

Some creative aerobics in the park. One thing I missed photographing was the incredible number of people exercising in Central Park. The roads in there are dominated by joggers but I never felt like there was a good shot to make for some reason.

I was pretty tired that day, so I went back to the hotel and rested for a bit while my travel mate Randy went out for dinner.

I brought my ipod up to the roof.

Eventually I left and I wandered around Manhattan for the rest of the night.I secured some pizza to eat and eventually I found myself in Washington Square near the university.

There were a lot of people there to enjoy the fountain which seemed like a decent idea.

They were talking to each other.

I found a bench to sit at and then I read for a while. Gravity’s Rainbow.

Came across this scene on St. Marks. As a victim of bedbugs what I find most disturbing about this display is that they actually managed to depict an artistic yet convincing bed bug. And yeah, so I guess I don’t want to think about that anymore.

Nice marmot.

Well thanks for coming back to my blog. I bet you never thought that would happen. In the next update, I’ll take you to MOMA. And maybe if I remember what ISO I shot all my film at since the summer I’ll develop and scan more images.

After the patio lounging episode on Sunday we made our way back to Manhattan and brought ourselves to 30 Rockefeller Plaza, Top of the Rock.

Now that you’re looking at this web page I think that you deserve advanced notice. In this entry I will visit the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island. I arted the shit out of that place. Just so you’re aware… just so when it happens you won’t be able to say you were not warned. There’s some serious art up ahead. It is not the standard product I push, but trust me when I say that you’ll be back for more.

Weather was great. Still hot and humid, but smoggy.

Switched to some 125px.

Sure why not.

70 stories above New York. To the north you can see most of Central Park. To the south is the Empire State Building and further south is downtown and the financial district.

Back on the ground I got more interested in what I had been on top of.

We’d spent a long time up there and become hungry again so we went searching for a good place to eat. Passed up the M&M store…

125px was starting to get a bit slow.

How about that?

After wandering in circles for ever we managed to find a Thai restaurant that was cheap and delicious. Then we wandered back towards the Times Square area to take in the beauty.

When I saw these guys pull up to the light I was thinking I might have a great photo in front of me so I bent my elbows and waited for something interesting on the massive screen across the street. It seemed totally irrelevant, even ugly, and discouragingly I lowered my camera. At the same moment they all noticed me and got excited. Click. There’s no evidence on the negative that the girl was wearing anything at all on her feet. Interesting choice.

That was at Starbucks.

Such is the value of space.

On Monday morning my first stop was at the post office to send some post cards home.

Monday was forecast as being dodgy weather wise. A bit of a storm passed through in the morning but it cleared up quickly and so we decided to head for Liberty/Ellis island in hopes that it would be a little less busy that day.

When I got to Battery Park, that was happening.

I guess that’s something horrific meant to inspire hatred of unknowable foreign enemies and encourage a patriotic support for war. The Statue of Liberty on the far left and Ellis Island mid-frame.

What I wanted to capture was the degree that the boat suddenly leaned the moment we were within proximity of the statue as everyone rushed to that side of the boat. But I couldn’t seem to get a good frame of it at the time.

Yeah.

That’s totally what it looks like when you put the sun behind her torch.

Here is the icon of freedom in America, complete with black helicopter.

A group of boy scouts pass through the Registry room at Ellis Island. Between 1892 and 1954 twelve million immigrants were processed at Ellis Island. Most of them passed through this room.

Off to the side of that room was a room of tiny bunks where children slept. The room seemed creepy and rather claustrophobic. The bunks are smaller and tighter than they look here. I thought of how scary it might have been to spend nights there as a child in a foreign place, but for many it must have been such a comfort compared to the journey that lead them here.

For some reason the crank to operate the windows was fascinating.

That was a long day out in the heat of the sun through the queue to the ferries, the ferries and the islands. We went to do some more shopping on Broadway that evening and then found a place to have some greasy food. I had a bacon cheeseburger and Randy enjoyed a Reuben while we listened in to a conversation between the waiter and this fat kid who was sitting at the bar with his dad. The kid’s like “ey! Amigo! How about that chocolate deep fudge cake and I want a raspberry sauce on the side.” I almost spat out my beer and I’m like Randy did you hear that?

When we paid our bill and walked past to exit, father was asking him how he liked that dessert with the raspberry sauce and encouraging him to finish all that, and in a fabulous New York accent that I hadn’t heard too much of. Priceless experience.

Last we heard, our heroes were wrapping up a successful project in Washington, DC. Well, on Friday morning, Randy and I trekked over to Washington’s Union Station and hopped the Amtrak to New York.

Passing through Philadelphia.

I expected that deboarding the train at Penn Station in New York would be a unique experience, but what I didn’t expect was the claustrophobia (which I’m fortunately not very sensitive to) and bustle through tight sooty corridors and ceilings lower than I ever would have thought. I’d never felt like such an ant. Then we came up outside Madison Square Gardens and I knew I really was an insect here. We got our bearing then and dove back down into the Metro to reach the hotel.

Resurfacing at Lexington and 53.

The urge to start making photos won despite having arms full of bags so I just made a one handed shot as I walked.

But the hotel was just around the corner.

They seemed to have a decent presence of lighting and mirrors, so I got that out of my system.

We had a little rest and then made our way for Brooklyn where we had tickets to see some music at the Knitting Factory that night.

Just outside the venue.

Then I satisfied an important lifetime goal by seeing Elysian Fields play. I’d never thought I’d see them play live at all never mind be introduced to New York by one of my favourite bands.

On the train back to Manhattan.

That shot wasn’t a matter of timing. They were just slumped that way for the whole ride.

Morning at the hotel.

As we walked the streets of New York we played a game of adding up theoretical traffic tickets for honking. Can’t say I ever saw anyone being written up. New York is a city of criminals though, I can tell you that much.

We decided to visit the cathedral of St. John the Divine early on. Outside there was some creative sculpting to be found.

Oh, I was also going to mention that this roll of colour is a long expired roll of Afga Optima 100 that I’ve had for a while. I found the colours fussy to edit. Some parts of the roll is worse than others… a bit green, which I tried to compensate for but got bored of since it was preventing me from posting this entry.

I had heard through a friend that on Saturdays the cathedral offered tours through the hidden passages of the structure and up upon the roof and this was the main appeal to us. But as it turned out we missed the tour that day, so we bought tickets for the following week. More on that later, I guess.

Whether you are a political or religious speaker, it’s good to have figures like these to stand behind so as to freak the fuck out of your audience.

“Ground Zero.”

In New York, there’s Dunkin’ Donuts everywhere. I thought it was hilarious just for how random it was. I mean, Dunkin’ Donuts? Who knew? I guess I’d never seen that in any other city and I didn’t expect it. I started to think of it as Tim’s and it made more sense.

We spent that evening doing some shopping and eventually I switched that roll out for some trix.

Came across this scene while scoping out the area around the hotel that night.

Although DC was hotter, the situation in the NY Metro was different altogether. Hot. stale sooty air. All you can do is stand in the oven and wait for the for the next rolling refrigerator.

One morning in Brooklyn.

Having brunch with some friendly folks that we met at the Knitting Factory and their friends.

They took us to a place called Lodge which had some antler shaped chandeliers. They served water to the table inside old wine bottles. It helped me to feel like a classy, trendy person.

There was a lineup waiting for tables there, so we decided to be polite and do our lounging at some cafe which meant walking across the street.

This guy had walked past in the other direction only a few minutes before and he was quite popular with our table so when we saw him coming back we were ready for it.

Then this guy walked past with a kid on a dolly drinking a Coke! I thought that was hilarious, and far more entertaining than the long haired balding dude, but my enthusiasm was not shared.

Stopping here doesn’t seem like a bad idea. At this rate I’ll probably have two more New York entries.