AWAKENING...

FINALLY!

I'm beginning to feel better, more able to be out and about with my little pocket-sized point-and-shoot camera (Canon G7) with me. I have been to New York City multiple times but am still surprised on a daily basis as I walk around once again.

For such a huge city there are still times and places where you can be relatively alone (see photos): I have always enjoyed taking images of the structures and conveniences we humans have built for ourselves, only without any humans in the photo, so the artifice and uniqueness of what we have constructed is more apparent. I think of them as Empty Images, and I was first attracted to taking such photos when I was 21 and travelling in Europe. I was very poor at the time, but had a pre-paid Europass that allowed me to ride in the first class compartment of trains. Down to less than $5 a day, I could either eat or find accommodation, so I would have a cheap lunch, then ride the trains for a comfortable place to sleep (the compartment seats folded into long, cushioned benches), 4 hours out of town then 4 hours back each night. I would have to get off the train in some small village in the middle of the night, half awake, with an hour or so to kill before the next train arrived to take me back to my starting point. So I would go for walks at 3 or 4 am, the only person awake and walking in this or that little town in Italy, France, or Austria--a whole city to myself, with no people around, only the buildings and streets and cars and houses without the people who used them.

I am always amazed as well at how very many people have so very much money. One small example--I have seen THREE Mercedes Maybachs, like the one pictured here (photos). In a wonderful review of this car
(http://www.gpsmagazine.com/2007/07/mercedesbenz_maybach_review.php?page=1)
the editors' verdict was "Perfect for people sick of having money" -- It costs $425,000 (that's right, over one hundred grand MORE than the average price of a new home sold in the USA in 2006). And doesn't it make you so happy that the Bush 'middle class tax cuts' went primarily to those in the top 5% of income? Nice to see that they're using that money to good effect while the country's finances go in the toilet, eh? And how much IS the national deficit these days....

Finally, I'm always stunned by the beauty of this city and the quality of light here. I know there are many photographers who prefer the tropical light of South Beach, but I find the clarity and coloring of New York light to be breathtaking.

More to come,
Dan

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