Category Archives: photography

August 5, 2014 · 2:06 pm

CSI Nursery School

csi

 

This!

I saw this in a parking lot last Sunday and it struck me as so funny. Is this where the little investigators go to train?  Instead of blocks and legos do they do fingerprint dusting and dna testing?

Oddly enough, CSI does not stand for Crime Scene Investigation, but rather Congregation Sons of Israel. Apparently no one thought about how ridiculous this might be when they abbreviated their synagogue name. But then to make a sticker for the nursery school (I thought the PC name for that is pre-school), and use a handprint, no less… no one? Not a soul thought about the humor?

Personally, I would have done a fingerprint as a logo instead of a handprint, but hey, not everyone is a graphic professional.

Having sat on a synagogue board in the past – where the discussion of roof tiles and catering chairs, traffic patterns and fundraising efforts are discussed for weeks on end… this?

Yep, I will crown this with the famous MFTA status.

(And yes, I think I might be back to blogging. There are simply too many wonderful things that amuse me lately not to share.)

mfta approved

 

 

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July 4, 2013 · 12:06 am

Send in the Clowns

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I can’t help but think that dozens of clowns will come racing out of this truck when they lift the back up. I did not underestimate the creepiness of this vehicle.

Once again, poor Gary was urged to ‘catch up to that truck’ so I could get this shot. This is usually when he weighs in on whether it is funny or not.

A focus group of one.

When he decides what I am after is not funny enough I respond with, “fine, get your own damn blog.”

And he still makes sure I get the shot.

The man is a saint.

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June 20, 2013 · 1:56 pm

Video on Instagram… Vinekiller?

video for instagram

Well, well, well. Bless their little monopolistic hearts, facebook has just blown up Vine with video for instagram. And as much as I want to say it sucks… I can’t.

Quick run-through:

  • iOS and Android – Good move but I personally don’t care. But it is huge.
  • 15 seconds vs 6 – Don’t care that much, this is like bar mitzvah videos to me, sometimes less is more. Brands will love it. Little 15 second spots all over town… great opp.
  • Editing – This is big. Not sure why it is not in their bullet screen above; this is a big feature. The Vine purists will say that capturing it in one take is the artform – it keeps it fresh, it keeps it real. I get that, but really? Bullshit, everyone likes to edit.
  • 13 custom filters – Yum and they had to do it. And filters by frame can be beautiful, or really tacky depending whose hands they are in like anything else. I admit I love filters but as an artist I am in that crowd that wears the #nofilter hashtag proudly whenever I can. Because, you know, ‘I went to art school, yo.” (and yes, I am way to old too say ‘yo’)
  • Cover frame – lovely, I like that I can pick the frame for the feed. And brands… this is huge for you.
  • Cinema – OMG, I actually can’t say anything bad about stabilization. (Seriously, who doesn’t aspire to stability? What? That is not what it means?) There is no need to take a Dramamine when watching these vids, they are crisp and beautiful (with only a moderate amount of drinking while shooting, I am assuming).

I am still a huge fan of looping and think it is what makes Vine so cool when used correctly, so I am not sure not including it was wise. But I am not sure if Vine will survive this. On the other hand, Vine is the new frontier and the younguns’ are getting sick of the facebook clutter.

What are your thoughts?

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Filed under carry a camera, communities, current events, design, facebook, home video, photography, product reviews, technology

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June 18, 2013 · 10:04 pm

Time to Cry Tuesday – An End

All BadAll bad things must come to an end? I will hold on to this thought. And although this is some cryptic graphic messaging for all you Breaking Bad fans out there, when I passed this on the street today I liked to think of it as my personal message from the universe.

Everyone gets their share of bad. Some of us are over-achievers and we get our ‘bad’ in big, fat, miserable prolonged, heavy doses. I call this getting your bad out of the way all at once – the bad-efficient lifestyle. When calamity seems to follow you around like a lost puppy you sort of get used to it. Hostage mentality.

But being a realistic optimist I am going to hold on to the the idea that ‘all bad things must come to an end.’

Eventually.

Till ‘the end’ shows its lovely little light at the end of the tunnel, I will keep looking for the signs.

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April 10, 2013 · 9:42 pm

Crazy People

crazy-people

 

I could not love this picture any more. I crossed the street to take a shot of this canvas hanging on the back of a truck on West Broadway, and this guy stopped in front of it just as I was taking the picture.

Art is so often created by happenstance.

Walking down the street with me is not a bargain. Those who know me well know my famous, “Go ahead, I’ll catch up.” Those who love me unconditionally (AKA, offspring and BFFs) smile and know this is just the price to pay for hanging out with me. I make up for it in other ways. Those who are married to me (the subset of one) are incredibly tolerant and will even stand in a situation for my amusement (and theirs later on).

So, this image begs the question, “Why are crazy people such good lovers?” Here is a little exercise. Jump out of lurking mode (I know you are all there, I check the stats) and feel bad enough for my sorry ass to leave some comments answering to one or more of the following topics:

  1. Define crazy.
  2. Decide if this makes you more likely to admit that you are.
  3. In your experience, is there a direct correlation between being crazy and being a good lover?

Amuse me kiddies, I have had a tough few months!

 

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Filed under art, blogging, carry a camera, humor, New York, New York City, photography, places of interest

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April 7, 2013 · 8:58 am

You CAN pick your friend’s nose

Corbis-nose picking1

Remember that stupid saying,”You can pick your friends; and you can pick your nose; but you can’t pick your friend’s nose”?

I never really got that. I mean, people do all sorts of weird stuff with orifices (or is that orifici?), I would imagine a little nose picking amongst friends might be going on out there with the non-germphobic crowd.

I digress, this post was spawned by an email from the stock photography site, Corbis. I have been a Corbis customer since the olden days of graphic design when they would send out these delicious print volumes of stock photo images and we would flip through the pages to choose the right image. And instead of emails, we would receive teaser postcards with images like these to get us to call and do a search. Yes, I am aware this is the Art Director’s equivalent of the ‘I used to walk to school 10 miles in the snow’ story that my dad used to tell us. All you youngun’s, you will have these stories about archaic, clunky handheld mobile devices instead of the chip behind their ear that your kids will have.

Ughh… digressing again. The point is, the other morning, on a particularly difficult day for me (stay tuned for more on that on Tuesday), the photo above showed up in my inbox. It had that Sleeper-esque feeling about it and just the visual made me laugh. Their 20% headline was excellent for their purpose, but this headline popped into my head:

You CAN pick your friend’s nose.

I know, I am brilliant. What a lovely promo for a plastic surgeon… maybe a 2 for 1 deal! It made me laugh on a morning that laughing was the last thing I thought I would do, so thanks Corbis. But, the best part was yet to come when I clicked over to their site (yes it worked, they got the click-through from me and put Corbis top of mind), I found this photo… the pay off.

The proverbial ‘picked nose’.

corbis-nosepicking2

Yeh it could be time to pitch a plastic surgery team. Anyone in? Other headline ideas?

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April 11, 2012 · 7:07 pm

Big Yellow Butt on Houston

All this talk of Instagram this week had me clicking away just a little more than usual. I am also a big fan of Hipstamatic, I sort of like their filters better. But hey, they didn’t make a BILLION freakin’ dollars this week! Craziness, right? I am guessing there were a lot of tears in the Hispta-office this week.

Back to this picture. Colored jeans are all the rage this Spring and I know this because I have an (almost) 23-year-old daughter, a fashion blogger writing for me and a retail fashion client. Certainly NOT because I would put this 50-something, big ole butt in a pair of yellow jeans. And if you know me, khaki is the brightest color pants I would ever wear.

I would imagine it would be hard to drive west on Houston St. and not almost hit the car in front of you with that colossal sunshine booty looming on top of that building. Butt (cheap, I know)… I assume that was exactly what the Calvin Klein Art Director was thinking when they designed the billboard. I am thinking this will probably sell a lot of yellow jeans. Sadly, I am afraid they will not be all that flattering on everyone.

From a strictly artistic point of view (because I truly could not care less about fashion trends), I love this image. The crazy sky, the super bright colors of the billboard and all that industrial scaffolding (the Puck Building if you were wondering), the urban architecture and just a hint of red peaking through here and there.

Honestly, art is way more interesting than big yellow butts.

Or is it?

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December 14, 2011 · 9:23 pm

Tie-Dyed Einstein

Only in Woodstock! I love the way Albert had this sheepish look as if I had just caught him shopping for tie-dye, his apparent guilty pleasure.

We took a trip to Woodstock 2 weeks ago to see the Midnight Ramble, which I still need to write about. But in the mean time I have a series of amazing blogworthy shots that I have to share. I will do another post on just signage and probably one more on oddities. Yeh, I am back, alright.

This picture was taken in what Gary called ‘that other little hippie store’.

We split up for a little while and this is how the conversation went:

Me: Where are you now?

Gary: In that other little hippie store.

Me: Um, we are in Woodstock, you are going to have to be a little more specific.

A few minutes later I called Dr. Jimmy to again find out where they were. Here is how that went:

Me: Where are you now?

Dr. Jimmy: In front of the headshop

Me: Again, you are going to need to be a little more specific.

Woodstock was fun but a little too much like a hippie museum. Sort of like the 60s version of Disney. But it was fun. And hey, where else can you go from store to store and hear all Dylan all the time?

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March 14, 2011 · 10:29 pm

Time to Cry Tuesday – Just Kids

I don’t usually do book reviews here at Time to Cry, but this one I could not resist. I just finished reading Patti Smith’s Just Kids and it left an indelible mark on me. A promise made to a soul mate on the day before he died to write their story makes this all the more poignant.

Not because I am a fan of Patti Smith (although I am) or of Robert Mapplethorpe (I am(ish) with a caveat that some of his work is just way too graphic for me). But because this is the story of two of people who were their art. And simply because this is one of the truly great love stories. Not just of romance, but of  two people who were inextricably linked. The story of young artists feeding each other’s souls in a way that is almost difficult to understand. In many ways they were but one soul. Their relationship started as a romantic one and transcended Mapplethorpe’s coming out.

With NYC of the late 60s and early 70s as it’s backdrop, Smith has woven their story almost as if it were poetry.

As with any biographical account, I am sure the omissions where plenty and the story romanticized a bit, but the net of it all is that these two people were so incredibly connected. In many ways, one completed the other. They reveled in each other’s fame and suffered from each other’s failures. Their sense of responsibility to one another was inspiring.

If you create, this will give you chills. If you don’t, it gives you insight into the minds and hearts of those who do. And if you have ever loved deeply, this will give you a good old fashioned Time to Cry at the end.

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February 7, 2011 · 11:13 am

The Dog and Kandinsky

These neighbors have the absolute BEST garbage ever. They are the same ones who had the headless mannequin last week. I don’t know them but I am hoping to meet them soon. With such interesting garbage how can they not be interesting people?

Mel, of course, used the opportunity to view the artwork on her walk and add a little culture to her morning.

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