I tend to cringe whenever someone brings up Times Square. The place is crowded, congested and littered with tourists. Walking there is like walking through a mine field. Thousands of tourists walking at a snails pace enamored by the glittering lights. Getting around them is virtually impossible considering how much space is taken up by vendors selling their counterfeit bags, glasses and other crap. Walking on the street is an option if you don’t mind getting run down by a cab, bicyclist or rickshaw. It’s a true exercise in frustration. It’s also a right of passage and an everyday routine for most New Yorkers. Last night on the news they spoke about a new plan to detour traffic or at least motor vehicles from the Times Square area. Opening up the streets to human traffic and giving people a little breathing room. Being that there was another street fair and some newly acquired elbow room we headed over to see what was up. The weather was perfect. The usual combination of tourists, theatre goers, locals and oddballs were out and about. I lived a few blocks over in Hell’s Kitchen for eight years. Although the area and particularly Times Square bare little resemblance to the old. It still feels good to get back to the West Side. The Navy was in town. The Naked Cowboy was well “almost naked” We made our way up to Central Park and over to Lincoln Center before we headed back. As always hunger found it’s way to our belly’s and we decided on “the Carnegie Deli”. In the past I had always seen these classic deli’s on the food network and featured in various shows but thought “who could eat that much?” Seriously, how can anyone wrap their mouth around a sandwich that huge and live? Well, since conquering Katz’s deli on the Lower East Side years back I realized I could conquer any sandwich. I’ll say this, Carnegie is good but Kat’z has them beat by a mile as far as taste and overall experience is concerned. It was good but I am staying loyal to my old favorite. Let the tourists eat there. Exhausted and with our bellies full we headed home. I met some nice people. Ate some good food and got some good pictures. All within an ear shot of home.
Tag: Street Fair
Faces in the crowd.
I never put much stock in what the weather man says. Though I do love all the TV wizardry they create waving their hands and making the panels behind them appear and disappear. The forecast for the weekend was rain, rain and more rain. Our original plans to head to the Bronx were scaled down to the Union Square are where there were two street fairs within a couple of blocks of one another. The idea of street food and particularly meat on a stick had my appetite at a peak. Before we headed out I decided to change lenses from my 28-135 to my 70-200 in order to get some candids from a safe distance. There is no beating NYC in terms of unique characters and individuals. Having a little distance to focus and not get attacked by aiming your lens at the wrong person is a big advantage. People react in a lot of different ways when they see you taking their picture. Most of those changes do not to help to produce a great image. I’ve made a point of always bringing business cards with me to give out to people I run into and photograph. Often offering to email them the image I shot. Through the day I met some interesting people, ate a lot of random food and got a whole lot of sun. I may have noticed a cloud or two towards the end of the day. But I never once felt a drop of rain.
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