A long time ago I promised a full 360º panorama of Times Square. Finally, I've got everything worked out. I've been working with my good friend Gabriel for many months now perfecting our panorama technique and implementing it in journalistic ways. We've been doing more and more and we've finally got pretty much everything nailed down.
The Olympics are over, finally. I have a lot of respect for athletes that live lives of discipline and devote themselves ot being the best at what they do. How many of them actually do it sin dope, we'll never know. But even though NBC was hoarding their exclusive coverage and in the end hurting themselves by forcing people to pirate video, a lot of great pictures were made during the 16 days. I helped produce this gallery of pictures and audio from the games.
A camera is basically a box with a hole. This Czech photographer is definitely doing his own thing.
Driver uses his car to release some rage on two cyclists. via Prolly
But also some cool ones. Like track cycling; sprints, pursuit and keirin. And British riders are cleaning up.
Cameron Spencer/Getty Images
I mean seriously, with sports like speedwalking, synchronized swimming and shooting why can't video gaming be an olympic sport.
Yesterday, I went to the Queens Museum of Art to photograph the "panorama" of New York City. I definitely was not prepared for what was inside that lonely building sitting in the shadow of the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Imagine looking at a huge aerial photograph of the city, then make that picture three dimensional and jump into it. You become Godzilla and the Twin Towers become the size of a hot dog. This was how I spent my Tuesday in Queens.
(Photo by Gabriel Dance)
The Panorama of the City of New York is the jewel in the crown of the collection of the Queens Museum of Art. Built by Robert Moses for the 1964 World’s Fair, in part as a celebration of the City’s municipal infrastructure, this 9,335 square foot architectural model includes every single building constructed before 1992 in all five boroughs; that is a total of 895,000 individual structures. It is the thing that everyone who has visited the Museum recalls. -via queensmuseum.org.
Stay tuned for panoramas of the "panorama" coming soon via nytimes.com.
Cadel Evans is a real piece of work. He's an Australian cyclist that seems to be suffering from a kind of Mike Tyson/Naomi Campbell syndrome. He's obviously trippin.
Straighten up boy.
Jenn and I made a last minute trip to Atlanta last weekend. We were kind of feeling trapped in the concrete jungle so we bought tickets and flew down the next day. It was a great relaxing time. Did I mention there are two Soul Vegetarians in Atlanta. If you're vegetarian and didn't know that you need to be slapped.
But when I can't get out of the city, Central Park is always a great escape where you can really feel like you've stepped outside of the city. Check it out.
18 flights of stairs below 45th St. and 2nd Ave. Hard hat, muddy boots, reflective vest. A day at work doesn't get much better than that. Check it.
Circular Bike made from Salvaged Parts via treehugger.com
In other news Ricco Ricco, 24 years old, 2 stages wins, fucks over his whole team.
Stage 10 on Monday is so brutal. It's the highest point of the Pyrenese mountains at 6938 ft. My friend Rob Mackey rode it last weekend in the L’Étape. Get into it.
This is the first 360 panorama that I attempted to shoot in HDR. HDR is High Dynamic Range which just means combining different exposures of the same frame so that the single image is more evenly exposed. The problem I have with the HDR stuff most people do is that they are embarassingly over done. Sometimes cool but when applying this technique in photojournalism you have to use restraint. My goal is to use HDR but in a subtle way.
Full 360 panorama coming soon.
A crazy idea by the Metro editor turned into a cool opportunity for me to do a 360 panorama on a subway train. Going into it, I had no idea how crowded the Q train would be at 8 a.m., I only hoped it wouldn't be packed. Well it was; 128 people. So setting up a tripod was out of the question. But I did get something to work with. It's an interesting story.
A New York Slice of America, July 3: 128 Riders United
The sun is at the perfect height everyday when I walk out of work this time of year.
The waterfalls are now flowing in New York City. Four were created by artist Olafur Eliasson and began flowing on Thursday.
"Four of them, to be exact. Together they form a mammoth work of shoreline land art called “The New York City Waterfalls.” It is the brainchild of the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson working with the tireless Public Art Fund and a host of public and private organizations and donors. Between 90 and a 120 feet high and up to 80 feet across, they cascade into Whitman’s beloved East River from four dense, plumbed scaffolding structures on or just off the coasts of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Governors Island, making some of New York’s most thrilling waterside vistas more so."
(Vincent Laforet for The New York Times)
In other news I photographed a mouse scurrying through my office today. Better than rats I guess.
I have a friend who works at the design firm R/GA. Besides turning out some amazing work they made this cool interactive website last christmas for fun.
Its hard to think of a photographer today being as huge of a celebrity as Weegee was in his day. He was an amazing character and he lived in the same neighborhood as I do. Read this article, Crime Was Weegee’s Oyster.
International Center of Photography — Getty Images
In other news, its officially summer in New York. That means beautiful light and lots of people everywhere. I just bought a new lens and I'm trying to force myself to carry my camera with me every time I leave the house, no matter what.
Its not lens dirt, its window dirt.
New York got once step closer, albeit a small step, to being car free. Ok, so that will never happen. But three Saturdays this summer for 6 hours at a time you'll be able to walk/ride down the middle of Park Ave. without worrying about getting hit by a crazy irresponsible driver.
Download the map.
The weather has been absolutely crazy this week. Maybe not where you live but the people in the Midwest have been getting hammered. Cedar Rapids, Iowa, among other places, is under water tonight.
Then there was Tim Russert.
And then I just happen to come across this picture while surfing the wires. Quite simply one of the most amazing photographs I've ever seen. I gotta give props to this woman for doing what even veteran photojournalists have trouble doing in violent situations, running toward the action and getting the picture.
The view from Lori Mehmen’s front door on Tuesday evening. (Lori Mehmen/Associated Press)
'According to Lori Mehmen of Orchard, who captured the funnel cloud on her digital camera, the twister came near the ground just briefly and then went back up in the clouds. Besides extensive tree and crop damage, no human injuries were reported.'
I'll never forget a weather experience I had when I was a kid. I was about 11 years old living in Chesapeake, Va. It was summer and my sister and I were at home watching my younger brother who was about a year old at the time. Growing up in Chesapeake it seemed like we would get tornado warnings/watches every day of summer. But this day the warning was right. I remember standing at the back door peering out and watching the boat in our backyard leave the ground and fly away. Since then I've been facinated with weather like tornadoes and hurricanes. That's my anecdote.
Minus my recent "extended vacation" I've been working on a few projects lately. Now that my book is done I'm looking to get my next long term photography project rolling. I've got a few ideas but nothing is underway. Nonetheless, I'm very excited to start shooting again.
Here's a few things I've done recently.
The Whitney Museum does an exhibition every other year of modern art. Whitney Biennial 2008
The $250 Million East Bathtub at Ground Zero
The new New York Times building.
Call it self promotion or whatever you like but I'll be honest, I like people to see my work. I'll even go as far as to say, I like people to like my work. But when they don't, sometimes I get discouraged but in the end it makes me want to work that much harder. Keep your heads up.
