Spring arrived in New York… I thought. We had many warm days in March and sakura – cherry blossoms – decided to bloom a bit earlier this year. Last Saturday, on March 24, I went out to shoot sakura and this kind called Someiyoshino were in full bloom. But right after this, the cold came back. It was a cold week and I had to put my coat back on…
Anyways on that shooting day I decided to take the a77 with the kit 16-50mm f2.8 on, which I bought in October. Wrong decision… The files from the camera are awful and it’s a truly useless camera, at least for me as a still camera. I had decided to sell it so I wanted to shoot with it for the last time. Looking at the files I was re-convinced about my decision to sell it. I did sell it a few days ago at Adorama. I only got half of what I paid in October… I’ll try to consider it as a discount 5-month rental fee to try the new toy… I will post a full (very negative) review some day.
The kind of sakura in the photos below is called Yaezakura, which is very pinkish and shaped differently. These usually bloom in the second half of April but they’re likely to bloom soon. I took the photos on April 17, 2010, with my D700/Nikkor 27-70mm f2.8. I reprocessed the second photo and posted on 500px here. I will also add it to the NY Street Gallery.
It was warm and nice this Sunday. My friend invited us to go to this antique shopping place in Chelsea. I’m not into antiques but thought new experience was always good and it would be a good photo op. Brought my usual walk-around set – D7000/35mm f1.8.
Folks at 500px picked my image which I titled “
Snaps from wandering in Manhattan with D7000/35mm f1.8 last Sunday. I have nothing to do with Bloomingdale’s but these old-looking letters have always appealed to me, so got the shot.
I went to the Sony Store in this Sony building on Madison at 56th St. I wanted to check out their touch-screen desktop.
I’m a Mac user – the only reason why I’m interested in a PC is because the program I have to stream Japanese TV can only be run with Windows. Besides, the touch screen means less clutter, which is good for the small dining table at my place. The touch screen function worked very well – might get one. Or would the next generation iMac would have touch-screen?
Took a break at this small place, Obika – Mozzarella Bar, in the space open to the public across the Sony store, surrounded by glass walls. This salad with smoked wild Alaskan salmon with mache leaves, arugula, avocado and tomatoes was awesome. Simple but perfect for me. This place had a lot of organic stuff, and their chicken for example was free-range, which I wouldn’t eat of course. The walls are all glass including the ceiling – the open, bright place felt very good. Became my favorite place although I didn’t expect it from a place in public space. I used to like Mozzarella but don’t eat any dairy any more. But if I ever decide to eat it again, it has to be certified in terms of being organic and animal welfare, which this place seems to care. My kind of place – bravo.
Kiosk in a subway station.
Two weekends ago, on Feb 5, it was a relatively warm day so I decided to take a water taxi for transportation. You can buy a ticket for $4 and just hop on. There’s one every hour or so on weekends. It was still too cold for a boat ride but I enjoyed it. These boat rides make me feel like I’m sightseeing. I definitely recommend trying these water rides occasionally instead of the subway since the real beauty of Manhattan can be seen when you get out of the island. But not in February…
There’s this interesting building, 
This is where we got off, South Street Seaport
South Street Seaport – after we got off the boat
“Freedom Tower” going up
The Empire was beautiful – I like it in blue.
Where we had dinner – 
Tempe (meat alternative) gyoza. 
Curry/miso ramen. They follow the microbiotic style so you can’t expect salty ramen. Still this is a precious place for me, a pescatarian – I love gyoza and ramen but even “vegetable ramen” at most places contains chicken/port/beef stock in the soup. 
This evening It started to snow lightly – no wonder it got cold today after many warm days here in New York. I immediately thought of making a picture I’d had in mind for a long time. I think I got what I wanted. The main frame is in color, but presenting B&W first…
Anyways, when exciting news like this come in, I’d start to hear this mantra – “equipment doesn’t matter” – more often. I hate hearing this. It’s wrong. It’s this kind of extreme and shallow perceptions that mess up the minds of beginning photographers or mess up the whole world for that matter. Like calling a certain people this and that after a terrible incident takes place just because it was carried out by individuals who happened to be part of that people. Of course equipment matters. And of course, equipment is not everything.