Picture within a picture. Thanks for letting us work on it.

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#15

Very nice shot to work with --- thanks!

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#12

The story of a photograph can be quite explicit and easy to detect, as is the case with journalistic or documentary photography. But oftentimes it's not a narrative type of story that a photograph tells.

With these photos, Abbott had dedicated herself to what would become her best-known project, "Changing New York" (1935-39). Commissioned by the Roosevelt administration as part of its response to the nationwide economic crisis, Abbott saw the enterprise as both a way of documenting the City and as a personal work of art.

In 1938, hoping to take advantage of the fifty million visitors expected at the New York World’s Fair of 1939, the publisher, E.P. Dutton, offered to bring out a selection of one hundred images from the project accompanied by a text by the renowned art critic Elizabeth McCausland, who also happened to be Abbott’s life partner. Eventually, the book turned out to be more of a tourist guide, and McCausland's text was edited down to bare information about the various buildings. The original captions, however, do tell quite a story.

The Flatiron Building, while being a source of pride for New Yorkers when it was built in 1902, was also a source of anxiety, since people felt it was unstable and likely to fall down at any moment. McCausland captures this in her text, which did not get published: "Staggering before the onslaught of the buses, taxis and motor cars which unceasingly pour down Fifth Avenue and Broadway to converge at the Flatiron Building, it seems about to topple over, a modern Tower of Pisa. The emotion generated by its precarious attitude is amusing and also a little terrifying, as if the denizen of the city realized but would not confess the frailty and impermanence of its structures."

Of the two photos, the first, to me, tells this story more than the second, paradoxically because it doesn't include the traffic mentioned in the caption. The prominent building, bold and assertive, is also strangely vulnerable due to its angle and that of its diminutive neighbor with the paint sign.

The worm's-eye-view of the first image fortifies this impression. What little architectural photography I do always has this point of view, probably because I'm too lazy to climb a lot of stairs, or too cheap to hire a helicopter.

Here's one of my images that tries to tell the story of a dialogue, or is it an argument, between an office building and a humble street sign.

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Nice shot. Thanks.

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W

#10

I've always thought of P mode as being ISO priority mode, you set the desired ISO and let the camera decide what aperture and shutter speed to use. Then, in program mode, you can override those settings.

I'm surprised that you are the only person, as far as I can tell, to mention the humble kit lens. Of course, when starting up photography, it's not only the most useful but it's downright necessary since it's probably the only one. But once the bug has bitten, it quickly loses its status having been obsoleted by faster lenses or specialty lenses. Despite that, many photographers decide not to get rid of it, maybe because one never wants to forget one's first, in either romance or cameras.

Very nice scene. Thanks for sharing.

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#9

Nice subject to work on. Thanks.

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#6

Very beautiful scene. Thanks.

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