Tue
Oct
6
Trespassed for a photo tonight, but it didn’t come out well. I like the ones where an object is kind of resting on a cloud of dead leaves. They end up looking pretty intentional.
I found a salt shaker and a vodka bottle on two different chess boards in Washington Square, but neither photo was good. All of these were taken within about a six-block radius of where I live on Washington Place East.
Peanut M&Ms and packing peanut on dead leaves. I swear I didn’t even notice the peanut connection until I’d cropped and uploaded the photo. I don’t even like visual puns, but since the pun itself and my recording of it were both unintentional, I don’t know who to be annoyed by.
Pop tarts bag in grate. Frick, is this another visual pun? Drainage grate as urban toaster? Now it feels like someone’s playing a weird trick on me.
Shattered glass in street. Can’t find anything wrong with this one.
Tea bag. I wish the tag was blank, but I still like this. It looks like the bag gave birth to the tag then shriveled up and died.
Sun
Jul
26
Part two of Friday night’s finds. Maybe it’s silly to feel the need to say this, but when I take these photos I never arrange or otherwise touch the objects. If I accidentally bump something with my box, I forfeit the photo opportunity and move on. I think it’s this first photo that made me type that out, because I really like the placement of the nail.
White glove and nail
Smashed lighter - this was in a crosswalk on Houston. About a foot away, most of the shards were in their own little area. I have no idea why I didn’t take that companion photo; I wonder if they’re still there.
“One Gallon” label and hair
Rubber band surrounded by a wet spot - I’ve always loved this post-rain phenomenon. I assume it happens because any kind of three-dimensional object creates a lee against the wind, so there’s less evaporation going on around it. I guess it’s so cool to me because it looks like someone purposely went around highlighting objects with water.
Thu
May
7
Some of those kernels are just hollow chaff with the flesh removed. What eats that way? Ants and ghosts.
Corn on the cob
Tomato and coleslaw
These weren’t anywhere near each other.
Wed
May
6
Orange slices (Lafayette between 4th and Astor)
A few months ago I had an idea for a series of found-object photographs. I’d shoot the objects where I found them, but instead of using natural lighting, I’d cover the object with some kind of collapsible, light-proof box or dome, fitted with its own artificial lighting and a hole in the side for shooting through. Basically a miniature photo studio you could use to isolate objects from their environments without actually removing them. The resulting photographs would be controlled portraits of uncontrolled subjects. Kind of weird to look at, and hopefully interesting.
I finally got a digital SLR today (Canon XSi), so after B&H I stopped at Radio Shack and the Container Store to get what I needed to make the the photo contraption. I’m calling it a street box since I haven’t had any better ideas yet. After a few test photos of my keys on the bedroom floor I went out and (because it was raining) explored spaces beneath awnings and scaffoldings.
Cigarillo and ash (Lafayette between 4th and Astor)
The hunt-and-capture process felt like killing rabbits. I was lucky to shoot the cigarillo about 30 seconds before a guy swept it up.
The box needs some modifications — it’s mostly held together with gaffer’s tape, the lens hole is a little too tight, and the internal light (an LED press-light with a plastic cup taped on to focus it into a spotlight) hangs down so low that I couldn’t shoot anything more than a few inches tall. For this reason I had to miss out on shooting a Poland Springs bottle full of urine.
Duane Reade match book (Broadway between Astor and 8th)
Chewing gum and ants (4th between Broadway and Lafayette)
Reese’s wrapper (4th between Broadway and Lafayette)
