Photo safari

My urban family was all either out of town or busy yesterday, so I did something I haven’t done in years: I wandered around the city. I used to do this all the time when I first moved to New York, picking an area that interested me and then hiking around for hours on end, but that practice dropped off sharply as I got a social life. I think I missed it.

Photo safari behind the cut. If you’re still on dial-up, I’m sorry.

Yesterday’s destinations: the African Burial Ground National Monument and South Street Seaport, camera in hand. I decided to start in Brooklyn and walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, which would put me about two blocks from the African Burial Ground and not far from the Seaport. My fear of heights always gets the best of me on the walk across the Bridge because holy shit, if you look down you see the water below you through the walkway. I try not to look down, but my fear center always knows that I am high up in the air and I’m sort of paralyzed. Can’t answer the cell phone for fear of dropping it, can’t put the lens cap back on the camera between shots because it’s not connected to the camera and you guessed it, I might drop it, can’t do a lot of shit except keep moving. So the shots from the Bridge were less than stellar. I did get a few I liked, though.

Manhattan Bridge peering through the buildings of DUMBO.

Then it was onto the African Burial Ground. This is a gorgeous monument, and there is definitely a sense of peace and power at the site, even though it’s only two blocks from City Hall. Maybe during the week it’s busy there, but yesterday it was very quiet and still.

On the way to the Seaport, I took a couple of shots of the Tweed Courthouse and met an old friend:

(I can find Ben Franklin anywhere. Ben and I are sympatico.)

The Seaport was bustling yesterday. There was a street festival going on, and there was a display of Indian dancing going on right by the boats, I think to celebrate Deepavali if I read the sign right. This made taking pictures of the ships a little more difficult than I anticipated because they were blocked by all sorts of kiosks and displays. I ended up going into the mall for lunch, playing a little Wii at the Game Stop (I am *so* getting Metroid Prime Corruption!), and knitting out on one of the terraces while watching a kayak race go past.

Masts over Schemerhorn Row. I imagine that this is what it was like in the early days of New York.

Brooklyn

All in all, I had a great day. I didn’t get a lot of great shots, but I did get in a bit of exercise and “me” time. And the shots don’t suck, they’re just not very artistic – they don’t scream “this is a great shot.” Something to continue to try for, I guess. It’s not like I have to be a master all at once.