A Day in the Country

The photo to your left is the first picture I ever posted online on January first, 2007. That Christmas I got my first digital camera, a Canon PowerShot SX1 IS. I actually still own this ancient camera and recently used it to take some pictures during my sister's bridal shower this weekend. I have brought this camera with me to Nicaragua, Brazil, and El Salvador.

It doesn't take the best quality pictures in terms of clarity, but I kind of like that. I think it makes the pictures look more like paintings instead of super-enhanced digital nonsense. The picture above is (obviously) of the moon over a distant background of trees across the harbor from my house. I remember standing on my balcony that night in the freezing cold, literally not knowing anything about the camera in my hands, just snapping away.

As I'm looking through all my old pictures, I'm realizing I really enjoyed darker exposures; I guess I was going through my Blue Period. That's a Picasso joke. Anyway, here are some more pictures from the beginning of my photography saga.

The second picture was actually also published in the Ampersand a couple of semesters ago. That's me in the picture and the camera was on self-timer. I'm still waiting for someone to apply to my craigslist post looking for a model. I was a very proactive 17-year-old.

The third picture is of some orchids that I purchased from Fordham's annual flower sale. I managed to keep them alive for two days. At least I got a good capture out of them.

The last picture is of some random building in the city. I took it while I was in a car with my friends driving back from Pennsylvania after a weekend at my friend's lake house. We were stopped at a red light. I remember when I posted the picture on my blog and my friends asked, "Were we even in the same car as you? Where did you take it?" I thought that was the best compliment I ever got on any of my photos. Its the simple things really.

Done with the photo gallery for now. If you want to see any of my older pictures you can find them at www.photoblog.com/x3n117

BX

Above all else you can't deny reality. The rate of violent crimes per 1,000 people in the Bronx is 5.16. These crimes include rape, murder assault, and robbery. The rate of violent crimes per 1,000 people in the United States is 2.91. There are 1,247 violent crimes per square mile annually in the Bronx, compared against the 175 violent crimes per square mile in the U.S.

This past summer was one of the most violent summers in the Bronx. on August 9th emergency medical services responded to almost 1,000 calls that day alone. Eight people were shot and killed in the borough one Friday night, August 13, and fourteen people were shot in the BX the previous Friday night.

"If you had more than a dozen people shot and wounded in Manhattan on a single night, there would be an outrage. When it happens in the bronx, it doesn't cause much of a fuss at City Hall," said EMS Division Chief James Booth.

"They're shooting a lot, spraying, popping rounds. They'll hit someone a half a block away," said Booth.

Since the summer of 1990, when crime rates began to soar, EMS has decreased the time it takes to respond to a trauma case from 8 minutes, 4 seconds to 6 minutes, 49 seconds.

Having lived in the Bronx during the notorious summer of 2010, I can definitely attest to seeing quite a few things. Anything from witnessing on the street arrests, to physically walking through a police barricade without realizing it (also a testament to my absent minded-ness). I've had cops break down my neighbor's door after a call for a domestic dispute went awry, and not even blinking an eye when four or five NYPD cars race down Fordham Road. As much as I love the Bronx for all its quirkiness, it definitely is not a borough for the faint of heart.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/bronx/2010/08/24/2010-08-24_boros_crime_stats_rising_like_the_heat.html#ixzz1HNJheEaF

La Gente

Today was so bright and sunny I just couldn't get enough of it. I can seriously feel spring almost bursting up from the ground but its still bitterly cold out! Blerg!

Like I said, I live on Arthur Avenue in the most delightfully early 20th century establishment filled with colorful people. Theres this one window I look out a lot as I'm brushing my teeth, or talking on the phone, or just when I'm musing about my daily occurrences.

What I like most about what's outside this window is the complexity of the different apartments that I see. For example, the apartment in the forefront of the picture on the left is my neighbors' (4A) wall, the apartment roof below is my next door neighbor's roof, the apartment with the red fire escape is entirely separate from the one next to it, and then the three houses after that are all separate from each other. The large monstrosity in the background of the photo is the back of a building across the street from me.

Its all very confusing, but I feel like its a sort of apartment jigsaw puzzle. All these homes were built at different times, but they fit so perfectly together and I just love looking at them and imaging what people are doing inside of them. Hence the title of the photo "La Gente" which means "the people" in Spanish. When I look at these buildings I see the people that inhabit their insides instead of the outsides that protect their people. (hahaha logic fun!)

Excluding the wall of my neighbor, Mr. 4A, I feel like the building with the red fire escape is the Dad, the building next to it is the mom, and the three buildings next to that are their daughters; they are the Coyle family, and my parents and my two sisters watch me brush my teeth, chit chat, and ponder all day long.

Timez Skware

I've decided that the antithesis of Arthur Avenue is somewhere around 47th and 7th, or more commonly known as Times Square. I love living on Arthur Ave, a stone's throw away from my favorite digs: Mugz, Simons, and 2500 Arthur Ave, an apartment building that houses approximately all of my friends, my wonderful boyfriend, and even a few pooches that I happen to know.

Coming out of the subway stop on 42nd street after being submerged in the shallow hell that is the MTA subway system since Fordham Road, is like traveling through the undersea cable, from New York to London. One could say they are both cities, however, anyone that has traveled to both New York and London know they are very different. One city represents the old world, an age

in which the Parliament, and Westminster Abby ruled the school. Nowadays, places like, oh right, Times Square, contain the consistent, throbbing heartbeat of a new school. (Not intended as a reference to The New School, an establishment that has no accreditation whatsoever and, for all intents and purposes in this obnoxious metaphor, is basically the equivalent of Queens) So it is that the Bronx is reminiscent of a time and place where community mattered as much as a solid cup of coffee, a bagel, and the distant chatter of a native tongue.

So here you have it, two photos from a place I am DELIGHTED to not call home. No editing, no effects, just raw images. If you haven't already figured as much, I took this pictures during the summer, when I would spend my days waiting for my overworked and overpaid boyfriend to descend the throne of his Barclay's chair, and hang out with me.

Isn't the cop in the second picture just so silly? I feel like I can smell the donut he just devoured. Strawberry frosting and colored sprinkles.