Ker-plunk

I can only be happy on this miserable wet-and-rainy day by embracing the gloomy rain drops collecting on my fire escape. Among moving objects to photograph, I think water is by far the easiest, and also prettiest, things to snap at. It looks great from every angle, and if you catch it moving, it can create a wonderful blurry image too. You just can't go wrong!

I'm pretty sure this is the strangest Spring I've ever experienced. While last Spring I was lounging on the black beaches in El Salvador, this Spring I'm wearing thick leggings, boots, scarves, and coats. Nonsense! Last weekend was just so pleasant, and today, it took all my energy to jump outside for 10 minutes and take this picture.

Also, as a side note because of recent current events, I just want to say that I do not celebrate death, and those that do are idiots, blindly professing an empty patriotism. Biggest. Pet peeve. Ever.

Happy rain!

Little Nuggets

These are my two favorite nuggets that I babysit in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. Will and Claire. Love them.

London

Every day I am the helpless tug boat in the roaring harbor, bouyant, but just barely. I will admit that every day it gets easier. Unfortunately, because it gets easier, the memories start to fade away. Where do they go? Wolves. Carelessly tossed to the wolves, grey with red beady eyes, gnawing at the fleshy remembrances. To the bone, the marrow, pouring out onto the wooded floor thick with leaves and dirt from a rainstorm. The pack chewing, chewing, chewing until tiny twigs start to infiltrate the tasty meat, until they're gone.

Bronx Secret Garden

Who lives there and what does it look like from the inside?

"Bronx Secret Garden" is what my roommate called this picture when I uploaded it (on facebook) and I think it perfectly says everything I wanted this picture to say and more. Not only am I in love with the delicate intertwining of the plants on the fence, but I am just so curious as to who lives in this building.

The fire escape is such a lovely green and it makes me think that this fire escape is more special than all the others. I can only imagine that the red door leads to a small, smelly (in a good way) place where people are laughing and talking, and there are things hanging on the wall. Perhaps though, its just a door leading to a basement, but does someone live there? Who? I have all these questions about this building that I photographed while in an ally down Arthur Avenue, and I don't think anyone can answer them! How great is it to be mystified by something in your own neighborhood!

Lately I've been probably over-using the saturation content of my pictures. Maybe this is a small cry for Spring to finally SPRING, or maybe I'm just tired of drab colors. I want the hot green of the grass and the vivid blue of the sky and the earthy tones of the branches to be real and not digitally enhanced, whether on the computer or in my imagination. Will that ever happen?

I feel like a curious kid looking at this house.

Stick Ball Lives on in The Bronx

By Kate McGee

Kate is a Fordham Senior and fellow blogger. You can check out her blog, NewsandBrews, here.

Last summer, I traveled to Stickball Boulevard in the Bronx, a street
renamed to represent the one street where each Sunday during the
summer, young and old men—and one woman—gather to play stickball. It’s called the Emperor Stickball League. The league consists of nine different teams, made of men who used to play stickball on the streets of the Bronx when they were younger, and have passed on the tradition to their children and grandchildren.

I traveled to the street to interview members of the league for a show for WFUV radio, and met some really great people who have really interesting stories to tell. The play pictured here is a high school junior who was brought to Stickball boulevard by his uncle and plays on the family team. His uncle said he brought his nephew to the league to keep him from getting in trouble.

The crowds are large and full of family members who come out to support their family’s teams. The day I went—at the end of August—they teams were playing for seed for the playoffs that were going to occur in the Dominican Republican on Labor Day Weekend.

El Desfile de Eddie

By Catherine Colford

Besides being my roommate, Catherine is one of my best friends and a fellow blogger. You can check out her blog, BronxBliss, here.

Green grass and majestic buildings are not exactly what comes to mind when most people think of the Bronx. Lucky for Fordham students, our Bronx includes both (plus yummy Italian food, bodegas and BX12 buses). To me this picture is bliss, relaxation and beauty. You might think I'm exaggerating but seriously, there's no place I'd rather be than plopped down on that grass right there! I took this picture on my Blackberry last fall, before I went abroad for the spring semester. After experiencing countless breathtaking and beautiful places across Europe, I still could not have been happier to return to our beloved Eddie's. Don't get me wrong, the Eiffel Tower, Roman ruins and Venetian canals are all beautiful, but you always leave a place like that pretty jealous that you're just a tourist and those places don't "belong" to you. Eddie's, on the other hand, belongs to us.

Eddie's is the hub of the entire Fordham community. We meet our classmates there during freshmen orientation and graduate on the same lawn, and in between those two momentous occasions we pass endless days there together. I remember visiting on a perfect spring day in April as a senior in high school and making my final decision to attend Fordham while sitting on one of the benches surrounding Eddie's with my parents. I’m sure my admiration for the lounging “cool” college kids and hidden beer cans had something to do with it. The best part though, is that Eddie’s set my expectations for Fordham and it did not disappoint! A year later I was one of those “cool” college kids trying to hide a beer on Eddie’s on a sunny Friday afternoon.

Cherry Waves

Yesterday was the best day, weatherwise, that we've had in awhile. So sunny and so bright! Me and my boyfriend took our pooch, Mikko, outside behind our apartment for a game of catch.

The windows looking outside onto our backyard belong to my good friends, and when they heard us laughing and talking they popped their heads outside their respective windows to say hi. I felt like I was on the set of a play, perhaps By, By Birdie. They soon came outside with their little pooch, Izzy, and we had a pooch party. It was so much fun talking and watching our dogs play and drinking coffee. I brought my camera outside because I just couldn't take all the visuals! I ended up snapping about 200 photos of the sun hitting random objects. I am practically obsessed with the above photo because of the sun rays. I just can't handle it sometimes!

Nothing is better than warm weather in the Bronx. All the people that have been cooped up for so many months emerge from their apartments blasting the latest rap music. Just by being outside I feel I am updated on the latest hits and the newest artists. One guy who lives in the basement of our apartment near out backyard was playing some dope jams for us as we were sitting outside. Between the blasting rap music, the bright sun, my pitbull pooch, and the chain-link fences around us, I just thought to myself, typical Bronx life. As graduation nears and the black hole that is my future encroaches, I am becoming more and more nostalgic for the Bronx.

Oh well.

El Barrio

So as per requested from our last class session I captured, what I think, is the classic Bronx scene.

Now I don't know if this is indicative of my photography skills, or if my phone just has a wonderful camera, but if you couldn't tell already I'm guilty of using my phone instead of my snazzy Canon 35mm Silver digital camera. My phone is a free upgrade Blackberry Curve that's outdated, and my camera was an 800 dollar Christmas present. Don't tell my parents.

Anyway, the Bronx did this thing again today where it seemed enveloped in the weirdest light; the sky had the darkest purple hue while the sun was still strong enough to poke its head out at different moments, creating viole(n)t shadows. If you don't know what I'm talking about, refer to my With Teeth post in which I described the Bronx as post-apocolyptic. Today I really felt like it was the year 3010 and perhaps Mars was encroaching upon our atmosphere, mixing red with our bluest sky.

I see this scene everyday on my way to Brooklyn, its located near the Burnside stop on the 4. What impresses me the most about this picture is the graffiti at the top of the building! Who put it up there and how did they get up there? I have no idea!

P.S. El Barrio means neighborhood.

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.

Water Soluable

For this week I decided to post an oldie, but a goodie. This picture, taken in 2009, was featured on the cover of the Ampersand, Fordham's student-run creative writing and photography journal.

When the journal was published, a bunch of my friends asked what the image on the cover was. So I'll give you guys a chance to guess as well. I hope the title helps a little bit.

As for the effects, when a photo is more abstract than real life, I tend to go hog-wild on editing. I feel that since its not a straightforward image, I can basically distort it any way I want to create more of a mood or atmosphere, instead of a purposefully creating a single tone intended for the viewer.

Happy viewing!

Dia de Amistad

Yesterday was Valentine's day or, in El Salvador, Dia de Amistad. In Spanish, Dia de Amistad literally translates as "Friendship Day." Last year when I was in El Salvador we celebrated by writing nice things about our housemates and about people in our community. It was definitely a different way of celebrating than the way the U.S. does, and frankly, probably a healthier way as well.

While the flower in this picture isn't real, the effect on it is. One of my favorite, and probably weirdest, things I like to do while taking pictures is huffing out hot air on the lens so the shots come out super blurry and almost dream-like. If you can believe it there are no effects, other than that, on this picture. Huzzah!

Yesterday was so warm, and Friday is suppose to be even warmer. I WANT SPRING.

With Teeth

The Bronx has some tough teeth.

While I was walking to the four train I saw this building with smoke billowing out the top. I immediately started snapping because I was mostly curious about why there was so much smoke.

I usually don't use effects on my photos, but for some reason I really enjoy the vignette around the edges. I feel like its a "first-person-eye" opening slowly.

I also tinted this photo quite a bit to make the smoke a little darker. While I was walking, the weather was just so crummy and the entire street felt green. I can't really explain this, but sometimes in the city when its crummy out, the sky casts a strange glow over the people and everything has a green tint to it. Almost like its the year 3010 and the earth is slowly dying and changing color as the sun fades out. I know its not 3010, but in any case sometimes I feel like the Bronx is post-apocalyptic

Right On

I took this picture on my way to the 4 train yesterday. Its the logo for a store called Right On...although I don't really get it. The color of it was amazing and there were so many people walking in front of it to go into the shop, I just couldn't resist.

I like the artwork and also the fact that its ginormous and obnoxious and would never fly anywhere else but in the Bronx. Right On Bronx!

One of the reasons why I love the Bronx so much is that its real. Not too many tourists, not too many chain conglomerates like Starbucks, Europa, H&M. All of our deli's are authentic and privately owned, I get my coffee from an Albanian dude, my beer from a mobster, and my black beans from Tony Castillo, my favorite Dominican in the Bronx.

The Bronx is gritty but also amazing.

As for the edits, I only enhanced the color a smidge because its a real-life still and in real-life things ain't sepia.

El Pooch

I was just fooling around with my camera not too long ago, taking unsuccessful pictures of the fading sunset by hanging myself out my window when I snapped a pic of my pooch. Se llama Mikko and she is the silliest girl in the whole world!

I once heard that a good photographer is able to capture its subjects soul with a single snap of a button. While I do not thing I'm the best photographer, I do think I capture Mikko's soul. Soulful pooch!

I didn't edit this photo at all because its so perfect in all its poochness.

El Invierno es Desnudo

Today the snow fell in clumps. I really enjoyed it for two reasons: 1. my classes were canceled for today, and 2. everything looks so much better with some snow on it.

This picture I took while playing around on my fire escape. We have lights up on the railings, and they looked really erie while the snow was falling. Sad to say, I will not be experiencing the many joys of my fourth-floor fire escape any time soon since my super bolted it shut after we complained cold air was coming through the bottom. This means that if there is indeed a fire in, around, or outside my apartment, me and my wonderful roommate Catherine will be plummeting to our imminent deaths on Arthur Ave.

This picture is entitled, "El Invierno es Desnudo," or "The Winter is Naked," because of the serious black and white tones that pop out while snow is falling. You can see it everywhere, white atop anything with a surface, black concrete on roads, black railings of fire escapes, and black leafless trees. Everything stripped to the bear minimum. No fancy colors. No sun, sunset, or sunrise. Just black and white.

In this picture, I took out most of the green and blue tones from the light and the background. I sharpened it up a bit, blurred the background, and played with the contrast. What I love most about digital photography is playing around with effects and adjustments...saturation, levels, highlights, tone....its all so fun! Although I am fully aware you can play around with these things in the darkroom...but who as time nowadays?

El Primer Dia

¡Bienvenido a mi Blog de arte!

One of my most favorite hobbies is photography. Among other things, photography has been something I've been interested in and practicing for almost four years now. I had an actual photoblog on Photoblog.com, but unfortunately with that site, the formatting and text is limited. Hopefully with this site I can elaborate more on specific photos, edits, emotions, and go into artistic detail.

This photo I took right outside my school, Fordham University in the Bronx. What caught my eye here was the hot yellow colors of the leaves and how they contrasted to the burnt red bricks of the building. What I love most is that this picture invokes the color of fall without being overdramatic. The colors of fall can be overwhelming at times, especially for photographers. And what I hate most is the kitschy autumn photos of rows and rows of trees of every shade of red yellow and orange. In this photo, those colors are represented without the usual flux of trees and foliage. Just a dab of yellow flowers, a whole backdrop of red bricks, and some green paint on the window frames. Yum.