Warm June breeze, street signals light the dark South Slope. If there is a quiet moment in New York City’s most populous borough, it is not going to be found in the Slope. We bike deep into Gowanus. The industry has mostly gone to bed for the evening. It is nice to find a quiet moment to set up a long exposure.

Being approached by anyone in the dark secluded Gowanus night can be intimidating. This time it is just security. He tells us he saw the cameras and needed to check things out. Not sure why security is always alarmed by cameras. I wonder what truth or weakness they are afraid the photos will expose. We speak softly and respectfully and we are told to carry on.

A bus driver pulls in after a long shift. He parks his bus along the side of the secluded dirt road. The driver looks confused by our presence as he walks away. We set up a series of long exposures down the dusty dirt road. We capture the machinery as it rests. It is mere scenery without the human drivers and operators that push these machines all day long.

The stillness of the evening reminds me of the natural beauty that must of have existed here at one time. Long before the industry came in and altered the environment to meet their needs, before the trash was dumped, before the factories were built, before the roads were paved, and long before the Superfund status; this must have been a very different place.

According to TreeHugger.com, the ride also focused on green themes:

Using the theme “Creek-to-Canal,” the course passes between two of Brooklyn’s more infamous waterways, the recently declared superfund hazardous waste site Gowanus Canal and America’s most polluted waterway, the Newtown Creek.

Despite the sultry state of the canal and creek, the tour is born of optimism. The borough is going green, and nowhere is that more clear than in the realm of bicycles. In the last decade, the number of cyclists using Brooklyn’s East River bridges has gone up 600%, and as New York City gets ever more bike friendly, there’s no sign of it slowing down.

Once again, our over-achieving photographer friends Vitaliy Piltser and Lucy Aboytes were on the scene to document the event (and put us all to shame in our lazy, air-conditioned apartments). Check out some of their wonderful shots below of the ride!

Congrats to all who rode in the event!

Many thanks to Lucy and Vitaliy for contributing this photo essay; can’t wait to see more from them!

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Half marathons, at 13.1-miles, are quickly becoming my favorite distance to run, but it is especially great, and such a treat to run it in Brooklyn. Saturday’s race began with cheerful greetings from Brooklyn President, Marty Markowitz, the President of the NY Road Runners, Mary Wittenberg, and Councilman Domenic Recchia, Jr., who ran the race and finished at a respectable 2:58. The course took us from a double loop in Prospect Park to the tree-lined Ocean Parkway and on to a finish at the iconic Coney Island Boardwalk. The winners were Belay Kassa at 1:08:02, and Kelly Chin at 1:19:51 followed by more than 7,000 fabulous runners. I shot the race from the road (with a very light point & shoot), while Vitaliy caught the scenes from the sidelines.

First off: Warming up inside Prospect Park before the race!

Remember: Hydration is important.

Out of the park and on to tackle the road…

Sprinting down the boardwalk toward the finish line!

While hundreds turn out to support the runners…

… and give kisses at the finish line.

Evidence of one awesome race…who’s ready to go again!?!

“Are you a photographer?” he asked urgently, hands full of grocery bags. Uh, do you see my tripod, man? “You gotta go over there! There’s been an accident!” He pointed to the north side of the Prospect Expressway, where I could see lights flashing from the highway down below. I finished up the shot, collapsed the tripod, and ran to the fence where he’d pointed.

I watched as the first of many fire trucks arrived on the scene. I could see straight down into the car that had ricocheted off the median in the west-bound lane; there was a young woman in the driver’s seat, moving slightly. No firefighter approached the car until they shut down traffic, and cars continued to speed by the smoking fender.

Finally, the rescue workers approached the car, spoke brief words of reassurance, and prepared her a gurney for the ambulance. She was speaking and the firefighters were smiling as they safely loaded her up for the hospital.

I, on the other hand, was running out of film, but managed to snag a shot of the traffic backup before hiking home. Let’s hear it for the MTA. I love the subway.