a berry happy weekend

If you don’t make it to the greenmarket this week, it’s okay. Just means more for me.

opening weekend at luna park

Two weekends ago, Luna Park at Coney Island made its debut — finally reopening to the public for the first time since a pair of fires in 1944 closed it down. If you haven’t had a chance to check it out for yourself yet, there’s a great opportunity tomorrow at 11AM as the Save Coney Island volunteer-run non-profit leads a historical tour of buildings threatened with imminent demolition. Hope to see you there!

In the meantime, check out these beautiful before-and-after photos of Luna Park, kindly provided by Wikimedia Commons and the New York City Economic Development Corporation, which has a beautiful set of photos from the opening weekend which you can find here. Thanks so much to the NYCEDC, which gave me the heads-up via Twitter!

Luna Park in 1913 and 1905:

Luna Park NOW!

long exposures, quiet night

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.

flickr faves: brooklyn hipstamatic

Unless you live in a cave (or North Korea), you probably heard buzz earlier this week about Steve Jobs’ keynote announcing the new iPhone 4. Like a true geek, I was following along with the Engadget liveblog and found the new upgrades to the iPhone 4 camera really exciting (bigger backlit sensor, upgrade to 5MP, 720p HD video – more here).

And if you follow photography even casually, it’s hard to ignore the buzz about each new iPhone app that hits the street. The iPhone is already one of my favorite cameras in a pinch, and many of the new apps are super fun. Heck, even designer Andy Spade (of Kate Spade / Jack Spade fame) released an entire book of whimsical and inspiring photos, shot with his iPhone.

One of my favorite new toolkits is the retro Hipstamatic app, which mimics the look and feel of old vintage toy cameras. Its crazy cross-processing-esque colors satisfy the kid in me, and paint the Brooklyn landscape in a new way. I’ve noticed several of the photographers in our Flickr pool are using the app too — check out a few beautiful shots below.

Do you have another favorite app to share? Leave us recommendations in the comments below!

“Holding On,” by Joel Zimmer:

Untitled, by Amy Durocher:

“Coney Island Moon,” by cootiegarage:

Untitled, by R.Lombardo:

“Manhattan & Queens,” by Joel Zimmer:

Untitled, By Amy Durocher:

brooklyn blogfest 2010 in photos

Last night, I scrambled to get out of work in time to get to the Brooklyn Lyceum in Park Slope to attend the 5th Annual Brooklyn Blogfest, an event organized and produced by Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn. When I arrived on site, the line of pre-registered attendees stretched around the block and I overheard several folks wondering aloud when featured speaker and Brooklyn-raised director Spike Lee would be showing up.

Though much of the post-event coverage has thoroughly explored the controversies associated with the event’s sponsorship and Lee’s commentary (Brownstoner, Atlantic Yards Report, Brooklyn Heights Blog, and others), much of the evening was genuine and thoroughly enjoyable. Highlights for me included the video tribute to Brooklyn photographers and the dramatic A-Z reading of Brooklyn blogs, which featured some amusing excerpts.

While I go email some of the hugely talented people I met last night, check out some shots of the Blogfest below!

Bloggers filed into the Lyceum as sponsor Absolut Brooklyn set up in the lobby.

And once the event started, we had an unintentionally hilarious video moment: Bloggers watching a blogger blog while attending the Brooklyn Blogfest. How meta.

Dramatic readings of Brooklyn blogs provided entertainment…

… before Lemon Andersen took the stage to rock a spoken-word performance. Spike Lee followed while the crowd stared at a giant 30-foot bottle of Absolut on the projection screen.

brooklyn blogfest video tribute!

Last night’s 5th annual Brooklyn Blogfest attracted quite a crowd to the Lyceum in Park Slope. One of the highlights for me was the video tribute to Brooklyn’s photographers, produced and scored by the talented Adrian Kinloch. It was a pure delight to see beautiful photographs from all over the borough on the giant screen, and it made my heart sing to see several of our contributing photographers featured.

Check out the awesome video montage below and hop on over to Adrian’s blog, Brit In Brooklyn, to give him high praise! Thanks so much, Adrian!

memorial day in prospect park

While many of my friends and co-workers escaped the city over Memorial Day weekend this year, I stayed in Brooklyn to relax and enjoy the quiet. Shopping in Manhattan felt like a ghost town and my local grocery store in the South Slope looked like it had been ransacked. I thought practically everyone in my neighborhood had left the city, too.

Until I went to Prospect Park.

The park was teeming with people; smoke from the barbecue grills rose all around us, and hundreds of people blasted festive party music. On a roundabout walk with our picnic blanket in tow, we ventured across the park to the dog beach to watch the puppies romp and the kids light up with joy. Of course I brought my medium format camera along to play, too! Enjoy some shots below of Prospect Park over Memorial Day, and I hope you had a fantastic holiday wherever you were!

beginner’s guide to home developing

Claire Voelkel, whose work we’ve admired for some time now, has written a fantastic four-post series she’s called “Self-Developing 101.” The thoughtful guide contains every instruction you’ll ever need to get started with kitchen sink development — no big lab or special space required!

Check out the links to each of her posts below, and make sure to share your results if you choose to try your hand at developing at home. I’ll definitely be trying this myself sometime in the next few months and can’t wait to expand my horizons into developing! Claire — you rock for sharing this. Thanks so much for this guide, and can’t wait to hear more of your tips in the future!

Part One: The Supplies
Part Two: Mixing Chemicals
Part Three: Loading the Reels
Part Four: Develop the Film!

on the road: tour de brooklyn 2010!

Yesterday beginning at 9AM in McCarren Park, 2500 bicyclists invaded the streets to participate in the 6th annual Tour de Brooklyn, an 18-mile family-friendly ride through the borough. Despite the heat and humidity, online registration was full according to the Brooklyn Eagle. The ride, which is sponsored each year by Transportation Alternatives, wound through Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bed-Stuy and Prospect Heights before heading over to Red Hook Park for a break and snack.

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!

flickr faves: weekend on the boardwalk

While the weather in Brooklyn this weekend was positively sweltering, it looks like several of the photographers in our Flickr pool had the right idea to hop on the train and hit the beach. Hopefully, you were able to escape the heat too! Check out the shots below for some of our favorites and grab a cool glass of lemonade (or whatever floats your boat) to cool off!

“Boarding the N,” by Matt Heidelberger:

“Astroland Pavilion Sunrise,” by Robert DeRosa:

“Boardwalk Technicolor,” by Peter Puleo:

“Career Decision Time,” by Rob Hoey:

Untitled, by Tansy Liverwort: