Big City Adventures

What a whirlwind past few days I've had. It will be a true miracle if I can document this one, as I've had virtually no free time what-so-ever for the past 5 days. It has been jam packed with socializing and entertaining an out-of-town guest and jet-setting in the Big City. But I will do my best to recap (at least some of it).

The journey began early Thursday morning. My new friend and "photo mentor" (gosh I feel so important to have a photo mentor) arrived to CT on Wednesday afternoon. Luckily we controlled ourselves and went to bed at a reasonable time rather than staying up all night talking, like we really wanted to do. After a painful tour of New Haven (two GPSs in the car and we still got lost) we managed to find not only the train station, but also my cousin Jamie. We were finally making our way to NYC.

Me and Sandy pushing our bags at Union Station.

The train ride was fun and uneventful. The biggest event that occurred was getting a call from Karlo in Tokyo and not being able to actually talk to him. He called from a computer with no mic so it was a one-way conversation of "Karlo? Is that you????" followed by dead silence. What a bummer.

We found our way out of Grand Central to stand aimlessly on the corner for 5 minutes pondering which direction to walk in. Once again, two high tech GPS phones and still clueless. Luckily Sandy still believes in good old fashion maps and she navigated us to the New Yorker Hotel a mile from the train station. One mile of walking is certainly not a big deal, but it sure was no fun pulling a suitcase along. Once we dumped our bags at the hotel it got much better.

First stop, B&H Photo. My dream come true. I have always wanted to visit this camera mega store. The mecca for all photographers. It was about a city block long and more amazing than I even imagined it would be. Wow, compete sensory overload. Good thing for our wallets we planned this trip 1.) before lunch when we were already hungry, and 2.) before our first workshop that was starting in less than an hour. Needless to say it was a short trip and only cost me $5. Didn't know it was possible to walk out of B&H Photo and only spend $5!

The actual conference was amazing, but I won't bore you with those details. In a nutshell, I was in heaven!


The first night was the only night Jamie would be with us so we went out to dinner. As always it was nothing but laughs. Here's the table after sitting for 5 minutes. And this was just for Jamie.



Next it was time to stroll the streets to test our hand at "street photography." It just so happens that Sandy is one of the best street photographers out there. She holds prestigious awards to prove it. Anyway, Jamie and I hoped that just being near her would rub off. Not sure that it did for me. I am still uninspired in the city, but there is no shortage of interesting material in Times Square.

pics to come . . .

We got silly and visited the M&M store where you can take a profile to see what color M&M you are. As you can see I was not at all happy to be Blue. boo.

When we were all Times Squared, chocolated, and photographed out we began our walk back to the hotel. That is when Bono stopped in a car right in front of us. Jamie snapped a picture.

By this time we needed some drinks. Jamie stopped off at a pub for more beer, while Sandy and I (being the rocking party animals that we are) went to Walgreens for water. Do we know how to party or what? While in line Sandy notices the woman next to her is a movie star. After craning her neck to see that the woman's license was from CA she's convinced it's really her. So after leaving the pharmacy Sandy tries to snap a picture, but Hollywood stars have a keen sense for cameras and she looked away. Now Sandy felt bad so she went back to the store to apologize for the camera incident and she strikes up a conversation. We ended up walking all the way back to our hotel chatting with Jennifer Coolidge. Very cool, but of course I was still searching for Sting . . .

All photos courtesy of Jamie. I've yet to do anything with mine. More NYC stories and pictures to come.