STL DPB ON THE ROAD - PEACE OUT

I think we have had enough of the parade for a while. There are lots more I could edit but it gets a little repetitive. Besides, my nighttime flash technique could use some improvement.

While in New York my friend Olivier and I visited the newly reopened Museum of Modern Art. It had been closed for a year while it ate up some neighboring properties and expanded. It is now much larger and a bit confusing to find your way around. This room, facing a large window, had several sections with comments on peace, perhaps wishful thinking. Here, Olivier is not studying the sutras but rather going over the museum guide.          

City Daily Photo Theme Day - Best of 2017

January 1 is the day City Daily Photo members post their best work of the year. It's theoretically supposed to be one picture, I think, but I'm greedy. These are my favorites. 
       

There is a tie for first, two photos taken a short time apart in Canyonlands National Park In Utah. The first is the baddest of the badlands. The second shows two men playing with their cameras, while only a child appreciates the awesome beauty of the scene.     

Portrait Of The Year

Our friend Olivier Perrin on the tramway between Governor's Island in the East River, New York City, on our way to midtown Manhattan.      

Leading to the Travel Photo Of The Year

Taken seconds after the last one with a 180 turn - the Queensboro Bridge from the tramway heading into midtown.      

Best Theatrical Picture

I've done a lot of theatrical photography in last year and this shot is my favorite - Chicago performer Matthew Markum doing Pollack: A Frequency Parable. Free jazz with words and abstract expressionist art.   

Best Grandchildren, Period

Audrey  and Ellie, taken in Clare, Michigan, within a few days of their second and fourth birthdays.

And last, another best picture of paradise, Playa Langosta, Tamarindo, Costa Rica. It's been here before. Thanks, Dave and Julie! 

More adventures await.

U Pick - Franco-American Relations - Delicatessen - On The Plaza - WTC - 14,557 Steps and 19 Floors - My French Is Horrible

I'm exhausted. Good thing I have to go to work this afternoon so I can get some rest. Two old guys do Manhattan and take a lot of photos. Jack, who helps manage City Daily Photo, asked for some pictures of the two of us. Pick your favorite. From top to bottom, at Rockefeller Center, The Oculus at the World Trade Center and Katz's Deli on Houston Street. Pick your favorite.

Home this afternoon. Sunday's stair climbing efforts were due to many subway rides - most of it isn't accessible. The language issue was still a bit of a struggle but we got by with the help of AI systems. Next year in Paris, I hope.

Manhattan - High Line - 16,592 Steps - My French Is Terrible

LONG day with Olivier. We met on Roosevelt Island (never been there before), a long, thin residential sliver in the East River. Then took the tram to Manhattan. Then subway to the High Line. Then walk and walk and walk. Then to the Whitney Museum. 

The health app on my iPhone says I took 16,592 steps, probably a one-day record for me. My legs hurt - Olivier is in better shape. I think I'm hot stuff when in France because I can get something to eat or drink, buy something, pay the bill and, on a good day, ask directions in the street. But general conversation with a Frenchman? Non. Olivier's English is equivalent to my French and it was a struggle at times. The noise level of the city didn't help. We tested Google Translate's bandwidth. 

These shots only scratch the surface of what I took yesterday. 

Queens

I have been in New York City for seven hours as I write this and have not left the Borough of Queens. (Tomorrow will be different, of course.) The first two pictures look east along Queens Boulevard in Sunnyside, the neighborhood where I grew up. Mon bon ami Olivier Perrin is on holiday in the city and met me here. We walked through the area, took some pictures of my old apartment building and dined at my favorite local restaurant, Soleluna,

Back to the hotel to edit. The bottom photo is the view from my window. (My little Olympus camera just doesn't do low light as well as my big Canon, but that's too heavy to walk the streets.) Tomorrow Roosevelt Island, The High Line, the Whitney Museum and, if time permits, the International Center of Photography. Dinner at a French cafe and wine bar in the West Village.