NY in B&W

The problems of modern society can be summed up in three words: too many options! Cable channels, cell phone plans, banking products, sneakers, coffee, beer, salsa -- why are there so many choices? Why do I have pick and choose among so many possibilities?

So it is with photography, a sometime hobby of mine. I bought my first good SLR, a Pentax, in 1969, and for almost forty years taking pictures was pretty straightforward. Choose a film -- black and white or color, slow or fast, positive or negative -- and you were set for the next 24 or 36 shots. Select a shutter speed and aperture, focus, and click!

Click on the image for a larger view on Flickr and more details.

But with the advent of digital, picture-taking got both a lot easier and a lot more complicated. My current camera, a Fujifilm X30, handles well and takes great photos, but before I snap the shutter I have to think about much more than speed, aperture, and focus. The 'quick' menu has 16 different parameters covering things like aspect ratio, file size, IS mode, metering mode, type of color or film simulation, face recognition, noise reduction, and dynamic range. That's child's play compared to the full menu system: screen after screen, hierarchies of screens, options and more options.

Taking snaps, I've found myself at times overwhelmed by what ifs? Should I use the low-light mode in that shot? What about that cute toy camera effect, or the soft portrait option? And once I decide to shoot something a little differently, I have to remember where it is in the menus, and just as importantly I have to remember to turn it off after I click the shutter.

Robert Frost famously said that writing free verse (poetry without rhyme or meter) is like playing tennis without a net. That is, rules and restrictions provide a framework that force you to concentrate on what's important. Without such boundaries, we tend to wander aimlessly. So, I've decided to come to terms with my camera by mostly shooting as if it had film in it, ignoring 95% of the options and instead paying attention to the basics. And I am going to follow this road of simplicity even further on our upcoming trip to New York: black and white only, contrast and tone, no color!

It's a Musical!

Before our most recent trip to New York City, I had never seen a Broadway musical. The day we arrived, we went to see Kinky Boots. The next day we saw a taping of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert then in the evening saw An American in Paris. The third day we went to a taping of The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore. The fourth and final day we saw Something Rotten. All these shows were entertaining, of course, but I have now seen enough Broadway musicals and taping of TV shows.

It wasn't all song and dance, however. We walked around Times Square and Rockefeller Plaza and strolled through the snow in Central Park and along the Upper West Side. We visited Trinity Church (and Alexander Hamilton's grave) and St. Patrick's Cathedral. We saw the Sorolla paintings at the Hispanic Society of America in Washington Heights and spent an afternoon at the Frick Museum. We were awed by the beautiful and moving 9/11 Memorial downtown. There was even time for stops at the New York Public Library, Bryant Park, and Grand Central Station. Amidst all this rushing about I sometimes had to sit down for a rest.

Click on the image for a larger view on Flickr and more details.

(We arrived just two days after one of the biggest snowstorms in New York history. We saw snow everywhere, piled up along curbs, in the middle of the street, along the sidewalks, but it had no effect at all on the life of the city. New York had done a remarkable job of bouncing back and getting on about their business.)

I wasn't especially pleased with my snaps on this trip. It was cold and whenever we were on the streets we were bundled up, making it difficult to reach in my coat and get my camera out. But I did get a few snaps worth sharing, in this Flickr album: A Few Days in New York City.

This was our first visit to New York since 2007 and we liked it so much that we're going back in less than three weeks. American Airlines is offering round-trips from DFW to LaGuardia for $81; with a fare like that, who can resist?