Today was just the opposite of yesterday. Today started off bright and sunny and ended up with rain. Rode the subway out to Coney Island, ate a Nathan's hot dog, of course. I should have some good B&W photos from the shopping street of Brighton Beach. Came back to Prince Street and got several rolls of images at a book and record flea market. I can hardly wait to develop my film and see what I have from this very productive week!

In the evening I went back to Soho for dinner and stopped at a place that claims they introduced the cappucino to America. Well, I hate to keep complaining about coffee but if I was blindfolded and was just handed this drink I doubt I would have associated coffee with it. It was mostly milk! No wonder there are so many Starbucks here; but I refuse to drink there (even if they are from Seattle). There are man bumper stickers in Seattle that read "friends don't let friends drink at Starbucks". I agree.

location: NYC:Soho
Camera: Nikon D200

The day started off looking very grey and rain prone. It looked like a museum day. Instead I Wandered the West Village and hoped for the weather to change; and it did. I finally found a few coffee houses, the one I tried made a pretty decent Latte although the extraction time was too long and the coffee was a bit bitter. I think I like the villages the best; both east and west . Smaller streets and pace, good photo opportunities, and many nice shops. Found a nice place for with beer and cheap food, the Soho Park (at 62 Prince St).

Went to Union square last night to watch the critical Mass but it was quite a let down. There weren't more than two dozen bikes. Too bad. I guess they've been cracking down on the bikers here and most are staying away now.

Photo: NYC:Lower Eastside
Camera: Nikon D200

Yesterday the weather was great in the big apple but this morning it has been raining and is now very grey. Might be a good day to see a museum.

I'm beginning to form some opinions about New York, for one all the talk I hear that "Seattle ain't got no delis". I never knew what that meant as we have plenty of delis to buy a sandwich at. I now think they mean "I can't or don't have time to cook so I need a big spread of prepared foods on display to scoop into a plastic container to take home.". I am also realizing some of the claims are just plain over-blown, like the pizza being so great or the beagles not to compare. Yes, they're good but not that amazing. Seattle has some great Greek pizza places for instance. Coffee, now there is a subject that Seattle clearly wins; no question about it. I have yet to find a decent coffee! I have had to leave two cups on the table, they were so bad, and now yesterday in Little Italy, surly a place to find a good coffee, I had to stop my order and walk out after seeing the woman start to make my cappucchino using pre-made espresso!!! All I see here are Starbucks, no coffee carts, no little coffee houses. Oh, how I need a Vivacé espresso!

I'm not seeing many bike riders here either. More than L.A. but far fewer than Seattle or San Francisco. That's strange considering the terrible traffic, how flat it is here and how NY has millions more citizens than either Seattle or S.F. I notice every bike is secured with a giant hardened chain, and most are wrapped with tape; to look bad. Nice.

People? There is no doubt NYC wins in having the biggest selection and quantity of people. No doubt about that. People people everywhere, and they are all in a big big hurry. Breakfast, Fast!, Walking, Fast! Subway, Jammed-in! Yes for a photographer this place is great, there is never a shortage of people. I would love to live here for 6 months, maybe a year, but for life? I think I would quickly tire of never seeing more than buildings. Because it's so flat one never sees the horizon. Seattle, S.F. you can almost always get a view to the water (plus mountains in Seattle). Yes I think I would miss the hills and views the most.

Location: East Village
Camera: Nikon D200

The weather is turning for the worse here, quite grey today and rain expected tomorrow. In Seattle? Oh beautiful sunny weather all week; of course. So with the grey dark day today I had to pick and choose my subjects carefully and hence I took fewer photos than previous days.

Photo: Central Park, NYC
Camera: Nikon D200

Greetings from New York City. No, I didn't bring my bike, although I wish I had, it would be great to have a bike here but then I would be busy riding not walking and getting all the people pictures I am.

Second day here and I have already shot over 150 black and white photos of people and hundreds of digital color photos as well. I have been to NYC a few times but this is my first real chance to focus on my own photo projects. It is indeed a treasure chest of photo opportunities. The variety of people is amazing and the density is like nothing I've seen other than Tokyo. Even Paris and London don't seem as packed with people.

At the same time the areas down around Greenwich Village are, well village-like.

Photo: Times Square, NYC
Camera: Nikon D200

I didn't scan a single negative today, instead I was busy getting ready for my Sunday departure for NYC.

I have been totally focused on scanning black and white negatives for pretty much the entire summer it seems. I may regret I wasn't out taking new photos (more), I don't know, but I felt the need to get my old and current negatives into my computer. My new printer should be here by the time I return from NYC and then I will start working on creating an exhibit in time for the holidays. I also expect to start painting again once winter sets in.

Photo: Kunming, China
Camera: Nikon F3

Uh oh, didn't I just rant about people thinking it rains here all the time? Well it rained a bit in the morning and threatened to rain the rest of the day; but the rest of the week should be sunny.

Any way, I did more scanning today, after attending my son's school birthday party. Had two, yes 2 flat tires over the course of 22 miles today. Man oh man, I guess it's time for new tires.

Photo: Seattle
Camera: Leica MP

Rant. Ok, I already made a post today but after getting off the phone with LLBean I just had to rant a little. So I call them to place an order for new flannel sheets for my VW Camper. The first thing out of the woman's mouth, once she hears I'm calling from Seattle is, "is it raining there?". Uh, no, it's not raining, in fact it hasn't rain but a few drips for months and months; I would venture to say we had, as usual, one of the nicest summers in the U.S. here in the NW. No need for A/C, no bugs to mention, just nice mild sunny days. No doubt Maine has triple the rain Seattle did during the summer, and no doubt New England had as much rain last June, when things were floating away up there, as Seattle had in the last 12 months.

This Cliché that it always rains in Seattle drives me crazy! NYC (47"), Cleveland (36"), Washington D.C. (40"), (not to mention it's cold and snowy in winter in these places) and a dozen other cities in the US, not to mention many major world cities, like Paris, Berlin, London, Amersterdam,get more rain than Seattle. Seattle only gets about 32-36 inches per year, and only a few days per year below freezing. Los Angeles had 35 inches of rain last year!!! I think even S.F. had more rain this last year than Seattle.

Truth is we have great weather. Yes it's grey much of the winter, as is Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Copenhaagen, etc., but it's very mild as well. Not many places in the U.S., outside of California, can claim one can bicycle every day of the year (and even there it's often too hot to ride a bike). I guess my response should have been "is it snowing up in Maine?". Well, any way, no, it's not raining in Seattle, it's a nice mild fall day, and here's another photo from San Francisco. Thank You.

Camera: Leica MP

What camera to take? That question has been on my mind for the last week. What camera to take to NYC next week: the Leica, 500cm, or my beloved Mamiya 6. I worry about losing my Mamiya (a difficult camera to replace), the 500cm is heavier but actually quite good for street photography (with the mirror pre-released) and easily replaced (in the current digital world used Hasselblads are pretty cheap), and while I love my Leica I'm not that crazy about 35mm negatives; they're simply too small. Well, now the Leica is off the list any ways, as my 35mm lens got knocked off the shelve it was on (off the camera both caps on) and now the barrel is stuck!!! So it is off to the lens doctor leaving me with the choice of just two.

Photo: San Francisco
Camera: Leica MP

Photo: New Bedford, MA
Camera: 500cm

Made more minor adjustments to my new black and white page, scanned a few more images, got in a 21 mile bike ride. The days are really too short though. I can never do as much as I need to do. I have piles of black and white images to scan, old color transparencies to scan, digital images for stock agencies to upload and annotate. I guess it's a good thing, the day going by fast. I know it can also go by really really slow if one is doing something boring; so I won't complain.

Photo: Santa Barbara
Camera: 500cm

Alright then, I got all the new links working, I think, and add a few more galleries. I still want to make a few changes, like the "flash" images need redoing and expand my painting tab. At least it all works.

I took this photo at the Folklife fest some years back and have had several people come in claming to know this guy. Then one day HE came in! Just wanted to see his photo I guess. He looked for a bit, at himself, and then left.

Photo: Seattle
Camera: 500cm

So late this afternoon I started the switch on my website www.RonGreer.com creating black and white tab, combinning architectural with commercial, and my artwork will have it's own tab as well. Yes there are some bad links on the renamed "artwork" tab. It was a perfect sunny afternoon so I had to leave early for a bike ride, and I needed to pick up beans at Vicacé as well. Tomorrow, I'll work on those bad links, and redo the "artwork" page. That will pressure me to start painting again! Not that I don't want to or don't have ideas for paintings it's just that I've been so bent on scanning my old black & white images I haven't had time. But fall and winter are coming which is typically when I do my painting any way.

I am getting ready to re-organize my web site, combining Architectural and Commercial into one tab (and correct that spelling error that been bugging me for over a year) and separating my personal photography from my art work (paintings). First I don't like the tab called "fine art". I have a problem with term like that. I also don't like it when people call themselves an 'artist'. I believe you can claim to be a photographer, painter, potter, etc. and that it is up to those that look at your work to decide if you're an artist or not. But I 'm getting off course here.

While getting ready to rearrange things I realized having my people galleries by time period only makes sense to me, that most people would want to see images by location. So I'm working on building new galleries by location, and I realize that my trip to Lisbon brought quite the bounty of images. Here's another image from that trip and I have still more to scan.



Photo: Lisbon
Camera: 500cm

Back to hot weather; today it's 80 degrees! But I got a nice 45 mile bike ride at lunch time, did a bit more scanning this morning, and am doing some research for my up coming NYC trip in a few weeks this afternoon.

Photo: Seattle
Camera: Nikon D200

Photo: St.Louis
Camera: Hasselblad 500cm