But these guys are the stars of the show. Most relaxing thing to sit on the steps and watch them cavorting. Even without a trainer, they’d pop out of the water once in a while and wave with a flipper.

There really was no reason to return to the Bat Cave other than that I was curious as to why it was so difficult to photograph these guys. I definitely don’t like bats (although I know they eat insects and are good for the economy).  But I can’t get the old Lugosi films out of my system.  These were shot in the dark.

But it was a technical challenge that was bugging me so to speak.  What I did find out: you need a faster sync speed than 1/250th while they’re flying.  Also, you need to detach the flash and put it right up against the glass so you don’t get crazy reflections (which I did do this time around), and it helps to put the camera right up against the glass as well.

To do it really right – it would be best to put camera on a tripod, right up against the glass with a bulb exposure, and manually firing the strobe, i.e. not having to worry about syncing the shutter with the flash; and it’s dark enough.  They flit around much faster than most birds.  But I’ve gotten close enough with the last few shots and the critters still give me the creeps.

I can’t put up pix of my niece’s birthday party without getting flak from the family – but I did do the whole thing in color in a Korean restaurant — so I don’t think they’d mind if I put up a shot of the waiters arriving with the cake.

Though I did get a nudge in the ribs saying why was I photographing the waiters.  Don’t worry – when they bring the cake to her, I’ll shoot her.  You’d better.  Don’t worry, I will.

1/20th of a second, asa 1600, f1.4

My sister called to say that her front license plate had been stolen two days ago, and she had gotten two tickets since then, and would I like to go up to the 125th street motor vehicles department with her.  She had all her paperwork in order, and she didn’t think it would take long.

It was around noon.  First mistake, on the way up she decided to take the FDR.  Clogged.  We just sat in traffic for a half-hour wondering what the hold up was.  Turned out that the 125th street exit was closed for construction.

So we went further.  Got off and made our way back.  And somehow, found a spot on 125th street.

She had made a dinky strange black and white plate which she attached to the front of the car, but which hadn’t fooled anyone and we were wondering if she’d get another ticket while we were in motor vehicles.

And then the wait began.  Rows of well-sat on wooden benches, and flashing numbers like in a bakery, but we couldn’t figure out for a long time what the meaning of the numbers were.  Her ticket said C606 and we speculated about what the “C” meant.  Although they had room for about 20 employees, only six were at work.  And we just sat there for at least an hour and a half, and finally I got up and said I was going to wander around downstairs.

Eventually, about an hour later, she called me to say that she was finished, but that they wanted her to return with the license plate which was still on the back of the car.  But we didn’t have a screwdriver, and the thing was rusted in.  We took out every possible thing from our pockets that might work to unscrew it, but after almost breaking her mailbox key, she looked at her insurance card in the glovebox (which they also wanted) and realized it was expired.  No, her insurance wasn’t expired, but the card was an old one.

Now what.

We’re dead now, I said.

Yep, she said.  Dead meat.

So what should we do.  Try and go back to the house, get the screwdriver and the up-to-date insurance card.  Then go through traffic again.

She kept complaining that she had asked the guy on the phone what she would need to bring and she had brought everything they told her.

I just nodded.  And you’re surprised that they didn’t give you the right information.

But I asked them like three times if there was anything else I needed to bring.

I know.  But this is the motor vehicles department.  You expected the correct information.  C’mon.  No use sitting here, let’s head back.

When we got back to the home neighborhood, we stopped at a hardware store and bought a phillips head screwdriver and removed the back license plate.  I had a flash of what might be genius.

Alright, give me the plate, I said.  I took it and walked into a small copy place.  I handed the crumpled plate to the guy and said, make a color copy of this.

He gave me a strange look.  A long thoughtful strange look.  And then took the plate and stuck it on the photo copier and returned with a color print of the license plate.

I paid two dollars.  Thanked him, and returned to give the color copy to my sister.  So that’s what is on the front of the car now.  I looked at it, and unless you look very closely, it is hard to see that it’s a fake plate (it’s pasted onto a piece of stiff mat board).

I think, that may be breaking another law – such as it is illegal to use photocopies of plates which is a demeanor or whatever, but so long as it doesn’t rain, I think she’ll be alright until Monday.

On the way to meet the film crew, I took this “throw away shot.” By throw away, I mean that I’ve done it many times before, since it’s the only angle I’ve found to show the whole museum, and went on to do my stuff at the zoo. This turns out to be the my best shot of the museum. In other words, I’ve gone at night to shoot it; on rainy days, at noon, with wider lenses, etc. and the contrast / texture in this shot because of the infrared effect which most people wouldn’t notice if I didn’t say it was infrared seems to have finally done the trick.

And of course there were always other issues. For a long time various parts of the exterior had scaffolding, or there weren’t enough people on the steps, or too many cars in the way… but it fits in with my idea that it is on the way to where I’m going rather than the ultimate destination where I find something that works. If I ever do another book, I think that On The Way would be a good title.

Pretty tough, even with infrared flash, to shoot flying bats behind glass. But I got a couple of pretty strange shots in the bat room at the Central Park Zoo this morning. Of course the problem is that they fly around so damned fast, that at 1/250th of a second (flash sync) they are almost always blurred, and it is pretty much pitch black in the room, and they’re behind glass… Nevertheless… Here’s our friendly cinematographer stuck with me in the bat cave…

Movies in the Bat Room

It’s a bit like Ansel trying to photograph in NYC. He may have gotten one or two decent shots – but couldn’t wait to get back to his home turf. Same for me on my western trips.

One of the greatest abbreviations for me (I’ve been using it a lot lately) is ca. (circa). I suppose it is from the latin root for circle – and it jives with my take on it which is around. I try to remember who I went with, if anyone, or what was going on in my life at the time, and I can arrive at some approximation of the date. But no, I don’t have exact dates, and I don’t think it matters anyway. Though whenever I’m thumbing through photography books, this “ca.” comes up a lot. Of course, once the switch was made to digital you know the date down to the second so long as you remembered to set the clock in the camera.

At any rate – if you’d like to see what I’ve been adding to the photo store, here’s the link to what I’ve called recent prints which is a misnomer since the prints go back a long way. I guess I could call it, “Just Arrived” as if I were getting these shots from someone else. And it does feel like that sometimes. Did I really take that shot? Most of the time I can barely remember what camera I was using, unless it was something in the square format. Then I know it was either the Rollei or the Mamiya 6 (man that was an expensive camera). Was that the one they called the Texas Leica?

It really does seem like the film shots were from a different lifetime. I am happy that I’m around at this time – during the switch to digital. No, it doesn’t make me nostalgic, or sad – because frankly – from the time I was a kid – I enjoyed experimenting with technology. I had my own tester for radio tubes (radio tubes!) and could fix most radios when a tube burnt out.

And if you’ve been reading the blog for a while you know that I jumped at the chance to buy the Kaypro computer when it came out rather than the first PC which had already been introduced at the time. The Kaypro ran an OS called CPM. Now that was another lifetime for sure.

And I still enjoy reading about the new stuff that’s coming out.

Today Google announced that they would have a new operating system (Chrome OS) based on the browser idea – but I think it will be a long time (at least a few years) before it can run anything like Photoshop, unless Photoshop is already working on a version for Chrome. But I wouldn’t doubt that if anyone could do it properly, it would be Google. I know they’re already experimenting with kernels for handling graphics. Anyway, they’re going to introduce the first version for netbooks. That’s another idea that goes back a long way (Larry Ellison?) of Oracle. I don’t think I can wait for a version of Chrome on a netbook that can run Lightroom – but who knows. I also read that Adobe is working on an “action” based version of Photoshop. But I believe you will always need a disk in the thing; or if not a disk, some sort of permanent storage system. You just aren’t going to be able to download the program you need each time you start up the netbook unless it’s lightweight like the Open Office programs. But I’m sure that anything I’ve thought of – the Google guys have long since figured out.

And the idea of giving MS a run for their money – oh I love it. They’ve already got some version of Chrome on the Pre-Palm phone – don’t they?

For those of you who are eager to become a professional – I will tell you that I did some of my best work while I was commuting to work every day.  Nothing really changes, except that you actually are less a part of the working world – and less sensitive to it.  Of course, if your commute doesn’t cover some interesting terrain – then I take back what I just said.  But for street shooting, you really can’t beat being forced into the rush hour every morning and afternoon.