New York Daily Photo Blog

Street Photography, Street Photography, People, People

March 29, 2012

Focus, 2 Train

http://www.jamesmaherphotography.com/images/0000/3671/focus_2_subway.jpg

^{1/250th at F2, ISO 3200 (35mm) - Fuji X100.}

Seeing this girl brought back some fond memories high school. I went to Stuyvesant, a specialized high school down in Battery Park, which was filled with some of the smartest and hardest working people that I have ever met. At the time, I couldn't have been further from those kids.

The kids came from all over; a few even traveled two hours each way to get there. You could tell there was a lot of parental pressure. On more than one occasion during report card time I would see kids crying even though they had gotten 92 averages. It wasn't good enough.

Things were different for me. I was under constant pressure, but it was just to pass my classes. I had terrible ADD back then. I could barely read books. I was a great test taker and could cram all night when the pressure was on, but staying awake in class, doing consistent homework, finding my books, or learning anything consistently over a set period of time was nearly impossible. I had one fantastic Spanish teacher who would throw chalk at me to keep me awake. I also did not sleep enough back then and would play about 3 hours of basketball every day after (or during) school. I had a few teachers who would know to walk by the basketball courts if I wasn't in class. The physical exhaustion just compounded the ADD by a factor of 10.

Luckily, I was diagnosed at the end of sophomore year, given Adderall, and my grades rose about 18 points instantly. I would have a love/hate relationship with the drug until I was 27, when I finally kicked it.

It was a fun time in my life, but a constant, constant struggle just to get by in school. And I was very lucky to have went through this struggle at such an early age. In college, as a struggling Math and Comp Sci major, I finally realized during my junior year that I just wouldn't be able to function in life if I didn't find a career that could hold my attention.

So I finished college and jumped into photography. Luckily, it has held my attention ever since.

General

March 28, 2012

Vintage Cars on Bleecker

http://www.jamesmaherphotography.com/images/0000/3651/bleecker_vintage_cars-9.jpg

From a movie filming on Bleecker Street yesterday. Pretty awesome.

http://www.jamesmaherphotography.com/images/0000/3659/bleecker_vintage_cars-10.jpg

http://www.jamesmaherphotography.com/images/0000/3661/bleecker_vintage_cars-11.jpg

http://www.jamesmaherphotography.com/images/0000/3663/bleecker_vintage_cars-12.jpg

http://www.jamesmaherphotography.com/images/0000/3665/bleecker_vintage_cars-13.jpg

http://www.jamesmaherphotography.com/images/0000/3667/bleecker_vintage_cars-14.jpg

http://www.jamesmaherphotography.com/images/0000/3669/bleecker_vintage_cars-15.jpg

Street Photography, Street Photography, People, People

March 27, 2012

The Last Throes of Paper

^{1/250th at F2, ISO 3200 (35mm) - Fuji X100.}

This image might not seem so interesting now, but I thought it would illustrate an interesting idea about street photographs and how they age. This scene is going to age extremely quickly. In five to seven years nobody will be reading paper anymore and capturing an image like this will be impossible.