Street photography is not something that is inherently easy to do.  We can go into the broad ideas about the definition of street photography another time, but to me, one of the most important aspects of it is that the photographer doesn't inject their presence into a situation.  You want to catch the person as they are in real life, and the moment they notice the camera in their face then that goes out the window.

So then how do you take a photo of an interesting person, or scene, with a fairly obtrusive SLR, close to them and in good lighting conditions, without that person noticing?  Besides just being fast and sneaky, there is one great street photography trick that I have rarely seen written about.

This trick, which I often employ, is about letting the subject come to you.  Go to an area where there is a good chance of finding interesting people and good lighting, and pick an unobtrusive spot to hunker down.  Set your camera on manual, pick the correct exposure settings, and then wait.

Look far down the street so that you will notice way in advance when the right person is about to walk into your scene and then move slowly to exactly the right place that you want to intersect them.  Then just pretend that you are taking a photograph of the background, stay low so that they don't notice you, look through the viewfinder so that you don't make accidental eye contact, and don't make any sudden movements to catch their attention

The person will often see you, but since you will just look like an every day tourist that is photographing something random, they won't think twice nor get self conscious.  Then snap!

I'm not sure that the person above even noticed me in the slightest despite looking directly at me.

I seem to have missed this photo the first time around.  This is of the Pond at the south end of Central Park in April, when it was a little bit cooler out.

It's been awhile since I've posted from my grandparents' collection of photographs, so here are a couple of my grandfather and his friends messing around.  I'm not sure exactly where the top photograph is from, but I know it's from one of their road trips around the east coast. 

My grandfather is on the left of the top photo and not in the photo below, which was taken in Steeplechase Park, Coney Island, with the rollercoaster behind.

I walked out of my apartment yesterday and noticed a thick fog and smell of smoke all around.  As I glanced around the corner I noticed a large plume of smoke coming from a few blocks away.

So I ran back up and grabbed my camera and followed the smoke to the corner of Houston and A, where the roof of an upscale condo building was on fire and nearly 140 firefighters were busily trying to extinguish it.

Luckily, the building was evacuated quickly and nobody was injured.  It was nice to see our firefighters and EMTs in action.  Everyone seemed calm, cool and collected.  What seems heroic to us looked as if it was business as usual to them.

The fire was most likely caused on the roof by construction that had recently begun.

Above: In the background you can see the Lenin statue, atop the "Red Square" luxury apartments.

The fire seemed to be quickly put out.  All in a days work.  Thank you Hook and Ladder #5 and Ladder 20 and whoever else helped.

One of the benefits of searching for a wedding venue in the city is that you get to see a plethora of very interesting places.  The 3 West Club, near Rockefeller Center, was one of those places.  It turned out to be a little too stuffy and tired looking to host a wedding and we ended up choosing a place in Long Island, but it was still an extremely interesting and historical building with an incredible rooftop view of one of the most interesting places in Manhattan.

(Most of these photos were taken with a point-and-shoot so pardon if they're a little blurry.)

Above: A Portrait of Nancy Reagan

Unbeknownst to our knowledge, the club is also the host of the Women's National Republicans Club and we were greeted by many paintings of famous Republicans.

Above: The Grand Hall

Above: A Fire Hazard

Above: The Lincoln Room

But by far the best part about seeing this hall was the view from the roof, which overlooked St. Patrick's Cathedral and the secret rooftop garden on top of the British Empire Building in Rockefeller Center.  I have been trying for years to get access to this garden, and this is the first time that I've been able to get good photographs of it.  One day I will get there ::Sigh::

Riverside Drive is one of the most amazing places to be at night in the city when it rains.  For some reason, probably because of its proximity to the Hudson, whenever it rains the drive fills up with this thick and magical mist.

I walked down the hallway this morning only to notice the door to my framing closet wide open.  As you can see from this photo of the bottom half of the closet, I also use it to store the laundry.  Finding orderly space to run a home business out of a Manhattan apartment is a very aggravating thing, and it can take a lot of skill and compromise to pull off.

Well my cat Gracie (aka the Doodle) has been trying to get into this closet for the last year to no avail.  Cats seem to have a 6th sense for finding unorthodox comfy spots to sleep, but how she decided to, and then pulled off a jump into the laundry basket bewilders me.  She's not exactly svelte.

Well anyway, I thought this would be a good chance to introduce you to her, but don't worry, this will not be turned into blog about a cat photography.  Although you should see my iphone, I've got about a thousand on there.

She likes towels.  And sitting on your head early in the morning when she's hungry.

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