Let me tell you something, I am a joy to travel with.  Not only do I have to carry around this 50+ pound backpack with cameras and lenses, as well as a satchel with a computer and a tripod slung alongside, but when I do get to leave most of this stuff at the hotel then I like to stop a lot to take photographs.

In 2007, when I first got this backpack (which has a nifty clasp on the back to hold a tripod) and was taking bags out of the trunk at the airport at 6:30 in the morning, I swung around and nailed my girlfriend Sara in the face with the tripod.  We were headed to a large family gathering in Mexico.  At least it was only a minor black eye.

(Between you and me, she totally ran into my tripod with her face.)  It was 6:30 in the morning, can you blame her?  Needless to say I now carry the tripod at my side for safety reasons.

So we're off to the airport in a few hours for a 2 week trip to Italy, with stops in Pisa, Florence, Siena, Greve (for a 4 day wedding extravaganza), Montalcino, Ferrara and Venice.

I hope to create posts daily with photos from the trip, but the frequency of the postings will be determined by when I can find internet connection.

Anyway, here's to no black eyes on the trip.  Sara's the maid of honor so that would be kinda bad.

Thanks to Adam and Gani for this video.  I always wondered what high powered people and companies were located in the Spire of the Chrysler Building.  Turns out it's a dentist.

Anyway, here's a view from out one of those triangle windows in the spire.  Incredible!

^{Tony Bowling, around the late 1940s}

Pardon the quality of these photographs as they're not the sharpest shots or best retouched (retouching these correctly would have taken a full day.)  But it's really the content that counts, isn't it?

My grandfather was a great bowler.  Although I never actually saw him bowl, I heard from family members and saw his collection of medals.  From reading through his old letters I gather that he used to spend a lot of his nights hanging out at the bowling alleys with his friends and having a few (or more) drinks.

I find not just the intimate and closeted feel of this old bowling alley to be interesting, but the clothes that they all wore to bowl.  Perhaps they were just off of work, or more likely this is just how they dressed every day.

I thought I'd show you a job that I completed today.  It's one thing to see the photos on the web, but is another to see them hanging. Also, keep in mind that the the glass reflections tend to get in the way of showing the real crispness and depth of tones in these photographs.  The fourth photo from the top is probably the closest rendition to real life.

The job was to print, frame and put up ten 21 by 27 inch B&W Central Park prints for a capital management firm located in a huge office building in midtown.  It took about 4 hours in all to put up the prints and to make sure they were even. 

Below is the scrap paper that I used to calculate one of the walls.  It looks like my math major wasn't a complete waste after all.

But the best feeling is when you're finally finished.  All the steps of taking the photo, retouching, printing, matting and framing, and putting them up are done with, and you get to stand back and stare at them for awhile.

While walking around the East Village last year, a friend from out of town ask me what our demographic was like.  Right as he asked, a man (I believe) walked directly in front of us in a full-length, shiny silver stretch jumpsuit, complete with silver face paint.  "That," I replied, "is our demographic."

Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me then.  But this, my friends, is our demographic.  

Hipster Checklist: Mohawk - Check, Braids - Check, Indigenous-patterned-cloth-man-purse - Check, Fu Manchu - Check, Scooter - Check.

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