Curly

I had thought with this prompt I would get a photo of Lynne's lovely, curly locks and then this man was on the subway. It gave me the chance to add to my subway series of photos and to make a contrary statement. He read that book on JS Bach for a great length of time then pulled out  a Harry Potter book.

On my table

 More adventures with Lynne and this time to a part of Astoria I had not visited before. We roamed a couple of blocks and then settled on a place for lunch. It was crowded and busy and perfect Greek food.

Under one of the bridges so street art.

Looking down...the road

A walk with Lynne along/ down Riverside Park. Over recent weeks I'd seen the view of Riverside Park from the westside Highway or whatever it's call from that point in the road, it was looking gorgeous with the blossoms out. So a walk was in order and we walked from 96th Street to Grants tomb then into Riverside Church and along to Broadway and lunch. Finally a walk to St John the Divine and then to the new apartment.

Well loved

It is so good to have Lynne here and she loves NYC so much. It has been great to laugh and share different places and things. Today it was the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens and on a whim Coney Island. 

I love the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens especially in the spring. The tulips and the cherry blossoms are out and so were thousands of visitors to the gardens :). 

Retro

Fantastic building on 5th Avenue with glorious art deco- retro foyer. 

Nothing can be more retor than the Chrysler Building.

Not retro but wanted to get the sisters selfie in :)

Standing

At Woodbury Common- standing at the register :)

The view standing on 8th Avenue waiting for our Woodbury Common bus. 

Still standing at the end of the day with the parcels from the shoppig

Rule of thirds

Dandy Wellington at The Cecil. Wonderful. And having edited this photo from the back of the room I think the Rule of thirds applies...The rule of thirds is applied by aligning a subject with the guide lines and their intersection points, placing the horizon on the top or bottom line, or allowing linear features in the image to flow from section to section.

The train journey home had many sights including this incredible hair style.

A walk back to the subway past this incredible building.

Magnify

Sitting at lunch with Lynne in Macy's I had the good sense to check on what I needed to do for my capturing of my 365. The glass of water was in front of the olive oil on the table for our bread. It sort of worked.

To magnify...make (something) appear larger than it is, especially with a lens or microscope.
"the camera's zoom mode can magnify a certain area if required"
synonyms: enlarge, boost, enhance, maximize, increase, augment, extend,expand, amplify, intensify;
informalblow up
"the lens magnifies the image"

Just had to share this again :)

Light and bright

And so the commuter stories continue. This woman is about the third person I have seen knitting while traveling on the subway- is there an upsurge in knitting? She is using a circular needle.

During our walk to and from dinner it was apparent that these blossoms and lights truly fit the light and bright category. So much so that a young couple asked me to take their photo for them under the blossoms.

I wanted to capture the brightness of the dinner not just the shiny conical hats on the wall but also the ever laughing and lovely Lynne :).

Dark and moody?

I think not.
Given I have been using this Capturing of my 365 as a means to capture my life in NYC this year today dark and moody just didn't fit the bill. Some things were around me leant more towards spring in NYC.

The blossoms were out outside the school and so were those other signs of spring the shaved ice vendors. 

Simple

Capturing aspects of my apartment before it all gets packed up and I move :). The painting and the vase and the "bench" are heading to Australia at the end of the month. I was looking around for simple lines and these seemed to fit the criteria

I took the shot then spotted another opportunity

F/1.4

I haven't managed to do a shallow depth of field photo but this shot I got on the subway was too good to pass up. I think the boys were twins and the one closest has a dinosaur doll. Gotta love a lad in a hat.

Go Wide

My thoughts were roaming far and wide on my way to work so much so I went on completely the wrong train catching the R to 59th and Lex and almost on the 6 when I realized I should have been on the 2.

So out of the train I got and walked across to Columbus Circle and the 1 for the 2. I decided I should just savour the moment and not panic- hence the tulips and the view of Central Park as I strode along 59th Street.

When Katrina wrote the prompt wide I'm sure she didn't have "manspreading" in mind but it seems the perfect fit for the "go wide" prompt :) 

Exposure

Exposure by definition
1. the act of exposing, laying open, or uncovering:
the sudden exposure of objects that were hidden under the blanket. Or the tourists flesh on the balcony of the hotel opposite my apartment.

2. the fact or state of being exposed:
A bandage will avoid exposure of the wound. Or laying in the shade on the balcony will avoid exposure to the sun

3. presentation to view, especially in an open or public manner:
His exposure of his anger shocked the company. Or the tourists posing as the Statue of Liberty on the balcony of the hotel opposite my apartment.

...And then there's 

In digital photography, exposure is the unit of measurement for the total amount of light permitted to reach the electronic sensor during the process of taking a photograph. The two main controls your digital camera uses to control exposure are the shutter speed and aperture.

On the side

The weekend is being spent with some of my scrapbooking buddies. The table is all set up and here we have paint water with drinking water on the side. Or paint water with red nose on the side. And a side note "Red Nose" day is raising money for kids in poverty not SIDS.

Part of the day has been spent catching up or at least keeping up to date with the unPlanner whose PAC (pocket art card) challenge for the day was to make a pocket and fill it. I used a playing card as the PAC base and then small tags.

A bunch

It is truly amazing how one can see something differently when one is a prompted to see things. I think I would have noticed these flowers on a teachers table but would probably not have made much of an effort to find their story or examine them in detail. 

I commented on them to the teacher and she drew the gift giver over to tell her that I asked about them.

 I asked where they came from...turns out her mother's boyfriend gave them to her mum and she asked her mum if she could bring some for her teacher. I hope that's how it all happened. 

Then on my short walk to the train I noted the flowers outside the local bodega. The idea of buying flowers always reminds me of Maddy asking me if I bought flowers for my NYC apartment.

Vibrant

Some subway journeys are more vibrant than another ... This one was way too vibrant...

There were two homeless people begging at separate times one a woman with a soft voice just wanting food and then a louder man who was apparently 23 and had no job and was normally not engaged in this type of thing. His wife was incarcerated on 5 felony charges and he and his six year old daughter were now looking for another shelter the fourth they have been to. I didn't know there was a shelter on Park Avenue. 

There was a tall gangly man in a corner  seat near the door who spent time sleeping and then chose to get up and go and stand between the carriages and return to the compartment. Too scary to think what he was doing. 

He had been sitting next to an elderly couple I presume they were a couple because they were practically sitting on top of each other to avoid making contact with the gangly man I suspect. They each wore a beret and were engrossed in crossword (him) and sudoku (her).

The woman next to me admired the woman next to her's nails. They were long and quite ugly I thought but the first woman talked about them at length so the lady with the nails proceeded to talk about the history of her nail growth and the wonderful woman in the Bronx who does them for her. They both got out there cell phones and they exchanged the name and number of the salon. The nails only cost $36 despite the fact that we're were eight jewels on each of her index fingers. 

Students were engaged in loud conversations nothing of which made sense to me but we could hear the cacophony of it all adding to the vibrancy of the train journey.

Pocket-sized

Love my little speaker- it is perfect for crops and just having music playing in the apartment.

Distant

Here we go again at West Farms Square and there in the distance was the start of the change in the day's weather...wet roads, grey clouds rolling back to blue skies. Yay spring ia on it's way perhaps in the not so distant future. 

Layers

It would be lovely to be able to label this photo indicating the layers of difference between my experience of schools in Australia and schools here in NYC. It's not just the language e.g. (even e.g. really here it's ex.) calling the pigeon holes for staff "mail boxes"...the sort of doctors'/ dentists' waiting room type chairs and space...the shiny lino- most schools I recall have carpet ...but the biggest difference is the time clock and the moving of one's card...how long is it since professionals in Australia have had to do that- do people still do it in factories?.... I've just done a little research and people in some work locations do have to "punch in" but look at the time clock-it's typical of schools here and soooo 1980s/1970s/1960s

Magenta

 Heading up Central Park West and there I spotted today's prompt- the blossom is close enough to magenta for me to do a drive by photo and then relax into capturing other parts of the day....
The new apartment living room

The new view from the new apartment

Our new street Manhattan Avenue

Some of the sights in the new neighborhood

S

Then a trip up the Hudson for some lunch and a lovely way to spend a sunny Sunday