Got out early this morning to catch the morning sun. It is a fact of life for those photographing buildings in New York that north facing facades only get a brief wash of sunlight each day, none at all in the winter. Manhattan is not precisely oriented north/south, but it’s close enough.

Mars Bar

My destination was not far from homebase. I set up my camera at East 1st and Second Avenue looking toward the new Avalon Bay apartment building on Houston Street with an Exxon station (see earlier post) on the left. Across Second Avenue is the Mars Bar, an uproariously grafittied neighborhood institution. One wonders how long it will survive the relentless upmarket trend of the immediate area. And then just across East 1st Street I photographed more new Avalon Bay apartments under construction seen through a chainlink fence. Three shots, two hours, one street corner.

The glory of chainlink

After breakfast I spent about four hours going through my negatives working on a selection to scan and print. For another four hours I scanned negatives at My Own Color Lab on their Imacon scanner. After an hour or so struggling with the software I struck on a formula that worked well, and was able to get a lot of work done. More scanning to come on Friday.