Black and White Photography Blog, Vol. I

So I’m on fifth, pointing the contraption across towards the Apple Store (pictures to follow I think) and bus runs by. Yes, I have a cop keeping an eye on me from the Plaza Hotel side. Is it still a hotel or is it condos. Whatever. I spent about an hour getting the hang of the thing and I think it will eventually prove useful. And as Craig noted: not a good idea to use it in the rain, esp. since it is a walking lightning rod though in this case it is not exactly the tallest structure around. Here what I liked was that you get the reflection behind me, but also can see through both bus windows.

I really hate attracting all this attention, but so be it. I try to remember how often I’ve felt foolish doing some sort of shooting only to find that it wasn’t foolish at all. This high-angle stuff came out of the montage experiments. I had been trying to figure out a better way to vertical montages when the idea of a sort of calibrated pole device hit me. Of course, I haven’t used it for a vertical montage yet and a lot of what I’ve done so far has been too planned for my own good.  In other words, I like to be surprised by something and not end up with what I pictured in my head.  (This is sort of anti-Ansel Adams pre-visualization but what can I say - I like to be as surprised as the viewer.)