Summertime lunch in Bryant Park, Aug 2009 - 52
Image by Ed Yourdon
Note: this photo was published in a Dec 31, 2009 blog titled "Study Profiles Mobile Dating."
Moving into 2011, it was also published in a Nov 16, 2010 blog titled "Indiana Do Not Call deadline today; South Bend/Elkhart second highest in participation." It was also published in a Jan 2, 2011 blog titled "Writing a Great Online Dating Profile – A Woman’s Guide." And it was published in a Jan 8, 2011 blog titled 4 Online Dating Tips For Having Good Results." It was also published in a Jan 9, 2011 blog titled "I’m interested in starting an online dating site or adult networking site and have a few questions?" And it was published in a Feb 9, 2011 blog titled "Tips and Tricks for Your New Laptop." It was also published in a Feb 13, 2011 First Date Conversation blog, with the same caption and detailed description that I had written on this Flickr page. And it was published in a Feb 22, 2011 the Atlantic Wire blog titled "Cell Phone Usage Increases Brain Activity." It was also published in a Mar 30, 2011 blog titled "Find Dates at Online Dating Sites, Not In Bars."
And it was published in a Jun 3, 2011 blog titled "Cancer expert plays down mobile phone link with brain tumours." It was also published in an Aug 24, 2011 Fast Company blog titled "Why Customer-Driven Culture Will Stall Your Company's Growth" at www-dot-fastcompany.com-slash-1775823/customer-driven-corporate-culture-hurts-profits
Moving into 2012, the photo was published in a Jan 4, 2012 blog titled "Top 25 Besty Things About Being an Expat." It was also published in a Jul 6, 2012 blog titled "NOT A MOMMY WAR – THIS IS ABOUT OUR UNSUSTAINABLE WORKAHOLIC CULTURE." And it was published in an Aug 29, 2012 blog titled "Smartphone user profiles."
****************************************
I had a lunchtime dentist appointment in midtown Manhattan the other day, and when it was over, I decided to walk a couple blocks over to Bryant Park, behind the New York Public Library. It was a sunny day, and I thought I might see some gorgeous babes sunbathing on the park lawn in their bikinis (even being an amateur photographer is a tough job, but someone's gotta do it). If not, I thought perhaps I'd find some photogenic tourists or oddball New Yorkers that I could photograph.
As it turns out, almost all of the central lawn was being covered over with some kind of wooden platform -- presumably for an upcoming concert performance of some kind -- so nobody was sunbathing out on the grass. But since that area was unavailable, and since it was still the lunchtime period, the periphery around the central lawn was chock-a-block with people. There's now a cafe immediately behind (i.e., to the west) of the library itself, and it was doing a land-office business. And all along the north and south sides of the park, as well as the broader western side, there were tables and chairs and benches where people could enjoy their lunch with whatever food or entertainment they had brought along.
I was already aware of the pentanque court on the western side of the park, and knew that I'd find one or two good pictures there. But I didn't realize that the Parks Department had set up two ping-pong tables, as well as several tables for chess-players. In addition, there were a few card games underway, and there was also a section set aside for people who wanted to borrow local newspapers to read.
As for the people: I had to remind myself that because Bryant Park is smack in the middle of mid-town Manhattan (a block away from Times Square, filling the square block between 41st/42nd street, and 5th/6th Avenue), most of the people enjoying their lunch were office workers. So the men typically wore slacks and dress shirts, and a surprising number of them were also wearing suits and ties. The women wore dresses and skirts, and generally looked quite fashionable and presentable. Of course, there were also tourists and students and miscellaneous others; but overall, it was a much more "upscale" bunch of people than I'm accustomed to seeing in my own residential area on the Upper West Side.
I was surprised by how many people were sitting alone -- eating alone, reading alone, listening to music alone, dozing alone, or just staring into space alone. You'll see some of them in this album, though I didn't want to over-emphasize their presence; equally important, many of the loners just weren't all that interesting from a photogenic perspective. So you'll also see lots of couples, some children, a couple of families, and occasionally larger groups of people who were eating and chatting and enjoying the warm summer day.
Three activities dominated the scene, all of which were fairly predictable, under the circumstances: eating, reading, and talking on cellphones. You would expect people to be eating at lunch-time, of course; and you wouldn't be surprised at the notion of people reading a book as they sat behind the New York Public Library on a warm, sunny day. But the pervasiveness of the cellphones was quite astonishing ... oh, yeah, there were a few laptops, too, but fewer than I might have imagined.
I've photographed Bryant Park several times over the past 40 years, going back to some photos of 1969 Vietnam War protest marches that you can see in this album. I was here in the summer of 2008 to take these photos; I came back in January 2009 to take these photos of the winter scene; and I returned again for these pictures in March 2009 and these these pictures in the late spring of 2009; all of these have been collected into a Flickr "collection" of albums that you can find here. But if you want to see what New York City's midtown office workers are doing at lunch, take a look at what's in this album.
Inside the medical centre at Bahn refugee camp, Liberia
Image by DFID - UK Department for International Development
Development Minister Stephen O'Brien takes a look at the medical centre that has been set up with the help of UK aid at Bahn refugee camp in Liberia.
The centre provides emergency health checks to all refugees who have fled the fighting in the Ivory Coast and who may be exhausted by the journey.
Minister O’Brien was visiting the camp along the border with Ivory Coast, where British aid is providing food, shelter and water for some 3,000 men, women and children living there.
For more information, please visit: www.dfid.gov.uk/Media-Room/News-Stories/2011/UK-Minister-...
Picture: Robert Stansfield / Department for International Development
Terms of use
This image is posted under a Creative Commons - Attribution Licence, in accordance with the Open Government Licence. You are free to embed, download or otherwise re-use it, as long as you credit the source as 'Department for International Development'.
Pioche NV winter 2039a
Image by DB's travels
Pioche (pronounced Pi-oach (as in 'coach')) is an older mining town that was very active from the mid-1800's until the mid-1900's. The town is now largely abandoned with very many empty homes and businesses. However, there is still a sizeable number of long-term residents and some new homes/residents. I talked with local townspeople to try to get a sense of why there were new homes being built, since there is no, 0, none, zilch, work other than a very, very, very, minor amount of tourist and/or agricultural work. The sense of the locals was that some of the newer homes were vacation homes and the rest were retirees who were moving there from Utah and Las Vegas. It is difficult to believe that these retirees or vacationers would change the town much, since there are almost no basic services available -- there is only a weekly visiting nurse, you have to go at least back to Caliente (30 miles) for basic shopping/health services or to St. George, Utah (80 miles) for any real shopping/health services.
There is, however, one restaurant (the Silver Cafe, nearby picture) where the people who run it are friendly, the locals who eat there say 'hi', and the food is good. And, across from the restaurant is the Overland Hotel (this picture), with an old-fashioned bar and again friendly staff/locals. When I first visited Pioche a few years back, there were more businesses and restaurants open. Though quite scenic and historically interesting, it doesn't attract many tourists -- which is fine. I like the town as it is -- friendly, interesting history, and no tourist-traps.
This and the following pages are pictures of Pioche itself, and then of mining areas around it. Since it was a mining town, you can see mining structures in the background in many of the pictures from downtown.
(Best viewed as part of Lincoln county set)
View on black, courtesy of B l a c k M a g i c
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar