Dancing at dusk

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I seem to be posting a lot of photos of flags of one kind or another this month! This time from Union Square. For some reason the Hare Krishna people were out in force this year, I don't remember seeing them there before.

Skateboarder

Glimpse

On the west side of Union Square there are a couple of small alleys that are usually closed off from the street. While walking past one of them I spied a waitress from the restaurant next door taking a break from work and snapped a photo.

Blue watch

I saw this guy sitting on a fence at Union Square and watching the crowd, but he got down off the fence and just started leaning against it before I could snap a photo. I went up to him and asked if he could sit on it again the same way as before, but he said "how was I sitting?". But he let me take his portrait anyway.

In Andy Warhol's shadow

Guitarists playing in front of the Andy Warhol statue at the north end of Union Square.

Occupy Wall Street

Over the past two months I've been taking a portrait photography class, which has been very educational but also took up a lot of time (so, not much posting recently). Here's one that I'm particularly pleased with, I talked to this gentleman who was watching an Occupy Wall Street event in Union Square, and asked if I could take his portrait. I took this one while he was tired of posing, but the full-on eye contact says more than the conventional portraits did.

Skateboarders on Sunday afternoon

There's still more to come from Japan, but for a change of pace, here's a slice of life from New York.

Not Al Pacino

From the date, it looks like I took this on my birthday earlier this year. Looking at makes me wonder who these two guys are and what they're up to (apart from shopping, obviously). 

Bagpipe player

You don't see bagpipe players very often in New York anywhere except in a parade, but this one was dressed for the part.

Chess players

I'm fascinated by the chess players (or "chess hustlers") who hang out Union Square and some other major New York parks. I've never been particularly good at chess, so I've kept my distance, but there's something intriguing about the idea that chess is serious business for some people. This photo captures some of the feeling: the park is bustling with people but some of them are deep in concentration. I'm sure I've seen the guy in the leather jacket playing before.

Union Square people

Union Square is a great place to watch people: it's full of all sorts of New Yorkers relaxing, waiting to meet someone, showing off, or protesting something or other, as well as musicians performing and street vendors doing their stuff. It seems to be a magnet for photographers as well, every time I go there I see guys with the big lenses prowling around. A couple of weeks ago I went down on a Sunday to have a go myself.

Serious business

I shot this in Madison Square Park, a few blocks up from Union Square. These two guys were sitting in front of the Shake Shack, which has a good reputation and always has a long line of customers (I've never eaten there though!). They looked like they were just hanging out, but those sunglasses ...

I'm telling you

Union Square punk

I like this guy as a subject, but the background turned out too busy (f/10, should have gone wider).

Oscar Wilde

Looking around carefully made me think that some people want to be photographed (probably including Mr Punk, above). I am still too much of a coward to contemplate asking someone if I can take their picture without becoming seriously uncomfortable, but you don't see a hat like this in New York every day, so I did my best. It turned out the guy had a story to tell: the standout part about the hat isn't the hat itself, but the necklace attached to it. He explained that it's an African necklace made from human wrist bones, and his family collects them to keep them out of the hands of people who don't value them. That turned out to be not at all what I was expecting to hear, and I was pleased that my first real attempt to ask a stranger for a photo was such a success (he explained that the hat was pretty ordinary, but he "takes it out to air it" once in a while). Moral: some people definitely are looking to draw attention to themselves.

On the lookout