Park Slope Pens

Recently my lovely girlfriend and I got engaged. Despite loving photography so much, the idea of having engagement photos taken makes me incredibly nauseous.

<rant>

"Oh my! Did that photographer happen to catch us as we were lollygagging through the park while wearing coordinated sweaters and standing in a meticulously sculpted pile of leaves?" No thank you. In my opinion, the only redeeming element of an engagement photo is the outsized logo of the photographer that covers a large portion of the actual photograph.

</rant> 

We decided to tap the shoulder of our neighborhood illustrator, Steven Weinberg. He made this incredible portrait of us with our fluffy dog, Jango. Besides hanging it on our wall, we even used it for our wedding invites. Not only is Steven a wildly gifted illustrator, he is an incredibly cool guy to boot. Be sure to catch his show at Culture before it melts away.

Quiet morning

5th Ave.

Canon 5D Mark II, 50mm, f/9.0, 1/20s, ISO 800

Dead headphones

Flatbush Ave

Canon 5D Mark II, 58mm, f/10, 1/400s, ISO 1000

A helping hand

5th Ave and 9th St.

Aemiessence

I want to welcome back one of our talented photographers, Greg Gilbert. Greg just finished a graduate program at the Jewish Theological Seminary. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend his thesis exhibit there. Photography is just the tip of Greg's talent iceberg. Be sure to click on over to his site, Aemiessence, to see more of his work!

Brooks saddle

I've always enjoyed looking at Brooks saddles on bikes more than I do riding them. Riding a bike with one is rather punishing for many months. I spotted this one on 5th Ave between Union and Sackett.

Canon 5D Mark II, 105mm, f/4.0, 1/800 sec, ISO 800

Mezcal's

Mezcal's on 5th Ave and President. My fiance and I recently tried this place after walking past it hundreds of times. It's by far the best Mexican that I've had in Park Slope. Their chile rellenos are out of this world.

I've tried to take this picture numerous times. At night the neon lights really cut through the darkness and look very cool. However, it's very tricky to do handheld, and I'm too lazy to carry a tripod for street photos. With a little luck, I was finally able to take this with razor sharpness.

Canon 5D Mark II, 28mm, 1/200s, f/4.0, ISO 2500

Surprise

Few people know that Park Slope's only 7-11 (5th Ave between 13th and 14th) has a really nice selection of prepared vegan lunches. They are the same organic brand that is de rigueur at all the nice grocery stores in the Slope, and they are only $4-6!! The store manager told me that they always order 9 cases of the vegan stuff, and it flies off the shelves very quickly.

Put it on my bill

Here's a duck and a pay phone that have both seen better days. Found on 5th Ave.

Before and after

I found this really cool natural diptych on 7th Ave.