Buildings

I went back to red hook. I went with ray, a good friend who is in the area visiting for the week. We went to an abandoned rice mill. We hopped the fence, climbed the cement wall, got on the grounds and then discovered that not only was the building sealed up from every angle, but the far side of the building was actually eroding away into the water. Although it was def an entry point...No thanks. Our urban exploration was considered half successful. :)

G

Waiting for the g train. There's a man beautifully singing from the bottom of his heart for a couple of extra dollars. The man in front of me is holding a pizza. With a half opened can of nuts on top. The man to my left just awkwardly waits for the train.

Once on the train. I stand in the far corner from where I entered. There's always that one man in his early 30s with an iPad ego who acts like he is in the midst of revising a business Proposal that will one day make him millions of dollars. The man to My left is listening to music with his earbuds, as well as I. I can swear he is looking over my shoulder as I write this. But I'm almost more sure he's not. To my left are 2 eastern European friends. Possibly sisters, possibly best friends visiting the states.

There is an art in the way that people carefully choose there spot to stand on the train. Everyone who is a stranger is spread around equidistantly to each other.

I'm taking the train to red hook. The train is slowly clearing out as people exit to their subway stops. I am headed to redhook. one of the last stops on the g train.

Red hook was once a booming industrial area. Now it is full of abandoned warehouses and factories slowly bring converted into residential development. It is located in a very secluded area in the southwest corner of Brooklyn. The river overlooks lower manhattan.

My stop is next. Berenson. That was quick.

This is where I am headed tonight to take some night photos.

Music

New mix. Please give it a listen. It'd mean a lot to me.

http://8tracks.com/theforelements/occupy-music

Music keeps me going. My personal mix

http://8tracks.com/theforelements/go-somewhere-and-do-whatever-you-want

If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.

home for the holidays. Life is good. Turkey is good. Home until Sunday which I believe is the 27th. In a way I don't want to go back. I love New York, but there's always something about the fresh air and laid back atmosphere of my hometown. The way it turns into a ghost town after 1am, the way the air smells, the pitch blackness of the night sky. It's very reassuring to know that there will always be a place to get away from everyone and everything. A place to think. For instance going to the lake (Codorus State Park) Walking to the shore line and staring at the water for 2 hours. Listening to the echoes of voices laughing across the other side of the lake, or the miniature waves crashing onto the rocks. this is something that I would do almost every weekend as a kid.

While I was home I met up with good friend Brandon. He asked If I would be interested in skating an indoor skate ramp tucked deep away in the outskirts of Westminster, MD. We got out of the car, walked over to the barn. One of the most fantastic skate spots I have ever seen. Apparently a couple of older skate dudes decided to turn an old barn into a gigantic halfpipe spanning the width of the barn. Something every skater dreams of doing some day. I had the best time ever. Got a couple of tricks in, as well as a couple of crashes. I look forward to going back again soon.

Until then. I'll be looking forward to the extended Christmas break. and then hopefully Mardi Gras coming up in February.

Here are some photos from last night at "skatebarn"

Occupy Shea Stadium

Last night at Shea Stadium in Brooklyn. A show announced last minute, which sold out nearly immediately. The show consisted of the local band (up the street) So So Glo's. They played with Titus Andronicus and Ted Leo. Its nights like this that I will never forget! The photo enclosed is a song collaboration including nearly all band members from Titus, Ted Leo, & the Glos. The proceeds from the show went on to support the OWS movement. Image quality is crappy, so I did my best to try to make it look artsy!

Occupy

Today I decided to take a trip uptown with gair to see all the commotion that was going on at the Bloomberg mansion. There's to be a 24 hour drum circle outside of the Bloomberg residence, which started at 2PM. I arrived at 2:30. The crowd grew substantially by the time 3PM rolled around. Enclosed are a few of the many photos I snapped. The lady in the grey hat traveled from Connecticut just for the day. A mother of 3, She was there to help support the 99%. I met another man by the name of Wayne later on in the night at Zuccotti Park. Wayne strongly believes the WTC7 was blown up by the US Government. He gave me a list of reasons why he strongly supported the theory. He allowed me to take his photo, but he didn't want me to post it anywhere. He didn't want his photo finding its way to an FBI database(jokingly?)

The past few months have been flying by. I'm not sure if it's because I'm always occupied with something, or if it's because I'm just letting the days slip into one another.....Since my last post, I got a new iPhone. I think that makes it my 3rd one in 2 months. I got it for an excellent deal at the Apple store on 14th street in Chelsea. $150 for the 16gb replacement...Not bad. I also went with intentions of replacing my age old cracked-screen macbook. I got my battery replaced, along with a new "H" Key. It turns out that fixing the screen of my macbook is considered a "Tier 3" replacement. This would have cost well over $1,000. No thanks. I'm buying my screen from the internet for $200 and replacing it myself. I will make a post with all of the steps I went through to replace it soon. As soon as I get around to buying it :P

The photo is from April 2009. It was a very beautiful day. Can't believe its been so long already. I remember thinking how much fun we were having, and how I would never forget this day. And I never will. Photo was taken from the roof of an abandoned distillery located just outside of Philadelphia. The decaying roof imitates the scenery of a secluded desert. Along with eerie smoke stacks that added some surrealism to the photo.

Curiosity

Niphead

Testing out the new video light. a Vidpro K-120 light. The Polaroid video light was junk. Whoever designed it was a complete idiot as well. The on/off switch knob on the back would always get pushed on while transporting the light in my camera bag. By the time I would get to my destination, the batteries would be non-existent, they would vaporize, that's how much video lights eat up batteries. Here is the first photo test.

Tonight. Sheas Stadium Brooklyn. Crazy People. Good Music. Lost iPhone, Found iPhone. $200 Later. FML Thanks for finding my phone for me, random overly excited man. I said "You lucked out, you won the lottery today, Thanks." I Love kind people.

Gettysburg 1909

JMZ

I got a new iPhone today. Can't tell you how excited I am about this. I was thinking "you know, this is pretty cool, not having a phone and all" Until I realized how many important calls I missed. I Bought it from some guy in a questionable neighborhood. it's pretty legit. Except for the fact that the serial on the box didn't match the one on the phone... hmmmm. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens!

This photo was taken on the way to Jamaica Center*. The last stop on the J-M-Z line which ends in Queens. The ride is an excruciating 35 mins in both directions and would be very unpleasant as a daily commute into Manhattan. As a bonus, trains were only running every 24 mins this weekend. It was all worth it. Now just to go to AT&T to activate my phone tomorrow.

*Halfway through this photo, my shutter made a very unfriendly sound and then shut off. I haven't been able to turn it back on since. Battery is also fully charged. Could this be the last photo ever taken from my 1D-III? Stay tuned to find out next week. Is it even possible to tune into a website? Will we ever find out where the people in this photo were headed? What's in the bag that the lady has? What was that man reading about? does any of this really matter?

20111030 Fall For You

Ocean of endless unknown.

Sarah: What advice can you offer to aspiring photographers and photojournalists?

Sacha Lecca: A few things.
-Always be shooting. Shoot as often as possible and constantly be
looking at photography, it will inspire you and help develop your own
shooting style and eye.
-Know yourself, know what you like and why, and be able to judge you
own work. Show your work to others as well for feedback.
-work as a photo assistant or intern for photographers you admire.
-in getting your work in front of magazine editors: go to the
newsstand and check the mastheads of the magazines you feel your work
would be an asset to (as above: know yourself) and personally send the
photo editors emails and/or promos. This rather than an automated
email blast to a list of photo editors you can buy. I gets countless
emails/promos each day from, for example, food and baby photographers,
or from photographers whose shooting style (or talent) isn’t
appropriate to RS. That stuff goes in the trash.

I have a crush on NY, I missed her all weekend.

That man had patience

Don't give up. If your first attempt didn't work, don't quit. When asked about his 10,000 failed attempts to develop a storage battery, the prolific American inventor Thomas Edison responded: "I have not failed, I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work

This was from last week, I think around Tuesday or Wednesday. We went to The Gutter in Brooklyn. Best place ever. Just make sure you go on a weekday when it's not crowded. The best way to describe it would be as a Dive Bowling Alley, mostly a bar though.

This past week. Great week.

OCTOBER 17th, 2011

Thought it might be funny to test out my new Kodak video light I got from B&H this past week on a few unsuspecting victims. The idea resulted in a bunch of blind and angry cats and people. But its still a pretty cool light.

OCTOBER 17th, 2011

I appreciate the fact that I still have a passion for photography. I think I want more photojournalism in my life. Maybe I’ll be a photojournalist. For now, Ill just continue doing post production ;)

Ill post up some pictures to follow. It’s been awhile since I’ve done a photo post.

OCTOBER 16th, 2011

View high resolution

(Source: truthdig.com)

OCTOBER 14th, 2011


Happy Birthday Yassen. So glad I got to meet your both your parents today. Sadly it had to happen under these circumstances. Love you brotha…

OCTOBER 12th, 2011

well it was nice knowin’ ya. good luck.

OCTOBER 11th, 2011

Cherish everyone who is remotely important to you while you still have a chance.

OCTOBER 7th, 2011

I wish you were still around.

RIP Yassen

OCTOBER 6th, 2011

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Steve Jobs, Stanford Commencement Speech 2005 (via sebastianwaters) (via noahkalina)

But anyways, It looks like im going to wait for the 4s release to get a new phone. I’ve still got another 2 weeks but I think it will be well worth the wait.

On the Note: RIP Steve Jobs. You were legendary

Also RIP Robert Golding. A very inspirational and photographer who knew know limits.

Its been a sad last couple of weeks.

Fucking Tired

SEPTEMBER 29th, 2011

Worked a wedding all day yesterday. 1:30pm to 2:30am. Fell asleep on the train on the way home. Woke up on the train at 10:30am. Found out someone had stolen my wallet and iphone. The weirdest part was that I was on the complete opposite side of the city. On a train I don’t think I ever got on. This is insane. Luckily there was nothing spent on my credit card, and I locked my iphone remotely, Including a message of how to return. Hopefully this means I can just get the iphone 5.

Bum

OCTOBER 2nd, 2011

I want to see how little money I can spend in 2 weeks. Not sure when I want to do it yet, but I totally am going to. It’s going to suck. But with barely spending any money for 2 weeks, I can buy either another 70-200L 2.8 or a decent 24” Imac with some extra gnar RAMmage.

I can:

- Ride my bike to work

- Buy Beans, A loaf of bread, and some hot dogs from the rediculous puerto rican grocery store up the street, where they sell nasty ass hot dogs 4$ for 5 packs (60) gross.

- Not pay bills (easy)

G Train

SEPTEMBER 29th, 2011


Not only did I have a premonition about sleeping through my alarm for the first time ever last night. But I actually did this morning.. I woke up at 11:15, had to be at work by 10. Super crazy. I guess it was gods way of telling me to chill the fuck out and stop going to bed at 4:30 am. Had a long work day yesterday. 12 hour wedding on Saturday, :o Update: now my train conductor is mumbling over the sounds of the trains ac. Looks like my train is going to stop halfway to work, in Brooklyn. After a month of screwing up people’s schedules by doing construction and making people pay for mta fairs that get them nowhere, it looks like they still don’t know how to fix shit. Now I have to take the G train. This train is infamously known for being slow, never showing up, and always breaking down. So on top of being almost 2 hours late, now I have to wait for the fucking G train. And how many after to transfer. I am pissed.

SEPTEMBER 27th, 2011

I miss this place

7105 Boyer Street

SEPTEMBER 26th, 2011

Just stumbled across my photo on a blog. I figured the best thing to do would be re-blog it. Only a month ago too! *Linked through Tumblr.

fuckyeahurbexing:

by Tim Waltman

(Reblogged from fuckyeahurbexing)

SEPTEMBER 25th, 2011

Today I lost my old roommate and very good friend. Instead of writing a long post about everything, I’m just going to create a list of memories.

-My 21st birthday, I’m sure you’ll never forget that night either. Well, you might have forgotten some of it.

-Stomping our feet and snapping our fingers, getting wild to whatever band was playing in the “no name bar” on Boyer street.

-Me walking in on you full blown checking yourself out in the bathroom mirror. I had to piss pretty badly, but I decided to let you finish examining your pecs. At least until you realized I was standing there(no homo). At least you admitted it and didn’t make up a crazy excuse.

-Grilling out back. We used that charcoal grill so often, I think we burnt a hole through the bottom of it.

- That UFC Ultimate Fighter xbox game. We had no idea how the hell to play that game. I can just remember pressing the “A” button really quickly, punching your character in the face about 50 times in a row, and than wondering how anyone could survive that. But before I knew it, you were kicking me in the face, and you always seemed to win.

-Tagging the bathroom at tattooed moms

-Our ridiculous puns and made up pointless sayings that we could always get others to take seriously “you can take the hay out of a barn, but you can never tell the farmer where it went”

You were one of the most giving people I have ever met. I’m not just writing that because of the circumstances. I could honestly say that you were one of my best friends. I could tell you anything. We’re all going to miss you terribly. RIP Yassen Andreev

SEPTEMBER 23rd, 2011





Met Mario Andretti today. So awesome! I remember playing his F1 Racing game on Sega Genesis.

SEPTEMBER 21st, 2011





To be honest… I didn’t even know REM was still a band. I haven’t heard any of their new music? It’s like telling me POD broke up. Or kind of like that old celebrity, you’re not sure if there already dead or not. Like Richard Nixon. I should probably know. I think he’s dead.

SEPTEMBER 20th, 2011






I have no teef.

SEPTEMBER 18th, 2011

I am currently taking the chinabus to Harrisburg, and then getting my wisdom teeth pulled out tomorrow morning. Sounds like the perfect recipe for death. Only kidding, I know it will be fine.

But The chinabus sure did a good job of fulfilling its bad reputation by pulling up to the station at 50mph and running over all the divider cones. It was actually kind of funny. Not sure if anyone else saw the bad humor though. I’d much rather choose the sketch bus at $25 then Amtrak at $75 during peak hours.

Photo: somewhere in Chinatown near division street.

9.14.2011 Financial District

9.13.2011