new york ( disappointing ) stories

i had an exhibition of travel photography a couple of years ago.

two of the prints which sold best were both taken in new york.

i think one of them is without doubt, my favourite ever photograph.

( what i mean is, my favourite photo that i have taken )

here it is...

it's used as one of my business cards and is also the home page of my website

www.markwhitfieldphotography.com

i wish i had an interesting story about it, or that i could tell you about all the hard

work and preparation that went into taking the shot but...

i was in a yellow cab with a couple of colleagues the day after i did the new york

marathon... well, what i mean is, the day after i photographed the new york marathon.

i love yellow cabs and i'm always photographing them ( i'll put up a yellow cab post

tomorrow to prove it ) anyway, as we were driving along, another yellow cab drove 

alongside us. i wound the window down and took 3 shots of it with my

leica minilux. one frame totally out of focus, one frame pretty average and this

was the final frame of the roll of film that i had in the camera !

it's pretty much the full frame. maybe i'm biased because i like yellow cabs

but i love this pic. the colour, the stencilling and of course the reflections in the window.

especially the 'i love lucy' part.

the other photo from new york i don't like anywhere near as much, but it is the

print which i sold the most of. my friend andy hooper who is a noted

sports photographer thinks this is a great photo too. perhaps it's because

i don't have a story about it. i think it's just a snapshot, not something

i tried for ages to get right ?

here it is...

once again it was taken with my trusty leica minilux using kodak

something or other negative film. ( yikes i've forgotten the names

of the films i used to use )

i was with my friend neil and we had just had breakfast at a diner

and were walking back to our hotel. he told me he had to make a 

quick call from a phonebox and that he'd only be two minutes.

i just hung around near the phonebox and looked around.

i looked up at the empire state, probably photographed a few yellow 

cabs going by, then looked down at a puddle infront of me.

hmmm...

i took two frames and neil said "come on mate" and away we went.

i must admit that when i got the film processed and printed, i was

very pleased with this shot...

but it's not as good as the yellow cab shot now is it ?