I can't say there's anything wrong with the Bronx, it's just a long way to go from New Jersey. In fact, I started understanding it when New Yorkers would say to get to the "real" New York, you have to go outside of Manhattan - Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens (not Staten Island, give me a break, it's only New York in name. Geographically and culturally, it's New Jersey).
Unfortunately, I didn't get any lomos of this mythic "real" New York. I don't know what the hell is wrong with me, I need to be shooting a lot more than I do, and varying my shooting as well. I'm still learning, though, and I'm finding the limitations of my subject matter, what I'm seeing, and I should try to remedy that.
I rode to the Bronx to go to Woodlawn Cemetery, and that's mostly what I shot. Although soon after I crossed into the Bronx, riding under some neat, old-time, elevated tracks, I paused for some exciting flooding in the street:
Woodlawn Cemetery is really nice, especially in the Autumn. Unfortunately, I got a flat tire just after I got into the cemetery. I entered in at the far end, so I got the flat literally at the farthest point away in my ride. I wasn't too concerned, though, I thought I was prepared for a flat, so I continued walking through the cemetery and took a few shots:
Flash is necessary with the lomo fisheye in low-light situations. Other people have commented on that in the flickr fisheye group. Also, the flash isn't very powerful, so if you're too far away from a subject, you won't get it, but if you're too close to a subject, all you'll get is the flash. Optimal use of the lomo fisheye is in sunlight.
It's a cemetery, what can I say? Nothing really to comment on.
Anyway, it was after this that I realized I was about as prepared as FEMA for a flat tire. My fatal flaw was to not have my own pump. I had a spare tube. I had a patch kit. But as it turned out, without my own pump, I was screwed. I had no idea where bike shops were in the Bronx, and indeed I saw none as I wandered the streets hoping to find one, or a gas station with air.
I did find a gas station with air, but that's when I really found out I needed my own pump, because it turns out the spare tube I had uses a presta valve. It was the first presta tube that I had gotten for my mountain bike, and I don't even know why I had it since I'd been using Shrader valves since I got the bike. I was wholly unprepared for a flat tire, the only thing I could depend on was a bike shop, and I had no idea where one was.
Fortunately, it didn't turn out to be a complete worst-case scenario. I had all the time in the world, I didn't have a meeting to get to, it wasn't raining, it wasn't freezing. I just had to resign myself that I would have to find my way back to the George Washington Bridge via subway, and then walk my bike across the bridge to my parents' office, where, again fortunately, my mother had taken my car for the day, and it has a bike rack.
It was bad, but it definitely could've been worse. The subway wasn't too bad, although it was approaching rush hour. Well, except for the part when I got on a crowded "A" train, and realized just in time that it was a downtown train instead of uptown. That would have seriously sucked, so thanks to the disgruntled passengers who had to get out of my way. I could have said, "Sorry, so sorry, I'm from New Jersey". Hey, I like that excuse, I think I'll use it at some point. See what kind of sensayuma New Yorkers have. That's "sense of humor" for you non-New Yorkers.
All that, and not a single lomo. Bah!
current sounds:
1. Bizarre Love Triangle (Frente!)
2. Night of the Swallow (Kate Bush)
3. Love is Blindness (U2)
4. Everybody's Got the Right ("Assassins" - Sondheim)
5. Opened (The Breeders)
6. Silverfuck (Smashing Pumpkins)
7. Harlem Congo (Chick Webb)
8. The Greeting Song (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
9. Off With Your Head (Sleater-Kinney)
10. Let Me Love You, Baby (Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble)
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