Trekking the Trek...

Taken at the Lorimer Street / Metropolitan Avenue Subway Station in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Must view large...

A Rainy Night en El Barrio

East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem is a neighborhood in Manhattan, situated East of, you guessed it, Harlem. These shots were taken on a stretch of Lexington Avenue between of 116th and 117th streets.

Some rain drops fell on my lens, so I decided to take advantage of the inconvenience by experimenting; smudging the water droplets over the entire lens. The end result was the interesting lighting you see here.

This Way to Penn Station

The mouth of the tunnel that connects the Long Island Rail Road commuter network to Penn Station in Manhattan... Taken from Hunter's Point, Queens.

Superfund Site in Progress

A small tributary of Gowanus Bay, near the mouth of the Gowanus Canal in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The only flow of the water being tidal, you can just image how putrid this water is...

Click the image to view larger sizes and Geotag information...

Downtown Renaissance, Scenes from the ever changing Brooklyn Central Business District

During modern times many central business districts experienced decline, disinvestment, and blight. In a suburban exodus, the 1960's and '70s were not good times for downtowns across America. Downtown Brooklyn is one of those places that breaks that mold and continues to reinvent itself even today. Downtown is getting denser with more people wanting to live there as opposed the commercial precedent downtown Brooklyn once held. The district is home to many schools, universities, and MetroTech Center.

The area is also a major transit hub with several subway lines heading into Manhattan and Long Island Railroad connections for commuters.

High rise construction is ongoing as recent rezoning laws allow for residences.

This specific project is known as the Brooklyner, a modern high rise apartment building. Nice, but not in my price range ;)

This shot was taken on the grounds of the MetroTech Center, a business and educational center. The MetroTech Center is 16 acre pedestrian zone.

The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway cuts through downtown Brooklyn.

Many of the surrounding neighborhoods such as Cobble Hill, Prospect Heights, Ft. Greene, Boerum Hill (pictured), Dumbo, ect have so much historic charm.

Well, ok, I experimented with this photo quite a bit, but this is a shot of Fulton Street, which is under construction, adding pedestrian amenities.

A well established downtown icon, The Williamsburg Bank Building dominates the skyline. Taken from Schermerhorn Street, near the MTA Transit Museum.

This terminated vista is provided courtesy of Borough Hall.

Each photo is geotagged and a larger version may be viewed by clicking on the image...

Ladder 8, Who ya gonna call???

This was the firehouse that the Ghostbusters operated out of; although in the film, the house was abandoned, the firehouse is still in use today. Taken at the corner of Varick and Moore in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan.

Alone in Irish Hill

Formerly a working class Irish neighborhood on the near east side of Indianapolis, Irish hill is now no more than a ghost town where colonies of homeless people live under viaducts, much of it has returned to nature, or is populated with abandoned industrial buildings. Being so close to the Eli Lilly complex, Fountain Square, and Fletcher Place, I wonder if this area has a new urban future.

The Studious Cop

This cop was parked near the Indianapolis/Marion County Central Library; perhaps studying law for the IMPD can't seem to stop breaking it ;) Taken on Sahm, near Meridian Street in the St. Joseph neighborhood of Indianapolis.

Urbanize Chaos

The autos win the day in this area of Brooklyn. Standing between Downtown Brooklyn, and Dumbo, this is where the Brooklyn--Queens Expressway meets the Manhattan Bridge. Pestrians: Put on your running shoes...

Hi Tech 2000

A street scene in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Borough Park. This neighborhood is located on the southwest section of the Borough, near Bensonhurst. It is also home to the largest Orthodox Jewish community in the United States.

The Bargain District Heart

When one thinks of Manhattanization, this is not the generally accepted concept. Taken at the corner of Clinton and Broome, an area of relatively lower density on the Lower East Side of Manhattan...

Best if viewed large...

The New Order of Things

Stepped in to get a deli to get a hero sandwich, stepped out into a Hitchcock film. I've been experimenting with using color gradients within my photograph as of late. Taken near the corner of 20th and 5th in the Brooklyn neighborhood or Park Slope...

Best if viewed large, you may click the image to do so...

My Account of the Brooklyn Tornado

Brooklyn was hit a unconfirmed tornado the other day during a set of thunderstorms that rolled though the city. The shot below was taken shortly after on the street corner by my apartment in Bed Stuy, which mainly suffered some downed branches or varying sizes, but other neighborhoods weren't quite as lucky. Park Slope was one of the hardest hit neighborhoods where trees and street lights were ripped from the ground and a person in Queens was killed.

I was walking to the subway as this storm was beginning. Being a Midwest native, where severe storms are taken much more for granted during the months of March - October, I noticed the winds and ominous green sky were making the people caught out on the sidewalks understandably nervous. But not me! (sinister laugh here) Show me a gigantic wall cloud sporting a tornadic appendage and maybe we'll talk. Things got a little more bizarre once I was in the subway station. My station is the Bedford-Nostrand Station, which is a gigantic subterranean hallway that runs a few block span between Bedford and Nostrand Avenues. The peak of the storm hit while I was traversing this, newly formed, wind tunnel. Trash and newspapers streamed by as my hand clung to my head to protect my face from a rogue New York Times and so I wouldn't loose my hat. I continued to board the train, met with my friend in Manhattan, and didn't even give it a second thought until I came back home that night and saw the news.

The only evidence of a storm at the corner of DeKalb and Spencer is a wet street.

Paid the Cost to be the Boss

Green Wood Cemetery is a large urban cemetery in Southern Brooklyn. It very much reminds me of Crown Hill Cemetery in my home city of Indianapolis. Like Crown Hill, its very large and is the final resting place for many of the city's notable and infamous characters of history. I visited the site of one of Green Wood's most infamous residents indeed, William 'Boss' Tweed.

William "Boss" Tweed was a prominent New York politician and boss of NYC's Democratic Machine, Tammany Hall during the 1840's. His corruption antics raped millions from New York's treasury and eventually led him to die in prison, which included, but wasn't limited to things like graft, embezzlement, and bribes. I suppose others may disagree, but I believe other notable political machinists like Tom Pendergast or Richard J. Daley pale in comparison to the Boss' corruption. He is buried in Brooklyn's Green Wood Cemetery...

Professionals

Gotta know what's in that trunk!!! Well, perhaps I don't want to know after all. Taken at the corner of Broadway and Hewes beneath the BMT Jamaica elevated line. This area is on the far south side of the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn.

Much detail, must view large...

Taxi Drivers Wanter...

Taken near 45th and Jackson in Long Island City, Queens...

Clouded Corner

People in the midwest look at the sky for two reasons; either in awe of its beauty or wondering if the storm it brings is going to kill them. Fortunately in this case, it was the former. This photo was shot at the corner of Delaware and Market in downtown Indianapolis, near the City Market.

Best if viewed large...

Bleary Eyed in the Bowery

...And my camera wasen't the only one. Taken at the corner of Delancy and Bowery in the Bowery section of the Lower East Side, Manhattan.

Midtown Vista

A partial view of the Midtown Manhattan skyline, including the Chrysler building from across the East River. Taken near the corner of 45th and Jackson in Long Island City, Queens.

Manhattan-Bound Light

A Manhattan bound N train departing the 20th Avenue Station in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. This elderly station was constructed in 1915 and is situation on the old BMT Sea Beach Line that terminates at Coney Island.

Definitely best if viewed large and you may click the image to do so...

Bed Stuy Bus Stop

Waiting on the bus to take me downtown. Taken near my residence at the corner of Bedford and Willoughby in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

Futuristic Retro

The entrance to the Jay Street-Borough Hall station in Downtown Brooklyn... At one point, these were probably made to look futuristic, but now, are somewhat dated; but hey, I still like 'em...

Indy Urbex Flashback

This shot was taken roughly a year and a half ago while roaming some old abandoned industrial buildings on the northeast side of Indianapolis...

Cinder Block Masturbation

Wouldn't recommend trying this unless you are a sexual thrill seeking celebrity with a death wish. Taken a few blocks from the Brooklyn Navy Yard...

Almost Symmetrical

Looking west from intersection of Broadway and Bedford at the base of the Williamsburg Bridge in Williamsburg, Brooklyn...

Best if viewed large...