I will admit that NYC is not my favorite city. It takes a strong magnet to pull me into its guts. Why? Too many humans.
Our most recent trip to the city had a strong pull: To attend the Chris Hondros Fund's grant awards ceremony and fund raiser. What a great event. Many memories of a great man came to life through stories and recollections.
So many amazing pictures were donated for a print auction, including Chris' photo of a rocket launch, for which I was the winning bidder. It's now on the wall next to my desk as a fond reminder of the man who made the picture.
My wife (Deb Pang Davis) and I also caught up with many friends during our two-day stopover. We spent a few hours visiting good friend Michael Rubenstein, who was in a motorcycle accident a couple weeks prior. He's recovering but not without considerable pain. In spite of the pain, his good humor persists.
Deb and Photoshelter CEO Andrew Fingerman chat a PS hq.We also had a pleasant breakfast with Andrew Fingerman, CEO of Photoshelter, and got an update on their plans for the future, which are bright indeed. He even introdueced us to PS staff at their offices above Union Square, in the same building where Andy Warhol used to hang out.
Deb talks with Squarespace staff, including its founder Anthony Casalena, center. My site uses the Squarespace platform. They're about to launch new templates that will be photographer friendly.Then on to Squarespace, which is the environment in which my site is built. Deb has created several sites with Squarespace and they're about to go to version 6, which will have many more templates, including a selection that is photographer friendly.
Todd Heisler showed us around The NY Times and we had lunch at the Times' cafeteria. The sushi is fabulous. Then out for coffee across the street.And better than a cab, Todd Heisler swooped in to pick us up off the street and then gave us a tour of the New York Times, including lunch at the paper's cafeteria. It certainly beat any other newspaper cafeteria I've seen.
Todd and I worked together in Chicago and became good friends so it was huge to catch up with him.
Now I know what they mean by police shootings being so prevalent in New York.Walking, walking, walking. Through Times Square. Mistake.
And what better way to close out the day than dinner with Yunghi Kim and Melanie Burford. We hadn't seen Yunghi since she regularly hosted get togethers at her D.C. home.
NYC presented the chance to make more cars in front of buildings photos.Now we're back in Syracuse, catching up on editing and gearing up for teaching a class starting next week - see the following post.
I was left with a wondering from our time in the city: Does the city pay people to urinate on every few feet of sidewalks at night, just so there's a fresh coating in the morning?