Familiar view from a different angle. This is from the Jane Street pier, which is half a mile north of the Christopher Street pier. If you click this, you can see it in the distance with its white umbrella gazebo at the end of it. Beyond that is the highly recognizable Houston Street pier. And further back is Battery Park across from Jersey. The Statue of Liberty is hidden behind those trees on the Christopher Street pier.

Two images, taken a just few minutes apart, of the Eric Lackawanna Ferry Terminal. Personally, I prefer the photo on the left, but the bottom one shows better details. In it you can see the tunnels that the ferries sail into; I haven't been on them, but I'm told the docks are deep inside. The spotlight at the top of the spire blinks off and on while the red lettering grows brighter as the sky gets darker.

The first of the walking home from work photographs. This the river seen from Jane Street. No clouds except for the thin cluster way in the background beyond the horizon. Just left of center is the Lakawanna Eric ferry terminal, which I believe I've mentioned but I don't know if I've ever actually posted an image of it. More to come because I like it.

So we wrap up Cloud Week with another shot from where we started. I'm gearing up to show you images from my daily walks home from the new job. It's two miles no matter which route I take, and all of them are interesting. There's the waterfront of course, since the gallery is a block away from the river, or I can follow the High Line project down town or even start further east and walk through Greenwich Village. 

This is the image of the canoe dock on the south side of the Houston Street pier that I tried to download last night but couldn't. Needed to resize it but didn't have the patience until this morning. As much as I like my new job, between not having time to do things like blogging and having to learn their paperwork system on a PC laptop with a keypad instead of a MAC with the mouse like the one I have at home, I'm fried. Next week, maybe I'll be used to it, but right now I'm happy to have the day off. Slept late, fixed the photo. Back on track again.

Here's the slanted roof building reflecting the sun and clouds again. And a view of the Canal Street pier with the Holland Tunnel terminal at the end of it humming its techno song. I had intended to pair this image with one of the Houston Street pier but it wouldn't download. Maybe it will work tomorrow, as I drag our Cloud Week out a couple more days. But don't clouds always hang around too long anyway?

Almost more about the sunset than the clouds, there are many other variations of this image. Different seasons even, but when the sun is at that point, it always seems to be in a position to reflect off that slanted roof building. But those clouds make the picture, and judging by the choppy water, they were moving across the sky rather quickly.

More cloud drama, I like the split-screen effect in the bottom part of the sky. And there's that cotton ball texture above it. All complicated patterns except for over the horizon where it's darker than the rest. 

Oh the Drama! Raining in New York again. It was even chilly today, although it's supposed to be in the 80's this weekend. Or so they say, we'll see. In the meantime, it'd be nice to see some serious sunshine.

Cloud week, indeed. How gorgeous is this? I took at least 20 shots of this view in less than 5 minutes last year and still don't know if this is the one I like the best. As I walked along the river on my way home from my new job this evening, as the rain stopped and fog rolled in, I thought what a lucky turn my life has just taken and how happy I am.

This is, again, the Canal Street pier with a terminal for the New York side of the Holland Tunnel. It is my understanding that those boxy structures have something to do with the ventilation system. They certainly generate enough noise to be feeding in air, or maybe lights, and there are armed guards behind the fences that protects them. On the Jersey side, you can't even get on the pier, and when I was there a few weeks ago, the guard chased me away when he saw my camera.

Ah yes, Cloud Week. I've posted a number of pictures of this harbor view, but something about the atmosphere over the water here makes for great cloud images. There was an interesting article in the Sunday NY Times last month by David Hajdu that said this part of the Hudson is not a typical river but a tidal estuary, and it can actually ebb and flow both upstream and downstream at the same time. Perhaps that's why the clouds are so intriguing here, and explains how storms only a couple miles uptown tend to threaten downtown but then blow over.

Two more pictures of the Lilac, because they're so pretty. They may even have been the same afternoon, the bottom one is definitely from the same shoot as Wednesday. Certain times of year, the sun sets between the buildings across the river in just the most perfect way. And then there are those clouds, in case you haven't noticed them yet, which I always find fascinating. Maybe that will be the next theme, shall we do Cloud Week? 

It will end up being a variation on the sunset theme from a while ago, but it will still be fun to show you this group of pictures. I started a new job today at a gallery in Chelsea, I'm very excited, and I'll be walking home most evenings from there along the river and through the West Village at the prime time photo opportunity hour so there will lots of new images to look at in the very near future.

Finally! They've repaved my street after a few weeks of it being ripped up, and now the cherry blossoms are here. I was going to post more images of Lilac, but later for that. Spring has made it to Manhattan!!

As you can see from the image on the left, the boat is named Lilac. In the background of that photo are the lights of the Eric Lackawanna docking tunnels. More of them later, I'm sure, since I love those little ferries scurrying back and forth. Below is the Lilac with one of the red tugs that was so involved in rescuing the plane that landed in the Hudson. They come and go, those red tugs, but Lilac leads a lonely life tethered all year round to the steadfast Houston Street pier.

Two of my favorite images, they're still on the memory stick inside my camera because I like to see them when I flip through to look at the shots I took of Cape Cod; both are of the boat in yesterday's posting. It was taken as the sun set over my left shoulder which is where west was. I can remember this afternoon, some time last spring, I spent an hour watching the reflections and shadows. Seeing them now makes me want to go back and explore the inside of the boat, and I will, if it's open and they'll let me in next time I'm there. I have another shot of this image to the right, that strange fishy face which reminds me of my angel paintings. It's grey though, chilly, not as much sunset shining off the surface. I like the eyes in this; one glassy, the other with the odd but interesting pupil. 

Another dreary day in Manhattan; another shot of my beloved pier on Houston. It'll probably look like this later in the evening. I want to draw your attention to that funky old boat tied to the dock. Sometimes it's open to the public and you can snoop around. I haven't yet, I keep meaning to, but I've taken lots of pictures of it from the outside and tomorrow I'll be posting some of my favorites of those images for you.

There they are, white flowering trees as promised. Looking closer at them, I now realize they must be different species; one grows straight up and the other spreads out and down, although the blossoms seem to be the same. A little on the windy side but nice bright sky after all that rain. And yes, that's Gilda Radner Way, on the corner of the street where her house for cancer survivors is; I thought you might enjoy this as much as I do, I think it's very sweet.

I know I said I'd take pictures of the white flowering trees yesterday, but the weather was too dismal, the photos didn't turn out very well. The sun's out today though, perhaps I can post new shots tomorrow. But here's a lovely lily from last year, and Happy Easter to you all!

Another rainy morning here in Manhattan. At least it's not snowing, which it did briefly a few days ago. It's the April showers bringing May flowers thing, I suppose. I did see a surprising number of trees with little fluffy white blossoms yesterday. I hadn't realized there were so many of that species growing in the Village and Soho area. Pictures of them, perhaps tomorrow, if the sun comes back out this afternoon. 

So back to the waterfront. These amazing objects are in between the pair of piers at Canal Street, I have no idea who made them or how long ago. Those spiky things are the remains of old posts from yet another collapsed pier. I especially like the two sculptures on the right, the white with black circles on them. I like to shoot them, but it's hard to get a decent shot because it's not so pretty there. When the tide is low, the spiky things really jut out, but that can be interesting too.

As we wind down Wabi-Sabi week, I must include some of my many detail shots of the ever-popular back hoe. Have you seen a mother try to drag her four year old son away from watching one in action? Maybe you've been that mother, maybe the son was older or younger. It's like a fire truck, that fascination. But even I can watch a back hoe do it's thing. They're almost alive, like a dinosaur, moving in all directions with their big scary teeth and extensions. So here's to the almighty back hoe, the monster star of demolition and construction.

You can't go very far in the Houston Street area without seeing some of these. I have taken many shots of them; I call this particular image Cat In The Hat Cones, for obvious reasons. There is also a smaller, more pointed, solid orange cone as well, but these beaten up brutes are my favorites, I suppose they have a scary story or two to tell. 

This puddle, for lack of a better word, was in front of the Houston Street pier for at least a month. Never more than a foot deep, it covered a full city block. It would rain and get deeper, then the sun would evaporate some of it, as the never-ending renovation project went on. The worst of it has been at Broadway now for about a year, although they're fiddling around my area again. This section, at the pier, is complete; the granite has been laid out and looks lovely, the orange cart, so similar to the one in yesterday's post, has moved on to yet another work site.

Two Houston Street renovation photographs from last summer when the trees were still green behind the taxi and backhoe. Artistically, I like both of these images a lot; but the memory of the mess they were a part of, not so much. There are actually hundreds of these shots; the repair work is never ending and turning it into art helps me deal with the annoying and dangerous inconvenience of this turbulent chaos.

This time of year, it is hard to avoid seeing this sort of scene. Houston Street, half a block away, has been under construction for years now, although my strip of it has been fairly intact lately. But just this week, they ripped up the pavement on my block so it could be resurfaced for some unknown, unnecessary, reason. And, typically, since none of the services communicate with each other, Con Edison had dug up a huge crater on the corner for some unending repair work, so now the repaving has to wait until they're done and the street is a mess again. Ah yes, Wabi-Sabi, but man-made.

More pylons from the Houston Street pier; as a painter, I love the texture and colors, what nature does to man-made objects. I read an article about a homeless man who'd make art and then bury it in Battery Park. One day somebody in a suit saw him and asked what he was doing. The artist dug up a couple of his creations, which had taken on the wear and tear of being buried, and the suit bought several pieces. He gave him cash, $500, which the homeless man proceeded to bury as well in a plastic bag since he had no bank account to put it in. 

Two of my favorite images, I've been told these are called pylons, although I thought pylons are bigger than this. I came across several dozen of them rusty and clustered together at the Houston Street pier when the walkway was under renovation. I took at least 50 shots, and I'll probably show you more tomorrow since I had so much trouble deciding on just which two for today. 

Wabi-Sabi, indeed. I love this image from the old abandoned pier in the part of the Chelsea waterfront that hasn't been renovated yet. I posted some shots from there a month or so ago, they had water in them, but this is my favorite from that day. It could be a painting.

There's a Japanese term, Wabi-Sabi, that refers to the beauty of decay, which I appreciate. We'll be seeing some of that this week. These are in Chelsea, the right image is on that pier we've been investigating, and below we have lots of water towers and some plastic caught on barbed wire. That building in the background is amazing, Martha Stewart once had her office here but I don't know if she still does. I worked the reception desk for an art benefit on the top floor maybe 10 years ago, when it was being renovated. Those enormous windows look up and down the river, and that evening a big thunderstorm was followed by a glorious sunset and they both put on quite the show.