3 days later, the DAY before the wedding in question, I ended up in the hospital with an incredibly painful ulcer, followed of course by a Lamborghini Gallardo sighting. Ulcers and Lamborghinis go together? I hope not…

Sadly, I didn’t give the dude a dollar for a joke. I was too worried he would suck and I’d just stand there awkwardly, not laughing… Also, I didn’t have a dollar bill, and he probably didn’t take American Express.

I just about fell off my chair when she asked for it…

I’d never had anyone ask me to shoot with my beloved Holga before, so after a quick warning about its unpredictability, I absolutely jumped at the opportunity!

I love weeks like this. Sure it’s hard, but man does it feel good to generate some new work.

Here’s the last of my shots from my rolls of film from right after my trip to New York:

I didn’t get a chance to really shoot much while I was there. I was way too busy meeting with clients and such and I was only there for two full days. Shoulda planned a longer visit.

On the plus side, two of the clients I was meeting were brides, and I’m very excited to be shooting one of them next month! Bonus visits to the city!

Can’t wait to go back.

Here’s a mixture of 35mm and Holga shots:

Stay tuned for Part 2, coming tomorrow. They’ll be Holga shots, so you know they’ll be interesting!

Day 1: Spent most of the day in planes or the airport. When I landed, my phone started shutting down randomly, often and mostly wouldn’t come back on. My sense of direction was in there (Google Maps), but even worse, so was my hotel’s address… Then when I finally got to the hotel, it was a lot more dodgy than Travelocity had made it appear online. I switched hotels and got myself a long overdue dinner for a measly four bucks.

Delicious food is everywhere and at every price.

Day 2: My first actual day in NYC was spent wandering in a jetlagged haze and trying to get Apple to tell me what was wrong with my phone. Long story short, I now have a new one.

MAN I love New York’s fall colors…

Day 3: I saw a couple of cops waiting for the same train I was about to get on in the subway. I had my giant pro camera with me, so like a crazy person I decided to try shooting some video in a public place and see what happens.

Cop: “Sir, what are you doing?”
Me: “I’m shooting some video…”
Cop: “You can’t do that here, sir.”
Me: “Why?”

She really didn’t like that question. Fortunately, I was able to defuse the situation and she left me alone.

The law doesn’t actually prevent you from shooting photography or video in any public place. I actually looked this up long before the incident, though I also knew that photographers have been getting increasingly harassed by authorities and stupidly painted in a very negative light.

I did end up shooting video in the subway, just when no authorities were around to give me trouble for it.

Still, I was bummed about the incident, wandered into Central Park again but within a few minutes got some calls from real estate agents wanting to show me apartments.

Day 4: After a long and busy day, my good friend Brittany requested some pictures of the Brooklyn Bridge. I was more than happy to oblige. It was already on my to-do list anyway Along the way of course, I took pictures and footage of what I could.

Day 5: Attended the PDN Photo Expo. Like a bridal fair, but for photographers shopping for stuff.

Later that night, wandered some more. It would be my last night there…

Day 6: Waited to push off from the gate for a little longer than expected, then finally climbed to the skies.

Day 6.5: The same night I got home, despite having already done a LOT while in NYC, some friends invited me to a Halloween party, so I went.

The dancefloor:

I also forgot to mention yesterday, the reason most of my iPhone shots are in black and white is because I wanted as much as possible to keep my photography of New York colorless. The city doesn’t need color. Sometimes it’s nice, but going in I knew I only needed to buy black and white film, so I figured I should shoot iPhone images expecting to remove all traces of color as well.

Anyway, here are the Holga shots. As you remember from my San Francisco trip, my Holga actually broke, but referring to my current camera as the “Diana F+” is nowhere near as “elegant” as describing my crappy camera as a Holga, so I’m sticking to calling it a Holga.

Here we go:

Yes. This is New York. From a pier on Coney Island.

Some New York humor. Where else will you get notification ON THE GROUND that the picture you’re about to snap is cliché and boring?!

I noticed several performers working for pennies in front of multi-million-dollar corporations and had to laugh a little.

I have an in-focus version of this, but this one is so much more beautiful.

The subway will take you everywhere you need to be…

Like to Washington Square Park, where I happened upon an awesome street performance. This first image is a bit reminiscent of San Francisco, but in New York these performers really brought on their A game.

First he jumped over one terrified woman.

Then he jumped over four of them.

Tough guy? Yeah, I’d say so!

Then, I went home (in color too!)…

And all I can think of?

“I miss New York.”

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:

I adore New York.

Before even going to San Francisco, I already knew I needed to be in New York. And the funny thing is, and I’m being totally serious here, although yes, it’s kinda funny anyway; I was really nervous about going to New York.

Why?

Well… You know how when you’re dating around and you’re about to meet with someone new and you already think he/she is awesome and you really hope the date lives up to your expectations?…

Like that. Except I was really hoping my date with a city would live up to my expectations.

This is where you can laugh. I know that’s where I do!

But yeah, New York absolutely rocked my world. It more than lived up to my expectations. I even spent a bunch of time digging through craigslist to find apartments. Never managed to see one in person though. See, I made the mistake of lying to the real estate guy and saying I was gonna move to the city in a few months instead of lying and saying I was gonna move there in two weeks.

Apparently that’s about as far out as these guys were willing to consider in terms of bothering to show me an actual place.

Oh well, I’ll lie better next time so I can see what to expect for $2,000/month for a place around 650 square feet… Yup… I told a close friend of mine this and he jokingly (or maybe not?) said “that price is unmentionable in polite company dude”.

Now I don’t want to involve you in my financial life, but at a glance, that’s basically twice what I pay, for RENT instead of a mortgage, and it gives me roughly three times LESS space and no yard. So I look around my house now thinking “Don’t need this, chuck that, sell this” and so on.

I’ve heard people try to offer a solution and say “Ok here’s what you do; move to Brooklyn –” STOP STOP STOP STOP!!!

Nope. No.

NO.

I’ve been to Brooklyn. It doesn’t feel like New York. You may as well be thousands of miles away. Why would I move 2,000 miles just to miss the bullseye?!

It’s gotta be Manhattan.

So now it’s no longer about “if”, it’s about “how”. It’s gonna take a couple of years for it to happen, but it’s gonna happen.

I’ll be going back to New York twice a year until I move. I’ll get a better feel for the city each time, I’ll meet with Art Buyers each time (hopefully) and I’ll refine the plan for my very own eventual big day.

And since it’s still so far in the future, while we wait, here are some pictures from my trip These are all iPhone shots.

A little bit of New York humor. Read that sign… So who’s cleared and stupid enough to eat the fish in small quantities? Men, ages 15 and up. That’s it!! I couldn’t help but laugh. George Carlin said it best: “I EXPECT a little cancer in MY water!”

The letter Y’s light wasn’t burned out, but apparently this place called COLONY chooses to turn on each individual letter in sequence… Um… Not a good idea.

And finally, the gorgeous, clean lines of the Guggenheim Museum (which by the way has some fantastic art).

Holga shots to come soon.

Salt Lake City… Or San Francisco…

My best friend chose San Francisco.

And I chose Salt Lake City.

At the time, I honestly felt like it was the place I needed to be.

But what followed were the ten bumpiest years of my life. Had I known this, I would gladly have volunteered to help NASA land a manned spacecraft on Venus, upside down, without any radio communications or even a spacesuit, while juggling seven rabid dogs and a moose with one hand tied behind my back, giving birth to a hedgehog and fighting off Darth Vader with a toothpick.

Really. It’s been a rough ride. Slight exaggeration obviously. I mean who wants to volunteer for NASA?

But I am who I am. And I like who I am.

So I don’t regret having gone through what I did, nor do I regret where I am now. I don’t regret anything or anyone in my life. Without my experiences, without the people I know, good and bad, I’m not me. And as I just said, I like me.

But…

I’ve always wondered where my life would be if I’d gone to San Francisco instead of coming to Utah.

Always.

And if you’ve been reading my blog lately, you’d know that I have vouchers to fly United Airlines.

Three of them.

Now, I already know two cities in this world that I’m madly in love with: Paris and New York City. I have a feeling San Francisco might be joining that very short list.

And the reason THAT’S significant is this:

I’m seriously considering and researching a move to one of those three cities.

Whoa… That sentence is gonna get me a LOT of phone calls!

So although I can’t address everything and everyone with this post, lemme at least say this.

I’m really not sure at this point. It may never even happen. There are so many factors for me to consider, but two of them stand out above the rest; I have two boys here and a growing business that I’d have to practically build from scratch anywhere else.

So yes, this is a huge decision that I’m not taking lightly at all.

But there’s no question that I’m really flirting with all three options.

Well ok. Not Paris. I’d love to live there, but only as a bazillionaire or if I can expand my studio that far. So not very likely either way. At least not right now. Unbelievable city, can’t wait to go back, but hang in there Paris, I’m not getting to you just yet. Maybe someday.

So that leaves me with two options:

San Francisco or New York City. Vastly different cities.

I’ve been to New York a couple of times already. Loved it both times. No. ADORED it. I’m gonna go there again this year before the wedding season hits. Oh and New York makes a lot of career sense too. That’s a big bonus.

But I’ve never been to San Francisco. And so, after ten years of wondering, in the very near future I’ll be going there to begin finding out if moving there might be a good idea.

I’m not expecting my tourist experience to tell me everything I need to know about actually living in the city, but I’m hoping it’ll give me a feel for whether the place suits me.

Soon after that, I’ll be going to New York for my third time to do the same.

And then, after as much research and thought as I can muster for both cities, I’m going to have to ask myself the biggest question of all.

Why move anywhere in the first place?

That’s the one that’s got me stumped right now. Because I like it here. I have a house here with tons of space. I have friends here. Great neighbors. Both my kids are here. My business is doing great.

So why move at all?

I don’t know…

But I do know this:

I don’t want to continue wondering why not.