These photos are all from the same evening in May of 2016, starting around six and ending at eleven-thirty. Looking at them all together, it is a sort of reconstruction of what would have been a pretty average weekend day—we headed from Ditmars down to Mar’s for dinner, and then a while later, stopped in at the Let Love Inn to hang out with folks before heading home. We didn’t go to these exact places every weekend, but the itinerary of these few hours reminds me of one of the things I love about Astoria—you can walk it, up and down, without getting too worn out, you can meet up on a whim with friends who also live in the neighborhood, and hang out at some delightful spots along the way.

So these are all shots from a perfectly average, random, weekend evening in Astoria, the sort that I absolutely loved.

I was scrambling to find an idea for a photo blog post, and my fiancée made the excellent suggestion of shooting the New York Easter Parade (which, I confess despite living here going on fifteen years, I hadn't even known was a thing). We got on the train, then realized that due to subway work, getting to the parade would involve taking two different trains, walking two avenues over and seven blocks up, spectating/shooting, and then walking back down, over, and taking two trains back.

I intended to soldier on and shoot the parade out of commitment to the cause. Then, after all of 20 seconds of going through that travel route in my head, I got off that train as quickly as I could.

To an extent, I am lazy.

Fortunately, it was a beautiful day, and her alternative suggestion to walk to Astoria Park and take photos of budding flowers and trees around the neighborhood was perfect.

Blossom

Since I had planned on shooting the parade, I had my 85 mm f/1.8 lens on me. It was well suited for the change of plans, as closeup of flower-in-focus/background-out-of-focus is something this lens does pretty well. This can get kind of tricky, though- for a flower in a tree, even while out of focus that background can get plenty busy, and the depth of field on the 85 mm can get pretty thin (so in this case, there's some blur in the branch and buds closer to the lens). It is springtime, though, so I feel I ought to include this kind of shot, and out of the ones I had like it, it was my favorite.

Stretching

Sunday in the Park

Squirrel!

I spent a good five minutes or so slowly following this little guy around.

Easter Egg Hunt

There was a sort of Easter fair for kids in the park on Sunday afternoon. We walked to the edge of area, where kids and parents were lined up awaiting the start of an Easter egg hunt. At one point, a bunch more kids ran up to join the line. The hunt had not started yet, but they ran right on through into the field and started grabbing eggs. Seeing the others going ahead of them, the rest of the kids in the line then surged forward and poured into the field, the hunt having de facto started before the whistle had blown.

Too many metaphors came to mind than can be listed here, and the anarchic moment combined with the dust that kicked up gave the whole thing a feeling that bordered on the post-apocalyptic.

I guess I have to add, though, that despite my ominous interpretation of events, the parents and kids did indeed seem to be having a nice time.

Coasting

Astoria Park is bordered by the East River, so in addition to a spectacular view, you can also see plenty of sea gulls hanging out along the water.

Branches

Sunlight

Sneakers

Happy Easter.

My contribution to the Easter table: arranging our mini Reeses Peanut Butter Cups and Peeps around one plastic egg containing Star Wars: The Force Awakens stickers.