Hello Brooklyn!

It's about 2:30 am in New York City and the inhabitants of room 502 are coming into the Hampton Inn Soho on Watts Street. The occupants (Win, Kar, Chloe and myself) weren't feeling tired but rather saucy. Go figure, considering we were in the city that never sleeps. We have a 1 liter bottle of Grey Goose Vodka and four willing participants, so we head down to the lobby, grabbed a table in the atrium and got some glasses and juice from the 24 hour juice bar. We all came down with the same unifying purpose, we're going to get drunk.

Some of you may be familiar with the "Winifrey Valencia Liquor Free Pour". The "free pour" is neither a metric or standard system of measurement. Instead, the "free pour" is a measurement system that relies on taste. Therefore, the "free pour" is the amount of liquor to mix to the degree that it is bearable to drink without actually vomiting, gagging permitted. Generally, the "free pour" consists of 4/5 booze and 1/5 mix. In this case however, we were drinking Grey Goose, so the ratio of booze to liquor was more like 5/5 vodka and a splash of mix. Thankfully, I drink like a fish and due in part to my Polish comrade, Lukian, I love vodka. However, the "free pour" and "love of vodka" quotient made for a deadly combo; more to be described later.

It's now 5:00 am. Two and a half hours and one 1 liter bottle of Grey Goose later (the girls could only bare about two "free pour" cocktails each), the group made their way back up to room 502. The sweet old man behind the desk asked if we wanted a wake up call. We replied graciously, asking for a wake up call at 5:30 am, as we planned to get up early to explore Brooklyn. The sweet old man took a quick glance at his watch, shot us a rather odd look back and shrugged his shoulders. "5:30 am it is, sleep well folks" he said. We piled into the elevator, remarking on how sweet that old man is. He was a really sweet old man.

Arriving at the 5th floor, Win came up with a great idea that we should play a prank on the other groups room. We ran up the stairs to their floor, the 7th, and came to the room 702. We placed the polished bottle of Goose at the foot of their door and Win proceeded to knock like a possessed Donkey Kong. Off we ran, down the stairs, giggling like a bunch of seven year old Japanese school girls. We got into our room, jumped into bed with our better halves and dreamed marvelous dreams consisting of what I can only guess were go-karts and crossbows.

In what seemed like a blink of the eye, the phone started ringing, alarming the occupants of 502 that it was time to awake and drink in the beautiful spring morning that New York had to offer. I'm a rather thankful person and felt there was no better time to pray for my blessings then this moment. So off I went to my alter, in the washroom, to pray to the porcelain God's for the wonderful evening that I had with my roommates. Ahhhh, may I have another cup of New York please?! Room 502 eventually got ready and surprisingly I wasn't feeling all that hungover if you overlook my lack of appetite and extreme sensitivity to sunlight. Here we come Brooklyn!

Side note: The room which we thought was the other groups was in fact not theirs at all. We played that cruel prank on a room occupied by a bunch of middle aged women. They were not impressed with our drinking prowess and brought the bottle down to the front desk to complain about some hooligans who came to their room at 5:00 am, pounded on their door and left an empty 1 liter bottle of Grey Goose at their feet. "Who would do such a thing" is what P.J. overheard them saying to the customer service representative. I would think a group of individuals who were really enthusiastic about being in NYC would do such a thing, so good day to you! Now enough story time, on with the photos!

I saw these kids just outside of the High Street subway station in Brooklyn. They were so damn cute that I had to catch a creepy no look hip shot of them passing by. I love the little blonde girl, how her little pony tail is bouncing with her step and her cute little outfit. The little brown haired boy doesn't seem to give a damn which I think is rather commendable!

These photos were taken in the neighbourhood of Brooklyn known as the DUMBO, an acronym for Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass. Kind of an odd name no? But New York City is notorious for these kind of names because you would never forget it. It was once a manufacturing and warehouse district that has been redeveloped into a trendy art district complete with cool cafes, bookstores, furniture and design stores and restaurants. Being at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge makes it a fantastic place to shoot and provides great views of the East River and the Manhattan skyline.

I'm not a huge fan of selective color photography, which seems to be so popular now a days. But when I took this photo of the old tobacco warehouse, I thought it would be tasteful and worth my first attempt. What do you think? Can you imagine having a wedding reception in there under the lights of the Bridge, across the river from Manhattan? Wow!

The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States. Completed in 1883, it connects the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River. At 5,989 feet (1825 m), it was the longest suspension bridge in the world from its opening until 1903, and the first steel-wire suspension bridge. Information provided by Wikipedia.

I love shooting photos of bridges not only because they are architecturally nice to look at, offer great vantage points and provide converging lines, but because of what they represent. Bridges are built to connect people, places and things. They are entirely necessary for life to function and it's great that they are designed to be nice to look at too!

That's one hell of a skyline.

stv