Ken-Shing Law Photography Blog :: New Haven, Connecticut

Sara and I missed the Cherry Blossom Festival last weekend in New Haven but were able to head over this weekend to see them. According on another website, 72 Yoshino Cherry Trees were planted in the park in 1972. Now the festival is currently an annual event, complete with food and music. I’m definitely a bit late to the party. We met up with our friends Nic and Isabel and strolled through the Wooster Square area. I was hoping that the streets would the void of cars and people, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen. I hadn’t realized how much I missed the warm weather (and free time) until we were basking in the sun on our walk and were being showered with blossoms that were loosened by the wind. This summer is going to be great!

James, whose blog can be found here, is entering an architectural photography contest.  The files must be in the mail by Monday, so he asked me to join him for a walk around town.  Some of the photographs were taken in the various art galleries on the Yale campus, including the Yale Center for British Art.  The last time I went with Sara, my wife, we got scolded for standing (and pointing) too close to one of the paintings. I guess they were afraid we’d pokes holes in them.  I was so embarrassed, I never went back.  I thought for sure that they’d recognize me today, but as luck would have it, they didn’t.

In other news, it’s almost March, which means it’s about a month before Rob and Myun-Hwa’s wedding, for which I am the photographer.  I’m very excited that I have the opportunity and I know that it will be a blast.  God willing, a selection of the photos from that event will likely hit this blog the same day, so stay tuned.  They’ll likely be other upgrades as well.

Photos from Today:

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9. I know James has a much better series of photos from this location.

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11.  It’s The Man at work.

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13.  Shot on the 17-40L that I nearly never use.

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20.  It was James who noticed this arrangement of colors on the stairwells.  I didn’t even find it interesting until after I’ve taken the picture and processed it to mimic Velvia film.  Much to learn….

My friend James, who is an architect, tells me that architects hate having people in pictures.  His statement is in complete opposition from those of my mom’s, who always wondered why there aren’t anyone in the pictures that I brought home from my many trips in the mountains of western United States.  She never found those images very interesting.  Considering how bad those photographs were, I can’t say I’m surprised.

Since I live in the Yale area, it isn’t hard to spot someone with a camera.  I’ve always wondered though, what were they photographing, and what’s so darn interesting about it?  Will they be snapshots of their visit to the area? (Look Betty!  Here’s a picture of my son and me in front of the library! He’s so smart!) Or could they be something more?

Well, I was about to be schooled.

James recently purchased a new DSLR, and I was given the opportunity to tag along as he photographed some of the architecture in the Yale area.  He brought along his portfolio of photos he had taken during his enrollment in a photography class at Yale.  Seriously, I never thought photographs of parking structures could have so much depth.  Being someone who is more adept at photographing people, I didn’t really know what to look for when photographing buildings and other man-made structures.  Tagging along with James opened my eyes to the fascinating layers and details that can be seen and captured. People say that sometimes we’re so focused on the details that we miss the big picture. Today I learned that we can also be so focused on the big picture that we miss the details.

I was schooled alright.

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