Originally posted April 18, 2010
Some aspects of planning and executing the New York in Plain Sight project were so mundane as to seem, in retrospect, almost trivial if not downright comical. Nevertheless, they had to be dealt with, or taken into account, or the whole thing might have gone nowhere. Here's an entry from my project journal from March 28, 2006, dealing on the fly with something that I really hadn't given much thought to when I'd started out in earnest a few weeks previously. (Planning is like that: you think you've thought of everything, and then you discover you haven't — and that happens again and again.)
And it was enough, or at least enough to get 92% of it done, and it wasn't for want of good weather days that I didn't get the other 8% done then (sometime later I'll tell you about how corners get missed, though this may only be of interest to those of you with more than a few gray hairs). A few sentences later I also wrote a note to myself that
Well I certainly had that wrong, no matter whether what I meant was for the duration of the project or for the duration of my life (at least so far), since it's been completely dominated by New York in Plain Sight for over four years already …. Just goes to show: if I'd known what I was letting myself in for, I'd never have even begun.
So glad I did.
Some aspects of planning and executing the New York in Plain Sight project were so mundane as to seem, in retrospect, almost trivial if not downright comical. Nevertheless, they had to be dealt with, or taken into account, or the whole thing might have gone nowhere. Here's an entry from my project journal from March 28, 2006, dealing on the fly with something that I really hadn't given much thought to when I'd started out in earnest a few weeks previously. (Planning is like that: you think you've thought of everything, and then you discover you haven't — and that happens again and again.)
Cranky day, can't remember exactly what I did all day. One thing was to do Second Avenue from 13th Street down to 9th Street, around 3:30 PM. Which put pay to my idea that late afternoon is a good time to be doing this. In fact, midday is best.
The problem is flare from having to shoot too directly into the sun in the late afternoon. The best days would be gray days, for the sake of the even lighting, but I doubt that there are enough of them to get as far along as I'd like before the winter weather sets in. Cloudy but not raining.
[ . . . ]
Here are the historical stats [from from an internet weather site — I don't have the URL anymore] for cloudy days in New York City April through November:
92 cloudy days
88 partly cloudy days
78 rainy days (included in cloudy days)
64 sunny days
Only 14 cloudy but not rainy days
But 152 sunny or partly cloudy days
So: 152, that's enough days.
The problem is flare from having to shoot too directly into the sun in the late afternoon. The best days would be gray days, for the sake of the even lighting, but I doubt that there are enough of them to get as far along as I'd like before the winter weather sets in. Cloudy but not raining.
[ . . . ]
Here are the historical stats [from from an internet weather site — I don't have the URL anymore] for cloudy days in New York City April through November:
92 cloudy days
88 partly cloudy days
78 rainy days (included in cloudy days)
64 sunny days
Only 14 cloudy but not rainy days
But 152 sunny or partly cloudy days
So: 152, that's enough days.
And it was enough, or at least enough to get 92% of it done, and it wasn't for want of good weather days that I didn't get the other 8% done then (sometime later I'll tell you about how corners get missed, though this may only be of interest to those of you with more than a few gray hairs). A few sentences later I also wrote a note to myself that
I must not, MUST NOT, let this project dominate my entire life for the duration …
Well I certainly had that wrong, no matter whether what I meant was for the duration of the project or for the duration of my life (at least so far), since it's been completely dominated by New York in Plain Sight for over four years already …. Just goes to show: if I'd known what I was letting myself in for, I'd never have even begun.
So glad I did.
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