This is the Parachute Jump, a relic of an old amusement park attraction in Coney Island, Brooklyn. I found out on Wikipedia that it was built in 1939 for the New York's World's Fair in Flushing-Meadows, Queens but was moved to the Coney Island Steeplechase Amusement Park in Brooklyn later. Incidentally, I have also photographed the famous structure from the 1964 World's Fair -- the Unisphere which I posted earlier this month. I have lived in NYC for exactly 10 years now -- I came out here in August 1998 immediately after graduate school. In all that time, I have never visited or seen the Unisphere and the Parachute Jump until very recently. That was because (1) both the Unisphere and the Parachute Jump are located outside my usual haunts or places I regularly go; (2) they were both featured in a Louis Vuitton advertisement and a Gossip Girl promotional photo respectively; and (3) after seeing those images, I decided to photograph them myself for this blog.
So what is your motivation in your photography?
16 comments:
FYI The Unisphere was NOT built for the 1939-40 New York World's Fair. It's from the 1964-65 New York World's Fair. Sadly virtually everything is now gone from the great 1939 fair.
Whoops I think from the last comment you got a little fact wrong then!
In the words of Carrie Bradshaw you can now call yourself a New Yorker as you've lived there for 10years.
I don't know why I love taking photos. I did a photography course at school so it started there really.
Hope you are ok and didn't go parachuting as well!!
Thanks, molasses for the correction. I didn't realize there were two World's Fairs in NYC.
I think you should be able to find, perhaps on YouTube, a video of people taking the parachute jumps. It was on a static line, as I recall. Nice memories and photos.
My motivation? Why the huge bucks I make doing the blog of course.
Great photo, Ming! Is it a bird flying around?
Thanks for the visiting. Sure, my son and his friends loves to fish in Jurumirim Dam.
This is a great shot, Ming. Love the composition.
Oh, yeah—the '64–'65 NY World's fair was terrific. I spent all my time at the Africa pavilion, listening to Olatunji play those drums. He was beyond awesome.
Photography? My favorite thing is occasionally managing to capture that "moment in time" shot. (Consequently, the camera is always close at hand and no one wants to go anywhere with me anymore because I'm always taking pictures. Do you get that too?)
Me again, Ming!
About your comment on my handicraft post, I love the purse too, very creative! Sofia bought many things, and gave me a beautiful necklace made by palm seeds that looks like ivory and also a gorgeous table cloth!
I just like to record views, events, people and things that I think are interesting.
And of course I love to record new grandson Callum's progress through life!
And to think people actually jump off that thing???? Not me!
I like it! I knew it was at Coney island, but I didn't know of its origins.
To answer your question about the flag. All the countries within the United Kingdom have their own flags. The flag in my sky watch photo is the English flag, the Scots have a blue and white cross, the Welsh have the Dragonn on theirs and I can't remeber the one for Northern Island. The Union Jack (the one you probably are familiar with (see the Olympics today. We rock!)) is a combination of the colours and crosses of the four flags. I hope that all makes sense! :)
Oh my, I haven't been to Coney Island since I was a child. As you mentioned in a comment, I bet you could find a corn dog here. I'm delighted to see that it's still up and running.
If it's business gig then what I'm assigned to photograph. Could be girl rock band could be a credit card. Uusally by the numbers, no frills photography. Otherwise mostly spur of the moment stuff. Some for my sales sites, ie wildlife, sunsets. For me
whatever grabs me. Experimental shots, blog shots.
Interesting history on Coney Island and a great though shot.
Interesting. . . .I would never go on one of those rides!
Motivation? It's my creative outlet. If someone hires em to shoot something, like Babooshka, I shoot what they want. Otherwise, it's what strikes me at the moment.
That is a great photo Ming.
As a child, my father used to take my brother and me to Coney Island's Steeplechase.... and the parachute jump was operational at that time.
Now that I've given away my age.....
Ming, even though I've photographed the Unisphere, I didn't put 2 and 2 together until your post. I was at the 64-65 fair with a small college vocal group from my school. We took a Greyhound Bus cross country and stayed at NYU. Man, the humidity was incredible to this West Coast boy.
Photo motivation? Creative expression ... and money. In that order.
Oh, I was just there the other day... I need to blog about that day... And I put a bunch of shots of the Steeplechase up on Flickr, too...
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