Parachute Jump at Coney Island

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?

Climbers

What do you do when you can't see the parade? Climb up the scaffolding in front of a building?Hang on to a utility pole or sit on top of a telephone box? These people did whatever it took to see the Mermaid Parade in Coney Island. Me, I just walked to the end of the street, away from the crowd, and watched the parade with my feet on the ground.

So have you ever climbed up a tree, a utility pole or a telephone box?

Mermaid Parade at Coney Island

Yesterday (Saturday) was the first day of summer. It was also the day for the Mermaid Parade at Coney Island, the stretch of beaches and amusement parks on the southern edge of Brooklyn on the Atlantic Ocean. And here is a collage of the photos from the parade. [Click on the photo to see the large format.]

So what did you do on the first day of summer?