I was riding the M train last week and I spotted this new LED signage system. I am not sure how new they are as I have not seen them before, but then since I mostly travel on F train (or actually mostly cabs...), I don't know if these are really spanking new or just that I have not been riding on the line.
The photograph alone does not show how it is a superior improvement to the previous system, so I did a video of it to show you how it works:
The signage is split into two halves. On the left side of the panel shows where the train is at while the train is stopped (with a flashing bounding box), and when it's in motion, it displays the next stop. The name of the next 10 stops, in yellow, are displayed to the right of 'you are here sign post'. Each station name is accompanied with designation in green which shows the additional lines you can do an interchange. A red handicapped icon designate whether there it is a station equipped with accessibility access.
At the end of the right half of the panel shows the last stop of the train, and the LED displays loops through the rest of the stop in multiple of 10s, so you can get a glance of all the stops while keeping the display small enough so as not requiring an extra large panel for the longer lines.
This design is smart, efficient and very usable. I am very glad that MTA enlisted a clearly great design team for this project. When MTA upgraded the signage on the 4/5/6 a few years back, I thought that those signage is a nice upgrade but cannot imagine how flexible it can be when the map was essentially a static print-out. This new system not only is more efficient, but it makes it portable to any line without the need to upgrade the hardware. When new lines are introduced, it can quickly adapt to the new environment, so kudos to the design team, whoever you are!
It's a commonly known fact: photographers hate being photographed - but I love photographing photographers. So when Newmindspace announced the People Photographing People Photographing People event, I obviously went and as expected had lots of fun!
Newmindspace was founded by Lori Kufner and Kevin Bracken (Facebook). Their mission is to reclaiming public space, inventing new ways of having fun, and creating community. Since 2005, they have been hosting free events in cities around North America, and creating free, fun, all-ages events like parties on subway cars, public pillow fights, giant games of capture the flag on city streets, massive bubble battles, public art installations and much more.
Photography alone probably doesn't do the event justice, so I used my P+S and recorded the insanity for your pleasure. The quality is not too great, but you get the idea.
Here are some highlights of what I shot. Be sure to check out full set on Flickr as well.
Keith Dorsch is a filmmaker in New York. He graduated from C.W. Post at the Long Island University in 2008. He is currently working as a filmmaker and editor for ad agencies.
Human Hasselblad popped in out of nowhere and surely got much deserving attention.
Shirley Yu (Facebook / Flickr / Twitter), seen here with Keith Dorsch, is a young aspiring photographer. You can check out her photography portfolio at photobyshirley.carbonmade.com. Shirley is now using this photo as her Facebook profile photo. SML Thank You!!!
You don't need expensive equipments to do good photography. Nick Roach happilly snapped away with his camera phone. He learned about the event from Timeout Magazine.
Francisco Javier Andaur (Facebook / Flickr) aka Fran Juan DeMarco with friend jointly created this two-eye robot.
Francisco Javier Andaur (Facebook / Flickr). Francisco is now using this photo as his Facebook profile photo. SML Thank You!!!
Friend of Francisco Javier Andaur. These two share the same Flickr account. Not sure how they are related though!
Yepo Kayeebo (Flickr) was traveling from London. At the beginning of the event, I was disappointed at how little poeple showed up. It was she who pointed me to the right direction where the crowd is. For this, SML Thank You!
I met Novaid Kahn (Facebook / Flickr) originally on Flickr. I told him about the event when he generously drove me to photograph the Eastern State Penitentiary a couple of weeks ago.
Donald Hanson (Flickr) showed up with Novaid Kahn. He noted that we both liked the same lens: Canon EF 24-70 f2.8L for everyday shooting.
Lloyd Leary is a personal trainer in New York who also plays the classical violin.
Michelle Humphries (Facebook / Flickr) and Alan Gordon (Facebook) are both students at NYU, class of 2011. I was interested in how Michelle came up with her FlickrID:carvinkeeper12 meant. She explained: carvin = skiing, keeper = soccer, 12 = her favorite number.
Alan Gordon (Facebook) is originally from New Orleans. His t-shirt says "reNew Orleans". Alan explained to me that his t-shirt was made after Katrina, and is designed to be a simple combination of the word renew and his hometown of New Orleans. he wears it to remind people that the work isn't done yet and said it's the "right way"!
Alan Gordon (Facebook) is now using this photo as his Facebook profile photo! SML Thank You!!! Love to SML Love to him!
At first I thought that John Carbone was shooting a Canon 1D when I spotted him holding onto a huge Canon body with a big gun but was wondering why someone would be shooting with a 1D with a non-L glass. Then I learned that it was a Canon Rebel with battery-grip. Imposters!!!
The whole thing was a geek porn galore. People shoot with films, digital with makes of cameras from Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax, Sony and all kinds of strobes.
SML Me: Last but not least, I got to see what I look like when I was doing my thing!
See-ming Lee (SML ME!) interviewed Keith Dorsch. Photo by Novaid Kahn (Facebook / Flickr)
Possibly the best photo of me doing photojournalism! Photo by Novaid Kahn (Facebook / Flickr)
The truly evil SML in action. This photo was originally titled "guy with watch" by Shirley! Photo by Shirley Yu (Facebook / Flickr / Twitter)
This is the first time I have participated in a massive public art installation, and I will definitely look forward to future events!
Today is my birthday so naturally I am getting greetings all over the globe. This is my thank you card to all of you!
I am a believer in thanking people. As an ADHD-afflicted geek, I have often forgotten the kindness and generosity from others, and I make a point of recording them so I can search through them.
I started a blog called SML Thank You (http://thankyou.seeminglee.com) a while back but it was getting a bit challenging to maintain. It also become a bit insane to keep too many blogs so I have since imported them onto SML Pro Blog and labeled those items as SML Thank You.
But what about all those people I've thanked which did not appear on Twitter. I need to find those thanks, and perhaps in comments area on other places. So I built a Yahoo Pipe to do it:
Update 01: 2009-09-25 Since posted the design on Flickr, I noted that the 500x500 version does not really work as a comment to thank you, so I created a mini version for 'thumbnail' comment use. Thanks for visiting the blog! Here's my thankyou card just for you!
A lot of people prefer web destinations to have a very specific focus, but it appears that I am inherently an unfocused person, and therefore my web destinations also are rather unfocused.
In the beginning, SML Pro Blog was just the SML Blog, and it contains pretty much everything that my life contains, until I am getting some negative feedbacks from professional colleagues who wish not have their photos appear next to blog posts relating to my gay activities, which is when SML Gay Blog was born. Then some folks who got really annoyed with my massive photography output, and so SML Photo Blog was born. Then after a while I started to have so many blogs that I cannot keep track on, so I have now reconsolidated the SML Thank You and SML Notebook back into this blog, because it soon became *very* challenging to manage them all.
Conversely, I take a very-me approach when it comes to content on Flickr. I post pretty much everything onto it: my designs, my photography, my hacks, my screenshots, and source of inspiration all bundled up together. It's me, after all. By not separating these data, I gain a much better insight into which of my stuff is good and 'interesting' to folks.
I know far too many people who keep a separate Flickr profile for their "professional" life vs their "play" life but when I view the content, I can't tell the difference and reason as to why they are separate. Consolidation is good. Just filter, and tag. I think that via my very unfocused postings, I have successfully cross-marketed my designs to people who came to my stream because of my abstract photography; or that they discovered that I am much much more than a photojournalist who run around events.
Because of this content cross-pollination, I also learned based on my data that what people find to be interesting is also very all-across the board, and that is interesting to me. I made screenshots of the top 5 pages from the 500 Most Interesting Flickr (set) and bundled them together, and it provides a great sign-post as to where I should be headed next.
Actually these are photography disguised as paintings. I have always wanted to paint but I lack the drawing skills so I try my best to create what I wish to do through the lens of my camera.
Thanks to the wonderful and fabulous Julien Aleksandres (Flickr:DitMartian), I went to Sunday LES' opening reception for a group show titled Slow Photography:
The phrase, "slow photography," might conjure images of large format cameras or glass plate techniques; even the idea of loading film may seem slow considering the efficient speed in which photographic images are created today. However, another connotation may not allude to a technology so much as it does a sensibility — an approach to understanding particular roles that photographs can play, a methodical and drawn out way to produce paintings. The three artists in Slow Photography use photography as a starting point, taking exorbitant amounts of time to produce ostensible "photos": paintings that appear to translate a photographic record, yet are something else entirely. — Horton & Liu press release
Becker's painting can best be described in geek-speak as a mashup:
...in that they appear to depict an actual space, however, they are in fact a seamless combination of photographs from disparate landscapes. These photos, along with impressions from the artist's memory, create his measured, deliberate and lonely paintings. Becker has an acute disquiet that portrays the landscape as eerily strong and resilient, but never heroic. The photographic vantage point often acts as a subtle overseer, a reminder that the camera has forever distorted how anyone sees nature.
More information about the show Slow Photography Sep 17 - Oct 11, 2009
Sunday LES, 237 Eldridge Street, New York, NY 10002 www.sundaynyc.com +1 212 253 0700
Seen at the opening:
Julien Aleksandres
Arlene Arboitiz
Demian LaPlante
SML + Nabil Abdul + Nicholas C. MathisPhotography by Julien Aleksandres (Flickr:DitMartian)
