The East Village

Fuji X100 | ¹/300 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400 (view large)

Sunday morning in the East Village. I always advocate getting up as early as possible to start a photo walk. The light is beautiful in the morning, and the streets are a lot less busy, even in New York.

Fuji X100 | ¹/250 sec, f/5, ISO 200

Fuji X100 | ¹/75 sec, f/2, ISO 200

Bridget was tired, but supportive of our early morning walk. Thanks honey.

Fuji X100 | ¹/300 sec, f/5, ISO 200

Fuji X100 | ¹/400 sec, f/7.1, ISO 800

Fuji X100 |  ¹/1,000 sec, f/2, ISO 200

Fuji X100 | ¹/280 sec, f/4.5, ISO 800

Bikes! There are bicycles everywhere in New York, and the East Village is certainly no exception. What I love is that they’re all beaters. Some are just left to rust and decay out in the street, making for great photographic subjects:

Fuji X100 | ¹/600 sec, f/2, ISO 400

Fuji X100 | ¹/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800

Fuji X100 | ¹/750 sec, f/2, ISO 200

Fuji X100 | ¹/600 sec, f/2, ISO 200

Fuji X100 |  ¹/1,000 sec, f/2, ISO 200

Fuji X100 | ¹/600 sec, f/9, ISO 800

Now that is a cool little bike. Would have loved to have one of those when I was a kid.

Fuji X100 | ¹/1,000 sec, f/2, ISO 200

There was a downside to getting here so early in the morning, however. The wife was really into seeing the little gardens located throughout the neighborhood. Most of them weren’t open until much later, however, so we had to admire them behind locked gates. Squeezed my lens through narrow bars to get these:

Fuji X100 |  ¹/340 sec, f/5, ISO 800

Fuji X100 | ¹/750 sec, f/2, ISO 400

Fuji X100 |  ¹/900 sec, f/2, ISO 400

Fuji X100 | ¹/180 sec, f/3.2, ISO 400

Fuji X100 | ¹/950 sec, f/2, ISO 400

My cousin Josh came along. That’s an adapted 50mm f/1.4D Nikkor lens on an Olympus EPL-2 he’s holding. Really nice combo.

Fuji X100 | ¹/200 sec, f/3.2, ISO 800

Fuji X100 | ¹/300 sec, f/5.6, ISO 800

Fuji X100 | ¹/450 sec, f/6.4, ISO 400

Fuji X100 | ¹/200 sec, f/3.6, ISO 200

Fuji X100 | ¹/300 sec, f/4.5, ISO 400

The light was great and the gardens were beautiful bla bla bla. You wanna know the real reason we came to this neighborhood? Coffee.

Abraço is a tiny coffee bar nestled in the East Village. When I say tiny, I mean it. You could drive right by and not even know it’s there, and once you’re inside, you could literally stand in one place and have arm’s-length access to the entire cafe. I’ve had enough just seeing pictures of the place on blogs like this one. I needed to try it myself!

Fuji X100 |  ¹/450 sec, f/6.4, ISO 800

The coziness factor of this shop makes for easy conversation over a cup of coffee and/or artisan pastry. Chatted with the locals, took pictures, just chilled out. No rush, it’s Sunday.

Fuji X100 | ¹/1,200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800

Fuji X100 | ¹/60 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1250

Fuji X100 | ¹/350 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400

Meet the cortado. Freshly extracted espresso with just the right amount of steamed milk and foam in my opinion. Not to be confused with a macchiato, it’s perhaps more similar to a cappuccino, but smaller. Enough milk to take the edge off the brew’s acidity while still kicking you in the pants with just the right amount of strength. The flavor was amazing, but it was the texture that was blowing my mind.

Fuji X100 | ¹/125 sec, f/8, ISO 200

I’m normally a pretty slow coffee drinker, but I was going though this cortado like a crazy coffee-drunkard. I didn’t want the experience to end.

So I ordered a second one:

Below left is some kind of sparkly, honey-something or other,  I forget….bagh who cares, it’s all about the cortado. This stuff gives my local favorite espresso at Four Barrel a pretty good run for it’s money.

Fuji X100 | ¹/210 sec, f/4, ISO 400

These are the kinds of experiences I like to have when I travel. Mingling with the locals, photographing neighborhoods apart from the tourist areas. Areas (and COFFEE) like this make me miss New York.

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All Images: Fuji X100, Provia Film Sim (JPEG output)