Adam From 3C

2011 © Brian Adams

New Yorkers aren't known for their friendliness, so when Brian and I first moved to Brooklyn, we were worried that we'd be the odd couple on the stoop smoking and smiling at our neighbors who pass by rolling their eyes or staring vacantly ahead. While that is sometimes the case, we have been blessed to live near some very artistic, friendly people, especially those in our building. While we live here, Brian and I intend to photograph all of our friends and neighbors to dispel to some extent the cold, hard New Yorker stereotype that is, for the most part, a gross exaggeration.

This week, Brian photographed one of our favorite people, Adam, who lives one floor below us with his girlfriend. He and his girlfriend both finished law school last year and now work as lawyers in Manhattan.

Carry On: Rollei 35

Photo of Rollei © 2011 Brian Adams; All other photos © 2010 Ashley Adams

I take a lot of long walks during the day, everyday, as anyone who knows me well can tell you. On an average day, I cover anywhere from 5 to 12 miles, while thinking out whatever piece of writing that's consuming me that day. There always comes a moment when I know that if I don't close the computer and leave, I'll ruin the entire piece. So out I go into the parks, through the city streets, across the bridge, giving myself space from the creative task at hand and figuring things out. I don't think that it's an exaggeration to say that if I can't walk, I can't write.

Photography is another sort of inspiration to my writing, and the two art forms are in many ways similar; both insist on putting a frame around an idea, through which I make sense of the world. So it follows that often while I walk and muse about pieces of writing, I also like to tote around a camera just in case. I would love to say that I carry a Hassleblad like my stylish husband, but in all honesty, it's just too much weight on my shoulder. After carrying around a Hassleblad on a 5-6 mile walk, my back is sore from the heft and my side (or chest, depending upon how I'm wearing it) is sore from the knocks and bumps it takes from the 'Blad.

Before I met Brian, I wore a Canon AE-1 and then a Holga to meet my needs for size and quality, but then for my birthday two years ago, Brian gave me the Rollei 35. I have difficulty believing I'll find a camera that suits me more as a person and photographer. Small (pocketable, if you really wanted it to be) and light, the Rollei 35 blows any point-and-shoot out of the water. With a 40mm F-3.5 Zeiss lens, this German-crafted beauty makes evenly toned images similar to those I've shot with a Leica, but like a Holga, the lens does not "focus"; instead, numbers on the lens indicate the distance between you and your focal point.

Basically, if you're considering buying a point-and-shoot: don't. Just use your phone. If you want something that's easier to carry around and will make decent images, roll with the Rollei 35.

Carry on, carry on.

Prospect Park

Photo © 2011 Brian Adams

When Brian and I talk about what we will miss when we leave New York City, it isn't at all what we thought or what we craved when we came here--the tall buildings, the shows, the city. Don't get me wrong: we love the buildings, the shows, the city, but a day or two in Manhattan usually satisfies and stimulates us for the rest of the week. If we are honest with ourselves, we know that most of all, we will miss our proximity to Prospect Park and all the time we spend walking along the trails, meandering through the woods, and standing at the lake's edge with a pipe in hand. It's a quiet space in a loud one, it's a place where we are reminded that all we really need is each other, some nature, and enough money for a cup of coffee and a smoke.