Newtown Creek Tour

Newtown Creek barges © Bernie Ente

The recent Circumnavigate Staten Island tour was completely sold out, and the next Working Harbor tour is sure to do the same, if only because the two hour tour of Brooklyn’s Newtown Creek is an incredible bargain at just $10.

The good news gets better because not one, but two tours of Newtown Creek are being conducted on the same day, so you have two chances of securing a place on these popular tours. Here are the details:

When: Sunday, 23 October, 2011

What: Two Cruises – 10:00 am to 12:00 noon; and 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm

Where: Departs from Pier 17, South Street Seaport at the foot of Fulton Street, Downtown Manhattan 

Getting There

Take the A C J Z 2 3 4 or 5 Train to Fulton Street and walk east to Pier 17

Souvenir Tour Brochure with historical information and vintage maps.

The cruise takes place rain or shine. 

Purchase tickets here... 

The Newtown Creek tour is organised by the Working Harbor Committee and the Newtown Creek Alliance. 

The low $10 price is made possible by funding from the NewYork City Environmental Fund (NYCEF) for Newtown Creek, which in turn is part of the Hudson River Foundation. 

To stay informed about upcoming Hidden Harbor Tours bookmark the Working Harbor website…

The Viewing List 7

Ishi, The Last Yahi
Years ago I read a book called Ishi, The Last of His Tribe. It tells the story you can see in the video embedded below. A story both shocking and poignant about this Native American who was the last surviving member of his tribe, the Yahi.

The Snag Films website from where I have sourced this video states: In 1492, there were more than ten million Native Americans in North America. By 1910, their numbers had been reduced to fewer than 300,000. In California, massacres of Indians in the 1860s and 1870s had nearly exterminated the Native peoples in the state.

Therefore the sudden appearance in northern California in 1911 of Ishi, "the last wild Indian in North America," stunned the nation. For more than 40 years, Ishi had lived in hiding with a tiny band of survivors. When he walked into the white man's world, he was the last Yahi Indian alive.

If the story wasn’t true it would surely be unbelievable, but true it was, as this documentary shows.

Click here to see Ishi, The Last Yahi...  Make sure you click on the Full Screen icon at the bottom right of the video for optimal viewing.

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40 Beautiful Photos of India

I’ve never been to India, and although I might make the journey there one day, it is not high on my ‘bucket list’. However, I know people who have been to India, and loved the country, the food, the culture and its people, and that keeps the idea of a visit alive in the back of my mind somewhere.

Hongkiat.com (Online Tips For Designers and Bloggers) has collected together 40 Beautiful Photos of India, and they are indeed beautiful.

As the site states: "India is so vast and full of variety that even the Indians don’t get to see the whole of it, let alone the tourists. You have to visit the place to know it. However, the photographs give you a good idea of how the place looks and how it should feel like. It also helps you to decide what places you want to visit when you are planning a trip to India."

Thanks to Paul Steele (Twitter: @paul_steele) for bringing these to my attention.

The Reading List 6

Three more websites worth exploring for those readers interested in street photography, and overcoming writer’s block.

Fifty-two weeks on the streets

Phil Coomes, is picture editor the BBC mobile website, and has an interesting piece on street photography, with many examples of the genre that is worth checking out.

Phil writes about an open street photography challenge in which leading photographers issue weekly projects that are open to all interested photographers to participate in. Participating photographers upload their images to Flickr where members of the challenge can view the photographs and comment on the work of others, and recieve comments on their own work.

There are some great images on the site, and whether you choose to join the weekly challenge, or just want to get some ideas or inspiration from the works of others, I highly recommend you take a look for yourself. Read more...

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10 Types of Writers’ Block (and How to Overcome Them)

io9.Com is a website for Sci-Fi enthusiasts, and staff writer, Charlie Jane Anders has put together a great article describing ten types of writer's block with great advice on how to overcome them. Of course, the information is perfect for writers across all styles of writing - including bloggers, which is why it caught my attention and why I'm including information about it here. 

Charlie writes: "Part of why Writer's Block sounds so dreadful and insurmountable is the fact that nobody ever takes it apart. People lump several different types of creative problems into one broad category. In fact, there's no such thing as "Writer's Block," and treating a broad range of creative slowdowns as a single ailment just creates something monolithic and huge. Each type of creative slowdown has a different cause — and thus, a different solution."

Charlie Anders then proceeds to examine the concept of writer's block and pulls it apart to examine its consituent parts to provide a better understanding of the problems and how to deal with them. Read more here...

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Street Photography for the Purist

Street Photography for the Purist is a free 160 page eBook on the art of street photography. Written by Chris Weeks, a professional photographer living in Los Angeles who has made his remarkable insight into street photography available on deviantart.

The ebook was first written and published in 2006 but the information is as relevant and inspiration now as it was then.

All the work in the book is in black and white and it serves as much as a source creative ideas as a training manual describing the art of street photography both as remarkably easy as well as incredibly difficult.

The book features contributions by photographers such as :  Severin Koller, Michael Kaiser, Matthew Craig, Rainer Pawellek, Deborah Delasio, Errol Lyons-Rainey, Darren Abate, Massimiliano Mortillaro, Bernhard Wolf.

Chris has an interesting writing style and is not afraid to express himself - often in quite colorful language, so be prepared for numerous expletives and personal opinions that may make your enjoyment of the book less than fullsome. However, Chris and the other writers impart lots of good ideas and it is well worth persisting with if you are interesting in street photography.

You can download the eBook via Deviant Art...

Thanks to Seven by Five (7x5) for bringing this to our attention.