The Gates: Day 4, Que Bonita Bandera

I've been getting overwhelmed by all these pictures I'm taking.

I realized I need to get organized. I need a naming convention. I need to buy a tripod!

Between sorting thru 100+ shots and converting American Idol MP3s, my mind is a little mushy. But I do have some notes to tell so you can read on if you like (and more pictures).

So today was the day for "People and the Gates". I have a regular client who lives on Cenral Park South, and after work, I headed for the Gates. Clearly it was tourist central along the south of the Park. People everywhere, cannot be avoided. So, might as well make them part of the experience I thought. I met Charlotte, who like moi, has been made happy by strange orange-colored structures. Amazingly, she wasn't the only one who requested that I take a picture of them. Was it the new camera? My innocent charm? I should probably consider myself lucky to be approached nicely by strangers.

Carlos (left), gave me a sample of the fabric! He is one of the many volunteers who make sure the Gates don't get vandalized and "fix" them up if fabric gets entangled. I really wanted a free t-shirt, but the 1x1 inch fabric will do.

George was filming a video clip he was going to submit to Comedy Central. I thought his little bit was funny. He berated Christo for not designing the Gates properly. What if there was a running of the bulls in the Park? It would be total tourist bloodshed.

This was my favorite opportunistic shot of the day. It would have been better if some Gates were showing, but I'm not tall. An angle where I had some showing just didn't work, so I'll stick with this one.

Camera-toting tourists and New Yorkers are everywhere. This was very fascinating and I would stop and take shots of people taking pictures, but somehow they got shy. These two guys I got pretty excited about because they both had the same camera as mine! I wanted to speak to them, but they were speaking in German and were too absorbed in what they were doing.

The park entrance at Columbus Circle is just filled with the orange Gates. I couldn't really capture it on the camera, but the landscape has been transformed into a field of orange as far as the eye can see. I finally understood why it is called a massive installation.

And now, the other best of today's work:

To experience the Gates, is to be under the Gates.