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Timothy Schenck: East Pier

0 Comments 26 July 2010

Friday, July 23 2010.

The alarm clock goes off with a buzz and I roll out of bed.  After shaking off last night’s sleep, the realization hits me–big day today!  I’ve got a very important shoot in a few hours, one that will be an emotional homecoming of sorts.  Add to my nervous tension the realization that I will be going into battle with this tank of a camera after having it for one full day.  I’ve never shot medium format before.  I’ve never shot with a Hasselblad before.

I pack my bag.  I’ve got the Hassy, a DSLR, and some lenses and batteries.  Damn, this bag is heavy!

My contact calls–the shoot is moved back two hours due to who knows what.  I catch the train and ride it to Brooklyn.  I’ll walk the bridge to kill some time, get in some practice with the Hassy, and maybe get a nice shot of the bridge before meeting up at the appointed hour for the shoot.

I get above ground in DUMBO and the skies are looking ominous.  As I get close to the east pier of the bridge, a stiff wind starts to blow from the west.  I glance toward Jersey just in time to see Lady Liberty disappear behind the first oncoming sheet of rain.  $%*#!  I dash for the “cover” of the pier.   Its a race between me and the first heavy drops and I narrowly beat them.  The rain intensifies.  The city ahead becomes a hazy vision behind the mist.  The wind changes the direction of the rain by the second and I find myself circumnavigating the pier of the bridge to find the dry spot along with a few other unlucky souls (the guy that sells water, the bike tourists, the older couple from Austria–all in all there are about a dozen of us).  I have an umbrella but it is only good enough to keep the gear dry in these conditions.  There is nowhere to run and very little place to hide.  I’ve long since stashed the Hassy in a plastic bag inside my gear bag.  I know it will not get wet but I’m still freaking out that somehow this driving rain will get in and fry my precious cargo.

An hour passes and so does the rain.  I know every stone at eye level of the bridge pier after doing so many laps.  The sky is white and the air has cooled quite a bit from the hairdryer in your face hot of NYC in July.  I’d like to stay and just be a tourist enjoying the cool breeze on the bridge, but I see now I’ve only got a half hour to get to the shoot (on foot).  I extract the Hassy from it’s watertight crypt.  Looks like I wrapped it a little too tight and ripped the rubber eyepiece.  I MacGyver a fix with a rubberband and snap a few shots of the bridge as I hurry the rest of they way across.  So much for practice.

I reach the other side of the bridge and head due west.  I’m only a few blocks away and it looks like I will be on time, barely.  My phone rings.  The voice on the other end of the line tells me the shoot has been cancelled due to the rain and that we are rescheduling for next week (weather permitting).  I’m not surprised.

I stop for a bite to eat and to regroup. I draw up what sounds like a decent plan B–I’ll catch the Staten Island Ferry roundtrip to see what turns up and then maybe do some street shooting.   I hit the pavement and work my way south toward the ferry terminal.  Just as I get to the terminal I see the gangplanks raising as the ferry prepares to pull out.  Next ferry is not for another half hour and I’m tired and frustrated.  I exit and the drops start falling again.  Somebody is trying to tell me something.  I ride the train home.  I walk in the door, put down my gear and stretch my aching shoulders.  I mark my calendar, one year from today–”no photography today…hit the beach instead”.

After taking some time to forget the trials of the day and later coming back to my photographs, I was happy to see that I got this image.  It was far from what I expected to come from the day’s shooting going in but sometimes you have to take what life gives you and make the best of it.  Now, every time I look at this photo, I’ll have a smile on my face as I remember running around the pier dodging the rain.