I was recently doing a review of my 2014 photography, finding a few gems I’d forgotten about and decided I better get on the ball with my 2014 Street Photo Fav Five post, so here it is. Enjoy.

Sidewalk Sittin’

A warmish spring day downtown St. John’s had the lads chilling in the rays out front of Water Street restaurant “Black Sea”. The dog makes it a great photo, for me but also too is that this really isn’t a common sight downtown. Unfortunately — be it lack of desire, need or the amount of civil red tape one would need cut — there just are few people dining outside.

D.C Demonstration

On a trip to Washington, D.C there was someone demonstrating their point of view near the Whitehouse.

New York City Meat

Late night. New York City. Street meat. It doesn’t get any better. And that dudes creepy smile, staring far too perfectly into the camera is just a think of beauty.

Vietnam War Memorial

In my opinion, this is one of the more powerful memorials in all of D.C. It’s the Vietnam War Memorial. Meant to be read counter clockwise from the beginning of the center top column at 1959, wrapping to the right and then back to the left until you reach the middle again, at the center bottom and 1975. In this photo you have the names of both the first and last person killed during the Vietnam War.

It would take sometime to read them all and even finding the names of loved ones on the wall is a challenge (though a look-up book is provided). The memorial was not without it’s controversy and contention when it was built but I find it quite fitting. The memorial is different from your typical memorial.

And to me, that is appropriate for a war that was without a doubt different itself, filled with controversy and contention.

Metro North Nap

When I visited New York City something, one thing in particular, stuck with me and it wasn’t what I’d expected. I grew up practically trained by television and public opinion to believe that New York was a scary city. As a child I knew NYC was rife with crime and I should be expected to have been mugged within moments of stepping off the plane.

Upon my first trip there this childhood misconception was something I’d long since forgotten about. I’ve walked the streets of Detroit, a city that’s legitimately (and statistically) filled with crime, far more than NYC nowadays and I’ve had no real concerns in Detroit, so NYC was easy… till we walked past three dudes shooting heroin in the corner of 27th.

In a way no other city but NYC could allow, it was comical.

They looked at us. We looked at them. And we all went on our merry-way. They shooting crack while I shot pictures. No big deal.

But this instance of 1980s NYC suddenly unveiled in front of me, reminded me of childhood memories of how big of a boogie man NYC once was… which reminded me of how incredibly and somewhat laughably safe NYC is now.

Which brings me to this picture. This woman, alone, on the subway had no concerns about sleeping for who knows how long on her trip from Tarrytown, Croton-Harmon, Redding or wherever the heck she initially got on the Metro-North Line.

I wouldn’t sleep on a St. John’s Metrobus. Hell, I generally have concerns about going to sleep in my own bed some nights.

But in NYC — once one of the more troubled cities in all of North America, population 8.5 million — the common sight of napping on the train seems like a luxury in contrast to St. John’s, population 0.2 million.