19/52 Humanity En Masse

This New York City based roll of expired Portra 160NC was a gift to me from Sebastian Berkmann of Germany out of Emulsive.org’s enjoyable Secret Santa exchange.  You must frequent Emulsive, it is wonderful.   I used a Yashica T4, a capable point and shoot film camera.  The niggle I have with it is needing to turn off the auto flash each time the camera is fired up, a four-push of a minute rubber button.  Inevitably on the street one forgets this de-fanging and bathes a sleepy New Yorker in a blast of harsh light.  I don’t recommend the auto-flash on the street, it might lead to bad things.  I got away with it a few times.  The camera does well at focus.  I hit the intended focus point on 95% of the shots.  The ones I lost likely spawned from over-eager spontaneity rather than the T-4.  The age-old angst of editing my film ages was overcome.  Some needed a hint of added exposure from the varied light in certain scenes.  New York is a bustle of determined humanity.  Everyone is going somewhere to do something  fueling the City’s boundless energy.  Each person is an observer and observed, and these connections blend the mass into an amoeba of vibrancy.