Aaron Lee Fineman's Blog

Introducing Miko Hudson Fineman

2010-04-26T22:31:00.002-04:00

I realize that I have been remiss on updating my blog regularly, but I have a really good excuse...

My son Miko was born!

Since he was born I have been focusing my blogging efforts on his blog www.mikofineman.com

I will try to keep this blog updated but it might be a bit longer until the next update.

My little sister...

2009-07-21T19:10:00.002-04:00

My little sister married the man of her dreams on Sunday in Atlanta, Georgia and while they hired another photographer for the wedding so that I could 'be a guest' I could not help myself by taking photographs as well. Heck, I actually took photographs at my own wedding too - I guess it's an addiction.

Introducing Gummy Bear

2009-07-21T19:01:00.004-04:00

Nicole and I are pregnant with our first child which we have nicknamed "gummy bear" because of how it looked on an early sonogram. Anyway, This is the photograph that I took of her to send out to our friends and family to share the good news. It was taken down the street from the first apartment that we had in Fort Green, Brooklyn.

My baby brother...

2008-11-07T14:39:00.005-05:00

As of November 2nd, my baby brother, Rob, is officially married. His wife, Andrea, is a wonderful woman and a perfect match for him. Not surprising, they were high school sweethearts. I took this photo during the "bedekin" (jewish unveiling) ceremony.

Obama!

2008-11-05T14:30:00.002-05:00

I was amazed to see people literally dancing in the streets of New York City upon hearing the news of Obama's historic victory in his run for President of the Untied States. I never thought that I would see the day when a massive crowd in Union Square would spontaneously erupt in our National Anthem and "America the Beautiful". It was a wonderful and beautiful night.

To see more of my photos from that night.

Birthday's

2008-08-18T20:48:00.002-04:00

My birthday just passed and it got me thinking of my mother and this photo that I took on her birthday blowing out the candles on her cake.

Corliss & Peter

2008-08-18T20:46:00.002-04:00

I shot this photo over the weekend of Corliss and her boyfriend Peter in Prospect Park Brooklyn. Taken with a digital camera and converted to black and white.

School Time

2008-08-18T14:34:00.002-04:00

My sister started back to work last week as a 6th grade science teacher in Atlanta Georgia. This photo is of her in her classroom from last school year, hopefully her desk is not that messy yet this year.

Spring Break in Canada, Family Music

2008-03-29T00:36:00.004-04:00

On our way back from Montreal to New York we stayed with my cousin Audrey and her husband Mark. Audrey is my grandfather's sister's daughter. I should add that I really like my Canadian family and I only wish that we got to see them more often. Some of my fondest childhood memories were in Montreal with my family up there.

In any case, Mark plays guitar in a band and that night was the night that his band practiced at their house. So we got to enjoy some more music that made me think I was back down in Georgia. Strange to hear all that country sounding music so far north. And for that matter, the Sugar Shack we went do made some amazing pork rinds's.

Also, Audrey took us for a tour of some of the buildings that my great grandfather used to own as well as a couple that he built. And we got to go to a bagel shop to buy some Montreal Bagels. As New Yorkers, it is hard to enjoy a bagel outside of New York, but Montreal has some amazing bagels. It's difficult to say which place makes them better, but we did buy 24 bagels to bring home to New York.

Spring Break in Canada, The Sugar Shack

2008-03-29T00:20:00.003-04:00

On our way back to Montreal we stopped at Chez Dany, a sugar shack. We were not sure what we should expect there, but told we had to have a meal at a sugar shack. Upon arrival we were seated and fed a tasty all you can eat meal beginning with a French Pea soup and fried pork skin, then moved on to ham, meat pie, and an omelet, finishing off with a desert of pancakes with maple syrup and snow taffy outside. When the 5 tour buses arrived the band began to play, which reminded me of the country in Georgia, just without the snow.

Spring Break in Canada, Snow Taffy

2008-03-29T00:13:00.004-04:00

I just had to add a note about the snow taffy that they have in Quebec (and I understand is also in Vermont). I think the photos will tell the story best, but let me try to explain.

They pour hot liquid taffy onto the snow and you let it cool and then wrap it up with a stick and eat it. The various textures and flavors are delish. This is the only time that I think it is safe to eat brown snow.

Spring Break in Canada, A Snow Story

2008-03-29T00:11:00.002-04:00

From Montreal we drove to the Old City of Quebec which has a very European city feel to it. Only the American dollar goes a bit further there these days than it does in Europe.

While we were walking in Quebec our path was blocked with a large mound of snow. While we were checking the map for a way around the mound of snow, not even sure if we were headed in the right direction, a couple walked by us and simply walked over the snow. I know this seems silly to write about, but that reminded me of a story my grandfather Manny told me. When I was learning to drive my grandfather told me about the one question that he got wrong on his driving test when he first moved to Georgia from Canada. The question was, "what do you do when you get to a road and a sign says 'paved road ends'?" The choices were, "A. Proceed with caution. B. Turn around and go back. C. Keep driving normally." My grandfather chose B, to turn around and go back. The correct answer was A, to proceed with caution. As silly as that story was to me as a teenager in Georgia (where I knew all about dirt roads), I felt that my situation in the Canadian snow was just as silly, for surely my grandfather knew exactly what to do when one's path was blocked by a mound of snow.

Spring Break in Canada, Arrival

2008-03-29T00:10:00.003-04:00

For my wife's spring break from school we decided to go see the Old City of Quebec in Canada. She had never been that far north and I could not remember if I had ever been or not (if I had been it was when I was too young to remember).

The added bonus of driving to Quebec from New York is that we were able to stop in Montreal and see some of my family there. My father's family is from Canada. He is the first generation of his family to be born in the United States.

While we were in Montreal, my Aunt Saretta (technically my grand-aunt) made us some delicious grilled sandwiches with Rye bread, Jarlsberg cheese, and tomato.

Happy Valentines Day

2008-02-14T11:04:00.000-05:00

Little Lucas Gilles in Brussels

2008-01-14T17:19:00.000-05:00

Newlyweds Mike and Yufei

2008-01-14T17:13:00.000-05:00

This was taken down in Chinatown last year.

Spelunking in North Georgia

2008-01-06T21:15:00.000-05:00

In 2002 I went spelunking in North Georgia with some friends. On a side note, we were in the caves under the Tri-State Crematory. Since the government drained the lake to search for remains we were able to go deeper in the caves than normal.
You can read about the investigation into the Tri-State Creamatory here

Nicole on the West Side Highway

2008-01-05T10:45:00.000-05:00

My wife, Nicole and I like to go for walks around the city. This photo is from a walk we took over to the Piers on the west side of Manhattan one night.

Friends on the Brooklyn Bridge

2008-01-05T10:41:00.000-05:00

This is Peter and Tricia on the Brooklyn Bridge in 2006. Shortly after this photo was taken they moved to San Francisco, California.

Hawk and Squirrel

2007-12-26T22:30:00.000-05:00

A squirrel taunts a hawk in Tompkins Square Park in New York City.

Hiroyuki Ito

2007-12-23T22:22:00.000-05:00

I met Hiroyuki Ito when we were studying photography at NYU. This is a photo of him in his apartment in Astoria, Queens with his cat Mino. The photograph was shot digitally with the Leica M8 and converted to black and white in Adobe Lightroom.

Chanaukah 2007

2007-12-21T22:25:00.000-05:00

Every year for Chanaukah my wife Nicole pulls out her polaroid land camera to take a photograph of the menora with the candles lit.

Island People Mas Fashion Show

2007-11-18T21:12:00.000-05:00

Wyatt Gallery, a friend and fellow photographer, has a costume company, called Island People Mas, for Trinidad's Carnival festival. A few days ago his company had a fashion show to unveil this years costumes and I went to photograph the party for him. This is one photo showing 2 of the costumes. I don't normally shoot "runway" photos, but for this party I decided to try to make a few fun photos during the runway show that are not typical runway photos. If you want to see more of the costumes, check the Island People Mas website

Stolen Tire

2007-11-18T20:53:00.000-05:00

Well, it finally happened to my 16 year old bicycle. As you can see from the photo, someone cut my lock and stole the rear tire to my bicycle the other night. I have had that bike locked on the street since 1993, so I guess it had a good run, but it really sucks that someone would cut a lock to steal one 16 year old tire. Luckily a nice neighbor found another rear wheel on the street and gave it to me. It does not fit properly, but the bike rolls and that is good enough for now.

My brother's mezuzzah

2007-11-09T17:33:00.000-05:00

After helping my brother unpack into his apartment his fiancé arrived and they hung their first mezuzzah together. They are such good jews, they even keep kosher.
Personally, I love pork chops too much to keep kosher.

Moving my brother to Houston, Texas

2007-11-09T17:29:00.001-05:00

Last month I helped my brother Rob move out of his house in Urbana Illinois and into his apartment at the Bel Air in Houston Texas. He will only be in this apartment for 6 months, but the building is absolutely massive (and they don't recycle). And the distance from the loading dock door to his apartment door was 1.3 football fields each way... Luckily his company hired movers for his stuff.

Paco the Pup-arazzi

2007-10-28T22:45:00.000-04:00

Today was the Halloween Dog Parade in Tompkins Square Park. Nicole dressed up our dog Paco as a Pup-arazzi.
He won a honorable mention prize for his costume and he put a lot of smiles on peoples faces while walking down the street.
Paco also won the Best Costume prize from WNYC public radio. http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/scary_smart.html (scroll down to see Paco)

Birthday wishes.

2007-10-16T22:13:00.000-04:00

Yet another photo of a friend. This is from Barbara's birthday party in her back yard in Newburgh, New York. Her daughter Ines is with her in the photo while she is blowing out the candle on her birthday cake. Barbara and her husband Edwine own an Italian Caffé in Newburgh called Caffé Macchiato on Liberty Street. If you are ever up in Beacon (or Newburgh) it is a must visit place.

Pre School Friends.

2007-10-16T22:05:00.000-04:00

I thought it would be fun to put some photos of friends up on my blog. This is a photo of Emily, Thad and Lincoln. I met Emily when we were in pre school at High Meadows in Georgia many years ago. This was taken shortly before they moved from Princeton, New Jersey to Stanford, California.

Paco likes Nicole's driving... and so do I

2007-10-16T21:59:00.000-04:00

On a recent trip to see family in Georgia I was finally able to take some photos from the other side of the car while Nicole was driving. She only got her drivers license last year, so this is new to both of us. But our dog Paco seems to enjoy it and I think she is a great driver too.

Barak Obama Speaks in Washington Square Park

2007-10-15T17:34:00.000-04:00

Presidential Candidate, Barak Obama spoke in New York City's Washington Square Park on September 27th, 2007. I decided to go with my wife, Nicole to hear him speak.
An interesting side note is that Nicole's mother was a pastry chef in Chicago when she was alive. After her mother died of cancer in 2001 Nicole inherited her cookbooks and client lists (which were inside the cookbooks) and Barak Obama was in her client list. Which goes to show that he has good taste, at least in sweets.

My brother is engaged.

2007-10-15T00:42:00.000-04:00

My "little" brother, Rob, proposed to his girlfriend, Andrea, and she said yes.
So, the last time that I saw them, I decided to take some photos of them as a gift. This is one of the photos that I took on the dock of my parents lake house on Lake Lanier in Gainsville, Georgia. This photo was taken with my Leica M8 digital rangefinder camera and converted to black and white using some techniques that I learned on lynda.com for use with Adobe Lightroom. I also decided to put this photo in a gallery of personal photos on my website here:
http://aaronleefineman.com/projects/personal/27.html

my blog 2.0

2007-10-15T00:12:00.000-04:00

I had a blog that I hosed on my own website a couple years ago. However, when I changed web hosts I was unable to re upload my blog to my new server. So, I am begining my blog again here. While I work on my new blog, I will post a link to my flickr page, which is where I have been posting my photos while my blog was on hiatus.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronleefineman