My wife and I went into New York City yesterday for a retirement party for one of our former colleagues. It was late afternoon of a bright, sunny day and at street level much was in dark shade. A touch of brightness caught my attention. The bright sunlight was hitting the top of a nearby building, which had some colorful rectangles painted on it. There were also some faint vertical lines and cutting across them the more diagonal lines of ropes on one of the platforms that are used to clean windows (and I guess other surfaces as I didn’t see any windows on this side of the building). When I took the picture I thought I would include the platform and the people on it, but ultimately I decided to leave it out and focus on the more abstract look of the colorful rectangles, vertical and diagonal lines.

Taken at the Pallisades Center, a mall in Rockland County, NY. I was attracted to the colors: the bright red of the wall with the neutral grey above it; the darker grey at the bottom and the small orange line that cuts across the frame. The repeating, different sized windows added some interest with the hint of something going on behind them. I think there’s an overall abstract look to the picture.

I like the colors and the geometric shapes. In retrospect I realize that I didn’t get the focus right – or at least I didn’t get the depth of field that I wanted. The steps in the foreground are very soft. I still like the picture though.