#BikeNYC Portraits: Behind The Lens

In NYC I hooked up with professional photographer Dmitry Gudkov of BikeNYC Portraits fame. As it often goes, we found out about each other's existence through the interwebs, given our mutual interest for people on bicycles, bike culture & photography. Subsequently, it was an even bigger pleasure meeting him in real life. It took some time for me to do this post, but now it's even more relevant, as Dmitry's efforts were put in the lime light as a feature on the Flickr blog this week. Greatly deserved & no small thing, when you consider Flickr has millions and millions of photographs to choose from. From the middle of Soho we rode towards the Hudson shore, where Dmitry was keen on finding a nice spot to take my #bikeNYC Portrait, as he'd insisted on via Twitter ;).
He lead us to Pier 54, in front of the High Line.

Dmitry started his art direction, I positioned myself behind my Workcycles Omafiets (which Julie from Adeline Adeline was so nice to let me borrow for the weekend), fiddled with my bag for #bikeAMS exposure, and this was the result:
Dmitry still owes me the picture of me lifting my Omafiets over my head, in true hipster style...you know, just to bust another myth about Dutch bikes ;). We continued our ride on the Hudson Greenway and a few minutes later I spotted something familiar up ahead on the bike path: a black Dutch granny bike, a long haired woman riding it, in normal clothes, without a 'magic mushroom'. To Dmitry: "Look, I think that's a Dutch girl." "Yeah?" I immediately shift into gear: "Let's catch up, go go go!"

I passed her, turned around and said: "You MUST be Dutch!" "Huh?" She had music on, so took out her earplugs. "Sorry?" "You MUST be Dutch!" Haha, no, I'm Danish!" "Ohhhh, so close!" There was nothing left for her to do than stop and have a chat with us. We introduced ourselves and the reason for chasing after her. It turned out her name was Carina Jensen, a Danish expat living and working as a video journalist in NYC. Coincidently, she was hired to cover the New Amsterdam Bike Show that would take place the next day. Dmitry wasted no time and asked if he could take her bicycle portrait. Of course he could. And of course I captured that process.

Dmitry could appreciate the humor of it a few days later:
His #bikeNYC Portrait catch:
Together we rode back into town, chatting up a storm.
Just so you know what all that stalking looks like, here's another 'behind the lens' moment, me photographing alongside Carina & then spotting Dmitry taking a picture of me...and shooting that. ;)

A perfect start of my NYC weekend, a great time with new-found friends. We went our separate ways, into the city jungle, with the knowledge that we would see each other again the following days. My cliffhanger for the upcoming posts...