Day nine, April 9th, was a tough day. I jumped on the A train and headed downtown to walk and shoot. After a few hours, I had yet to take an interesting or well-seen image. Getting an interesting or dynamic image on this trip to New York has been more challenging than pulling a hen's teeth - if you will pardon the old-fashioned metaphor.

I decided to end the frustration and head back uptown to walk around Fort Tryon Park and the Cloisters. I have been focusing on the park and the Cloisters building as part of developing a practice of really digging into an area or subject. I hope that practice will help when I resume some of my other projects.

A few images reflect a greater understanding of the best time of day to shoot certain subjects, While others show improvement in my sense of shooting angle, positioning, etc. On this trip, I intended to use the .jpg images directly out of the camera with no post-processing (editing), hoping that constraint would force me to be more deliberate and careful in my composition, exposure, angle of view, etc. I have not been as successful as I hoped, but these habit changes take time.

There are still too many images with issues. I should have been more focused and deliberate, ensuring I saw everything in the viewfinder. Most of the issues are unneeded or distracting objects at the edges, and the shooting angles are just a little off. To slow myself down and be more deliberate in my practice, I am considering using a tripod for all my shooting going forward.