Location, Location

Linus Gelber

You know how it goes: someone leaves a comment on a photo, and then another, and soon you're wondering who this person is, behind the kind words and watching eyes. I've known Flickr photographer BehindBlueEyes this way for a couple of years, but it takes an Irishman inbound from Haiti to get us met.

The occasion is a cheerful pass-through by Moochin Photoman, who has been shooting the damage and rebuilding in Haiti and is bound for home, via New York City. We three meet up at Grand Central Station, at the big clock, because we're very original. The rest of our balmy Saturday is spent up and down midtown sidewalks, and through a nice swath of Central Park.

We're just past Sheep Meadow and heading for Strawberry Fields when it occurs to me that they really need to see Bethesda Fountain and its triumphal entryway, Bethesda Terrace. "You've seen it in dozens of movies," I promise. They look doubtful.

We pass a little fountain off the 72nd Street crosstown road. "Is that it?" they wonder. "No," I say. "Bethesda Fountain is a little bit bigger than that."

And, of course, it is. After appropriate impressed noises, they immediately set to. Some fellow is taking pictures of a pretty model in a light blue windy outfit, and the fellow Utatans jump right in to help out.

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