Sheepshead Bay: From The Outside Looking In

As an inexhaustibly enthusiastic photographer, a little more than a year ago I found myself on the website FroKnowsPhoto.com, described by its Philadelphia-based proprietor Jared Polin (from his LinkedIn bio) as being “dedicated to helping photographers of all skill levels to become better through fun and informative videos and content.”

It’s a great site, and Jared Polin, AKA “The Fro,” himself is an inexhaustibly enthusiastic photographer, and teacher (not in the academic sense) as well… but, what has any of this got to do with Sheepshead Bay?

Well, The Fro recently solicited Brooklyn-based photographer Adam Lerner of Adam Lerner | Photography to create an ongoing series of instructional videos for FKP and share some of his skills with the FroKnowsPhoto community. Liking what I saw, I decided to “like” Lerner’s facebook page, only to discover that he was recently in our neck of the woods, shooting some fabulous photos of Wheeler’s and Randazzo’s for Eater, among other things (other things being the image you see above).

All I could think after I saw the images was, “Ohhh, if only I could have been there to pick his brain.”

And not only that — the Randazzo’s piece was written by Brooks of Sheffield, he of Lost City fame, and it turns out ol’ Brooks did an entire practically weeklong series about Sheepshead Bay on his own site, including posts about Jimmy’s Famous Heros, Top Taco & Top China, the mysterious Soeller Building, Delmar Pizzeria, the Vince Lombardi plaque over at the POW/MIA Greenstreets triangle by Jerome Avenue, and Towne Café.

Sometimes I forget how unique and kind of special Sheepshead Bay really is until I see it through the eyes of those who don’t live here.