Mike Krautter Photo: the blog

Khanh To is working quietly in his shop, the calm interrupted by the occasional chirp of his pet parrot. He stands when I enter and greets me with a warm smile. His shop is full of furniture. Different pieces placed around the room like a puzzle make space for a full-sized sofa, raised, sitting on a work bench in the middle.

Khanh, who’s shop has been here 25 years says he’s seen a lot of change in Williamsburg since he opened his upholstery store on Graham Street, just 3 blocks north of the Graham L train station. And a lot of change in the industry too. Before opening his own store, Khahn worked with local hospitals in New York, upholstering the furniture you see in waiting areas and doctor’s offices. But with the introduction of new materials and mass produced furniture the need for upholstery there slowed and the hospital’s upholstery shop was shuttered.

That’s when Khahn moved to Williamsburg and opened up his own store. Luckily, he says, the need for his craft remained and in the past few years, that need has swelled. He’s busier than he’s ever been, working 10-12 hour days. And he loves it. “I love working with my hands.” he says, “And when I finish my work, the product is there for everyone to see, not hidden away.” His favorite pieces to work on? “antique furniture, because it has the most beautiful fabric and hand-carved woodwork”

After leaving Vietnam and his job as an engineer in the air force, Khanh brought his family to New York. He started out studying upholstery in Manhattan at a trade school on Broadway which has long since closed. One of his teacher there, took Khanh under his wing when he finished school and brought him to an upholstery shop in Brooklyn. He spent 4 and half years there, learning the trade before leaving to work with the hospitals. “It was difficult” he says when talking about the journey that brought he and his family from Vietnam to boroughs of New York City and his own business, “but God did amazing things.”

There’s no indication of Khanh slowing down, but one day he says, when he’s retired, he dreams of turning his shop into a school. “I have many kids who come in and ask how to learn what I do. It would be good to pass that knowledge on”

The first cool breeze of summer just came through the box fan in my window. For a second the painful chill of winter was imaginable, but thankfully the warmth has slipped back in.

Walking through Union Square in New York is always an adventure. The constant buzz of the Farmer’s Markets or frequent protests calms occasionally and you happen upon a piece of art in the making. The other day it was street painting and it was pretty impressive. I don’t know how long he had been working on it nor how much longer stayed, but for the few minutes I watched it was art and beauty taking form.

I was able to meet up with my friend Ivan Ramos over the weekend and take some pohtos of him. Ivan’s a great guy with a ton of character and we had a good time taking these shots.

After watching some of Tom Lowe’s time lapse work, I was inspired the other night to set up my 5D mark ii and start snapping away. I don’t have an intervalometer, so I used Canon’s software and shot tethered. Roughly 1700 images later here’s a rough-cut of the Brooklyn night.

And a different view from the night before.

I returned last week from Mexico. It was one of the fullest, yet most relaxing weeks/getaways that I’ve had for quite awhile. And that’s due for the most part, thanks to my good friend Alan Navarro. We stayed with Alan’s father, the most friendly man, at his beautiful El Campanario. I’ll be adding a few stories to the main website, but here’s a taste of what we got up to including the amazing food, great views, an incredible wedding, wakeboarding and so much more. Thanks to everyone we meet down there and here’s to hoping we’ll be back soon!

This was the view just inland on our decent into Acapulco.

Michelada. Lime juice and beer and usually some spices.

The view from El Campanario looking south and north over Acapulco Bay.

Now this was a wedding. It started on the beach around 7pm continued through sunset. Then it was drinks, dinner and dance party. We left around 1am since we’d been out late the night before, but it’s not uncommon for the party to last into the morning when breakfast is served for those still remaining!

Some wakeboarding in the lagoon just north of Acapulco. We met Casey and she invited us to tag along to watch her warm up for a few minutes. Apparently this was her ‘warming up’. She’s in the process of setting up a wakeboarding camp and if the brief demonstration and advice she gave Alan is any indication, the camp is gonna be great.

After wakeboarding, we continued up the lagoon until we had to park the car and hop a boat to continue on. The water was beautiful and warm and the people so friendly. We stopped for lunch after awhile on a small strip of beach separating the lagoon from the open ocean. And from the simplest of kitchens and most humble cooks came the most delicious fish I’ve ever had, full stop.

The rising sun fills the room like it hasn’t done all winter and the birds remind me of summer vacation when I was young.

Growing up on the west coast it was a short flight to Hawaii and if we were lucky, we found ourselves packing our bathing suits and boogie-boards as the last days of school approached.

The nostalgia of those trips is still strong. It’s the perfect breeze and the brilliant moon-lit clouds. BBQ by pool, snorkeling in the sea. The trail giving way to a hidden beach and the ocean stretching farther than I could imagine.

I made it back last year after eight years and it was an odd overlap of re-living old memories and making them anew. But it’s still that island in the sea, further away now, but so close on mornings like these.