Home and Around

A few pictures taken while walking the dog around the lake.


I liked the textures here: the stone wall, the weathered fence, the rock, the ‘gravelly’ soil and the smoother plant leaves.


Lakeview with dock and gazebo. This one looks better at a larger size. Please click on the image.


Someone had stuck this plastic bird (a heron I think) into the sand at Moon Beach. Our dog Jackson was really confused by it. He didn’t know if it was alive or not and if was alive why it wasn’t moving. He circled warily round and around the “bird” coming closer and closer each time until he decided he could safely ignore it. A slightly “quirky” picture – probably more so if I’d managed to get Jackson in it.


Not so invisible.


Statue at our house. I liked the dappled late day light. May have worked better in colour for once.

Great resource for camera collectors



If you collect classic cameras or just like to read about old cameras this site will interest you. It’s he most comprehensive site on classic cameras that I’ve come across. It’s not the best designed site I’ve ever come across, but the coverage is astonishing. Unfortunately it’s in French. Many of the pages have fairly rough English translations though and there’s always Google’s translation capabilities.Here’s what the introduction says (in French and then in the English translation – which actually says more than the French).

Avertissement: nous diffusons dans ces pages des preuves tangibles d’un mal insidieux qui ronge depuis des années des centaines d’individus. La semaine, ils sont comme vous, vont au travail, étudient ou vivent paisiblement leur retraite. Seul un observateur très attentif saurait peut-être déceler dans leurs yeux la lueur qui s’allume dès qu’ils entendent les mots “box”, “folding”, etc …

Mais, sont-ils les réincarnations des Dr Jekyll et Mr Hyde pour se transformer ainsi le dimanche matin venu ? Le masque est jeté ! On les retrouve dans les brocantes de très bonne heure, les traits tirés mais l’oeil pétillant et fouineur, attirés inexorablement vers les boîtes en carton (surtout si elles sont jaunes). Un appareil photo devrait commencer à les faire vibrer, une plaque de verre ou un Daguerréotype les faire entrer en transe, et pourtant, ils restent stoïques, insensibles aux “Il marche encore vous savez…”, aux “C’est celui de tonton Albert” ou encore aux “C’est très vieux”, car maintenant, il faut négocier, faire comprendre que le plus beau n’est pas le plus cher. Bref, un vrai métier de collectionneur d’appareils photo.

Confession: depuis 1992, je pèche souvent le dimanche matin, quelquefois plusieurs fois de suite. C’est toujours le dimanche le matin venu que c’est le meilleur, au milieu de la foule des premières heures, mais je suis tellement atteint que même en pleine semaine, parfois je pratique mon vice dans des lieux réservés à cet effet. Les fruits de mes péchés sont un peu plus nombreux, année après année. Ce n’est pas aux plus beaux que je tiens le plus, bien au contraire.

Warning: In these pages we diffuse tangible evidence of an insidious disease which have been corroding hundreds of people for years. During the week, they behave like you, going to work, studying or living peacefully through their retirement. A very knowing observer would only be able to detect in their eyes the gleam lightened by the words “box”, “folding camera”.

But, are they the reincarnations of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to be such transformed on Sunday morning ? Masks are down! They can be found in the secondhand trades very early in the morning, features drawned down but with sparkling eyes and snooping around, unrelentingly attracted towards cardboard boxes (especially the yellow ones). A photo camera should make them shaking, a glass plate or Daguerreotype should lead them close to madness, and yet, they remain stoical, impassivly earing the ” It still works you know…”,the ” It is uncle Albert’s” or ” It’s so old”, because now, it is time to negotiate, making plain that the most beautiful is not the more expensive. In short, a real photo cameras collector professionnal.

A confession: Since 1992, I have often sinned on Sunday mornings, at times, several times in a row. It is always Sunday morning which is the best, in the middle of the early morning crowd, yet I am so afflicted that sometimes even in mid-week I practice my vice in the locations reserved for this practice. The fruits of my sins have increased somewhat more each year. Yet it is not with the most beautiful that I have more; quite the contrary.

Some iphone pictures


Marylin

My wife is a dedicated iphone ‘snapper’. She’s also a big facebook user. Anything that she thinks interesting enough to share is photographed and immediately shared via facebook. I occasionally use the iphone camera (e.g. if I have nothing better to hand), but I tend to avoid it unless I’m desperate thinking “it’s not really much of a camera after all” (I should say that my iphone is an ancient 3GS with a broken screen). However, yesterday I was in Barnes and Noble browsing through some of the books and I came across this one:  The Art of Iphoneography.  There were some interesting photos in it and it occurred to me that I might have a few pictures that might be worth sharing. Some of them were taken indoors or in poor light so the image quality isn’t great ((too much noise, blur etc.). Those taken in good light outdoors however are much better. I’ll certainly try to use the iphone more, but I think it’s time for me to upgrade my shattered iphone. I imagine the camera on the iphone 5 is much better.


Hermance on Lake Geneva in Switzerland


Woman on a train


Jackson and his bones (I must admit slightly staged. I arranged the bones)


Boat docks, Terrace Club, Mahopac


Lake Carmel


Saratoga Battlefield

Converted to black and white using Silver FX pro.

Is this the way photography is going. A couple from the Internet

Petapixel announces that “The Decisive Moment is Dead. Long Live the Constant Moment“.  The article suggests that Cartier-Bresson’s decisive moment (i.e. that there is a certain moment in time that must be captured or lost forever) made sense only in relation to the technology of the time (i.e. film cameras).  With the technology we have now we can do better.  “Imagine an always-recording 360 degree HD wearable networked video camera” the article states.  It goes on to talk about LIDAR technology defined by Wikipedia as “…a remote sensing technology that measures distance by illuminating a target with a laser and analyzing the reflected light.   “What if every phone in every pocket had this technology, and you could consent to have your presence “photographed” from anywhere on Earth at any time, by sharing your own connection with another artist, and vice versa?”.     It’s interesting to see what the members of the Rangefinder Forum had to say about this.  If this is the way things are going I’m not sure I want to be there.

And on a similar but lighter note: Area Woman Finally Uploads All 12 Million Pictures Of Her Vacation To Europe On Facebook. Although an exaggeration I can see myself in this.

Ossining

From time to time I wander around the neighbouring towns taking pictures. This time it was Ossining. It’s perhaps best known as the location of Sing Sing prison. In fact the town was originally called Sing Sing but changed its name to try to avoid the association with the prison. I was surprised to find that Walker Evans lived there between June and October 1928.


Statue of Soldier on the War memorial. The monument remembers soldiers of Ossining, New York, who died fighting in the Civil War. Those killed were men, both privates and officers, most from the 17th U.S. Volunteer Regiment and the 6th U.S. Heavy Artillery. The Field Guide to US Public Monuments and Memorials says:

“One of two Civil War remembrances in Ossining, this 21-foot tall statue, approximately, of a standing soldier in uniform and made of bronze is positioned atop a granite obelisk; an attached bronze plaque lists the 42 names of the lost soldiers that it honors. Maurice J. Power, a New York sculptor, designed and created the monument. The National Fine Arts Foundry, owned by Power and also situated in Manhattan, at 218 East 25 Street, New York, cast the work. This firm produced, or participated in the creation of, a number of lasting battle monuments, for instance that at Monmouth, New Jersey.

The sculpture was sponsored by the Sing Sing Monument Committee. Formed in January, 1887, to create this monument, the group was led by Colonel Edwin McAlpin and comprised of a wide-range of prominent community men. The colonel was a resident of the village and commander of the 71st Infantry Regiment, New York National Guard. A large parade, featuring both military troops and civic groups, prepared the village and parade onlookers for the work’s dedication, Decoration Day, May 30, 1887.

The memorial was installed that May day on North Highland Avenue (also known as U.S. 9 or the Albany Post Road) at its cross with Croton Avenue, called Hubbell’s Corners. However, as the village changed and expanded, so did this intersection. And as regards the monument, the intersection site became burdensome; the sculpture was therefore relocated in September of 1930 to its current location at the juncture of Brookville Avenue and Pleasantville Road.”

I came across this bench in the middle of a tiny traffic circle on an out of the way street.

The second of the two war memorials, this one in a park: an angel on a pedestal. On the base supporting the statue were a number of panels. This is one of them.

Church facade

Spooky doll in a shop window


House with fence


Buildings