Washington’s Headquarters – or at least one of them, this one in Newburgh

January 18, 2014 by Howard Dale Posted in Places Tagged gallery Leave a comment

Apparently Washington had a number of HQs. This one is in Newburgh, NY. Wikipedia has this (among other things) to say about it:

Washington’s Headquarters State Historic Site is a historic site in Newburgh, New York, USA. It consists of the Hasbrouck House, the longest-serving headquarters of George Washington during the American Revolutionary War, and three other structures.

It is also the oldest house in the city of Newburgh, and the first property acquired and preserved by any U.S. state for historic reasons. For both that and its historic value it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961.

…

Hasbrouck House served as Washington’s headquarters during the Revolutionary War from April 1782 until August 1783. It was chosen for its comparatively safe location north of the strategically important West Point. The 7,000 troops of the Continental Army were encamped near what is today known as Vails Gate, a few miles to the southwest.
In the headquarters at Hasbrouck House, Washington rejected a suggestion to institute an American monarchy and defused the threat of a mutiny among his officers over pay and pensions. He also created and first awarded the Badge of Military Merit which became the forerunner of the Purple Heart. On April 19, 1783, he issued an order for the “cessation of hostilities”, which formally ended the fighting of the Revolutionary War.

I’d seen pictures of the site before but had never visited it. From the pictures it appeared that it was out in the country somewhere. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that it was right in the middle of Newburgh. I was driving through some not too nice looking parts of Newburgh when I came across this ‘oasis’ overlooking the Hudson.

A nearby plaque describes this as “The Minuteman. Given by David Barclay, November 11, MCMXXIV (which I believe is 1924)

View across the Hudson to Mount Beacon (I think)

The Hasbrouk House from the Hudson River side.

The Tower of Victory. Formerly had a viewing platform with a roof on top. Apparently this was damaged in a hurricane in the 1950s and removed. Restoration efforts are underway. To find out more and to see the tower in its original glory see the Newburgh Restoration site.

The man himself: General (president) George Washington in the Tower of Victory.

Detail from the facade of the Tower of Victory.

Washington Statue from the small, but interesting museum

Tower of Victory with the Hasbrouk House in the background.

Danbury Fair Mall

January 15, 2014 by Howard Dale Posted in Places Tagged gallery Leave a comment

I took the dog for a walk around Danbury Fair Mall while my wife was shopping. It’s a bit more interesting than your average mall. It’s located right next to Danbury Airbport so you have planes landing and taking off. It’s also right next to some wet lands, which provide some visual interest. These pictures show how useful the Sony RX100 can be. It’s so small it easily fits into a pocket. On other occasions I might not have had a camera with me so I wouldn’t have gotten any of these. If I had had a camera with me it would probably have been the Sony NEX 5n. I love this camera but I usually take my time over subjects that don’t move (or move very slowly). So I have it set on Direct Manual Focus so I can tweak the autofocus (which I don’t entirely trust). Combined with focus peaking I find this works very well. However, it doesn’t work for very fast moving subjects. With the RX100 I just pointed and shot and was very pleasantly surprised. The picture of the geese is very severely cropped as I was a long way away from them, but at least I got something. Likewise the picture of the aircraft, which I didn’t notice until it was almost past.

Coming in for a landing

Swans on ice

Tree bark

Girders

Out for a smoke

Patterns in steel

Fountain

Porsche

Interesting series of interviews on YouTube: Vogue Masters

January 15, 2014 by Howard Dale Posted in Photographers Leave a comment

I bumped into this interesting series of interviews:

vogue masters – YouTube.

Each on deals with a different photographer including: Bruce Weber; Alex Webb; Donna Ferrato; Antoine d’Agata; Antonin Kratochvil; Erwin Olaf; David Alan Harvey; Jerome Sessini; Steve McCurry; Christopher Anderson; Stanley Greene and others. Each interview is about between 15 and 30 minutes

RX100 in Cold Spring

January 13, 2014 by Howard Dale Posted in Camera Collection, Places, Sony RX100 Tagged gallery Leave a comment

As I get older I’ve been gradually ‘downsizing’ my equipment. I switched from a DSLR to a Sony Nex 5N (via a Panasonic LX3, which I love but which in terms of quality is not as good as the Nex and it’s also just a little too big to use as a ‘carry everywhere’ camera). For a ‘carry everywhere’ camera I had been using a Panasonic ZS7. There was much to like about this camera. It was very small, had a long zoom range, great macro capabilities etc. Because I always had it with me I got a lot of nice pictures that I would otherwise have missed. Admittedly the low light performance was poor, as was the dynamic range and some of the pictures looked a bit like watercolor paintings. It served me well though.

I thought that the Nex5n would meet all my needs and disposed of the ZS7 . Unfortunately the Nex is still a bit too big to carry around all the time. Although the body is small the lenses are, of necessity, large. It’s certainly not pocketable. I soon began to regret not having a camera small enough to put in my pocket.

When the Sony RX100 came out I was interested, but it was just too expensive. Then the RX100mii came out. Even more interesting, but even more expensive. But then the price of the RX100 started to come down. Eventually while browsing around at Best Buy I came across an open box RX100 at a very significant discount. It was around my Wedding Anniversary so it seemed a good time to suggest to my wife that this might make a good anniversary present.

I’ve only used it once, but I like the results. Clearly it’s not really a replacement of a DSLR (at least not in my opinion). But I’m not replacing a DSLR. I’m replacing a Panasonic ZS7 and the RX100 is a vast improvement.

When I go out specifically to take pictures I’ll take the NEX, but I’ll pretty much always have the RX100 with me.

Valentine’s day is coming

Antique store window

Eagle – or is it an owl?

Old House

Tunnel below the railroad tracks

Corvair

Christmas in a window

St. Augustine’s Church, Ossining, NY

January 12, 2014 by Howard Dale Posted in Places Tagged gallery Leave a comment

St. Augustine’s is an interesting church with an amazing view out over the Hudson. It also has some interesting stations of the cross, which I neglected to photograph. The church website has an interesting page on the history of the church.