Photographs and thoughts on photography and camera collecting
This was taken inside a toilet at Law Memorial Park, Briarcliff Manor, NY. As I was leaving I noticed this mirror. It was made of very shiny metal rather than glass and it had obviously been vandalized extensively. I also noticed that my reflection in the mirror was distorted because of the damage – rather like with a funfair mirror. I rather liked the effect and thought it would make an interesting and somewhat different self-portrait.
My wife and I went into New York City yesterday for a retirement party for one of our former colleagues. It was late afternoon of a bright, sunny day and at street level much was in dark shade. A touch of brightness caught my attention. The bright sunlight was hitting the top of a nearby building, which had some colorful rectangles painted on it. There were also some faint vertical lines and cutting across them the more diagonal lines of ropes on one of the platforms that are used to clean windows (and I guess other surfaces as I didn’t see any windows on this side of the building). When I took the picture I thought I would include the platform and the people on it, but ultimately I decided to leave it out and focus on the more abstract look of the colorful rectangles, vertical and diagonal lines.
I’ve missed a lot of good (or at least interesting pictures), many of them because I didn’t have a camera with me at the time. This happens less frequently now that I have the Sony RX-100 (model 1), which is so small that I can easily carry it around anywhere. This is one that I missed.
We went to see a new production of “A Chorus Line” in 2008. We’d seen it before (I’d seen it in the original production around 1975). The (relatively minor but important) role of Zach was played by Mario Lopez who my wife was familiar with from “Dancing with the Stars” and who was considered “hot” at that time (maybe still is for all I know). So off we went.
As we were waiting on line to go into the theater a lot of people were taking pictures of themselves in front of a poster of Mr. Lopez – a poster very much like the one above (The picture isn’t mine). As the line moved the people taking the picture disappeared and a single, slightly lonely looking gentleman was left in front of the poster using his cell phone. It was the now late (he passed away in 2012), great Marvin Hamlisch who wrote the lyrics for “A Chorus Line”, and is one of only 10 people to win three or more Oscars in a single night. He also won two Golden Globes and is one of only two people to have also won in addition a Pulitzer Prize. Everyone knew who Mario Lopez was, but nobody seemed to recognize Mr. Hamlisch.
Of course I didn’t have a camera with me and the opportunity was lost. Apparently some well know photographer (I believe it was Chase Jarvis) was once asked what the best camera was. He replied “The best camera is the one you have with you”. How true!
Taken at Greenwich Point Park, Old Greenwich, Connecticut – around 7:00 am and the light was wonderful. This is one of the relatively few times I’ve been able to get up early enough to take advantage of such great light. Sometimes when I’ve gotten up very early it’s turned out to be a total waste of time because I haven’t done my research well enough. I’ve checked the direction of the sun, but haven’t taken into account that I live in the Hudson valley and there are lots of hills which often cause locations to fall into deep shadow early in the morning. On this occasion I was by the sea as the sun was rising with nothing at all to disrupt it. The light was low and surprisingly warm. I always thought that morning light was a lot cooler than evening light, but this light looks pretty warm to me. It was well worth the effort of getting up early!
Taken in November, 2011 with a Sony NEX 5N and 18-55mm kit lens. It wasn’t long after I got the camera and maybe the fact that I had a shiny, new toy was enough to make me get up so early. Many of the pictures I took around this time are JPGs so I seem not to have been shooting in RAW at that point. Looking back over my pictures I see that I don’t start shooting RAW until almost three months later! I don’t remember exactly why I decided to change – probably for the usual reason: more flexibility in post processing. I quite enjoy post processing so having to process the RAW files would not have been a problem for me.
I came across this horse rolling around in the grass at Stonecrop Gardens.
Taken with a Sony NEX 5n and 18-55mm kit lens in June 2013.