Photographs and thoughts on photography and camera collecting
The Beekman Arms in Rhinebeck, NY claims to be the oldest continually operating inn in the United States. It’s certainly old and part of it feels just like the English pubs I was familiar with while growing up in the UK.
Brian Plumb author of “Rhinebeck’s Historic Beekman Arms.” provides additional information in the interestingly titled: “Did George Washington really sleep at the Beekman Arms in Rhinebeck? A new book finds the answer, and more“.
Manor House
I took these in 2010 with a Fuji HS10, a camera I bought on a whim, didn’t like much and barely use. It was widely (and justly) criticized at the time for producing pictures that were not very sharp. Critics often stated that the images looked like watercolors. Well, that’s not always bad….
According to the website of the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area:
During the 17th and 18th centuries, the landholdings of the Philipse family encompassed 52,000 acres and included a complex that featured a mill, farm, and large stone manor house located on the banks of the Pocantico River. The complex served as the hub of the family’s business empire, which included the slave trade. Thanks to an inventory compiled in 1750, it is known that 23 Africans were the chief labor force at Philipsburg Manor, making the Philipses one of the largest slaveholders in the northern colonies.
Today, Philipsburg Manor is a restored 18th century trading and milling living-history museum that focuses on the lives of enslaved Africans. A reconstructed water-powered gristmill grinds grain while heirloom varieties of plants are grown in a recreated slave garden and animals are tended around an 18th-century Dutch barn moved to the site. Demonstrations in householding techniques of the period, such as cooking and spinning, take place in a reconstructed tenant farmer’s house.
Weir and Grist Mill
Closer view of the water wheel. I liked the colors and the textures of the wood and the almost, but not quite, symmetry of the windows.
I’m always on the lookout for interesting new/old lenses – particularly old Minolta AF lenses which will work on my Sony DSLR. I was browsing around and I came across this lens, which had good reviews. I managed to find an inexpensive example so I snapped it up.
Even from a relatively short test I really like this lens. It produces the typical Minolta really good colors and is generally sharp especially when stopped own a bit. It’s small and light and feels well made. I like the fixed f4.5 and the reasonably fast focus as well as the decent out of focus areas. On the negative side the minimum focusing distance is rather long at about 6ft. I’ve read that it flares badly but havent’ experienced this in my admittedly limited test. All things considered a pretty good lenses and bearing in mind what I paid for it extremely good value for money.
Sails on the Lake.
One of my wife’s roses – nice out of focus areas.
Chrysanthemums
Another flower – don’t know what kind. I liked the out of focus areas.
I already mentioned that we had a birthday party at our house. I also mentioned the Quantaray 24mm f2.8 that I used for some of the wider shots and my attempts to use its macro capabilities. Here’s another one with that lens in macro mode – of a fuschia hanging on one of our trees.
In an earlier post I mentioned that we had been invited to a get together at an apartment on Central Park West. This is the owner of the apartment bringing watermelon to some of the younger guests. I loved the way the children were jumping around. The one on the left seems to be almost airborne and the one on the right seems to be really focused on the watermelon. It was certainly a wonderful party with lots of good food and interesting company. My compliments to the hostess!!!