Photographs and thoughts on photography and camera collecting
Taken at Scarborough Station while waiting for the train into New York City to see ‘On the Town’. It was certainly very cold and except for a channel in the middle the Hudson was frozen. We couldn’t get to the button quickly enough.
I hadn’t brought a camera so I had to use my wife’s iphone.
The view north.
Taken during a vacation in Spain. We’d rented this amazing house on a cliff overlooking the sea. It was in Javea between Valencia and Alicante. We flew to Valencia, rented a car an drove down to the house. We ended up on a gravel road that seemed to lead nowhere. As we continued it got closer and closer to the edge of the cliffs and we started to fear that we had taken the wrong turning (this was in pre GPS days). Eventually we saw a short flight of steps and at the bottom a house. The view was amazing. This was one of my favorite vacations: a nice mix of lazing around the house/pool and visiting local attractions.
The pictures were most likely taken with a Canon AE-1.
View from the house looking out over the pool.
View South.
View from Guadalest
Algar Waterfalls.
The house from down by the pool.
My wife likes Facebook. Recently she started a “Throwback Thursday” series, which involves posting old pictures every Thursday. Unfortunately, most of these pictures are pre-digital so I have to scan old negatives and prints so that they can be posted. It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for a while, but never got around to so this new initiative has forced me to do it. I wasn’t pleased with my first attempts but I’m getting better – especially when scanning negatives. I’m still not getting acceptable results with prints. Maybe I’m missing something?
This series of pictures were taken the The Netherlands. My wife had a great job opportunity to work for a year in The Hague, the Netherlands. Too good to miss so off she went while I stayed behind in New York with our younger daughter (the older daughter was already away at university in the UK). My wife’s career really took off after this so it was definitely a good choice. While there she rented a lovely little apartment in Scheveningen, not too far from the beach. We were able to visit several times during that year and I have very pleasant memories of our time there.
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Windmill
Windsurfers on the beach at Scheveningen.
Windsurfers at sea, Scheveningen.
The beach at Scheveningen with the Kurhaus in the background.
Eirah on the beach at Scheveningen.
New Years Eve celebrations with our friends the Cross’s at the relatively new “Hudson Room” in Peekskill. “Over the Top” performed. The Sony RX100 does pretty well in low light and it’s so so easy to carry around.
Like all years 2014 had its negatives and its positives – thankfully many more positives.
Lets get the negatives over first. Apart from a few minor incidents (e.g. I fell while walking in the woods, hit a tree root and split my nose open. The worst of it was that I had to walk a further 30 minutes back to the car with a profusely bleeding nose) there weren’t many. The most traumatic event of the year was the loss of of beloved dog, Jackson on 30 October – to kidney failure after a thankfully brief illness. We still miss him. The very same day, in fact just as I was bringing Jackson’s remains back from the vet, our faithful 16 year old Toyota gave up the ghost. The engine’s shot and it’s not worth paying to get it fixed.
Although the loss of Jackson hurt we quickly found another dog: Harley. He’s adorable and has fitted in very well. In fact I feel a little guilty about the way in which he has taken Jackson’s place in our affections (it doesn’t help that he’s also a terrier and in many ways resembles Jackson). It’s almost as if we’re betraying Jackson’s memory.
On the photographic front it was a good year. I’m getting out more and taking more pictures. Comparing my 2014 favorite pictures to 2013 favorites I find that I prefer 2014 so hopefully I’m improving. I’ve made significant improvements in my post-processing and scanning technique. I’ve managed to update the blog frequently and it passed 500 posts in December. After I gave my Panasonic ZS-7 to my granddaughter I felt the need for a carry everywhere camera so I got a used Sony RX100 early in 2014. It’s a great camera and I almost always have it with me. It’s amazing what you miss through not having a camera with you. Many of my favorite 2014 pictures were taken with this camera. I still use my Sony Nex 5n a lot. I like using legacy lenses with it. My camera collection continues to grow, allbeit at a slower pace than before. This is partly because I’m not seeing as much that I want as before (and some of what I want is too expensive for me) and partly because I’d like to spend more time using them than buying them. My knowledge of all things photographic e.g. photo taking; photographers; cameras etc.) continues to expand as I read more and more, visit exhibitions (Winogrand and Salgado most recently).
So all in all a pretty good year. Let’s hope that 2015 is just as good.