Photographs and thoughts on photography and camera collecting
On the way in to our lunch with Andres we had to pass through Grand Central Terminal and I visited the Annual Holiday Train Show to take a few pictures. It’s interesting, but apparently not a patch on the train show at the Botanical Guardian.
Our friend, Andres was visiting from Geneva so we went into NY City to have lunch. We’ve known Andres for about 25 years, first meeting when we were both working in Geneva. We moved back Geneva and he moved back and forth between Geneva and NY a couple of times before we both retired in 2012. He returned to Geneva and we stayed in NY. We’ve kept in touch but haven’t seen each other for about four years.
This picture was taken in a restaurant (I think it was the Sidewalk Bistro) in Piermont, NY in 2011 where we went with friends for the Annual Bastille Day celebration.
It was taken with a small sensor camera (a Panasonic Lumix ZS3 – how I wish I’d had my Sony RX100 at that time) inside a fairly dark restaurant. The light coming from the right through a window helped, but I guess I was either rushing or my technique in those days was not as good as it is now (or I would have upped the ISO, or maybe not since the ZS3 didn’t handle higher ISOs well) and the picture lacks sharpness because of a slow shutter speed. I still like it though, and pictures don’t always have to be sharp.
Apart from adding new content I don’t often make changes to this site – the last time was in April, 2013. However, I got sick of looking at the same old pictures in the sliding panels below the main header. So I decided to replace them with some more recent images.
And they destroyed this to make way for the monstrosity that is the new Penn Station with Madison Square Garden on top of it!
“Thirty-Second Street entrance, Pennsylvania Station, New York.” The original Penn Station in the final stages of construction, circa 1910. 8×10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company
Taken just four days after I retired in 2012 with a Sony Nex-5N and a 55-210 mm lens that was purchased using a gift certificate given to me by my staff as a retirement present.
It was taken on 44th Street between 2nd and 3rd Ave in New York City and as I recall it was rather dark outside this building and I had to use a fairly high ISO. I also recall being struck by the two figures, one male, one female smoking outside the building. I was also attracted to the various kind of lines – some horizontal, some vertical, some diagonal. The picture still makes me a little uncomfortable – as if I didn’t quite get it straight. It took me a while to realize that the floor actually does slope towards the right. If you look at the lowest tier of bricks behind the woman you can see this quite clearly.
