Helmsley Mausoleum, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery

by Posted in 50mm f1.8 F-Zuiko auto-s, Black & White, Buildings/Structures, Cemeteries Leave a comment
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According to Waymarking.com:

Harry and Leona Helmsley were two of America’s and wealthiest (sic) property owner. They made billions in real estate, owning many of the country’s most prestigious properties including the Empire State Building. Their lavish lifestyle and questionable business practices drew the attention of federal investigators which lead to charges of tax evasion. Harry who was in poor health was too frail to plead died in 1997. However, Leona who had reportedly utter the now famous words, “Only little people pay taxes,” was fined and sentenced to 16-years in prison but served only 19-months. Harry died in 1997 and was originally entombed at Woodlawn Cemetery in New York City. Leona disliked the setting so much that she built the mausoleum here and had Harry re-interred in 2004. Leona died in 2007 and is entombed beside Harry.

…

The Helmsley Mausoleum is the final resting place of billionaire real estate moguls Harry and Leona Helmsley. The private mausoleum complete with stained glass was built in 2004 at a cost of more than $1.4-million dollars. It sits on a wooded hillside in the northern most section of the cemetery, near such notable figures as Walter Chrysler and William Rockefeller.

Leona also specified that her dog Trouble (to whom she bequeathed $12 million – later whittled down to $2 million) also be buried in the Mausoleum. Unfortunately NY State law does not allow this. Trouble passed away in 2011 (see: NY Times. Cosseted Life and Secret End of a Millionaire Maltese). What happened to the remains? According to the NY Times article:

Trouble was cremated and her remains were “privately retained,” said a spokeswoman for the Helmsley Trust. In her will, Mrs. Helmsley asked that Trouble’s remains be buried alongside her own, in the Helmsley mausoleum at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Westchester County. But Jim Logan, a member of the cemetery’s board, said Mrs. Helmsley’s lawyers knew the cemetery would abide by regulations that forbid the interring of nonhuman remains at human cemeteries. That said, mausoleums are considered private property and the Helmsley family had its own key.

Might Trouble be buried alongside her mistress? “In all honesty,” Mr. Logan said, “we don’t know.”

Taken with an Olympus OM2-n MD and 50mm f1.8 F-Zuiko auto-s.

A New (Used) Camera

by Posted in Camera Collection, Cameras, Sony A77 II Leave a comment
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I have a lot of cameras, but most of them are old film cameras. I have only three cameras that I use regularly: A Sony RX100 M3, my carry everywhere camera purchased in 2016 to replace a RX100 M1 that died; A Sony Alpha 500 DSLR acquired in 2010; and a Sony Nex 5N, which I now mostly use with adapted legacy lenses.

I use the Alpha 500 when I know I’m going to be taking pictures of things that move quickly. For example I used it both times I went to a nearby airshow. However, I wasn’t altogether satisfied with the results. I couldn’t afford a high end telephoto or zoom lens and instead decided on a camera with higher resolution that would allow me to crop more. I also wanted faster and more accurate autofocus.

After doing some research I decided that this camera would meet my needs and that I could find one within my budgetary constraints (if I bought used). It’s a Sony A77 II.

The first time I tried it I was somewhat confused. I could barely get it to focus. After some tinkering I concluded that the previous owner had changed some settings, but I wasn’t sure which ones. So I did a reset and then everything became a lot easier. I recognized that it was still a complex camera though and as usual it didn’t come with a very useful manual. So I bought David Busch’s Sony Alpha a77 II/ILCA-77M2 Guide to Digital Photography, a very useful book, particularly the section on how to configure the camera.

I’ve used it a few times now an a must say that the more I use it the more I like it. I still find some things a bit bewildering (especially everything to do with focus tracking) but all things considered I’m happy that I bought it.

For some pictures taken with it see:

Flowers in the early morning light
Fall comes to the lake.
Shells.
Rose on our dock.
Roses by the light of the eclipse.
Putnam County Veterans Memorial Park – Old Barn.
Putnam County Veterans Memorial Park – Gold Star Mother Statue.
Putnam County Veterans Memorial Park – M60A3 Series Tank (Patton).
Putnam County Veterans Memorial Park – Bell AH-1 Cobra.
Putnam County 46th Annual 4-H Fair – Military Exhibition.
Putnam County 46th Annual 4-H Fair – Antique Machinery.
Putnam County 46th Annual 4-H Fair – Sheep.
Putnam County 46th Annual 4-H Fair – Cows.
Putnam County 46th Annual 4-H Fair – Goats.
Putnam County 46th Annual 4-H Fair – Llamas.
Putnam County 46th Annual 4-H Fair – Revolutionary War Re-Enactors, Around the Camp Fire.
Putnam County 46th Annual 4-H Fair – Revolutionary War Re-Enactors, Blacksmith.
Putnam County 46th Annual 4-H Fair – Revolutionary War Re-Enactors, Militia.
Putnam County 46th Annual 4-H Fair – Native American Exhibit.
Putnam County 46th Annual 4-H Fair – Horse Riding.
Putnam County 46th Annual 4-H Fair – Overview.

For a more detailed consideration of the camera that goes way beyond anything I could come up with (at least at this point – it is after all still early days) see: Sony SLT-A77 II Review on Digital Photography Review.

Croton Landing

by Posted in Black & White, Landscapes Leave a comment
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While my wife was occupied with an appointment in Croton-on-Hudson I decided to go down to the river and take the dog for a walk at Croton Landing.

I like the way the gap in the breakwater mirrors the the gap between Croton Point (on the left) and Hook Mountain (I think – on the right).

Taken with a Sony RX100 M3

A Few Site Changes

by Posted in Site Changes Leave a comment
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Other than adding content I don’t often makes changes to this site. However, this month I’ve made one major change; one small change; and fixed a problem.

The major change was the addition of portfolios. I tend to include most of my pictures in the blog: good, mediocre; not so good etc. I felt the need to highlight some of the (to my mind) better pictures by theme. Hence the portfolios. I’m limiting the number of pictures in each portfolio to 20. So far I’ve only done two: Street and Portraits. I started off with these because they are my least favorite genres and I thought it would be easier to identify the better pictures because there weren’t too many to begin with. Hopefully I’ll be adding more.

So far I’ve given each of the pictures a ragged border. I’ve now decided to go with a simpler, plain black border, which also eliminates one step in my workflow. However, I have a number of pictures that I’ve already processed with the ragged border so they’ll still appear from time to time as I add them to the blog. All new pictures will have the plain black border. This was the minor change.

As for the fix. While working on my 2000th post I noticed that the monthly archives only display five posts, and that there was no way to move to subsequent posts (it only took me six years to figure this out). After a bit of research I came up with a solution using the Custom Post Limits plugin, which in its description states: “By default, WordPress provides a single configuration setting to control how many posts should be listed in each section of your blog. This value applies for the front page listing, author listings, archive listings, category listings, tag listings, and search results. This plugin allows you to override that value for each of those different sections.”. It seems to do the job.

More from Christies

by Posted in Painting, Photographers, Photographs, Sculpture, Things Leave a comment
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I mentioned in an earlier post (See: Self portrait with Cindy) that we went to Christies in New York City the other day. Here are a few other items that caught my attention. Above: The star of the show.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
Salvator Mundi
oil on panel
25 7/8 x 18 in. (65.7 x 45.7 cm.)
Painted circa 1500.
Estimate: Only available on request. Some sources (e.g. NY Times – Contemporary Art Sales: Do I Hear $100 Million?) anticipate that it will fetch $US100 million or more. UPDATE: It eventually sold for the to me obscene amount of $US450 MILLION!

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Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010)
Spider II
signed with the artist’s initials and stamped with the edition number ‘LB 5/6’ (on underside)
bronze
73 x 73 x 22 1/2 in. (185.4 x 185.4 x 57.2 cm.)
Executed in 1995. This work is number five from an edition of six plus one artist’s proof.
Estimate: $US10,000,000-15,000,000.

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David Smith (1906-1965)
Voltron XXIV
signed, titled and dated ‘XXIV Voltron David Smith 3-25-63’ (on the base)
steel
98 5/8 x 33 x 13 in. (230.1 x 83.8 x 33 cm.)
Executed in 1963.
Estimate: US5,000,000-$US7,000,000.

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Cindy Sherman (b. 1954)
Untitled #408
signed, numbered and dated ‘Cindy Sherman 3/6 2002’ (on the backing board)
chromogenic print
54 x 36 in. (137.2 x 91.4 cm.)
Executed in 2002. This work is number three from an edition of six.
Estimate: $US80,0000-$120,000.

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Richard Avedon (1923-2004)
Marilyn Monroe, actress, New York City, May 6, 1957
signed and numbered ‘Avedon 34/50’ and stamped with title, date and photographer’s copyright credit (on the reverse)
gelatin silver print flush-mounted on linen
image: 18 3/4 x 15 1/2 in. (47.6 x 39.4 cm.)
sheet: 20 x 15 7/8 in. (50.8 x 40.3 cm.)
Printed in 1980. This work is number thirty-four from an edition of fifty.
Estimate: $US70,000-$US100,000.