A visit to Dia Beacon – Overview

A while back I took the train up to Beacon (see Passing Bannerman’s Island), NY about 30 miles north along the River Hudson from where I live. My primary purpose was to visit Dia, a short walk from the station. More to follow on some of the individual exhibits/installations. Above: The main entrance


On the right the main entrance and on the left the entrance to the bookstore and cafeteria


One of the interior spaces, on display the work of Larry Bell.


The garden.

Taken with a Sony A7IV and Samyang 45mm f1.8

A red truck

This was taken from the train during a trip into New York City (Manhattan). I think I was attracted to two things.

First the bright red color of the truck contrasting with the rather dour look of the buildings, and second the way that the rather large truck was dwarfed by the buildings. So much so that it looks a little like a toy.

Taken with a Sony Nex 5N and adapted f2 Jupiter 8 (a manual focus vintage lens)

Found Still Life

I went with some friends for breakfast at the excellent Tasty Table in Ossining, NY. While I was there I needed to use the rest room and in there I came across this lovely little cabinet with a number of little curios in it. So I took a picture.

It wasn’t until I got back and looked at it on the computer that I noticed that it wasn’t a cabinet at all, but rather a nice Trompe l’oeil painting. For anyone who may not be familiar with this term it’s French for “to deceive the eye”, an art historical tradition in which the artist fools us into thinking we’re looking at the real thing. Well it certainly fooled me.

Taken with a Fuji X-E3 and Fuji XF 35mm f1.4 R

Film Camera 2022 – 2 – Minolta Maxxum 600si – Results

I like this camera. It’s fairly light and feels solid. I suppose what I like most are all of the buttons and dials. There’s a button or a dial for practically everything you want to do: exposure compensation; flash compensation; drive mode; exposure mode; exposure area; autofocus area; autofocus mode; flash settings; ISO. There’s no messing around with complicated menus here. I also liked the bright and uncomplicated viewfinder: just the shutter speed, aperture; a green light that illuminates when focus has been achieved. I also liked the top LCD where you can change and view settings without looking through the viewfinder. The various settings are controlled by two dials – one on the front and one on the rear.

The were only a couple of minor things that I didn’t like. I found the exposure compensation dial to be rather “fiddly” because you have to press in a small button before you can rotate it. The camera also has a proprietary flash shoe. This doesn’t bother me much because I don’t use flash a lot and in any case I have flashes I bought for my early Sony Alpha cameras, which used the same proprietary shoe. I would also have liked the grip to have been a little deeper.

The pictures were taken at Dale (no relation) cemetery in Ossining, NY.