Photographs and thoughts on photography and camera collecting
I spotted these fungi in a nearby woodland. I liked the first one because of the earth tones of the brown leaves, the blues and greens of the stone, and some of the moss on the fungi with the whiter parts of the fungi. The second one made me think of mountains and canyons.
Taken with a Sony A6000 and Venus Optics Laowa 85mm f5.6
This was taken on Third Avenue around 51st Street. I saw two elderly people approaching: a man using a walker and a woman. The woman stopped for some reason, (maybe to look in a store window?) and without her noticing the man continued on down Third Avenue. After a while she looked up again from whatever she was doing and noticed that he was nowhere in sight. Here she’s looking directly into the sun down Third Avenue to see if she could see him. For a guy with a walker he certainly moved very quickly. While I don’t know how this story ended, I imagine she found him eventually. I didn’t stick around to find out.
Taken with a Sony A6000 and Sony FE 24mm f2.8 G.
I recently had lunch with a friend at the Oyster Bar in Grand Central Terminal. The food’s good, if a little pricey but it is, after all a New York City Icon.
“The restaurant space was first opened as the Grand Central Terminal Restaurant. Although Grand Central Terminal opened on February 2, 1913, its opening was celebrated one day prior, February 1, with a dinner at the restaurant, arranged for Warren and Wetmore along with 100 guests. The restaurant was operated by The Union News Company. It closed briefly for renovations following a 1997 fire. Jerome Brody sold the Oyster Bar to employees in 1999 and died in 2001. Brody chose to sell to staff to preserve the union and employee satisfaction in his transition. As of 2017, all non-union, managerial staff are part of the Employee Stock Ownership Program (ESOP). The initial group of managers bought a near-majority of the company’s stock with a loan between 1999 and 2001. They purchased the remainder between 2004 and 2008. In 2016, the Zagat Survey gave it a food rating of 22/30, “Very Good To Excellent”. The Oyster Bar closed for a majority of 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. It briefly reopened for two weeks and closed again when its underground location failed to attract foot traffic. It then resumed its activities back to normal business from 2021 on.” (Wikipedia)
Its architecture features the vaulted, Guastavino tiled (named after Rafael Guastavino who created the system) ceilings common in the era of its construction. The archway in front of the restaurant is also famous for an acoustical quirk making it a whispering gallery by which someone standing in one corner can hear someone standing in the opposite corner perfectly no matter how softly they speak.
For more on the history of The Oyster bar, and some vintage pictures see: The History of the 98 Year-Old Grand Central Oyster Bar.
Taken with a Panasonic Lumix GX85 and Panasonic Lumix 20mm f1.7
Interesting colors, textures and patterns.
Taken with a Panasonic Lumix GX85 and Panasonic Lumix 20mm f1.7
“Neo-Gothic architecture, popular from the close of the 19th century until the mid 20th century, represented a revival of interest in the Gothic structures of England over the polychrome High Victorian Gothic variants favored over the preceding decades. These structures were less ornate and tended toward a monochrome color scheme, often utilizing rough faced stone cladding, arched windows, and prominent towers with castellated parapets. The Trinity Episcopal Church consists of two wings: a cruciform shaped 1892 main wing and an L-shaped parish hall and cloister, both of which were constructed in 1905. The overall plan of the structure forms a U shape, with a courtyard in the middle. The Church is constructed with rock faced limestone quarried in St. Lawrence County, New York and has random coursing on the stone facing, lending a rough visual appearance. The main wing contains pointed arch windows with stone surrounds and hooded lintels, with irregularly spaced window openings, and a group of wall dormers on the north and south elevations. The main wing’s most prominent feature is the three-story bell tower, which is square in configuration and contains a clock and a crenellated granite parapet. The main entryway on the parish house is also surrounded by crenellation.
The Trinity Episcopal Church is listed as a contributing structure within the Village’s National Register of Historic Places-listed Downtown Ossining Historic District. It is architecturally significant as a well-preserved example of the Gothic Revival style and is culturally significant for its association with the Second Episcopal Parish of Ossining.
Trinity Episcopal Church, constructed in 1892 and located at 7 South Highland Avenue, was built as the home for the Second Episcopal Parish of Sing Sing (now Ossining). This parish was established in 1868 by returning Civil War veterans and held its first meetings in the basement of
one of the buildings in the Barlow Block. The parish later held meetings for a time in the original First Presbyterian Church, a structure that was once located on the same site where Trinity Episcopal Church now sits. After the First Presbyterian Church moved to its present location at 34 South Highland Avenue (see entry), the Parish purchased the site and built the current structure on the property. The three story stone tower that dominates the Church’s main façade was constructed in accordance with a mandate from the Episcopal Church stating that all churches must incorporate a large tower into their design as a visual symbol of this denomination. A number of the stained glass windows in the building were obtained from Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company of New York City and from Gorham Manufacturing of Providence, Rhode
Island.
Robert W. Gibson (1851 – 1927), an immigrant from England, was the architect. He built a number of other religious, institutional, and commercial structures in New York State during his career. These include the following:
• Albany Episcopal Cathedral (Albany, NY – 1884)
• St. Michael’s Church (New York, NY – 1891)
• St. Paul’s Cathedral redesign (Buffalo, NY – 1888)
• Greenwich Savings Bank (New York, NY – 1892)
• Bank of Buffalo (Buffalo, NY – 1895)”
(Village of Ossining Significant Sites and Structures Guide, Page 200)
Taken with a Panasonic Lumix GX85 and Panasonic Lumix 20mm f1.7