Encounter at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery

The weekend before last I was in Tarrytown/Sleepy Hollow. They were well into their preparations for Hallowe’en. Of course, Hallowe’en is a big event in Sleepy Hollow because of the connection with Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”.
I walked through Sleepy Hollow Cemetery and was waiting for my ride when I came across this very pleasant trio outside the Administrative Office/Chapel.

We chatted for a while, and I discovered that their names were (from left to right) Danita, Luna and (believe it or not) Darryl. While they all looked great, Luna looked fantastic (particularly in her second picture).

Apologies to Danita. I missed focus on her closeup picture.


Luna

Luna

Darryl

Taken with a Kodak P880

Lantern Revealed

I’ve posted before about the stone lanterns that are scattered around the village of Briarcliff Manor. I believe there are about six of them in the village (For more information see: The Story of the Stone Lanterns on the Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough Historical Society website).

This lantern (#5 on the website) was placed by Walter Law (the founder of Briarcliff Manor) at his daughter Edith Law Bröckelmann’s property named “Little Mount Vernon,” across from the entrance to the Law Manor on Scarborough Road, where it remains, in its original location. The “Little Mount Vernon” mansion was built by W. W. Law for his daughter, Edith who returned to Briarcliff Manor from China in 1902 as the widow of Fritz Bröckelmann, who we believe was responsible for sending the lanterns from China.

I’ve lived in Briarcliff Manor for about 26 years, and my house is only a short walk from this lantern. I’ve passed it many times and didn’t see it until about a year ago. It was behind some bushes, and you couldn’t see it from the road. You had to virtually crawl under the bushes to get a view of it. That’s now changed. The present owners have been doing some landscaping and I’m pleased to say, as you can see from the picture, the lantern is now clearly visible from the road where passers-by can see it. I don’t know who owns the property nowadays, but I’d like to thank them for making this piece of Briarcliff History visible to all.

Taken with a Sony RX10 IV.

Is it worth taking the same old boring fall pictures again.

Every year for some time now I’ve been taking pictures of the fall foliage (see above and below). While they’re pretty, colorful, and in a few cases quite spectacular they’re all starting to look pretty much the same.

So, unless I can come up with some clever idea of how to come up with something different, I’m not going to bother this year.









Taken with a variety of different cameras and lenses.

Self Portait

I like black and white photography. In many ways I see things in black and white. Maybe it’s because I grew up in a time before color photography became important. Most of the photographs and movies I saw when I was young were in black and white. Yes, I know that color moviews had been available for quite some time, but the ones I seem to remember were all black and white.

Of all places, this was taken in the men’s room in the building where I work with the Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough Historical Society. The day before I’d been watching a YouTube video about high-contrast black and white photography. As I was leaving the men’s room, bright light streamed in through a high window and fell on my face. It occurred to me that if I could get the exposure right, I might get something interesting.

Many might think that I carry a camera with me wherever I go. But that wouldn’t be true. I don’t usually carry one with me to the men’s room. However, I did have one in a bag, downstairs where I work so I went down to get it.

This is the result. I quite like it.

Taken with a Sony RX100 M3.