Chuang Yen Monastery – Exteriors

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I’d been to this monastery a number of times before. It’s such an unlikely sight in Putnam County, NY that we often take visiting friends there. Since we had some friends over for the weekend we thought we’d go again.

I’d already taken numerous broad view pictures of the monastery so this time I thought I’d focus on some parts of the complex that I hadn’t been to before and also on some interior details. This is the first of two posts. It concentrates of some of the outlying areas of the monastery, which I’ve never visited or photographed before.

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9/11 Memorial at Croton Landing revisited

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Reaching Lady Statue.

I’ve been to Croton Landing many times. I’ve even taken some pictures of the 9/11 memorial. However, this was some time ago. Since the last time I was there a new item has been added to the memorial: a statue. Apparently it’s called “Reaching Lady” and it was created by Lauren Davis – A Resident of Croton on Hudson.

I found the pre-statue version to be quite powerful: a twisted girder with bit of concrete attached to it. To me it said everything that needed to be said.

I’m not sure that the statue adds much. In fact to me it takes away from the original memorial, diluting it a little. I don’t dislike the statue. It’s just that I think the twisted girder worked fine by itself. It doesn’t need the statue to make its point.

Maybe it’s just me though.

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Closeup of Statue.

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American flag.

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Detail of girder.

Stained glass at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery

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For some reason I haven’t been taking many pictures lately so I’ve fallen back on looking over my old pictures, deleting a lot and seeing if I can improve some of them (I usually can) through re-processing. Here are are few taken in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery – with Panasonic cameras: the first two with an LX-3 and the third with a ZS-3.

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Taken at the large Helmsley Mausoleum. You may remember that Leona Helmsley left $12 million to her dog, Trouble. After Trouble’s death she wanted him to be interred with her at this mausoleam, but NY state laws did not allow it.

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I don’t know who this is, but he certainly looks as if he’s “chillin out”. Wonder what he’s holding in his left hand?

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I liked the bird’s nest.

I’m thinking of trying the LX-3 again – particularly its dynamic black and white mode. More pictures to come.