2015 – The Year in Review

by Posted in Miscellaneous, Thoughts Leave a comment
2015review-1

We had a number of visitors this year, starting in January when two of Eirah’s friends from South Africa came with their two delightful children. Apparently the kids had never seen snow and very much wanted to. We’d had a snowfall before Christmas but it didn’t look likely during their visit. Then all of a sudden it came, snowing during their visit. They were even able to make a small snowman.

Our friends Ken and Doreen Cross moved to Thailand, but before they left they needed somewhere to stay after their house was rented. So they stayed in our house in Briarcliff Manor, while we stayed up at the lake. They also returned for a few weeks in December and stayed there again.

In May some old friends (Alison and Bob Ledbury) from university days came to stay and we did some “touristing” around the Hudson Valley visiting Storm King Art Centre, Lyndhurst, Sunnyside, Chuang Yen Monastery, New Windsor Cantonment, Bannerman’s Island etc.

In May Eirah was able to go to Europe (Switzerland, France, UK) to help out with baby sitting while our younger daughter was travelling on business.

My brother-in-law, Vic came to visit in July and we all drove down to Virginia to meet up with two other brothers and their families, one of whom later came back to stay with us at the lake.

We were also lucky to have three visits from out son-in-law Colin in NY on business and to see his father.

Our final visitor was a bit out of the ordinary: our friends George and Gloria were going on vacation and asked us to look after their King Charles Cavalier spaniel, Charlie. He had a great time with Harley.

The year started off with Ken and Doreen Cross at the Hudson Room in Peekskill and throughout the year we went to a number of concerts and other events. We saw a number of musicals: South Pacific, On the Town, Oklahoma, Show Boat, An American in Paris and the Radio City Spring Special – interesting in that it was the first time I’d been to Radio City despite living in NY for the best part of 30 years.

The old Tompkins Corners Baptist Church re-opened in June as a community cultural centre. In addition to the opening event there were also performances of the David Amran Quintet and a reading of Edgar Allen Poe poetry by our friend, Paul Savior. We also went to a couple of presentations given by the Briarclif Manor, Scarborough Historical Society: “Historic Downtown Ossining” and “Legends and Lore and Facts of Washington Irving’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow”. In July we took visiting brother-in-law, Vic to a performance of the “Arabian Nights” at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival at Boscobel, one of the most beautiful locations in the Hudson Valley.

A couple of other highlights included the New York Air Show in August and the Pope’s visit in September (Eirah managed to get two tickets to see him in Central Park where after several hours of waiting on line we did, indeed, see him for all of one minute as he drove by).

No review of 2015 would be complete without mentioning Jami’s birthday party in July. Jami is Eirah’s dance teacher and Eirah offered to host her birthday party at our house. It was quite an event: myself (and one other male friend) and fifteen women!

On a sadder note we lost our niece, Eve suddenly and unexpectedly in July. Our daughters came for the funeral and while it was great to see them again, we would have wished that the circumstances had been different. We also lost our old friend, Dandy in December.

On the photographic front it was a good year. I’m continuing to get out a lot and take pictures.

My camera collection continues to grow, but at a slower pace than before (I’m trying to focus a bit more on using the cameras). During 2015 I picked up a Kodak EK 4 Instant Film Camera; a Voigtlander Vito B; an Exakta Varex IIa with 58mm f2 Biotar and 40mm Meyer Optik Lydith; a Voigtlander Vito CLR; a Voigtlander Vitomatic II; and an Exa with Carl Zeiss 50mm Tessar. I also picked up a few vintage lenses: mostly old Minolta lenses to use with my Sony DSLR. Perhaps the most significant (to me at least) was a Tamron 18-250mm, which has finally given me a “walk around” lens for use with the DSLR.

I’ve continued to maintain this blog, which now averages around 38 posts per month. I’ve no idea if anyone reads it (I don’t check), but it serves its original purpose of making sure that I keep on taking pictures.

The first part of the year was awful: dreary, snowy and very cold. I didn’t feel like going out much and even if I had there are only so many snow pictures I can take. So instead I focussed on one of my long term projects: scanning my old negatives and managed to get a lot done including negatives of: Netherlands, Spain, Kenya, UK, Indonesia, North Wales, Florence, Venice, Rome, Geneva, Thailand, Bermuda, India.

I also managed to complete a couple of photo books. One of them involved scanning old negatives belonging to my fried Paul Savior who wanted to turn them into a photo book to give to his daughters as a Christmas present. I’m pleased to say that we managed to get it done in time. The second book consists of a number of photographs taken with an iphone (the only camera I had with me) of a house and garden we were invited to just after Christmas.

All things considered a pretty good year!

Always look back

by Posted in Black & White, Landscapes, Thoughts Leave a comment
alwayslookback-1

During my recent walk in the woods I went down to Stillwater Lake then turned around and retraced my steps back to where I’d left the car. If I hadn’t walked back down the trail I wouldn’t have noticed this incredible fallen tree branch – I just hadn’t seen it on my way down.

It made me think of some kind of prehistoric animal lurking in the woods. You can almost see the tail going off to the left; the snout pushing out to the right; the twin diagonals of the front legs and the hint of a rear leg behind. I can also make out a small mouth, and some ears and even a suggestion of an eye. Maybe this is the explanation for the sign in the above post which reads: “Do not pass this point after 3:30pm?” Could that be when these things come to life :-)?

The lesson here is to always look back in the direction you’re coming from. You never know what you might see.

Pictures I have missed

by Posted in Thoughts Leave a comment
picturesmissed-1

I’ve missed a lot of good (or at least interesting pictures), many of them because I didn’t have a camera with me at the time. This happens less frequently now that I have the Sony RX-100 (model 1), which is so small that I can easily carry it around anywhere. This is one that I missed.

We went to see a new production of “A Chorus Line” in 2008. We’d seen it before (I’d seen it in the original production around 1975). The (relatively minor but important) role of Zach was played by Mario Lopez who my wife was familiar with from “Dancing with the Stars” and who was considered “hot” at that time (maybe still is for all I know). So off we went.

As we were waiting on line to go into the theater a lot of people were taking pictures of themselves in front of a poster of Mr. Lopez – a poster very much like the one above (The picture isn’t mine). As the line moved the people taking the picture disappeared and a single, slightly lonely looking gentleman was left in front of the poster using his cell phone. It was the now late (he passed away in 2012), great Marvin Hamlisch who wrote the lyrics for “A Chorus Line”, and is one of only 10 people to win three or more Oscars in a single night. He also won two Golden Globes and is one of only two people to have also won in addition a Pulitzer Prize. Everyone knew who Mario Lopez was, but nobody seemed to recognize Mr. Hamlisch.

Of course I didn’t have a camera with me and the opportunity was lost. Apparently some well know photographer (I believe it was Chase Jarvis) was once asked what the best camera was. He replied “The best camera is the one you have with you”. How true!

Rare Ilford Witness – You’ll just have to see this…

by Posted in Camera Collecting, Thoughts Leave a comment

The title above relates to a post on Rangefinder Forum: Rare Ilford Witness – You’ll just have to see this…

It refers to an Ilford Witness camera that sold for US $18,262.96 with shipping costs of about $700.

Collectiblend (a site which provides values for vintage cameras provides the following estimates:

Average condition $3,200-3,400 body only; $11,500-$12000 with lens

Very good condition $4,000-4,600 body only; $16,000-17,000

Mint condition $7,500-8,000 body only; $25,000-26,000 with lens

They also provide examples of prior auction sales (the first three are from Westlicht and the fourth from Everard & Company Auction): 2014-03-25, “A-” Condition: $18,084; 2013-05-25, “B-” Condition: $18,576; 2012-11-24, “B-” Condition: $19,094; 2011-10-09, “B+” Condition: $13780.

Reading the thread what struck me was the overall tone: amusement, shock, incredulity as if the posters just could not believe the cost of this item. Yet from the information on Collectiblend it seems that this is not an aberration. This is what this camera, with this lens (and it seems as if the lens makes up the bulk of the value) goes for. It’s not as if this is the only camera that fetches large sums of money. Leica “null series” cameras typically fetch in the millions. Collectiblend estimates that a Nikon SP with lens will fetch between $5,600 and $14,000 depending on condition. Collictiblend also provides a list of the 100 most valuable cameras. None of them are below $60,000. Needless to say the Ilford doesn’t come close to making the list.

So are these cameras worth the money they command. To me they aren’t, but obviously they are to the people who buy them. Who knows maybe if I had the kind of money that would allow me to drop $60,000 plus on a camera I might buy one too. I just don’t understand the amusement, shock, incredulity etc. Maybe it’s because the Ilford is an interloper i.e. a valuable camera that isn’t a Leica? If I counted correctly Leicas make up 65 of the 100 most valuable cameras on Collectiblend’s lists.

Frances Frith

by Posted in Photographers, Photography, Places, Thoughts Leave a comment

Francis Frith (1822-1898), Egypt, Sinai, and Jerusalem: a Series of Twenty Photographic Views;

Francis Frith collaborated with a lecturer and scholar of antiquities at the British Museum, Reginald Poole, and with Poole’s mother, Sophia, to produce this mammoth album of photographs. It is interesting that at the same time, Sophia’s brother Edward W. Lane (1801-1876), a scholar of Oriental linguistics, was working with Reginald on an illustrated edition of the Arabian Nights (The Thousand and One Nights, a new translation from the Arabic, with copious notes by Edward William Lane; illustrated … by William Harvey; edited by his nephew Edward Stanley Poole, 1859. Rare Books (Ex) 2263.2869).

Source: Egypt, Sinai, and Jerusalem – Graphic Arts

Interesting photographs from the late 1800s. It was photographs like these that first got me interested in exotic places and ruined buildings. I doubt, however, that they have the same impact nowadays that they had when they first saw the light of day. In those days only a privileged few would ever have viewed such sights.

Nowadays with relatively cheap air travel, the ubiquity of cameras, movies etc. pretty much everyone knows what these countries look like. This in turn raises the question: are these truly good photographs, or did their fame come largely from their novelty? Such photographs had such an influence on me when I was young that I am certainly biased and can’t give an objective opinion on this.