Some of my favorite pictures of 2023 – Color

by Posted in Abstracts, Flowers, Fungi, Landscapes, Nature, Statues, Street, Wildlife & Animals Leave a comment

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Red Fody, Bronx Zoo, June 21

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Street Photographpy. Well, it is a street, and not just any street. This is 42nd Street, Manhattan, New York City. December 11.

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Leaf and Stumps, Camp Andree, Briarcliff Manor, NY. November 20.

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Third Avenue and 55th Street, Manhattan. December 20.

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Abstract Composition on the Charles River. Boston, MA. July 21.

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Flower and Insect, Opus 50, Saugerties, NY. June 23.

Tree Branch with Clouds

Fallen Branch, Leaves and Reflections. Briarcliff Manor, NY. March 5.

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Fungi. Briarcliff Manor, NY. December 7.

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Bison Fighting/Playing, Bronx Zoo, NY. June 21

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Member of the Fire Department on Memorial Day. Briarcliff Manor, NY. May 29.

A Fluffy White Dog

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For a variety of reasons including bad weather, I’d been cooped up in the house for a couple a days and was starting to feel “cabin fever”. So, I decided to go out for a photowalk. Along the way I came across a young girl trying (unsuccessfully) to catch this fluffy white dog (some kind of poodle I believe). It was heading for the road, so I thought I’d better try to catch it, which I did. After I’d handed it back to her, I asked if I could take a photograph. She agreed and this is the result. I’m afraid I didn’t catch the dog’s name.

Taken with a Sony A6000 and 7artisans 60mm F2.8 Macro Lens

A Visit to Boston – Day Three – The lowly pigeon

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And why not? They deserve their time in the sun too! They’re not unattractive and, as a species, incredibly successful.

My grandfather used to race pigeons. I grew up in the UK and someone would pick them up and take them over to somewhere in Europe, where they were released, the time of the release being recorded. Somehow, they would make their way back to his house. He would take the ring from their leg, inset it into some kind of machine and record the time that they arrived. I don’t know if he got some kind of prize if his pigeons arrived first. Must have been something like that because from time to time, the pigeons would return, but instead of alighting in their coop they would instead land on the roof of the house. Of course, he couldn’t get to them there and they were wasting valuable time. He would get quite angry, shouting and screaming at them to get off the roof.

He was also quite ruthless. If a pigeon was not performing, it was in the pot. I was quite close to one of them and when I discovered that my friend was my dinner (or tea as we called it where I grew up in the north of England) I was distraught.

I also have pleasant memories of eating pigeon outdoors with my late wife on the banks of the Nile River in Egypt. I believe we were in a cafe called the “Cafe des Pigeons”. It was swarming with Egyptian cats that looked as if they had just stepped out of the hieroglyphics on the wall of a tomb. I couldn’t find it through Google, so it might no longer exist.

Taken with a Sony A6000 and 18-135mm f3.5-5.6 OSS

A Visit to Boston – Day Two – In and around Quincy Market

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“Quincy Market is a historic building near Faneuil Hall in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. It was constructed between 1824 and 1826 and named in honor of mayor Josiah Quincy, who organized its construction without any tax or debt. The market is a designated National Historic Landmark and a designated Boston Landmark in 1996, significant as one of the largest market complexes built in the United States in the first half of the 19th century. According to the National Park Service, some of Boston’s early slave auctions took place near what is now Quincy Market.

As the central building of Faneuil Hall Marketplace, Quincy Market is often used metonymically for the entire development. By the mid-20th century it was badly in need of repair, and it was redeveloped into a public shopping and restaurant area in the early 1970s and re-opened in 1976. Today, this includes the original Quincy Market buildings, the later North Market and South Market buildings that flank the main Quincy Market, the historic Faneuil Hall lying at the west end, and two smaller curved buildings, added later to the eastern end.” (Wikipedia)

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Taken with a Sony A6000 and 18-135mm f3.5-5.6 OSS.