I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas

January 3, 2025 by Howard Dale Posted in Buildings/Structures, Landscapes, Woodland Leave a comment

December 21 was a snowy day in Briarcliff Manor. Now that was a surprise! I knew that we would have some snow, but the weather forecasts were predicting around one inch. It turned out that 3 inches was closer to the mark. Still, that’s not enough to cause much fuss around here. The 22nd brought maybe another inch of snow. Since it was cold and unlikely to get much warmer before Christmas, it looked likely that we’d have a White Christmas! This was, indeed, the case.

Taken with a Sony A7IV and Viltrox AF 20mm f2.8 STM ASPH ED IF

Lunch at the Boathouse, Ossining, NY

January 2, 2025 by Howard Dale Posted in Buildings/Structures, Food and Drink Leave a comment

I went for lunch to one of my favorite riverfront restaurants yesterday: The Boathouse in Ossining, NY. It was a somewhat grim day, overcast and rainy. However, when we got to the restaurant the situation had changed. It was foggy, so foggy that you couldn’t see the other side of the river. There was no wind, and the water was like a mirror. It was foggy, but from time to time the sun would peep through. Then the fog would roll back in. Perfect for taking pictures. Unfortunately, for once I didn’t have a camera with me – except for my trusty old iPhone, which I used to take these pictures.

Taken with an Apple iPhone SE II.

The Decisive Moment

January 2, 2025 by Howard Dale Posted in Reading Leave a comment

I’ve always been a huge fan of Henri Cartier-Bresson and I’ve been trying to get my hands on a copy of “The Decisive Moment” for some time. Unfortunately, it’s quite rare and extremely expensive – more than I wanted to pay. So, I was very pleased to discover that the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation had re-printed it:

The Decisive Moment (Images à la Sauvette in French) is one of the greatest photography books ever published. It brings together photographic material from the first twenty years of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s career.

Images à la Sauvette was published in 1952 by Verve, with an original cover by Matisse. It was the result of a collaboration between the photographer, the famous art critic and publisher Tériade, and the painter, at the peak of his career. The American version, published the same year by Simon and Schuster, was the first to introduce the now-famous expression “decisive moment”.

The book, which reveals the intrinsic duality of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s work, the combination of intimate interpretation with documentary observation, received tremendous critical acclaim within the art world and is considered a “bible for photographers”, in the words of photographer Robert Capa. It remains an essential reference for photographers to this day.

The original book, now out of print, has become a collector’s item. The Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson sought to make this classic photography book accessible again, in a smaller and practical format, at an affordable price. The latest print features the same material as the original 1952 edition and is accompanied by a comprehensive study of the book’s making, its enduring popularity and the considerations behind its title, written by Clément Chéroux, Director of the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Most of the book is taken up by Cartier-Bresson’s wonderful photographs. These are preceded by a short (14 page) introduction written by Cartier-Bresson where he presents his views on photography. I’m sure that when the book was published this was absolutely fascinating, but I’ve read a lot about and by Cartier-Bresson, so it didn’t tell me much that I didn’t already know.

To me the most interesting part of the book (other than the photographs, many of which I had not seen before) was Clément Chéroux’s piece: “A Bible for Photographers” described above.

The book is much smaller than the original, nor is the printing apparently as excellent (or so I’ve read somewhere) as in the original. Despite this I’m glad that I bought it.