A Play

by Posted in Theatre Leave a comment
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A couple of weeks ago I went to see a play at the Westchester Collaborative Theater. The theater is tiny and located at the end of a narrow alley between two buildings. It’s down by the Ossining Metro North station and it’s easy to miss.

As you can see from the first picture it’s called “Hello, I must be going”. I’m not going to attempt to describe it. If anyone is interested there’s a short review (not of this particular production) here.

Did I enjoy it? I’m not sure. It’s billed as “A Comedic Drama in the Key of Life”, but it seemed to me to be much more drama than comedy although it did have comedic moments. The performers did a good job, and all things considered it was a decent production. I guess I just wasn’t in the mood for something as gloomy as this was a lot of o the time.

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Taken with a Sony RX100 M3

A visit from Alexander

by Posted in People Leave a comment
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Alexander is my grandson. He’s the only male (among seven females in my immediate family). He recently graduated from University in the UK and has come here, I imagine, to explore his American Roots (his mother was born in the USA).

I went into New York City (Manhattan) to see him. We had a pleasant lunch and a few beers at The Perfect Pint on 45th street between second and third avenues.

I haven’t seen him for a sometime so I’m glad that he’ll be in New York for a while.

Taken with his phone. I don’t know what brand/model it was.

A Leaf

by Posted in Nature Leave a comment
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Fall’s coming. Just a little over a week to go and I, for one will be happy when we get there. In my opinion Summer in New York is dreadful for photography: everything is some shade of green; the sun is usually too intense; the heat and humidity make it unpleasant to go out; and when it’s not hot and humid it’s raining. To me even Winter is better than Summer. In order of preference my favorite seasons are Fall, Spring, Winter and (a long way behind) Summer.

Of course that’s just my opinion. I grew up in a place that was not as hot and humid as New York, and if the temperatures get above 80F/26C I’m distinctly uncomfortable.

So, I’m definitely looking forward to Fall!

Taken with a Sony RX10 IV.

Fine Art Street Photography by Rupert Vandervell

by Posted in Reading, Street Leave a comment
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I’ve been a subscriber to Rupert Vandervell‘s channel: New Ways of Seeing for quite some time and have enjoyed it greatly. I like his delivery, and I like his videos, which are relatively short and not overproduced.

So, when I bumped into his book “Fine Art Street Photography” I decided to get hold of a copy.

How did I like it?

I’d like to start with a few small comments and one rather large criticism.

First the comments:

  1. I don’t care for this use of the words “fine art” in the title. I’ve noted this before (See: Fine Art Photography) so I won’t go into it again here. If you’re interested, please read the post.
  2. The title suggests that this type of high contrast image is the only type of street photography that deserves the name “Fine Art”. I doubt that Joel Meyrowitz, Stephen Shore, William Eggleston (to name but a few) would agree with this. In fact, the book is largely concerned with the type of street photography that Mr. Vandervell favors. In his introduction he is quite up front about this. Just don’t think that this is going to be a broad overview of the various types of fine art photography because it isn’t
  3. A better title might be “Fine Art Street Photography – my way”. Seen that way it’s an interesting book sprinkled with useful insights and interesting anecdotes. Mr. Vandervell writes well and it’s an easy read.
  4. If you’re looking for a “how to” book this is not it. But then Mr. Vandervell at no point claims that it is.

And now for the criticism:

As reviewers have pointed out the quality of reproduction of the images is truly terrible. If you watch any of his videos you will see that they are very contrasty with very dark blacks and very bright whites. In the book they’re all a very mushy grey. This is a pity because his images rely a lot on high contrast and in this book, you don’t get it. On top of this many of the photographs have faint lines (from scanning? from printing?) running through them. I’d suggest avoiding the book and instead taking a look at his YouTube channel. The photographs look much better, and it costs less. The images in this book simply do not do justice to Mr. Vandervell’s work.

For a broader overview of different types of street photography, I’d suggest taking a look at “The Street Photographers Manual” by David Gibson with a Foreword by Matt Stuart.