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A hodgepodge collection of subjects from the commonplace to the unusual...
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Today I had an appointment in the city, and in the evening I was meeting up with some of my friends for the movies. In between I had a couple of hours free, so I headed out to Central Park to see if anything fancied me. While walking around I came across some gents brushing up their frisbee skills. And since my action photo prowess could always do with some refinement, I decided while they were polishing up their skills, I would take the opportunity to polish mine.
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Today I had an appointment in the city, and in the evening I was meeting up with some of my friends for the movies. In between I had a couple of hours free, so I headed out to Central Park to see if anything fancied me. While walking around I came across some gents brushing up their frisbee skills. And since my action photo prowess could always do with some refinement, I decided while they were polishing up their skills, I would take the opportunity to polish mine.

candidCentral Parkthe Mallwinter

  • Sitting atop my tool shed, allowed momma here the perfect vantage point to keep an eye on her kittens - and more important to her, me. Her beautiful green eyes and the matching green background were just too good a photo opp to pass up, and I was guaranteed a great looking stare from her into the camera, as she wasn't going to take her eyes off me with her kittens running around in my backyard. <br /> <br /> Glad my newly purchased shed could be there for you girl, now that you spend so much time living in my backyard, could you come up with a little rent money to help differ my expenses?
  • Passing through the atrium at Citicorp, I really liked the huge abstract banner. I wanted a nice vantage point from below looking up that would really make the giant artwork stand out in the photo, but security stopped me before I could get the shot and said "no photo's please", so this quick shot out of anyone's view was the best I could do - for now.
  • Rudi
  • Mmmm... He has that fresh baby smell!
  • Today I had an appointment in the city, and in the evening I was meeting up with some of my friends for the movies. In between I had a couple of hours free, so I headed out to Central Park to see if anything fancied me. While walking around I came across some gents brushing up their frisbee skills. And since my action photo prowess could always do with some refinement, I decided while they were polishing up their skills, I would take the opportunity to polish mine.
  • You ever had one of those days? You know like when you drove your 15 ton truck into a ditch and couldn't get it out. Well that was the sight I came across this particular sunny afternoon, as I was walking to catch the #1 train uptown.
  • DSC_3031 stuck!
  • DSC_3039 stuck!
  • DSC_3045 stuck!
  • I don't know which shot I preferred on this cloudy day, the one I left in color or this one that I converted to black and white. But as for the scene itself, I just love this old Governor's mansion, one of the many old architectural treasures here at Snug Harbor.
  • dsc_3906 Governor's house at Snug Harbor
  • Ever since I got back into photography in 07' I would print out a bunch of photo's in 11"x17" and 8 1/2" x 11" sizes on my Epson 1400 (good printer), and then put them up on mom's wall in her room at the nursing home. Being bedridden with advanced stages of MS she just loved seeing me photograph again. She really loved it when I would call her on my cellphone and describe a scene I was looking at as I was waiting for the shot to unfold. I just loved our conversations during moments like that, (I miss her so much God rest her soul). When I would finally pull out the photo I described to her on the phone and held it up in front of her before putting it up on her wall, she felt as if she had been there with me when I captured it. The glow in her eyes brought me more joy then I could ever describe. Mom enjoyed even more how the nursing home staff would linger in her room when they'd see a new batch of photo's especially if one of the shots was from a place they visited or grew up in. So not surprisingly she was often asking when I would put up a new batch of photo's. And of course I would oblige, though it took a while to pick out a group that collectively had a nice color and subject balance to go up on her wall together. <br /> <br /> But while I wanted to go out and take some more shots to fill in those gaps in the newest collection I wanted to put up on her wall next, taking care of her gradually worsening condition cut deeply into my time to go out photographing this spring (or take care of my house for that matter). I didn't want to venture out too far looking for new shots, because the week before the doctors had to give her a blood thinner to break up a clot in her leg, and I wanted to have more time to spend with her this evening if she finally started showing adverse reactions to it, as she already had a low blood count before administering the coumadin. Snug Harbor fit the bill nicely as a location to shoot, because not only did I not have to leave Staten Island to shoot there I barely had to leave my neighborhood, which saved me a lot of time, seeing as I have no car.<br /> <br /> As you walk through the Chinese Scholar's Garden here at Snug Harbor, there are many places you will find yourself instinctively raising your camera up to your face in order to capture for posterity. But alas tripods are forbidden here unlike the rest of Snug Harbor, and if this were 20 years ago back when I was capturing all my images on slide film, I would have had to pass this scene by. But now with the miracle of high speed digital camera's and HDR software - tada!! - I pass scenes like this no more. And I must say Photomatix pro 4 is a GREAT piece of editing software. Though for this shot I still had to spend another 20 minutes in Capture Nx 2, tweaking almost every part of this scene to remove a whole host of light and color foibles - but it was worth it!
  • After all the time and energy I expended by mom's side during her illness, I expended even more after she passed away, handling all her affairs, and physically and emotionally I was just completely spent. I had no desire to bring my camera to the funeral and taking pictures, though several others did. But when we got back home after the funeral sunday night, I looked at all the family photo's again, I was really impressed how they covered every facet of our lives together, births, anniversaries, holidays and deaths. At funerals and cemeteries. And it was brought sharply into focus in my mind that recording all the emotional moments we shared with our loved ones, whether happy or bitter was an important way to honor and remember all the ways our family and friends affected our lives. And so the next day at the funeral home as we went inside to pay mom our last respects, I recorded just two images for posterity. One of my godmother saying her goodbyes to mom, and this one here of my uncle remembering the lifetime of memories he shared with his beloved sister.
  • DSC_5132 late afternoon sailing on the bay
  • dsc_7310 unsettled weather on the bay
  • FOCUS
  • DSC_7975 reflections
  • On this rainy afternoon the entrance to "El Barrio" the Latin visual arts center in East Harlem, provided a colorful image as well as words of edification.
  • dsc_7843 reflections
  • dsc_7830 reflections
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