City Sidewalk Shadows

After the concert and lunch with Stan I headed for Penn Station.  As I came up out of the subway, I had a short walk heading south directly into the sun.The light was blinding at 3:30 in the afternoon.  Then I noticed all the shadows of everyone walking ahead of me, some going away and some approaching me.  So I immediately got out my camera, of course, and started shooting.  I think this was the best image.

 

The Rehearsal

Wow, an amazing thing happened yesterday!  Stan had called me a couple of weeks ago and said he had an extra ticket for a morning rehearsal of the New York Philharmonic and would I like to attend!  Man oh man, a rehearsal of the New York Philharmonic!  Are you kidding me!  So I got up at 6 AM and took a train to Penn station and then the No. 1 subway up to Lincoln Center by 9 AM.  What the orchestra does is to run through their performance for the concert the next night.  It is like attending the real performance except...  The orchestra is dressed in street clothes, and the house lights are on the whole time.  It is strange not to see the orchestra dressed in black.  But the performance was astounding.  Three dance pieces by Leonard Bernstein, and then George Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F, and finally one of my all time favorites, Symphony No. 9, "From the New World" by Antonin Dvorak!  What an astounding program!

You can only take photographs when the musicians are not playing so I waited until the end of the Dvorak piece and quickly snapped this shot when the conductor turned around for a brief moment.  I did bring some small binoculars with me so I could watch different members of the orchestra as they played and that was so illuminating, to see them make music.  What an amazing experience!

 

Mother and Child

I was in the city today, more on that tomorrow.  I was riding the No. 1 train back to Penn Station and I saw this mother and her child.  A few moments before I saw this shot, she was checking on her child in her lap, seeing if thechild was asleep, and then when she was sure, she put her head back and appeard to be sleeping.  It reminded me how hard mothers work, taking care of their children, and all the other chores they do as a mom in a household.  No wonder she was tired. 

 

The Bridge and the Moon

I was so proud to tell you yesterday that I actually stopped the car to take a photograph.  Well, now I have to confess that I shot this out the windshield as we were crossing the Tappan Zee bridge.  Sorry to disappoint you.  But I love this beautiful, modern cable-stayed bridge and then when I saw the moon up there in the sky I waited until we got really close and the moon was then down between the concrete towers.  Unfortunately, because I was using a wide angle lens, the moon is really small.  But at least you now know what that white dot is.  Please click on it to see it larger.  Thanks!

 

Driving Home from Upstate

For years when we went up to Geneva to visit Kathy's mom and then my friends in Rochester, NY we always took the New York State Thruway up to Albany and then west to Rochester.  Then a friend at work suggested taking route 17, which took us along a more rural route, to Binghamton and then Route 96 from there to the Finger Lakes and Geneva.  We love this route because 96 is a two lane road through farm country and we love looking at the farmhouses and barns and scenery.  So on the way home today I actually STOPPED the car to take this view of a farmer's field!

When we first started out today we did run into some minor now showers and you can see the road is wet here and there is some haze in the distance.  Just a random scene along route 66.  Weather was good today, and traffic was light most of the way home, which we were really thankful for.

 

Philip Seymour Hoffman

This is a statue of Philip Seymour Hoffman which is installed just outside the Dryden theater at the George Eastman Museum.  He was among the most admired actors of his generation. I am not sure when I first noticed this statue but it is a stunning sculpture that captures him so well.  He died in 2014.  What I remember him for was his performance as Truman Capote for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 2005.  He was voted the greatest actor of the 21st century by the Independent.  He was born and grew up in Fairport, NY which is only 10 miles from here.  I enjoy seeing this statue every time I come to the George Eastman Museum because it is so lifelike.

 

I Look Funny

I went to the George Eastman Museum yesterday to see a huge photo exhibit titled: "American, born Hungary."   The exhibition explores the work of thirty-four Hungarian-born photographers who eventually made their way - and sometimes their fortunes - in the United States, starting around 1937.  Some left Hungary to pursue new professional opportunities, while others were escaping rising antisemitism, fascism, and political turmoil, especially after World War I.  There were so many astounding photographs on display with an wonderful sense of creativity, and new ways of seeing photographs.  One photographer constructed a metallic mirror that was distorted because it was not flat but bent in a gentle "S curve and when you looked into it, and stood higher or bent lower, your image in the mirror was really distorted.  Of course I needed to try and get a photograph, and here it is!  I look all distorted!

This is a photograph of the mirror displayed on the wall.  It is not really. obvious until you get close to it, maybe 2 feet away, that you first see the distortion.  It is so much fun to look into and see what you can do to yourself.  The photographer photographed some nude models who were reflected in his special mirror.