The Empire Diner

This is the Empire Diner, a classic, in New York City. It was constructed by the Fodero Dining Car Company 1946 and operated at a Manhattan diner, until being abandoned years later.  The diner was refurbished in 1976.  Classic American diners often have an exterior layer of stainless steel siding - a feature unique to diner architecture.  But here is the really cool part - the food served here is head and shoulders above typical diner fare.  I had a hot pastrami sandwich on grain bread, and in the sandwich was purple cabbage cole slaw, that included a bit of horse radish!  It was out of this world!

As we crossed the street leaving the diner after lunch, I saw this amazing mural of artists painted on the wall of the building behind the diner.  It includes, from left, Andy Warhol, Frida Kahlo,  Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat.  What a stunning scene.

 

Crazy Reflections

How's this for a crazy reflection!  Any idea what this is?  I was walking in Chelsea after coming out of a couple of the galleries, and as I walked down the street I suddenly saw this scene.  Can you guess?  OK, so it is a dual reflection, from both the windshield of a car and the reflection from the hood of a car.  The reflection is of a white building with dark brown windows, which is what creates the bright crossed lines that make the reflection so interesting.

 

The Strange Parade

This photograph is all about the light on the pedestrians walking toward the camera.  The light is rather strange, almost like a theater spotlight on them.  The source of this light is interesting - it is the sun reflected off the mirrored glass buildings in Hudson Yards that I showed you a photograph of a few days back.  I love that this picture is a bit strange because of the people walking on a sidewalk, but they are walking alongside a railroad track.  Since you all know this is the High Line, you are not surprised by this scene, but if you had never heard of the High Line, this would be a very strange photograph indeed.  I believe incongruous is the word.

 

Walkin' In Traffic

Anybody can walk on the sidewalk, it takes something special to walk down the street in the middle of traffic.  I saw this when I was walking over to Bryant Park, before taking the subway uptown. I always keep my camera ready when I am walking the streets of Manhattan, because you can never tell what you see next.  Many times I see something and am not quick enough to get the camera up to my eye, but I saw this gentleman coming down the street and had a chance to shoot three frames.  This one is the best.  Welcome to Manhattan!

The New Entrance at Penn

While in Manhattan for dinner with friends, I took another photograph of the new entrance to Penn Station.  It is called the "East End Gateway" and it has three escalators coming directly down from street level to the LIRR concourse.  It really is beautiful, and overhead there is this beautiful map of Manhattan all in blue, like from a blueprint.  I have photographed it before in daylight, but it looks different at night, so here you are.

 

A Forest in the City

I took this photograph about 20 feet from the fountain in yesterday's post.  I was waiting in Bryant Park for a friend and we were going to take the subway up to the restaurant where we would meet the rest of the dinner group.  I love these trees seen against a mirrored building, and reflected in the building are buildings behind me.  It is kind of a three-layered photograph, with the trees closest to me, the mirrored building in the distance, and the reflected buildings the furthest away.  I didn't calculate that, I just took the photograph and figured this out later.  But it's an interesting photograph, right? Please click on it because it is much more interesting seen larger.

 

"Something a Bit More Uplifting..."

Ken Schwarz asked for "something more uplifting" the other day, so here it is!  I went to Manhattan last evening to have dinner with four friends.  Two of us met at the fountain in Bryant Park before taking the subway up to the restaurant at 88th street..  I was wearing my bright yellow jacket and when I left the house I grabbed my yellow umbrella that I bought at  the University of Minnesota book store years ago.  When I was waiting for my friend to show up, I thought that it would make a really funny photograph if, all in yellow, I sat by the fountain and had my photograph taken!  So that's what we did!  I hope my silliness brightens you day!

 

Same Place, Different Picture

Well, Ken Schwarz is going to be really disappointed to see the same scene as yesterday, when he asked for something more uplifting!  I thought the contrast between the old building from yesterday and the six or more new skyscrapers that have been built in Hudson Yards was quite a contrast.  I am not downtown that much and I have passed by some of these buildings being built when walking over to the Javits Center for the last few years.  But seeing all these new buildings from the south makes them stand out more than when seeing them from the north side.  I promise something more uplifting tomorrow!  But you have to admit this is kind of a cool photograph.

 

Windows and Air Conditioners

When we were on the top floor of the gallery, there was an exhibit space that had three walls to hang artwork on.  The fourth wall, was in fact, a window that was probably 50 feet wide and looked out on the city.  It was a spectacular view of the city from this window.  But what caught my eye was the pattern of all these windows, and the funny thing was, the first thing I noticed was where the air conditioners were located in each of the windows!  I was fascinated by the patterns.  The smokestack on the left is on a building in front of these windows.  Hope you find this as interesting as I do.  Please be sure and click on this to see so much more detail.

 

At the Gallery

So Stan and I met at a gallery in lower Manhattan to see a couple of exhibits - one a series of large photographs, and this exhibit of some paintings from the 1950's and 1960's by Ad Reinhardt.  This is part of the text on display in the museum.  "The artist began as a key practitioner of abstraction,  He became a core member of the Abstract Expressionists and a forefather of Minimalism and Conceptualism and installation art."  My photographs are not about the art itself, but I wanted to explain the subtle nature of the paintings.  You are instructed to sit on a bench in front of each painting, and stare at it for a time until you start to see very slight color changes that reveal in some cases, geometric shapes.  At first glance, you might think that each painting is the same color on its entire surface.  In any case, this photograph is about the people distributed about in the gallery, their back silhouettes against the white walls.  I saw this arrangement coming as I noticed one woman get up and another walk into the frame from out of the corner of my eye.  I quickly took four photographs in quick succession and this is the best.

I took this photograph next, and only now have I realized that I have the same woman in the foreground of both photographs!  I am posting this photograph so you can see how subtle the color changes are on the surface of the painting.  Click on these photos to see them in more detail, please.

 

The James A. Farley Building

This is the second building I saw when I came out of Penn Station the other day.  This is the James A. Farley building which formerly served as the city's main United States Post Office branch.  Designed by McKim, Mead, & White in the Beaux-Arts style, the structure was built between 1911 and 1914.  The monumental facade was conceived as a Corinthian colonnade, composed of twenty 53-foot tall columns - the largest of its style in the world. The imposing design was meant to match the strength of the colonnade of McKim, Mead, and Whites original Pennsylvania Station across Eighth Avenue. What caught my eye was the side light on the columns which makes them very three dimensional.  Oh I nearly forgot - this building is now the beautiful new Moynihan Train Station!  You can see my post on the interior of the station here:  Moynihan Interior

 

The Answer to the Quiz!

My apologies for posting such a difficult quiz.  First of all I guess I should have mentioned that I took the photograph in Manhattan.  But I think this was way too difficult.  The photograph was taken at the High Line, one of my favorite places to visit in Manhattan.  The High Line was an elevated railway used to move freight around lower Manhattan.  At one point Mayor Giuliani ordered the High Line demolished, but then Mayor Bloomberg was elected to office and some people in his administration worked with a group called "Friends of the High Line" and the structure was saved, fortunately, and made into a park, one of the most famous elevated parks in the world!

So when they built the park they removed the railroad tracks, and sandblasted and repainted all the steel structure with special anti-rust coatings, and then they replaced the gravel and earth and railroad tracks and added special walkways that made from precast concrete pavers.  The High Line is best when all the plantings are in bloom, but it is still wonderful to walk along at any time of year.  This sculpture is called "One Second" by Antonia Vega Macotela, is one second of data from an MP3 file embedded in this large acrylic lens. So the Crocus were the only thing I could see blooming among the railroad tracks.  Sorry this was such an impossible quiz.

 

Why did I Take This Picture?

I have taken this photograph before, from the same corner of 33rd street and 8th avenue.  But on this morning something was different.  Usually the air is clear but on this morning there was haze in the air and its effect was increased because it was backlit by the sun.  But there is one other thing, believe it or not.  The reason I took this photograph was because of the little cloud of steam coming from behind the building on the right  Believe it or not, it was that small white cloud that made all the difference, between this being a photograph and not being a photograph.

 

A Quiz, With a Prize!

OK, here is a first ever photo quiz on the blog!  Here is a photograph of some Crocus growing somewhere and I am curious if some of my readers recognize where I might have taken this photograph.  The first four readers who come up with the answer will get a prize. Seriously.  I think the flowers are so beautiful, and somehow they are more beautiful in amongst the dead leaves and the gray wood and the rusted iron.  I can't wait!

 

I Always Love the Fog

I went to visit a friend from the astronomy club today, about 45 minutes away.  I always take Northern Boulevard because it is only two lanes and there are interesting things to see along the way.  For some reason, I didn't bring my new SONY camera and the two lenses.  I have no idea why.  But I had my faithful tiny SONY Rx 100 on my belt so all was not lost.  On the way out there was a bit of fog, but not enough to stop for.  Two hours later on the way home, it was much thicker and I stopped three times at scenes that I thought would be interesting.  This is the first stop - a golf course in Huntington.  I love the tree alone but it would be less interesting without the ghosts of smaller trees in the distance, which really makes this photograph.

 

Green

Kathy cleaned out the gardens next to the house including this garden under the dining room window.  When she raked the brown leaves out of the garden look what appeared!  Green.  Green in the Garden!  That's a good sign!  After such a cold winter, even though we didn't have much snow, any sign os Spring is welcome.  Watch, now we will get a blizzard or something, but seeing green gives me hope.

 

They Took Our Spot!

Tuesday is Dunkin' at the beach day, but when we got to the beach, the parking lot was full of trailer trucks!  What?  Don't they understand that we need to get to our spot!  I talked to the woman guarding the entrance to the lot and she said they are making a movie in Sea Cliff and these trucks carried all the equipment, cameras, lights, props and wardrobe and dressing rooms and food to Sea Cliff.  Vans would bring the actors and crew up into the center of town where the set was. 

This is unreal - the set for this scene was inside a garage at the back of the building that was newly refurbished in the center of town!  This is a view from the street behind where everyone was hanging out while the scene was being filmed inside the garage.  Wow, moviemaking in Sea Cliff!

 

Tree Circle

 

I took this the other day when the wind was completely calm and the day was overcast.  The pond was complete flat, without waves, which made the surface of the water as reflective as a mirror.  I couldn't believe that trees on each side were curved around like this.  I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the circular shapes!  And the subtlety of the colors because of the season adds to the beauty of this photograph.  Please click on this image to see it in more detail.

You Get to Pick

On my walk today, as I got back to Laurel avenue, I happened to notice a crooked line of snow lying down on the sandbar which, because the tide was out, went way down to the harbor. The thing that caught my eye was the nature of the line of snow - it was thick and thin and curved back and forth across the sandbar.  My first reaction was that it looked like a character that an artist would make with a Chinese style brush, because of the curves and the thick and thin.  So I photographed it in what I thought was an interesting way.  So I took the photograph in color, and then as thought about it, I wondered what the photograph would look like in black & white.  And then I took the black & white image and then inverted the tones to a negative.  So that's this image, above.

So this is the image after I converted the color photograph to black & white.

And this is the original image in color.  So you get to pick which of these photographs you like best.  I can't wait to see what everyone thinks!

 

Strange Shadows

I took this photograph the other day, when it was clear and sunny and the Sun was setting, bathing the landscape in orange light.  I pass this spot every day and I had never seen this scene before.  But it needs to be clear so the shadows are distinct.  This hill is entirely covered with vines that have overgrown the hill and then have faded in the Fall.  It is a strange kind of landscape that I have photographed before.  There was a chain link fence here but the weight of the vines has collapsed that.  Strange indeed.

 

Saving The House II

I last photographed this house on November 19, 2021 Saving the House and I have been back since, but it was hard to show any major changes in the project to shore up the hill.  Heavy steel I-beams were delivered but had not been installed.  You can see,  in the middle of the photograph, the steel I-beams which have been driven into the ground.  Go back, using the link above, and see how LONG those I-beams are.  They are driven WAY down deep in the earth!  The I-beams then have heavy wood timbers installed in the spaces between the beams.  There was a work crew there and I asked if that was the final support for the hill, and they said "No, we will be digging down in front of the I-beams and installing a concrete footer, and then they will pour a concrete wall which will be permanent."  THEN they will go further up the hill and install 2 more concrete walls, and then the hill will be stabilized and house will be safe!  If you click on both of these photos you will be able to see the I-beams and timbers in more detail. What an amazing project!

 

Ghost Seascape

I had to run a couple of errands today, and on the way back I decided to drive by the work being done down by Sea Cliff beach, of the shoring up of the cliff where the house on the cliff lost its entire backyard and nearly had its foundation undermined in the giant rainstorm last fall.  I am happy to report that they have made a great deal of progress shoring up the cliff, and I will post on that next.  But when I got to Sea Cliff beach which looks out at Long Island Sound and New Rochelle in the distance I noticed a strange quality to the scene.  The water was absolutely calm and there was a haze over the water that reduced everything to pastel colors.  It was such a beautiful thing to see - I noticed that strange and beautiful quality right away. I photographed this scene a number of ways but this is my favorite,  It was low tide so to the right of center you can see the white stock of a mooring buoy which is usually covered by water at high tide.

 

Snowfall

About mid morning large snowflakes started to fall.  Not heavily, but a fair amount of snow and continuously.  The flakes were fairly large and fell gently.  The minute I saw the first flakes I realized that I needed to photograph them coming down.  I used my lens at 200mm which compressed the long view across our side yard.  So this is the result and I think it looks like an impressionistic painting.  And it is a photograph that looks different from what I usually shoot, if that is possible to say.  Please be sure to click on this to see all the wonderful detail in the photograph.

 

Drift Fence Shadows

Today was Dunkin' at the beach day.  I took a few moments to use the wide-angle lens that I repaired to photograph these shadows on the sand from the drift fence.  It is March so it won't be too long before they take the fences down because the risk of snow and high winds is getting less and less.  I guess that actually the fences are to keep the sand on the beach in high winds, so all the sand from the beach doesn't blow all over the parking lot.

 

Fixer-Upper

This is the garage of G & H Auto in the center of town.  It opened the year we bought our house in Sea Cliff.  This photo was taken in February of 2020 after it closed down after 48 years in business.

It was a pretty beat up building, as you can see.

Here is a night shot which does a better job of showing what the inside of the garage looked like when it was in operation

But now!  Wow!  Workmen have been installing new modern metal windows, repairing the brick work, cleaning and painting both the outside and the inside and paving the parking lot.  I wondered if this was going to be an office for perhaps a new automobile garage.

This is the interior after being completely refurbished!  I saw this scene where the sunlight was pouring in a few days before, and I photographed it but I didn't have the camera with the super wide-angle lens on it, so I didn't get as wide a view.  When I went back when the sun was in the same place in the sky, there was a step ladder in the foreground and I couldn't get a good view without it.  The next time I went back, hoping that the ladder was gone, there were more things inside.  This looks as if it is going to be an art gallery!  I can't wait to see it when it opens!

 

The Feather

Ok so this is interesting...  I have no idea why I took this photograph.  This is one place along my way to where the old power plant was on my walk.  It is in front of a fenced in area that is completely overgrown with bushes and tall trees.  I think I discovered the other day, in talking to a person in the area that the land is owned by the town, and completely neglected.  It is the one area where snow removal never happens during the winter.  Anyhow, I saw this battered feather on the dead leaves.  Somehow both of these things go together.  The white feather was obvious when I saw it against the dark leaves.  I was drawn to photograph it, but I am not sure why.  I like the bluish tint to the feather, because I took this under an overcast sky late in the day. Maybe this photograph is about discarded things.

 

Sunset Walk

My apologies for forgetting to post last night!  Sorry for those of you who might get worried at the lack of a new photograph this morning.  We were watching a terrific documentary on the TV, called "Lucy and Desi" about their history and their TV shows and running a giant production facility in Hollywood, "Desilu Productions."  It is a great story, and a bit sad.  Anyhow I was distracted and forgot to post.  I went for my usual walk yesterday, and photographed this along the way.  I liked the reflection of the sun off the water, framed between two rocks on the tidal flats.  Just an ordinary sunset but beautiful nontheless.

 

The Thinnest Crescent Moon

 

Tonight I had a piece of grilled salmon for dinner.  I was standing by the grill in the back yard while cooking and happened to look up and saw this thinnest of crescent moons shining through the trees on the neighbor's property.  I thought it was so beautiful seen this way.  More interesting than to see the crescent in the empty sky.  I love how delicate a crescent moon can be.  It is 2.3 days old, meaning since the time of New Moon.  You need a clear sky to see such a thin crescent and winter is the best time of year to see this.

 

In Flight

This is funny.  I went for my usual walk today and I happened to bring my new 70-200mm zoom.  I don't always bring it with me because it is a bit heavy, but I brought it today.  I was walking on the sidewalk with the railing at the harbor's edge.  The wind was howling - it was blowing at 25 MPH!  The tide was pretty far out and seagulls were not that far from shore.  They were slowing flying alongside the harbor not far from the sidewalk while carefully looking down at the shallow water, looking for food, I believe.  The wind was so strong that the birds were hovering there almost motionless at times, because with this wind, they did not have to be flying fast to stay airborne!  Lucky me!  So as a bird would go by I would carefully follow it with my telephoto lens, clicking away.  And I was thrilled to get this shot, with the gull looking right at me!  What's funny is that I forgot that yesterday's post was about seagulls as well!  OK so I am now done with bird photos for the next month!  Well, unless I get a good one!

 

Man, Do Not Feed the Birds!

Man, do not feed the birds!  It is just not good for them!  When we were having coffee and donuts, we noticed a man drive up with his car, and take out a huge black garbage bag and dump it in the parking lot!  It was filled with rolls and sliced bread!  It made a pile about a foot high and a huge number of gulls gathered around and started eating.  I am guessing that the man works for a restaurant.  It was a huge pile of breads! The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation says this about feeding Gulls:  Feeding gulls may be fun and appear beneficial for the birds, but this food threatens their well-being as well as presenting a threat to drinking water supplies. Before deciding to feed the gulls, please consider the following impacts. Foods like breads, crackers and french fries are commonly offered to gulls, but these items are nutritionally inferior and poor substitutes for natural foods. Gulls with a highly artificial diet may suffer long-term health problems.

 

The Cat Who Sits Funny

The cats are endlessly fascinating.  This is one of Grace's favorite places to sit because she can look out the back window and get a clear view of the side yard.  It seems like a funny way to sit.  Sometimes the white chair is further from the window, and she looks even stranger because she still sits on the chair and has to reach even further with her front paws to reach the windowsill.  I love how her tail conforms to the back of the chair, then the top of the pillow and then starts down!  I think that the way her tail was arranged is why I first stopped to look at her, before taking the picture.