The Flame of Recognition

I was sitting at this red light, looking up at the dark gray sky.  After about 10 seconds it felt as if this was a picture that needed to be taken.  It was a fairly strong feeling and so I grabbed my toy camera and took several shots before the light changed.  I cannot explain why this seemed important as an image.  I do know that it involved both the light, the dark gray clouds, and all the wires going through the picture.  What is also interesting is that when the light changed to green, the photograph didn't work for me any more.

"Brutalism"

This is a detail shot of the front of what once was the Whitney Museum and is now the Met Breuer Museum.  "Breuer" because it was designed by Marcel Breuer and finished in 1966.  The building created a strong modernist statement in a neighborhood of traditional limestone, brownstone, and brick buildings. Considered somber, heavy, and even brutal at the time of its completion in 1966, Breuer's building is now recognized as daring, strong, and innovative. It has come to be regarded as one of New York City’s most notable buildings.  But it is not a building that exudes a feeling of warmth.  I photographed it after leaving an exhibition we saw, and I liked that this made an interesting abstract photograph.

Fall Color, Such as it is...

The reports I have read about the fall color this year, all say that because of the drought, the leaves are falling off the trees before changing color.  That is pretty much what I have seen so far this year.  But I did go by this tree in the old cemetery in Sea Cliff.  It was wonderful to see some fall color at last.  I also love the loopy branch way up high - that seems as interesting as the color in this photograph.

Veteran's Day

We drove up to Connecticut to have lunch with my three sisters.  We arrived in Milford a bit early so I drove by City Hall.  I decided to photograph it, and then on the way back to the car I noticed this statue of a soldier.  It is a beautiful sculpture of a WWI doughboy and a memorial to 22 soldiers from Milford, who made the ultimate sacrifice in the First World War. It was dedicated in 1928.  A sobering reminder of the cost of war.

This is Milford City Hall, which is just over a hundred years old.  It was designed to resemble Thomas Jefferson's Monticello.  It is a very photogenic building from both the front and the back, and is considered modern colonial style.  Behind the building is a pond and waterfall which makes a stunning photograph, but the light has to be right.  Remind me to photograph it in the spring, please.

I Should Know Better!

Man, am I STUPID!  I was on my way to the hardware store and the grocery story just before sunset.  As I came by this scene, the winds were 21 knots gusting to 30, and the waves were crashing into the rocks.  The sun was still up in the sky, and was backlighting the waves, so each crash was a a burst of brilliant, backlit spray!  It was stunning!  So I saw the scene, but thought there was not a place to pull over without turning around, and it was cold and the wind was blowing and I thought that I might get salt spray on my camera, so I kept driving.  What a dolt!  After the hardware store I came to my senses and drove back to the scene.  Only thing was, the sun was setting.  By the time I was in place, the sun had gone from the waves, and all the brilliance was gone!  When will I learn?

The Phone Call

I went to fun city today to meet my friends Stan and his wife Ann, and we went to two photographic exhibits.  One was at the Rubin Museum, about Cartier-Bresson and his black and white photographs of India, starting back in 1948.  The other exhibit was at the Met Breuer, and it was color photographs of India by Raghubir Singh.  Both exhibits were amazing to see.  At the Rubin, I happened to notice this woman on her cell phone down a short hallway that led to the rest room.  There was something about the lighting and the dark walls and the fact that she was wearing black that grabbed my attention and after several over-exposed images, finally got it right.  this photo needs to be dark and low key in order to work, I think.

Digging Bait

I went down to the beach to look around.  It usually works, when I am desperate.  I saw this man digging on the sandbar.  I thought he might be looking for hardshell clams, although given the state of the harbor, you would NOT want to be eating clams from Hempstead harbor.  I was trying to try and get something different, so I shot through the marsh grasses in a desperate attempt to get something that looked different.  So I did that, but I am thinking it is not all that successful.

Here is a "straight" version of the photograph.  It probably gives us more information because I am a bit closer.  I included the water draining across the sandbar to add some more interest.  I think it is better than the first photograph.

I went up to the man with the shovel, and asked what he was digging.  I don't speak Spanish so I wan't able to communicate easily with the fisherman.  So I think he was digging clams, but not hardshell clams.  When I asked, he went to his bucket and brought out these two things which he had dug up.  I think they are parts of clams.  If they were razor clams, they would still have a long hard shell.  In any case, I think I understood that he was digging bait, so that later on he would go fishing.  That thing in his palm that looks like a piece of bacon kept curling up into a circle and then uncurling.  It was the strangest thing.