Oh No! My Bike Store is Closed Forever!

I needed a part for Kathy's bicycle, so I went to my nearby bicycle store. "Road Runners"in Glen Cove.  Going back 13 years I went to a different bike shop, and was really friendly with the owner and his wife.  Then one day in December of 2015, they said they were going out of business because the landlord had increased the rent.  I hated to see them go, but then I found this store.  It has been owned by three generations - the grandfather started the business, and then passed it to his son.  When I started going there, the father and son were working there together.  The son was a great bike mechanic and worked on my racing bike a couple of times.  He was great.  I was in shock when I got out of the car and saw the closing sign!  It is a terrible loss, the closing of a neighborhood bike shop after 55 years!

 

Cobweb

I was sitting in the back room this morning when I looked out one of the small windows to the side of the fireplace and this caught my eye.  It is a huge cobweb, fortunately on the outside of the window.  I guess it must have been growing over time, because this is a lot of spider silk.  It is also an interesting construction - it is different from the spider's web that I am accustomed to.  Still it is a striking construction.  You can really only see this when the sun is shining on it for a brief moment in the morning.  Please click on it to see it in more detail.

 

Always Under Something

That Grace!  She is always doing something amusing.  Anytime she can find something to get under, she manages to get under it.  I have no idea how she managed to get under this - it is a wash tub that was sitting on the run upside down.   How does she even get a paw under this?  I cannot begin to imagine how she does it?  And why does she want to get under it?  Oh, that's easy - because she is a cat, and cats are curious!  And they are amusing as well, and certainly fun to have around.

 

Scanning History 6

This photograph is called a "Photo Illustration."  It is a completely set up and posed photograph.  I forget what the story was that needed an illustration.  I think it involved childhood poverty, but I am not sure where.  Maybe just childhood poverty in general.  So they told me they needed a photograph to illustrate the story. It wasn't a news story, because NOTHING can be set up or posed for news stories.  Anyhow, I dreamed this shot up, using an old window in the garage, that was dirty and badly needed painting.  Liz was the subject and I dressed her in an old tee-shirt that was way too large.  I used both graphite and powdered chocolate to make the tee-shirt and Liz's face "dirty."  Maybe a few drops of glycerine to put a tear on her face.  I think the old doll with no clothes on was a finishing touch.  I was really pleased with how this came out.  Of course the question is, "What kind of a father would do this to his daughter!"  Uhhh...  a creative father, maybe?

Beautiful Steel Gray Sky

I was doing my usual bike ride today, and when I was on the home stretch, riding alongside the harbor, I saw all these beautiful gray clouds in the sky.  There is something about the perfect gray color of the sky when it is like this that really touches me.  So I stopped riding and went across the street.  Unfortunately I don't bring a camera with me on the ride any longer - I worry that all the vibration will shorten the life of the camera.  But I always carry my iPhone with me, and that's what I used for this photograph.  So I took this photograph first, and while I was standing there, I noticed a woman come into the frame from the right, riding her bicycle on the sidewalk.  I snapped several photographs as she moved through the frame, and the one below is the last shot I got.  I REALLY love the shot below, because it is different and unexpected, and an unusual composition with the woman and her bike going out of the frame.  So this shot below is my favorite, as a photograph, but the shot above is much better for showing you the beauty of the clouds.  So that's why I posted both.  It is a 2 for the price of 1 day for you all!

 

Scanning History 5

I have photographed more than a hundred celebrities, writers, actors, authors ,musicians and theater people.  Out of all my subjects, I am not sure why I ended up with the negative from this shoot, of the writer Nat Hentoff, of the Village Voice.  I remember he was in a completely cluttered office down in the village - piles of papers everywhere!  Remind you of anyone?  I photographed him at his cluttered desk, and then, since he was on the top floor of his building asked if we could go outside, which he agreed to.  Once out there I realized that as a famous New Yorker, the background of all the buildings in the Village behind him made a perfect photograph, and that's why I took this shot.  It really is fun to see the beauty and richness of the black & white photographs again, isn't it?

 

No Dunkin' Donuts - Week 26

I asked Kathy last night if she wanted to wait and have our Tuesday coffee on Wednesday when she got back home.  She said that she would be on California time and it would be hard to get up "early" on her time, so she said I should have coffee alone again.  Which I did, BUT...  SOMEONE WAS SITTING AT OUR TABLE!  This is OUR table and no one else should be using it on Tuesday mornings!  Yeah, I know there is another picnic table to the right, but that's not OUR table.  OUR table is the one she is sitting at!  So I went and sat on a single bench off to the right, and enjoyed my coffee and donut.