Lantern Revealed

by Posted in Landscapes, Sculpture, Things Leave a comment
lanternrevealed-1-of-1

I’ve posted before about the stone lanterns that are scattered around the village of Briarcliff Manor. I believe there are about six of them in the village (For more information see: The Story of the Stone Lanterns on the Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough Historical Society website).

This lantern (#5 on the website) was placed by Walter Law (the founder of Briarcliff Manor) at his daughter Edith Law Bröckelmann’s property named “Little Mount Vernon,” across from the entrance to the Law Manor on Scarborough Road, where it remains, in its original location. The “Little Mount Vernon” mansion was built by W. W. Law for his daughter, Edith who returned to Briarcliff Manor from China in 1902 as the widow of Fritz Bröckelmann, who we believe was responsible for sending the lanterns from China.

I’ve lived in Briarcliff Manor for about 26 years, and my house is only a short walk from this lantern. I’ve passed it many times and didn’t see it until about a year ago. It was behind some bushes, and you couldn’t see it from the road. You had to virtually crawl under the bushes to get a view of it. That’s now changed. The present owners have been doing some landscaping and I’m pleased to say, as you can see from the picture, the lantern is now clearly visible from the road where passers-by can see it. I don’t know who owns the property nowadays, but I’d like to thank them for making this piece of Briarcliff History visible to all.

Taken with a Sony RX10 IV.

Is it worth taking the same old boring fall pictures again.

by Posted in Landscapes, Thoughts, Woodland Leave a comment
Foggy morning

Every year for some time now I’ve been taking pictures of the fall foliage (see above and below). While they’re pretty, colorful, and in a few cases quite spectacular they’re all starting to look pretty much the same.

So, unless I can come up with some clever idea of how to come up with something different, I’m not going to bother this year.

fallpictures-2-of-10

fallpictures-3-of-10

Spur beach at sunset

fallpictures-5-of-10

SONY DSC

fallpictures-7-of-10

fallpictures-8-of-10

fallpictures-9-of-10

fallpictures-10-of-10

Taken with a variety of different cameras and lenses.

Into the Woods

by Posted in Landscapes, Woodland Leave a comment
inthewoodsagain-1-of-10

Although I walk around a lot, I suddenly realized that I hadn’t been for a walk in the woods for some time. Summer in New York’s lower Hudson valley is extremely hot and humid. And when it’s not hot and humid it rains. I don’t like to go out in this kind of weather. However, it’s now Autumn, the temperatures are much lower and we’re going through a dry patch at the moment. So, off I went for what turned out to be a 2.5 hour walk in the woods.

I’d hoped that the leaves had changed by now but, unfortunately only a few of them had. This was the first of the disappointments I encountered:

The second was my choice of camera – A Sony RX10 IV. I’d used it before, but mostly in fairly bright sunlight – and it did a great job. However, I discovered that it’s not all that good in the woods. Light in woodland tends to be very bright in some patches, and extremely dark in others. Unfortunately, the one-inch sensor in this didn’t have enough dynamic range to cope with this. I tried to bracket shots so that I could blend them together when I processed them, but unfortunately this doesn’t work well when things (in this case leaves) are moving around, in this case in the wind. Still, even though the pictures as not as good as I would have liked them to be, I think they’re good enough for sharing online e.g. on this blog, on social media etc.

The third was my choice of footware. I recently bought a new pair of shoes and was breaking them in. It was probably not such a good idea to do this during a fairly long (for me) walk. Soon after I finished the walk my feet and legs started to hurt.

Still, I had a great time and intend to do more – assuming the weather holds and my feet/legs improve.

inthewoodsagain-3-of-10

inthewoodsagain-4-of-10

inthewoodsagain-5-of-10

inthewoodsagain-6-of-10

inthewoodsagain-7-of-10

inthewoodsagain-8-of-10

inthewoodsagain-9-of-10

inthewoodsagain-10-of-10

inthewoodsagain-2-of-10

Taken with a Sony RX10 IV

The boathouse

by Posted in Buildings/Structures, Landscapes, Statues, Vehicles Leave a comment
attheboathouse-1-of-15

I went to New England recently…well actually I didn’t but it looks like it from these pictures. They were actually taken in Ossining, New York a short walk from Sing Sing prison. I like this restaurant. It’s pretty much on the river and I like the “nautical” feel. I had a craving for steak (unusual for me as I don’t eat much beef) and ordered a ribeye, which I enjoyed immensely.

attheboathouse-2-of-15

attheboathouse-3-of-15

attheboathouse-4-of-15

attheboathouse-5-of-15

attheboathouse-6-of-15

attheboathouse-7-of-15

attheboathouse-8-of-15

attheboathouse-9-of-15

attheboathouse-10-of-15

attheboathouse-11-of-15

attheboathouse-12-of-15

attheboathouse-13-of-15

attheboathouse-14-of-15

attheboathouse-15-of-15

Taken with a Sony RX100 M3