Photographs and thoughts on photography and camera collecting
I came across these brightly colored rocks during one of my dog walks. They had been strategically placed right at the edge of a garden so that passers-by like myself could easily see them.
In case you can’t make out the words the rocks read: Faith, Kindness, Love, Family and Joy.
Taken with a Fuji X-E3 and Fuji XC 16-50mm f3.5-5.6 OSS II
On July 4 I was invited by some friends to go with them to a fireworks display. It seems that every year the Sleepy Hollow Country Club puts on a display and you can go down to the parking lot of a church on Route 9 (about a five minute drive) and watch it from there. I almost declined thinking that once you’ve seen one fireworks display you’ve seen them all. But I decided to go and I’m glad I did. I was right in that the display itself was just like all the others I’ve seen. What was different was the perspective from which I saw it. Usually the fireworks are set off a long way from where you’re watching and I’m sure that was the case here too – if you were watching from the Country Club. However, from where we we sitting they were being set off right next to us. It seemed like they were bursting right over our heads. Very impressive if a little scary, and I imagine not all that safe.
Note: Since I wasn’t expecting to take any pictures I didn’t take a camera with me (who was it who in answer to the question “What’s the best camera” replied “The one you have with you”. The picture above was taken July 2017 at a fireworks display by the Hudson River in Ossining, NY (for more pictures see: Independence Day 2017 Fireworks on the Ossining Waterfront).
Taken with a Sony A500 and Tamron A18 AF 18-250mm f3.5-6.3
Let’s hope that it will be better than 2020 was.
I still haven’t found a focus for my photography so it continues to be quite opportunistic. Rather than being passionate about a particular subject I tend to always carry a camera with me. Most of my photographs arise because I see something interesting while doing something else. However, as noted in last year’s post I did go out a number of times anticipating that I would find something to shoot. These included: Walks around Mount Kisco, NY; Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, NY (a few times); The Bronx Zoo (with two of our grandchildren. I haven’t been there for years. Great fun); Irvington, NY; New Hartford, CT.; Downing Park, Newburgh, NY; Cold Spring, NY; Wiccopee Reservoir, NY; Garrison’s Landing, NY; Fishkill, NY; Kingston, NY; Lyndhurst, Tarrytown, NY; Along Route 6 in Lake Mahopac, NY; and to close the year Geneva, Switzerland and Paris France.
I also started a new project with a friend of mine. We share an interest in military history, particularly the American Revolutionary War. Luckily Revolutionary War sites abound in the Lower Hudson Valley (where we live) so each week we’ve been visiting one. In 2019 we visited the site of a skirmish in Dobbs Ferry NY; Verplanck’s Point where Washington’s army crossed the Hudson on its way to Yorktown, Virginia; the site of a Revolutionary War Tavern in Peekskill, NY; Revolutionary War graves in Chappaqua, NY; The ruins of Fort Montgomery, NY; Sites in Yorktown Heights, NY associated with the Battle of Pines Bridge; Washington’s Headquarters in Newburgh, NY; The Stockade District in Kingston, NY; Knox’s Headquarters in New Windsor, NY; Sites related to Sybil Ludington in Carmel, NY and Patterson, NY; The Supply Depot in Fishkill, NY. These visits generated a lot of photographs. My intent is to make a photobook out of them.
My wife is an avid gardener. She loves to grow roses, particularly David Austin roses. This year she’s increased her collection and I’ve photographed each one. Once again my intent is to make a photobook out of them. Although these two books exist in intent only, I have managed to create two photobooks in 2019. Out of frustration that the New England Air Museum didn’t have a book on their exhibits I decided to do my own. I also did a second photobook of pictures taken around the lake where we live. I don’t print much and when I do it’s usually no larger than 8×10. This year I tested the waters with a couple of larger prints: 18×12. I rather like them and would like to do some more. Now if only I could find somewhere to put them.
In 2016 I made a New Years Resolution that I would try to 1) limit my old camera purchases; 2) use the cameras that I have more often. In 2019 I didn’t do very well on the camera acquisition front continuing to get my hands on both cameras and lenses. On using old cameras I did better than I had in the past – meeting my goal, for the first time, of using 12 film cameras per year (the equivalent of one per month).
I added quite a few items to my photography library including: Foursome: Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keeffe, Paul Strand, Rebecca Salsbury by Carolyn Burke; 50 Paths to Creative Photography: Style & Technique by Michael Freeman; Doisneau by Jean Claude Gautrand; Joyce Tenneson: A Life in Photography: 1968-2008 by Joyce Tenneson; In the Realm of Nature by Elliot Porter; Clarence H. White and His World : The Art &Craft of Photography, 1895-1925; Alfred Stieglitz: Taking Pictures, Making Painters by Phyllis Rose; The North American Indian by Edward S. Curtis; and “Die Schöpfung” (The Creation) by Ernst Haas.
I continue to update this site, which now has 3,101 posts since I started it. About 521 posts were added in 2019.
All things considered it’s been a full year with much to be thankful for.
Happy New Year.
We recently visited the site of the of the Revolutionary War Fishkill Supply Depot. Today all that survives is the Van Wyck Homestead, originally a farmhouse which served as a headquarters for military operations and the largest single burial ground of the Revolutionary War. Afterwards we had lunch at the Dutchess Beercafe in Fishkill, followed by a quick walk around Main Street, Fishkill and a final stop at the Rombout Rural Cemetery.