June 4, 2009

Today’s photo was made in Lindenhurst New York, a working class neighborhood that touts the largest village in the state. Unlike any past recession, Long Island is feeling the pain this time, and Lindenhurst is no exception. The village is dealing with empty stores along the main drag and the only car dealership is closing.
I do feel bad for anyone who is loosing his or her job. I wouldn’t know what I’d do at this stage in my life.
I do disagree with their sign though. It’s not the fault of the government that Island Jeep is closing. Corporate greed and poor planning are the start of the problem. While Toyota is advertising their third generation of hybrid cars Chrysler has yet to offer their first to consumers.
But the sign wouldn’t sell cars if it told the truth…. Because of the lack of innovation and a stale product line the corporation is forcing us to close……..
It’s always easier to blame someone else.

Gazania

I found these pretty flowers at the Lynch’s Garden Center here in Southampton. The tag says they like hot, sandy soil, which I have plenty of. I made this image this morning right after I watered and right before it rained.
Postproduction includes Adobe Raw Converter, and Photomatix Tonal mapping.

Digging for Soft Shell Clams

Here’s another image form the Men Who Work the Bay project. This is one of my favorite images. A man’s dog a true best friend.

Twelve

This is my second post witch features a number as the subject. The first, Seven was a number found on a building on an abandoned farm. Twelve was found on a lamppost in a parking lot in Riverhead.
At first I was thinking about a Pat Metheny CD cover where the subject was a sharp vertical object that cut through a frame of telephoto f2.8 softness. The inside photo was the same way. If my memory serves me right there were a few photos all in the same style. I didn’t own this CD so I do know who the photographer was. One of the few I'm missing.
When I first saw the pole, I thought of that cover, I needed to stand on the tire of my pick-up truck to get the background right. I exposed for the brightness of the metal pole and the rest of the image went a bit underexposed.

Captain Erik Bender

I received a phone call Tuesday that I wasn’t home to answer personally. The message was from Victoria Bender, she said hoped she reached the right photographer; that it concerned some photographs I might have made some years back.
I’d only read her name once, maybe twice back in July of ’03, but I knew who she was. I had photographed her son, Erik, the captain of a lobster boat the Victoria Ann.
Erik lost his life on June 24, 2003 when he was caught in a line of lobster pots thrown off the back of the open boat. Two days later John Davi, a retired lobsterman and John Davi Jr., his son, found Erik’s body.
It was grey and rainy on July 3, the day of Erik’s wake. I’ve never been to a wake with so many people. It was very emotional for me. I’d only met Erik on two occasions, once when we went out to empty lobster pots for the day, an again when I delivered a handful of prints I’d made. He was a soft-spoken, friendly guy with an infectious smile. It was obvious that his gentleness touched many people; it had touched me.
After all these years, Mrs. Bender came across the business card I gave to Erik. She wanted to see any of the photos from that day.
The photos I made on the Victoria Ann that day are part of the Men who work the bay, a body of work that I’ve tried to get published. It’s the visual story of men who choose a very different life when they choose to work on the water. Some of the images were scanned onto CD. I haven’t found a publisher that thought it had anything more than just local interest. Not enough for them to commit to.
Today’s post comes from that day aboard the Victoria Ann; this is Captain Erik Bender.

Cold Spring Pond

I made this image Monday evening at the in-laws. This is the sand bar at Cold Spring Pond during an ebb tide. I have always been a sucker for a beautiful sunset and beautiful sunset pictures, even when the sunset is not in them.

Flag in your hat.

It was nice to have a three-day weekend. This is the first Memorial Day I had off in years. I did make some photos at the Memorial service in Southampton.
I would think some might find it disrespectful to use the flag as a hat decoration. Yet, there are always a few people dressed in American flag print clothing items. One flag tie, one flag shawl and a few flag shirts, I guess the more you see it the more it looks normal.

Memorial Day 09

It’s the official start of summer in the Hamptons, the weekend that starts the swelling of the eastern end of Long Island. This summer will be the litmus on how recession proof Long Island really is.
My flowering Chive plant is today’s photo post. I moved tow of these from the back fence to the patio. This one likes its new spot. I like the soft focus and soft light in this image. I also like the color combination.
Remember to thank a Veteran, not just today.

Riverhead

I had some time to burn Friday morning in-between getting a flat tire fixed and an assignment in Riverhead. I spent the hour looking at art at the East End Arts Council and at another small shop that was primarily a frame store with the work of local artists on display.
Riverhead’s downtown has suffered greatly over the years and the new economic down isn’t helping. Some of the buildings are being renovated as apartments. That sounds like a great idea to me. Long Island has a shortage of affordable housing and I find Riverhead attractive.
Somewhere in its past, they tried to make Riverhead an artist community. There were offers of low cost studio/apartment co-ops. There were a few art galleries that opened and closed. And one of the coolest places, the East End Coffee Shop just closed its doors this year sighting the lack of foot-traffic and the number of vacant stores as the major problems.
Today’s pictures are from my walk around this quaint but vacant village. I love the couple on the boat. There’s still a lot of to see in Riverhead, the Atlantis Aquarium, the Suffolk Community College Culinary Arts center, the above-mentioned East End Arts Council and the painted ally ways, which these images are from.

Recession Garden

I covered an interesting press conference Thursday afternoon. A young history teacher had this idea to make a recession garden. She thought now was a good time for families to save money by growing their own organic vegetables. The press conference, arranged by Suffolk County Legislator Wayne Horsley also made it clear that families that receive food stamps can purchase seeds and food bearing plants with their stamps.
The press conference went well, local radio, two television stations and Newsday, our daily newspaper were there. That’s a homerun in terms of coverage for a story.
Newsday called Legislator Horsley to let him know they decided not to run the story because his aide, Brendan and the young history teacher, Alline are dating and the editor was not made aware of this prior to assigning a reporter and photographer to the story.
Wow.
According to CNN’s web site, George Ball, CEO and Chairman or the W. Atlee Burpee & Co. says they’ve seen a 25 to 30 percent spike in vegetable seed and plants this year. John Laumer reported on the Treehugger .com site that AP reports US seed sales are up 19%.
Car manufacturers, banks, retailers and, yes media companies are all down. Newspapers are closing, car companies are filing for bankruptcy and families are finding it hard to make ends meet. Yet, a good wholesome story like a local gal growing some vegetables in her grandmothers’ yard can’t make the paper because the legislator’s aide and the gardener are dating.
Wow, maybe that’s a story.
I’ve read stories about people that fail to do what seems obvious when under duress. Someone might not think that spending money on a vegetable garden is not a good idea during hard times. Maybe they don’t know that a dollar’s worth of seed produces something like twenty-five dollars worth of produce. Well, the readership of Newsday, the voice of Long Island, NY, and America's 6th-largest regional newspaper won’t be reading about it in their paper.
In today’s day and age, who know what will last longer, Brendan and Alline or the recession.

Watchful eyes.

As a continuing education instructor for various photography classes, I sometimes found myself having to comment on images that just bore the hell out of me. Waterfowl images have always been one such subject. So an explanation is in order for today’s photo.
I made this photo yesterday on my way from the parking lot into a town office building, a town for which I do work. The supervisor of this town has gone to great lengths to rid the park of geese. It seems as though this mother goose still feels this park is a great place for her to bring her young. She was still there when I left later in the afternoon.
Today, the whole family is swimming around the pond.
Geese are very defiant.

Earlier years

Today’s picture was made many years ago. It was an attempt at creating art. The original was made on Kodachrome 25, one of my favorite slide films of years past. This version is off a Kodak CD.

Moo to you too!

We pulled off the main road yesterday to look at the map and to get our bearings before go too far from where we wanted to be. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been.
There were cows just over the hill. So I walked up to make a photo or two. I don’t think they appreciated me being there with my camera. Maybe they don’t see photographers too often.

Home for the summer.

Well, we’re home. This wasn’t the most pleasant trip we’ve ever made to Potsdam. We left latter in the day because I had the Suffolk County Police Memorial event to cover. This, and having to drop off a job in Hauppauge put us on the road at 1:00pm. We hit traffic on almost every road we were on. So today’s post is an image through the filthy windshield of the van of taillights and the road map.
Coming back today, we let Brian drive the first leg of the trip. I sat in the back and read dome of my book, Cel and Brian walked about things. Brian and his friends take a short cup that saves about an hour off the nine-hour trip. So he was showing us that route. Unfortunately, we made a wrong turn and wound up going south, a good thing, but south in a westerly direction, a bad thing.
Today’s trip was a half hour longer than our worst time. Oh Well.

Rank & File

Today’s post is from one of the three assignments I covered yesterday. Our local police department honoring their comrades that have past away throughout the year. This is police week in the United States, many police offices go to Washington DC to make the public aware of the dangers of their job.
Today we leave to pick up Brian in Potsdam. I have to cover the Suffolk County Police Memorial service first.

A sea of Red White and Blue

I’m ashamed to say that I’ve been so busy working and getting the yard ready for our spring graduations that I haven’t had time to make any images for myself or for my blog.
Even today’s post is from a job.
They call this the Field of Honor. There’s a flag for every community member that is overseas fighting. Unfortunately, you can’t tell how may flags were flying because of how I composed the photo. I just wanted to see a sea of red white and blue.

Happy Mother's Day

What a beautiful day. I had to wait around for the new washer and dryer to be delivered. So I got a lot of yard work done today with minimal interruption.
Today’s photo I made while cleaning up the flowerbeds. We have some ferns under the deck that spread into the driveway. This one was moved from the driveway to a shady spot. I love the way they look in early spring.

Quiet rain

It’s quiet this morning except for the rain and the one crack of thunder that rattled the kitchen window. The boys and I have the house to ourselves this weekend. My wife went to visit her niece in North Carolina, she left yesterday morning and will be back tomorrow night.
We saw the sun yesterday. It was my big chance to finish cutting the lawn, transplant a few things around the yard and feed some of the bushes. I still have a few bushes to move, but everything I set out to do yesterday, is done.
I covered a press conference at Stony Brook Hospital yesterday morning for a surgical robot, the Sensei Robotic Catheter System made by Hansen Medical. It was the first medical robot I’ve even seen. The doctor sits in front of video monitors with a joystick and controls a robotic arm through the heart to perform a catheterization. So cool. I’m sure it will open the video game market to a whole new avenue of video games and conversely, open up a career path to those that find themselves addicted to video games.
Today’s photo was made Thursday.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

A set of French doors inside a posh golf club on the north shore. I was there earlier tonight for a Breast Cancer awards banquet. As usual I needed to wait around for the elected to show-up.
The original is in color,which I did not like.
So I made it gray scale and added contrast. I set the iso to 3200 you can see the noise.

Boy, I miss those days.

Brian

Evan

Adam

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I’ve been going through a box of Kodak Photo CD’s. These are images scanned to CD’s from film and at the time there were high quality. Today, many cameras including point-and –shoot digital models make better files. I thought it would be fun to post one of each of my three sons (sounds like a TV show).

The sepia image is Adam. The scan is from a black and white negative film.

That’s Brian at the lawn sprinkler, he’s just finishing his second year of college. Evan is the one with the Maple seed stuck to his nose. This was made about eleven years ago; he’s about two in this image. Boy, I miss those days.

Bleeding Hearts

Another rainy, cold day, I’d bet the temperature and weather are right for the season. It’s just that this winter was so cold that I can't wait for the warmer weather. While cleaning all the water in the basement, I came across a box of old Photo CD’s. It will be fun to look through them.
Every year I photograph one of my Bleeding Heart plants. This is a straight photograph with a slight adjustment for exposure.

May Showers

Well I’ve missed a few days since my last post. Lousy weather, loads of work and a flooded basement from a malfunctioning cloths washer has kept me very busy. I need a day to go walk along the beach or through the woods or walk in the city just to look for things that interest me.
Today’s photo I made this morning outside our side door. We have this gap between the house and the walk and up till last year nothing really grew in there. This clover plant was at the garden center and was marketed as plant you could walk on. It spread nice and we love the color.
There is post-production with ARC and Photoshop to add contrast and bring out the colors.

Yellow Tulip

My love for flowers probably comes from my late grandfather on my mom’s side of the family. He had a little hothouse where he started geraniums. He worked at the Bay Port Flower House and later, tended the gardens at Hofstra University. His rose garden was beautiful. I loved to tag-a-long with him.
This yellow tulip image is an HDR image. It’s actually two flowers, not ghosting from movement during the tree exposures.

Modern Americana

I made today’s post on Saturday at a playground ribbon cutting. Didn’t know what I had till I turned it into black and white.

Sunny Sunday Morning

It’s a beautiful morning I have back-to-back grip-and-grins today. The bad part is that they are in the middle of the day. As a freelancer you learn to take work when you get it. Some jobs you have no control over time or place. Some PR people even set up backlit outdoor press conferences. You just learn to work with what you get. I hope to get into the garden for a little while today.
Today’s image I made last night. Another private property sign this one next to a catering hall in Patchogue. The property owner probably has a problem with people parking in his ally. The color or the wall and the sign rocking back and forth on the chain caught my eye.

Old Clubs

It’s nice to sit back and relax. This is the first time I’ve hade some time to myself for a while. It’s good to post a photo.
This image I made yesterday morning while waiting for golf four-sums to gather for their photo. It was another pro-bono job for the Tuckahoe Foundation at an exclusive golf club around the corner from where I live. It’s always interesting to see how the other half lives. It’s around a million dollars for membership at Sebonic.
I liked the light.

Hats in the Trees.

I came across this in Coram or Middle Island New York today. I’m not sure where the boundary is and the tow towns are next to each other. I just thought it was interesting that someone dressed up the branches of the tree. Probably kids that raided the hats and gloves box for the poor.
I got caught trespassing to get this shot. It was on a private vacant lot next to a boarded up building. The owner’s dad wanted to know what I was doing. I must have looked odd with a sports jacket, shirt and tie photographing hats in the trees. I’m really not crazy about the photograph and even sending it through tonal mapping hasn’t helped.

Rain Rain Rain

Another day of rain; today makes three day’s in a row. Sometimes rain makes interesting photographs. This tulip is at a Town of Babylon beautification spot. The town has planted tulips, daffodils and other flowers all around the town in an effort to make the town more beautiful. I read a letter from a life-long resident of Lindenhurst who loves the way the town looks. I don’t live in the town, but I do think it looks beautiful. I love flowers.

Dog walking for a cause

Yesterday was the Pups for Parkinson walk, one of the pro-bono events I do. Because of a number of circumstances the event did not have the attendance it usually has.
Today’s image is from the walk, which is held at Belmont Lake State Park in North Babylon. Towards the end of the mile and a half walk, you come around the lake to finish. I love the reflection of the walkers, sorry to say, I make this photo or one similar to it each year. Why change what works?
I met a very nice veterinarian at the walk, Cathy Roncskevitz. She’s from Station Plaza Veterinary Group in Glen Head. Check her out if you’re looking for a real animal lover vet. See her web site for more information. www.stationvet.com

Birds on a Wire

Spring is here. Today is the first day it felt like spring. The sun was hot the sky was blue and the soil was warm. I was able to get some Yard work done between jobs. It’s nice to be busy but everything seems to happen at the same time.
Today’s image of birds on a wire is something I pass almost every day. These electric lines cross a highway I often travel. I thought the wires were a lot closer to an overpass that I photographed from. That and the fact that the day I stopped to make this image, there were few birds. I did like the composition with one bird sitting all alone on the second wire.

Pussy Willows

It morning and I didn’t sleep well. I worked a retirement party last night and it was four hours after a full day. Today I have another full day of work as well as tomorrow.
This is the Pussy Willow plant. I was fooling around with depth of field on this on.

Pink Hydrangea

I got my wife this Hydrangea plant for Easter. Rabbits and other critters, yet to be seen, eat the lilies and tulips we have planted from Easters past. I can’t wait to plant it outside.
This image was exposed through a nude colored lady’s stocking, (without the lady in them).

Light on the wood floor

It’s an overcast day today and a good day to turn over the garden and plant my bean seeds. I always get a good feeling when I work with the soil and today was no different. It felt good to spend the morning digging in the dirt.
Today’s picture was made on Thursday morning. I was killing time at a photo op for a credit union that was donating money to an historical society to restore this old home into a museum. This was one of the empty bedrooms on the second floor. I love the way the light came into the room and I also love the wood floor. Empty rooms hardly ever stay that way.

Remsenburg NY

So, I came across this sign Thursday and thought it was weird. I don’t understand the need for a caution sign before a post office, maybe before a pub or a nightclub, but a post office? There were signs on both the east and west sides of the road. Is the “caution” because of the unfounded reputation of postal workers? Or, are we to be cautious of drivers so emotional over the latest bill, or letter from Aunt Jane or whatever else that they just might pull out of the post office parking lot without looking for on-coming traffic?
I feel bad for our post office. They, like many other businesses are dealing with tough times. I’m sure with e-mail, cell phones and electronic bill paying their business will continue to dwindle.
Maybe then they’ll replace those signs with Caution Historic Site Ahead.
Happy holiday to everyone.

East River, Eastport, NY

As I was driving west on my way to work yesterday the sun had helped make a beautiful reflection on the river. It was like a glass mirror reflecting the warm glow of the rising morning sun. I had a hard time finding a place to park; there were no parking signs everywhere. So I pulled into someone’s driveway and grabbed my gear fast. When I got to the river, two swans started their swim towards me ruining the whole mirror.
I’m not totally unhappy with what I was able to get. Post production in ACR and Photoshop as well as Photomatix Tonal Mapping all were used to get the final results you see here.

Peeling paint

I passed this barn today and needed to turn around. Today’s post is another trespassing photo; I knew I would find something of interest once I got up close. No post production in this image.

Well lit Parking Area

Things can look so different because of light. I pass this sign almost every day on my way home. Today, because of the setting sun and the ominous clouds it was worthy of my attention. I never realized how big the sign was until I was standing right in front of it.

Pell's Pots

It’s nice to have an overcast day; colors look more saturated. Bill Pell is a local baymen and today’s post is a buoy and oyster pot, Colorful buoys are another subject that I have a hard time walking away from without making a photo. No post production, just a straight photograph

Saturday Night Special

This as an image I made yesterday after I took Evan to the village. I fooled around with Adobe Raw Converter to get the high contrast look.. I’m not sure I'm finished with it.

Home Alone

It’s not often I get a quite night alone. My oldest son is up at college. The middle guy and my wife are looking at a school in Vermont, and I just dropped my thirteen year old off at the cinema to see Monsters vs Aliens. Quite.
It’s still raining. The weekend should be clear. It would be nice if I could get some yard work done. I wanted to see that movie too.

Spring rain

On my walk this morning, there was a light rain. It felt good and the paths looked mystical. Buds have started to open. Rain was collecting in the tiny pockets formed by these little leaves. It was refreshing to say the least.

Blue, in the rain.

Another rainy day has to be a sure sign that spring is on the way.
I found these plastic trays stacked up outside a local chain drugstore. I liked the blue and the drops of rain. I did crop the image to give it a slant. It was boring straight.

Some Thoughts

My life as a photographer has given me the opportunity to look at the world as an observer. The consequence being that I cannot be both the observer and the active participant at the same time. I use the adjective active because photographers no matter how impartial make decisions that effect how a viewer sees what the photographer photographed.
The decision of what lens I use, where I stand to get the best angle, how I ultimately process it, the size and usage all will have an effect on the final image and consequently what the viewer feels. So I do participate, just not upfront.
A bullet kills once a lens kills over and over. I’m not sure who spoke those words, but with that in mind the photographer is very much part of the action.
But are photographers artists? Do I deserve credit as an artist because I saw and photographed Pussy Willow, or today’s post of rain on pine needles? These things were not created by me, I just happened to observe them. I’m not saying photographers are not artists. Some make beautiful constructed photographs. In fact it wasn’t too long ago that I spent hours printing in the darkroom to make a print that I found perfect. Maybe I was an artist then, but now, I don’t think so.
These days, I just think of myself as someone with a camera pointing out things others have missed because of busy schedules or limited resources. Enjoy.

Card Collection

I’ve been so busy and unmotivated lately and it shows in my lack of posts. The weather hasn’t helped, the calendar says spring, but it’s been cold and windy. I went for a walk along the Carmen’s River in Shirley. All I came back with were two photos of Skunk Cabbage and one texture study of an old fallen tree. I didn’t even want to download them.
We got a new desktop computer this past week, an imac. We love that it’s all contained. Very neat and minimalist, nether of which describe my family and I. I’ve been spending most of my free time setting it up. Today, I have memory coming, and that will need to be installed. It doesn’t look too difficult.
Today’s picture post is from May 17, 2008. As I was going through files of photographs I came across this one. I made this image at a hamburger joint somewhere upstate New York. I don’t remember where we were, just that we had picked up Brian from
Potsdam and were heading home. It was somewhere off the New York Thruway.
I made this image while waiting for our food order to be ready. I wish it were sharper. I must have had low blood sugar, it was made at a 1/50 of a second which I can usually hand hold.
The warm tone of the wood panel and diffused light attracted me as well as all the business cards. Tucked up in the far left corner is a prayer card. There were local business cards as well as cards from New York City, all testament for the good food and fair prices. It’s a shame I can’t remember where it was.

Spring

I can’t believe yesterday was the first day of spring. We’ve had a cold snowy winter and I’m looking forward to warmer weather. Today’s picture of our Pussy Willow plant was made Thursday morning. We planted this bush in the fall and I forgot what it was. When I saw the cotton-like buds, I told my wife that I think it’s a Pussy Willow bush. She say that’s what it was when we purchased it last fall. So much for my memory.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day

I covered a fundraiser/Saint Patty’s day breakfast this morning in Sayville. It was at The Lands End, a place my dad and I used to go to when I was just a kid. It brought back memories.
We lived in Sayville on Greeley Avenue in a rental house that was between a Jewish Temple and a greenhouse business. We were waiting for our house to be built. I think about that mouse-infested place often.
My sister, brother and I all shared one of the two bedrooms. Our bedroom window had a clear view to the train station and we would sit and watch for the train that grandma was on when she visited. We were probable in that house for less than a year; I can’t remember a Christmas there.
Sayville is a nice town; it has some old homes with lots of character. It has a thriving downtown shopping area and waterfront activities on the Great South Bay. Most of all it brings back memories of growing up for me.
The Lands End, that was its name when I was a kid forty years ago. The single story apartment building that my friend Joe Goral lived in is still across the street. It’s not red any more they painted it tan. It all looks the same as the mental image stored in my brain.
I parked there with a girl friend one night, while enjoying the salted night air off the bay things got hot and heavy. A policeman came and knocked on the car window. He didn’t wait around; he just wanted us to move on. Scared the two of us right back into our clothes. We never heard him pull up behind us.
I can here Joe banging out a Joni Mitchell song on the piano. Sayville has some good memories.