close-up – Page 5

Seeking to whisk my wife away from our ongoing pandemic solitude for an afternoon I consulted Atlas Obscura for something new to see. As a 60-year denizen of the city it’s getting harder to find new things and many venues are, of course closed for the pandemic (and many may, sadly, never re-open). The Atlas recommended the Gardens of St Luke in the Fields, “a quiet and contemplative oasis in the middle of New York’s bustle and riot.” We have, of course passed by on the street many times without realizing there was more to go in and see. From the description there was much to see and many gardens to explore. And while, as I hope these pictures will attest, the Garden is lovely, much of it is not open to see. The area we walked on a raw and chilly Spring afternoon was too small to provide much escape from the bustle and noise of the surrounding streets or the Garden’s many visitors, all there no doubt with the same fond hope as us. I’d still recommend it if you find yourself in the area.

Click any image to see them all enlarged.

White House Planter

There’s an apartment building on the corner here which styles itself “the White House,” I’m not sure why. Every year I promise myself I’m not going to post pretty pictures of flowers – not my thing – and every year, as we emerge from the slough of Winter I demur, especially following this plague year. These were in the planter in front of the White House.

Leaves in a Stream

Old Snow

Some dirty snow, from the same January 2004 trip to Brooklyn mentioned in the last couple of posts. Notice how the Dimage A-1 lens resolved the snow in the background into lovely circles of confusion.

Abstract

We browsed in a furniture shop in Brooklyn one day back in January, 2004. Here’s another pic from the Dimage A-1 shot as a straight jpeg before I learned about Raw.

Botanical

Not too many good shots this past weekend, so it’s back to the archives of December 2003 we go: Australian summer, New York winter.

A few more flowers from the Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney, Australia that I missed on my last pass.

Click any image to see them all enlarged (on laptop or PC – doesn’t seem to work on tablet or phone).

Colorful Day Out

Another street, candid from the archives, shot as a 5MP jpeg in late 2003 on the Dimage A-1.

Slide

We’re still in the archive here, but at this point, Autumn, 2003, I’ve just decided digital has really arrived and I’ve bought the Minolta Dimage A-1, a “prosumer” all-in-one, 5 MP digital camera with a flip-up rear screen, built-in flash, 28-200mm (equivalent) lens – a camera I really loved. At this point, I haven’t yet learned about Raw and I’m still shooting jpegs straight out of the camera.

Life’s a Beach

So frigid weather sends me back to the archive. Here’s a selection of 2MP jpegs shot early in my digital period with the family Kodak at the beach, with a little modern editing in Capture One. Click any image to see them all enlarged.

Mars Rover Perseverance image?

No, it’s salad dressing. More fun with the Fujinon 60mm macro lens.

Thin Green Line

Another over-processed jpeg from 2002.

Sun Roof

I have no idea what damage I may have done to the original jpeg, boosting saturation and/or contrast, but near as I can figure it this is the original jpeg file out of camera.

Pills

…or maybe it was the other way around. anyway, looked like they might be interesting to photograph, pace Garry Winogrand

Odds’n’Ends (and dust)

What does that key even fit?

Lampshade

I spent the final week of 2020 quarantined in my bedroom from the day after Christmas until a couple of days into the New Year – 10 days. While I never suffered any symptoms, I had accompanied my mother to take the test that was positive in her case, potentially exposing me and I followed NY State’s guidelines (and, yes, she’s nicely recovered now, thank you). Towards the end of those 10 days I pulled out my camera, attached a 60mm macro lens (90mm e) and started looking around the bedroom for something to shoot. Fair warning: bedroom macros coming up!

Frank Auerbach

Continuing west on 24th Street we came to the Luhring Augustine Gallery and these Frank Auerbach works (from 1978 – 2016). Really luscious impasto and a lovely autumnal palette of (mostly) muted shades.

Billie Zangewa

The first stop on our gallery tour yesterday was Lehman Maupin to see Billie Zangewa’s Wings of Change. These are works of a South African artist, working in silk collage, dealing with the world of Covid-19 isolation. I’ve tried to pair most of the works with a close-up, detail shot to show how these magnificent works were created.

You may be reminded of the work of Bisa Butler, a quilting artist I highlighted a few months ago in this post.