Easter Parade

Long day, lots of snaps, not much curating, in fact none at all. Pretty much nothing more than a contact sheet, and a rather large contact sheet over in the gallery. Easter Parade was a disapointment. More like a circus sideshow than a parade. Not what I had imagined. Completely overrun with amateur photographers all sporting branded neck straps, DSLRs and long zooms, acting like they were doing fashion shoots. Glad I was very stealthy - nay invisible.  Hah!.  A7r and two lenses the 28 and the 55mm. Shouldn't have brought the 55 only used the 28. My crazy shooting into the sun style was a bit flawed and flared today, not sure if it is becuase old lenses (the new old FD 28mm) are more prone to flare than new ones with hi-tech coatings (probably one cause) and both the hoods I have tried so far vignette so I went hoodless (likely exacerbated the coating problem).  

Since the parade was awful, walked through Central Park up to 72nd street, then retraced 5th back to the Library, then sixth, west in the high twenties over to the High Line then back to Penn Station. At least I got a lot of walking in.

Also, need to remember temper getting close and stay out side the minimal focal distance.  Some stuff out-of-focus becuase I am getting too close. Fences being at least one example.

Click here or the snap below to see the galleries - limited distribution becuase most are not going to look through this enormous pile.

sans Groucho, Harpo and Chico...

nevertheless a day at the races.  The Maryland Grand National Steeplechase races. Stay cut short by lack of sustanance — only for me though, everyone else had the foresight to bring thier own. I guess it violates equestrian etiquite to hawk chow on the the hosting nabob's demense. 

Low sugar level must have impaired the noggin which lead to a bad ISO, fStop combo, which further lead to a Robert Frank like run of very soft images. At least he had the excuse of film and poor indoor lioght.  I have the best performing camera on the planet on a day of all sun — well just becuase you know doesn't mean anybody else has to.  

So an inversion of the B&W blog image and color gallery of this AM here. For some reason the color snaps look crappy so converted to B&W except of course for the one below. This MS Pulitzer afficiando demanding to be showcased in an emulation of Kodak's finest Ektachrome.

Smack it (you know who you are, HAH!) here or on the snap below to be, as usual, swept off to smugmug.

It should be obvious — no long lenses, all at 28 and 55mm. The 5D Mk III and the long stuff were in Charlotte's way-back and stayed there. Wasn't at all interested in the horses. Was interested in the people who were interested in the horses or at least in the party the horses attract. Was not on the top of my game, long distance logistics tomorrow — off to the Easter Parade on Fifth Avenue. Need to up my performance.

BTW, this is the second item posted today so you might have missed the one below re: Erie Canal.

Quoting the Boss...

"Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal". Likely fifiteen miles more or less east and west from Fultonville, NY.  Fort Hunter in the east and Herkimer in the west. In conjunction with Tillman Crane's annual photo retreat. Previously in the Delaware Water Gap in New Jersey, at least for this year, centered in Johnstown, NY.

Featured locations were the Schoharie Aquaduct and two churches, Herkimer Reformed Church and Palantine Lutheran Church. Didn't much like Palatine Church outcome so no snaps from there are shown (well the tractor is from out back). Between Herkimer and Palatine is, for lack of a better name, the 1769 church. No access but some good results through the windows.

The snap below is from Herkimer Reformed Church, it is in black and white and is the only one so presented. It, in particular, didn't look good in color so it didn't make the gallery, which are all in color. The last few galleries have all been black and white, so it is time to put some different spin on the ball. Color courtesy of VSCO Agfa Vista 100 emulation, pretty much all the cool or cool+ varients. Everything shot with the A7r using the Canon 24 Tilt-Shift.

Click here or on the snap below to see galley snaps.

Herkimer Reformed Church — Herkimer, NY

Some Oban

High eighties a couple of days ago — high forties today and a bit raw in the late afternoon. Some snaps followed by a stop in Salt for some Oban to drive away the chill.

At the moment heavily influenced by Frielander's Sticks and Stones.  Maybe not so completely because were are some color snaps harvested today. Well given the technology they are all color until they are made B&W. So two galleries one color one B&W.  Some in both, some only in one. The on-the-way-back snaps all in B&W as the street lights here are awful — LED versions on the way.

All with the A7r and the new/old Canon FD 28mm f/2.0 refurbed and converted to EF by Eddie the Lens Doctor in Scotland. Attached to the A7r thru the Metabones III. Much better manual focus solution than the EF 28 f/2.8 IS it relegates to use only the on the 5D Mk III.  Click on the images below to see the rest in the smugmug galleries.

Protect your kettle

 780-FLUSH

Packards

Rumor had it my grandfather had a thing for Packards. I can't verify that as there is no one to ask and by the time I was around he wasn't diriving at all. Anyway at car shows I am attracted to them so when I had the opportunity to pop into the American Packard Museum in Dayton, OH earlier today I grabbed it.

Was outside of Cincinatti with a couple of days of meetings with a client and some potential suppliers.  We knew we were going to end early today and I had shifted to a 5PM flight from Dayton last night. Turned out we ended even earlier than planned and I had a couple of hours to kill. The Dayton airport isn't competitive with Schiphol so I looked for a photo op along the way. The first thing that appeared were some native american mounds. Interesting architectuarlay but not all that much of a thrill photographically. Next up were some NPS sites in Dayton that featureed an odd combination of the Wright Brothers and Paul Lawerence Dunbar, after whom many inner city high schools are named, a big cheese afro-american poet. That didn't much appeal either but lead to the USAF museum at Wright Patterson. I would have settled for that but planes, especially military planes, aren't my favorite either. So as a last stab I did a search on 500px for Dayton and a series of shots of Packards showed up. After a couple of google searches, I had a target. Five bucks to get into what was a Packard dealership with a bunch of cars in two buildings. Plenty of value for the fiver.

As usual the A7r was in my briefcase along with the FE 35 and FE 55. So I walked out through the museum with the 35 mounted, switched to the 55 and walked in. Was great and I still had enough time to do some initial scoring at the gate waiting for the flight. Did some in color initially but the mixed incandescant and daylight was not yeilding great results so I wound up doing them all in B&W.

As usual click here or on the snap below to be taken to the smugmug hosted gallery.

 American Packard Museum — Dayton, OH

Newport to Jamestown

... a bridge symbolic of a transformation. Ride along or surf flickr.com. Haven't been happy with where I have been so where I am going had better be differnet. Completely enamored with Friedlander's alchemy turning shinola into to magic. Also continuing to be enamoured with 2010 serendipity, which it appears can not be outdone or undone. All fine with me.  The first step in next steps starts here. Click here (or on the snap below) to go there with me. Should you chose not to follow there is always flickr.com.

If you can't fix it feature it!

Pere McK was likely PO'ed

Uncurated

Today resulted in 498 images without the usual bracketing — a whole lot of snaps.  I had planned to go to the Museum of Industry but figured I would be in and out in an hour or so.  For some reason I was up early, early enough to park just off the Lincoln Memorial Circle just before 7:30.  The natural first stop was the Lincoln Memorial looking for shadows, that was followed up by the Korean, FDR, Jefferson, WW II, Vietnam and a revist to the Lincoln. After that it was a visit to the two Union Markets, the one missing letters in its sign and the one that got lost on its way to New Caanan, CT. After grabbing some lunch and a loaf of rye, Charlotte got pointed north to Museum of Industry. The earlier prediction was right about an hour stay — possibly abetted by free admission becuase of the prescense of a robotic contest.

The 498 images didn't get cut by much and I am not feeling very ruthless and the Florida/UConn game has just started. As usual I am recording it but I am not inclined to get too far behind tonite. So 200+ images from all the venues all stuck in one giant sized smugmug gallery. The intention was to shoot strangers but I wound up with some of them, some statues and some museum exhibits.  There are no cherry blossom snaps for two reasons (i) they aren't out yet and (ii) I wouldn't shoot them even if they were. There are plenty of other people shooting them — if you are interested try Flickr. I am only interested in the cherry blossoms as fly paper to increase the number of strangers around DC strreets and the mall.

This time of year is also when the honor flights come to the mall bringing vets to visit memorials. I happened across a groups of Korean and WW II vets.  The shot below was taken going into the Pacific end of the WW II Memorial.  The guy's name is Frank Mastrella, he is from Rochester, NY (from his name tag). The woman told him that she was sorry he was going home becuase other wise they had a date tonite. I blew getting the shot of her planting one on his dome. For sure it is the best shot of the day.

Lots of narcissism in this gallery with a pretty large number of shadow selfies ala Lee Friedlander. Click here or on Frank's snap below to see the entire uncurated bunch. All in B&W — too many Friedlander books I guess.

Best I can figure, that was an interracial, same sex marriage at ~ 8AM at the Lincoln Memorial.

Now that they have uploaded, it is clear I need to scrub out the dupes and the out-of-focus snaps.

Frank Mastrella, Rochester, NY Honor Flight Mission 33

Quick trip to NYC

Up late monday afternoon — back down just before 6PM on Tuesday. Two photo opportunities and a client meeting. All the photos with the a7r and the FE 35mm.

First group, right after arriving at the Algonquin, along 44th Street and 5th Avenue from 44 to 54th. The second while they were retrieving Charlotte from valet parking.  Most from Bryant Park, a few from Fifth and a few more from 44th. The rest out Charlotte's open windows and sun roof until the battery quit around 23rd Street. Click on the snaps below to check out the galleries — including several mirrored selfies. Hah!

Rock around 30 rock

Erstwhile Needle Park

Once again a rainy day...

today worse than yesterday. The camera into a taped and rubber-banded baggy pending the arrival of a more official and costly wrapper. Was counting on the dog owners to need to go to the park. Only a few out but almost a 100% of the encounters although I botched most of them with lousy camera settings. Didn't spot anybody else with a camera — going to figure out this "get what nobody else gets" sooner or later. Today's experience would say you don't need to go to Patagonia to snap solo.

Took only the "weatherized" A7r with a 35. Just that and one of those $200k umbrellas. Despite or maybe in-spite of limited personal precautions — soaked again. Nothing a bloody won't fix.

Prepped camera

The only color snap, the gallery is all B&W.  Click here or on the snap below (clearly the best of the lot in color or B&W) .

Prepped umbrella

A walk in the park

On what might appear superficialy to be a crappy day for a walk in the park turns out to be the complete opposite. The rain which is a bad match for a stroll is the perfect compliment for a rugby match. This one facing off Johns Hopkins and Loyola on a partially denuded field made more interesting by a liberal dumping of rain.

These all on the 5D Mk III with the 28 f/2.8 IS ala mode Mel Digiacomo, meaning as close as one can get without going on the field.  Digiacomo would have likely gone on the field but I have the neither the chutzpah nor the photo skills to get away with that.

The risk is to some degree getting hit by a player but since this is college club rugby and not the International the risk is not particularly high. While the risk of getting hit is actually high — the impact is not. The guy below in the color snap missed the tackle but didn't miss me. He well... er...  bounced off. I was left merely with some muddy residue from the contact.

Two galleries, replicas except one is in color the other B&W.  Take your pick. Click on the respective snaps below or here for color and here for B&W.

Poltergeist

Snap below almost home after hastily departing the bar at evidently haunted Birroteca this cocktair hour. Stopped on way back from picking up big print from post immediately below in Hunt Valley. Also had one done from the Ransom Notes flight. Click here or on the snap below to see the apparitions.

Along East Pratt

Rock around the clock at Harbor East

Tonite.  5D Mk III, nine multiple-exposures, in camera merging. Then Nashificationed. 30x30 gatorfoam mounted print due in mid-week.

Rock around the clock — In camera version

This one merged in Photoshop CC using a old Uwe Steinmueller script implementing an Ellen Anon technique. Provides camera independence. Different Flypaper textures in post processing.

Rock around the clock — Photoshop CC Version

The day before Paddy was stretched...

or something like that. Was hoping for a replay of yesterday's gorgeous weather. Got into Charlotte and quickly discovered all the windows down and the sunroof open which were quite inconsistent with this afternoon. Off to Harbor East for some casual architectural stuff with a planned foray over near the aquarium. Turns out B'more celebrates St. Patricks Day with a parade today - presumably because Philly's was yeterday, freeing up a large number of string and High School bands to travel an hour and half south.

So took some architecural stuff (mostly the black and whites) and the parade (largely the snaps in color). Wrong camera for the parade, the A7r,  the 5D Mk III would have been a far better choice but then who knew about the parade. Once again travelling light and once again started out with the Canon 28 f/2.8 IS and moved on to the FE 55.  The FE 35 once again just filled my pocket.

Wasn't the niceset weather, got pretty raw by the end, knocked the chill off with a visit to Paco and some Hendricks.

Half a hundred or so on smugmug, click here or on the parade snap below. For those of you just getting around to looking after Saturday's email alert those snaps are below — was a prolific weekend.

Completely wrong color for a March 16th parade.

Graffiti Warehouse

meetup.com surfing uncovered a photo event today at Grafitti Warehouse here in town. There is an ally behind the building where it is legal to paint grafitti. A lot of the snaps and I think the best of them came from the ally. Inside, more grafitti and sudios — today a model/photographer event. Turns out I was more interested in the structure than the models. At $20 it is cheap by inside building access for photography standards. Lots of dude photgraphers and a few dudettes all with pretty much the same stuff taking the same shots of the same models (looked like a different version of the eagle shooters at Conowingo). I always try hard not to do same. So no flash and no tele lenses — not that I actually own a flash. Turns out it is pretty boring, very unlike street photogrpahy no adrenline rush — like shooting fish in a barrel. Also, a gazzilion photographers... along with doing something different I prefer to do it alone. Lastly there is the creepy feeling. Not likely to do this kind of stuff again. First time = last time.

Anyway, some interesting snaps of the alley, parts of the building, the expected stuff and some street-like shots of the players, the later being the most fun to shoot.

Was going to haul a lot of stuff with me but in the end went light, the A7r, Canon 28 f/2.8 IS on the Metabones, the FE 55 and the FE 35. The 35 never made it on the camera. Started out with the 28 and the snaps on the way in were with this and a few early ones inside. With photographers all over the place I needed more length to keep them out of view (pretty rude bunch stepping in front too) so on went the 55. A good chunck of the 55 snaps were with the Zeiss Softar I soft focus filter attached, they are pretty easy to spot. As usual one snap here, the rest on smugmug.  Click here or on the snap below to head off to the gallery.

Ingress

Ransom notes

I thought, should I ever need to pen a ransom note, I would need some letters and for sure some numbers. The B&O Museum parking lot seemed a good place to get some. Turned out it is.

After a strong and welcome KHH recommendation, I watched "The Heat" last night via Apple TV.  It was a cop movie with both the FBI and local PD, figured I would certainly need the letter that would most come in handy when dealing with those folks — according the movie.  Got a few versions cause I would will need a lot of them. Hah! Click on the letter snap below or here to see the rest. There are also some abstracts at the end.

A7r — first loop thru the lot with the FE 55. On the rebound the Canon 100L via the Metabones. All processed with VSCO's faux Ektar 100.

 F is the bomb

The same but different

Once again a same place but differnt from last week. Had intentions to try some street shooting in DC, DuPont, M Street, wherever. Just find it hard to think of shooting strangers on the street in DC — not even Philly action much less Manhattan. Got a late start, traffic cross town in B'more was slow, so said the hell with it and headed closer.  To Ellicott City.

That gym stuff must be working becuase I saw a lot more of the place today, mostly the up part of it. Place is really in a gulch, no wonder it gets hammered with flash floods. Nobody on the streets to speak of so settled for the usual structural stuff. Finished up at Birroteca with a Kale Salad and some other stuff not quite so on the recommended list.

Click here or on the snap to see a bunch in a gallery over at Smugmug.  All with the A7r — travelled very light just the FE 35 and 55. Is nice. All processed with VSCO faux Kodak Gold 200.

It was the same old song...

same old walk, same old snaps, same old song. Saunter down to Fells Point and hike back up.  Always seems to be the same stuff that attracts. This time with the A7r and the FE 55 on the way down, the FE 35 on the way back. A polarizer on the 35. I guess the A7r has found a home — right at 10,000 clicks in a week less than three months.

Click here on the snap below to see the gallery.

Modernism along alley street

The big loop

At the Air & Space Museum (Udvary Hazy at IAD) at 10AM for the opening and a pile of snaps then:

North to Waterford, VA (no snaps today) then;

North to Point of Rocks, MD then;

North to Thurmont, MD (no snaps today or ever) then;

North to Emmitsburg, MD  (a few snaps in town) then;

East to Taneytown, MD (back to the cars again) then;

East to Winchester, MD (a few snaps on the weay and in town) then;

East to Reistertown, MD (no snaps today or ever) then;

Northish to Glyndon, MD (no snaps today) then;

East to i83 then;

South to Birroteca for a combined lunch and dinner then 

Home

Three Smugmug galleries; Air and Space Museum, Taneytown Cars and Along the Road.  Click the preceeding names or the snaps below to see the galleries. Fair warning, there are a lot of snaps from the Air and Space Museum.

First time at Air and Space Museum since 2004 and a Canon 10D.  Today was the A7r with the FE 55 and the Canon 14, 24 TS-E, and 100 Macro. Taneytown is a revisit from a couple of years ago.

Air and Space Museum (Udvar-Hazy)

Taneytown Cars

Along the road

Green eggs and ham...

No sam I am not, 'cause this is about something green and something ham — but green hair and prosciutto at Birroteca. The end of todays line, after a visit to the Rawlings Conservatory and spin thru Druid Hill Park. Abstracts from the Conservatory and structures from the park. Structures in color, vivid Fuji Fortia color, delivered via Sony and the A7r VSCO and.  Some in the conservatory with the Canon 100L macro but most with the killer FE 55 f/1.8. Plenty of snow from the other day but a very comfortable sunny and windless 28 outside.  Hot and miserably humid in the Mediterranean (Green) House, couldn't wait to get back outside to my New England-like prefered temperature.

Two galleries on smugmug.  The abstracts can be seen by clicking here and the park structures by clicking here. And, oh, check out the green hair below.

Green Hair at Birroteca

Two more galleries

A combo plan — so I don't set any expectations by having three blog posts in a day. So if you are looking at this becuase you got a blog update notice, check out the next item down as well.  

So after the last post, Loch Raven, &c. it started snowing, so back out with the A7r and the Canon 135 f/2.0 on the Metabones.  Shot wide open on the way out, at f/8.0 on the way back. A twenty-five minute walk to the park and back. Can't resist playing in the snow. Things haven't changed much since the six slid over a digit to the left. The gallery is shown by clicking here or on the christmas tree lights below.

The other gallery is one of those expiramental things — created in lieu of making new snaps yesterday. Saw a blog that had lots of these, by a local who supposedly has some chops, so... despite KHH's dis of the same on Insta, I gave it a shot anyway. For sure will be the subject of considerable dissin' myself. Hah!  So for the seudeo artsy gallery click here or on Domino all the way at the bottom.

Tis the season

Fake real art