Weekly Photo Challenge: Love

Harbor Seal at the Central Park Zoo Being Fed by his handler. As soon as she appeared the seal jumped out of the water up on the rock and went crazy over his zoo friend. (photo spring 2010)

Man with His Cat at the Blessing of the Animals Ceremony at Christ Church in Manhattan 2011

Weekly Photo Challenge: Beyond

Crossing the English Channel on a ship from Calais, France to Folkstone in the UK (1983).  This Black-&-white photo was hand-tinted, something I did back then with most of my black-&-white photos after I printed them on heavy, textured paper, as you can see if you look closely.  In reality, it looked pretty much like this only darker, I think.  At the time, I was sitting in a deck chair on a ship, looking north, sipping a Black Russian, my favorite cocktail at that period of my life. I thought how lucky I was to be experiencing such clear-cut, dramatic lighting and tried to make the most of it with my camera. I also made a copy of this photo with a pink sky, which I want to try to find.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Ilumination

These are a few of my photos that I took one warm Saturday night in Times Square in winter of 2010 when I had nothing better to do.  Times Square has to be one of  the most illuminated places on earth.

Bill boards in Times Square [2010]

Times Square, NYC, on a Saturday Night, around 6:00 pm, in 2010.

This photo I took at dusk. It wasn’t quite dark yet.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Resolved

Resolved:  In 2013, I will try to create something new every day, or work toward creating something new (i.e, working on a painting), even if it is only taking one photo or writing a few words.  In the act of creating, I am concentrating on the present, and not the past or the future.

Resolved:  This year I will be more active and less passive–more work, less TV (yes, I like television).

If you like this, visit my portfolio on  Saatchi on-line (a project in progress). Click on photo.

“Folk Art Landscape” [(2′ x 4′) oil and acrylic on a board] . I found this particle board that was already framed in a trash can. It looked so perfect to paint on that I couldn’t pass it by. This is the picture I painted on it. My dog Mary, who lived with me for 12 years before she died, is in the lower right-hand corner. That is supposed to be corn stalks in back of the house. There’s a man driving the boat, but you have to look really close to see him. I consider my art folk art.

Weekly Photo Challenge: My 2012 in Pictures

2012 was the year I really discovered Staten Island, where I have lived for almost 30 years, but never really got into exploring much, because Staten Island is so overshadowed by another NYC borough: Manhattan.  The lure of Manhattan was the real reason I moved from California to New York, but I settled in the borough that looked the most like California.

From my view, this year was bookended with two tragedies:  In January, 2012, was the fire on the corner of my street (Park Avenue and Castleton Avenue in Port Richmond, Staten Island). It was a huge, historic house, built in the early 20th century, that burned half way before the fire was put out by multiple fire companies from Staten Island and Brooklyn. The year primarily ends with another tragedy, Hurricane Sandy, which devastated my former neighborhood of Midland Beach, where I lived for 15 years before moving 3 years ago to Port Richmond. These I think are a few of my best photos from this year:

Fire on Park Avenue and Castleton Avenue in Port Richmond, Staten Island, Jan. 16, 2012

That is the fireman named Frank in that elevated contraption that is called a falcon. I learned all of this because I took a lot of photos and the firemen came afterwards to my apartment to see them and get some that I had offered. This one above was printed in the fireman’s magazine.  I have another post devoted entirely to the fire called Fire Today of Classic Home in Port Richmond, Staten Island.  On that post you can see a photo of the house before the fire.  No one was hurt in the fire although 25 families, who were living in this 3-story house illegally, lost their home.

This is the street, Anderson Avenue, that bisects the street I live on, Park Ave. Every morning, about 7:00,  I go out outside to feed the pigeons, usually many more than in this photo, then I walk a block to a deli  where I buy a cup of coffee.  Once home, I turn on my computer and drink my coffee.  This is my wake-up routine that works pretty well for me.

This was the year I discovered the Greenbelt in Staten Island and how much it has to offer in terms of adventure. Whereas, Manhattan is quintessential urban, Staten Island is quintessential suburbia. I like suburbia, but I also like being only an hour bus ride from the Big Apple.

Although, I had been there before, this year I really fell in love with Blue Heron Park. This is one photo I took of an egret and a baby blue heron on Spring Lake, one of about 6 lakes in the park.  Both egrets and blue herons visit the park together, but they seem to ignore each other.

This is a Staten Island family rowing to safety down a flooded street after Hurricane Sandy. The man in the orange sweatshirt was waiting for them with his car.

This building is a big part of my life. I walk that path from the bus to the center at least three times a week to work out in their gym. See my video on YouTube.  On this 5 minute walk from the bus stop to the Center, I have seen a racoon, a rabbit, a deer, a turtle (whose photo is on another post), and something that I don’t know what it was.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Surprise

Staten Island–Morning after Hurricane Sandy. Woman opens front door to go to her car. SURPRISE!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Delicate

“Creativity is not the finding of a thing, but the making something out of it after it is found” – James Russell Lowell

Photo taken on a canal in Venice, California (1979). This was one of the first photos I ever took when I bought my first camera a Nikon FM. I also did the developing and printing.  The shadow around the bee was made by the flutter of the wings, which my camera wasn’t set fast enough to stop.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Changing Seasons

Summer Becoming Autumn at Blue Heron Park in Staten Island (Oct. 2012)

Weekly Photo Challenge: Reflections

These are two photos I took of the same egret over a pond at Snug Harbor in Staten Island, around 1995, before the days of digital, when I was still taking black and white with a manual camera. I also did my own developing and darkroom printing back then, before the computer took over.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Thankful

I’m thankful for the beautiful birds that show up every morning to get the food I love to feed them.