City Graphics

Apropos very little, I just came upon a neglected image from our last trip to New York City.  The image reminded me of the importance of graphic elements to the creation of a good photograph.  In nature, that can be tougher to come by, but that doesn’t make it any less desirable.

(Taken with a Nikon D3s and 50 mm lens.  Iso 1600.  Very little noise.  It is a good time to be a photographer.)

Still Rambling – Back at Elm Park

When you’re close to a great location, return visits are often very rewarding.  You can develop a level of intimacy with place.  You start to suspect that you’ll see things differently along certain paths.  And of course, you experience the location in different weather and different light.  So back to Elm Park (Worcester, MA, USA) we go, once again accompanied by the increasingly trusty Nikon V1.  Love that little camera and it fits right into the overcoat pocket.  For those who want to know, the lens that is usually on the camera is the 10 – 100 mm zoom.  It’s really a power zoom for video, but it covers a lot of territory, focal length wise.  That range is the equivalent  to 28 – 280 mm on a full frame 35 mm camera.  The reflections in the pond continue to call out, as though they have a life of their own.  (Click on the image for a slightly better view.)

Honestly, not a lot of photoshop post processing here. Pretty much point shoot and print.

I did, however, flip all three in terms of orientation.  When you’re standing on the shoreline, the reflections are of course upside down.  Here’s the old Fire Alarm Building along Park Ave.  This is actually a two image panorama.

A Winter Ramble in Elm Park (Worcester)

One of my favorite photography books of all times is “A Ramble in Olmsted Parks” by the great Lee Friedlander.  You can see a nice slide show representative of that wonderful work here.  There is something about those great parks, including in central Massachusetts, our own Elm Park, that inspires in one a desire to ramble.  Of course, technically this is not an Olmsted Park, as its founding in 1854 predates Olmsted’s work.  However, his firm was involved in its redesign a bit later, so we’re going to take poetic license and say it is (sort of) one of his great parks.  (If you click on these images, you’ll get a better view.  This first one is a panorama so you really should give it a try.)

No matter, the works of the great park building artists of that period all pointed toward an integration of the urban and the rural, hence the idea that these are good places to hang around.  Making what you see visually pleasing was part of the deal. Nice lines, water and trees.

These designers also had a sense of humor, which I appreciate.

Happy Valentine’s Day to my Valentines!

Technical Note:  These images were all taken with the Nikon V1.  The V1 was introduced as Nikon’s first mirrorless offering last fall, and greeted with a ridiculous level of controversy.  This isn’t a gear site, so I won’t bore you with the details but suffice it to say, it is easy to criticize a camera that you have never used. (I guess that goes for anything doesn’t it.)  I, and many others, are finding the V1 to be a able, small, quiet camera with very competent lenses, capable of rendering colors beautifully and printing easily up to 13 by 19.  Oh and it has blindingly fast autofocus and takes nearly broadcast quality video. It won’t replace my DSLRs, but it is the first small camera I have ever bonded with, and I’ve tried them all.  (Just ask my Valentine!)