While in San Francisco we took our friends’ car out for a drive to north of the city, over the Golden Gate bridge, into Marin County. We did a pretty good tour of the headlands but made a point to make a pre-lunch stop into Muir Woods. Muir Woods is one of the country’s National Parks, set up by William Kent, made a national monument by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1908, and named after conservationist John Muir. It contains many coastal redwood tress, the tallest of living things. Given the height and age of these trees it didn’t take me long to imagine myself in a forest as old as Fangorn. Since I was feeling that way I was stopped in my tracks by the face I saw in this trunk – can you see it? It struck me as very apt to see and Old Man of the Woods here – I could almost hear the Entish “Hooms”.
Not tired of stench. Sick from it.
Three bodies trapped in a crushed taxi. A man, two women. Set ablaze
I am torching my faceless siblings.
The scene was horrific, the stench unmistakable
My siblings watch me torch them as I wince.
Those who have witnessed so much these past days
Permanent burn in back of throat.
Bodies decomposing, tropical temperatures, the smell unbearable
What excuse will ease this?
They couldn’t find anyone to dispose of their bodies
This way is better. Clean, helpful, horrific.
Thousands of corpses have been pulled from the rubble and burned
Not just my weight to bear. Country sobbing.
Old crypts, shoved corpses, blood-stained dump trucks
What are these hands? Where tread these feet?
Two pairs of shoes lay in the car’s twisted metal.
Guts with twisted, molten metal.
[ lines in italics taken from CNN article “Tired of stench, Haitians torch bodies in plaza,” by Moni Basu, January 25, 2010 ]
It’s been all quiet round here of late as my wife and I took a trip to San Francisco and Lake Tahoe to see a good friend who was turning 30. Neither of us had been to SF before but luckily enough we not only had friends as guides, but on the last day we hooked up with some of the great folks at CALIBER – Julie, Stuart and Travis – as well as SF’er Amber. We’ll catch up another time Troy! It was great to go out shooting with them. We certainly got the unconventional and slightly off-the-tourist-map tour. The CALIBER folks have been very good to me and I’ve admired all their work since they started CALIBER. While riding one of the old Muni cars from the Mission towards downtown and the Ferry Building, I forget exactly where now, this character and his retinue got on. Stuart had seen him before. The bird’s name is Talks Too Much and he was accompanied by Tim and Tiny. Talks Too Much didn’t utter a word while he rode with us but he was a friendly sort and eventually climbed form the chair back onto my wife’s arm. It was a great trip and I have plenty of processing still to do. So…more to come.
This weekend we took a trip into Williamsburg. Alli’s sister Tami surprised Alli with a birthday present of Unnata Aerial Yoga. In this very informal class you mix floor and aerial poses to get a different kind of workout. The aerial poses are done using the help of a long loop of silk suspended from the ceiling down to about waist level. I also took the class and found the different kind of movements and stretches required to the aerial poses really opened up the floor poses. It seemed to really benefit the knee I had ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) surgery on two years ago so I would definitely recommend it. The instructor, Michelle, was great. She really relaxed us into it and helped us along the way. Afterwards we went to Diner, underneath the Williamsburg bridge, to eat. The burger there comes highly rated by our friends over at Hither and Thither, so of course I had to have one. I can confirm that it is indeed delicious! Walking around Williamsburg provided plenty of fodder for the lens. While it has of course become a haven for a slightly alternative crowd there’s plenty of industrial grit to see.
Yesterday, during Martin Luther King Jr Day, I noticed as the sun was going down that there was the potential for a pretty incredible sunset. However, I was already home from work and Jonesing for a cup of tea. After a couple of moments indecision I quickly checked Google Earth for the sun positioning, grabbed my camera bag and tripod and headed out. It is only a short ride on the subway from our place in Brooklyn to the tip of Manhattan but the MTA has been futzing around with the lines so much lately that it’s really a lottery. I hadn’t time to check the latest issues on the web – but I probably would have made little sense of it anyway that’s just how many changes there are at the moment. The upshot, or downshot, of all this was I missed the actual picture I had in mind, which included a big ball of firey sun. I got there and set up just as the sun was dipping below the New Jersey horizon. Coincidentally Joe McNally blogged today on lollygagging about and missing the shot you want. I know how he feels. Of course the key thing to remember is that there are always good pictures out there; sometimes you miss them through laziness, sometimes you miss them for another moment you are in. However, we can chalk it down to experience and remember there’s always the opportunity to create another image another time. So, because the sun was still throwing some amazing colours into the sky I made the most of the time I had and shot a few pictures of the Upper New York Bay. On MLK Jr Day I found it highly appropriate to be taking pictures of the Statue of Liberty.
In 2008 I traveled to Southeast Asia with my new wife on our honeymoon. First stop was Bangkok. Stepping off the plane and into that city was a rude awakening. It was all hustle and bustle, New York had definitely not prepared us. After a day and a night we managed to settle in and work our way around without getting scammed [anymore 
]. Now, during my research for the trip I had come across a stunning photo of Wat Arun, and I wanted to be in a position to get my own from the same vantage point. That photo was by Trey Ratcliff, of Stuck In Customs fame, and can be seen on his flickr stream or on his blog. We actually realised we had looked to stay at the very hotel the balcony and restaurant I got this image from was in. However, they had been booked up and we found a great place called Phranakorn-Nornlen. I really can’t recommend this place to stay in Bangkok highly enough! Anyway, back to photography. Trey principally uses high dynamic range techniques in his photography to get the best of the available light, and while it is not everyone’s cup of tea he does what he does very well and very tastefully on the whole. I am personally on the fence regarding the technique but am open to it and find many of Trey images stunning. So…that being said I am gearing up to try my own first HDR image in the near future and you’ll see it up here soon. In the meantime I hope you enjoy my more traditional one shot non-HDR photograph of Wat Arun as the lights turned on at sunset.
Last weekend I was able to get to the DUMBO neighbourhood of Brooklyn. Before you make any jokes that stands for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. Apparently with an acronym and descriptive name like that it has still managed to become an exclusive place to live. It is also home to some great galleries such as the Farmani Gallery and powerHouse Arena. The best thing though is the views afforded of Manhattan and both the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges from the Brooklyn Bridge park. I had brought my tripod with me and set up as the sun was setting. It actually set quite far past the southern tip of Manhattan due to tilt of the earth relative to the position of the sun and earth at this time of year. As it dipped below the horizon I shot this one of the Brooklyn Bridge.
This photograph was taken inside York Minster, which is an impressive example of Gothic Architecture. Building apparently started on the cathedral in the 1220s and carried on though to the fifteenth century. Yet there had been a site of worship there that predates Christianity, which arrived in York in the fourth century. York is a special place to me as it is where my father comes from. It is an exceptionally beautiful city and has proven its mettle through Roman and Viking occupation, when it was known Ebacorum and Jorvik respectively. It has a lively place in British history and it was great for me to be able to go back there last summer.
I was browsing over some of my older photos, pre-DSLR days, and found a number of unruly, unorganized files to back up. One of them contained several photographs from a family trip to Bomoseen, VT, with my then girlfriend, now wife, and her extended family. Looking through the photographs on such a cold New York City morning made me long for the northern Appalachian Trail, the Lake and late summer. Hopefully this is a nice warm image to melt the icicles gathering around your toes this winter. Even more hopefully I’ll be making more trips to places like these this year.
It snowed this morning in New York. I can’t remember when I last had a white Christmas, let alone a white Christmas and New Year, yet that is what has happened today. Luckily when I set off for work the snow wasn’t too deep but blanketed everything in a thin film of white. So, walking through Clinton Hill to the subway I managed to get my first snow shots of this winter. I hope that you all had a good 2009; wishing you all the best in whatever you do and good health to you and your families in 2010.
