French kiss

Robert Doisneau: (14 April 1912 – 1 April 1994) was a French photographer. In the 1930s he used a Leica on the streets of Paris; together with Henri Cartier-Bresson he was a pioneer of photojournalism. He is renowned for his 1950 image Le baiser de l'hôtel de ville (Kiss by the Town Hall), a photo of a couple kissing in the busy streets of Paris. Robert Doisneau was appointed a Chevalier (Knight) of the National Order of the Légion d'honneur in 1984.

 The pictures are:
Le Remorqueur du Champ de Mars (Tug on the Champ de Mars), 1943

Trois petits enfants blancs (Three little white children), 1971

Le baiser de l'hotel de ville (Kiss by the Hotel de Ville), 1950

Le Chien a Roulettes (Dog on Wheels), 1977

Aside from his Wiki-biography, there are various posts about him.

Spring 2012

Corner of 73rd Avenue and Francis Lewis Boulevard, 24 March, 5.30 in the afternoon. I recall a picture I took at the same corner, perhaps 9 years back, maybe 7, of daffodils in snow. This year, no snow. Not down here. We did great a 'flash snow' upstate, in the Catskills, this past weekend.

I took this picture near the Phoenicia School, looking north. Looks wintry. And it did, but snow began to melt that day, and was almost fully gone by Sunday.

Magnolias trees have been blooming with lush blossoms this year. They, and other flowers, seem especially vibrant.

This set of forsythia bushes is in front of a house on Lawrence Avenue.

This gorgeous tree stands in front of the Hewlett Woodmere Public Library.

A budding tree in Brookville Park, a favorite walking spot of mine.

On a drive along side streets through southeastern Queens, another pretty spring sight.

Langston Hughes, by Carl Van Vechten

from a Tweet by the Museum of the City of New York:

Military photographer of the year

Water Running

Second Place, Sports. U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Reagan Lodge, Headquarters and Service Battalion, Marine Corps Base Quantico, conducts water running exercises during a physcal training session in Ramer Hall, The Basic School, on Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va. Sept. 14, 2011.

Read more: http://lightbox.time.com/2012/04/03/2011-military-photographer-of-the-year/#ixzz1r7MoPFUq

Elbows

I am not sure how I came across this; I look at so much information throughout the day that unless I specifically tag something I lose track of where I saw it. Twitter might have led me to it in a roundabout way. The artist, Neil Goldberg, is featured in a very recent column by Randy Kennedy in the New York Times subtitled Neil Goldberg Exhibition at Museum of the City of New York. Perhaps a tweet by the Museum, which I do follow on Twitter, is the answer.

One thing I really like about this is that watching drivers's elbows is of to me. Not just of truck drivers, but all drivers, how people stick their arms out of the window of their vehicles interests and amuses me. Even in this photo it is visible that different drivers use different angles: the second from left on the bottom row has his elbow on the edge, while the leftmost on the top row has the elbow completely outside. Both the leftmost and rightmost on the bottom row have their arms on the window. I enjoy seeing the different ways people put their arms out, and it is almost exclusively men that do so, it occurs to me. Some do as these drivers, just sticking the elbow out, whilst others put their entire arm out, some even dangling it.

Photo of the year

Samuel Aranda’s heart-stopping image of a wounded man burying his head in the shawl of a female relative claimed the top spot on Friday in the World Press Photo of the Year contest for 2011 images. The photo, which shows a veiled woman in Yemen clutching a man after he was injured in an Arab Spring demonstration in October, was the winning entry among 101,254 submissions in the competition. Photos poured in from 5,247 photographers in 124 countries and included compelling images from the aftermath of Japan’s tsunami, the uprisings in Tahrir Square, and the ongoing plight of global warming. “What I would really like is for this photo to help the people of Yemen,” Arnanda said in an interview with The British Journal of Photography after learning of the award. “I think it’s a country that is often forgotten.”

Kodak Bankruptcy

One look at photography

The Once Great Eastman Kodak Company in its Glory Days (Photos)

Eve Arnold, pioneering photojournalist

Eve Arnold, one of the first woman photojournalists to join the prestigious Magnum Photography Agency in the 1950s and traveled the world for her work but was best known for her candid shots of Hollywood celebrities, has died. She was 99. Arnold died Wednesday at a London nursing home, Magnum announced. The cause was not specified.

Not specified? How about old age?

Photographic revolution

A new camera captures hundreds of images and lets you choose your own reality. Given that most photographic im-ages these days are viewed onscreen and never printed (let alone framed), our expectations about what a photograph can be were bound to come into question. The Lytro camera is about to offer us one compelling answer.

Useful tips for shooting in low light

Do and don't

Orchard Beach

Just before leaving streamside of the Esopus, a milestone (pun intended).

How many people would think Bronx on seeing these shots?

Frolicking in the water, yet again.

Headed for Queens, and home.

Heading downstate

Looking northeast from the Esopus, by Mt. Pleasant Road.

 A variation on the stream-side stone sculpture.

 Enjoying frolicking in the water.

Looking back toward Phoenicia.

Remnants of Irene

It is not at all diifficult to find Irene's effects in our corner of Ulster County. Creek-side litteris not only about last on the list of what needs cleaning up; usually it is simply left alone. Until the next flood.

Evidence of a mortar-free stone wall, from long ago, stands astride the new stream bed carved out by Irene's waters. Here we walked, between the Old Plank Road and the Esopus. Is that tree from nearby, or from afar?

 Part of a port-a-potty, the roof, it'd seem.

 A bread basket, the sort of a delivery is made on, one a a handful we saw as we walked.

 Another basket.

 Tree litter, as if they were matchsticks.

 Where did that piece of black lumber come from?

A backpack, perhaps a pillow?

Upstate, mid-December

Autumn is a distant memory, winter a threat, looming but not quite here, yet. Nonetheless, it has gotten cold, and the scenery is stark. Leaves are gone, mostly. Colors are reduced to muted tones, but for the occassional berry.

Campers are no longer using Wilson State Park, and cross-country skiers haev not yet arrived, awaiting snow. That leaves the Park open for hikers and dogwalkers, and dogs, and, of course, the ever-present geese.

Berries provided the only bright color; well, the red-stemmed plants do lend some variation, as well.

A weir between the lake and the creek.

Using auto-focus on the camera provides this unintended shot: the bush is focused on, the weir in the background.

A bird house is stuffed full of nesting material.

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Chien-Chi Chang

A Magnum member. I received the Magnum email,and it featured this priceless photogrpah.

Queens restaurant

Picture not clear, but intent is. Good restaurant in Bayside, Queens, on Springfield Boulevard and 64th Avenue.

Brooklyn

Brooklyn Museum, 8.pm

Trotting Course Lane

In the triangle bound by Trotting Course Lane (I sure would love to know the origin of that street name) and Alderton Street, I found Remsen Cemetery. Soldiers from the revolutionary War are buried there; the nearby plaque refers to Cooper Regiment.

The plaque is back there, beyond the chain bounding the burial ground itself.

Though the sun washes out the legend on the plaque, one can see statues of douhgboys keeping vigil over other graves. A couple of them were unreadable.


Then I proceeded up Alderton Street. Beautiful autumn colors this year, such as this small maple.

Intersection of Yellowstone Boulevard and Alderton. I am accustomed to seeing Yellowstone up by Queens Boulevard; this was something of a surprise, to encounter it here.

A beautiful Japanese maple in full regalia, as I proceeded up Alderton.

Dieterle Crescent was one of several semicircular streets that started and ended at Alderton.

This next one is a curiousity: the map does not show it, but clearly it is there. I believe I was on the eastern side of Alderton.

Where do these street names come from?

Asquith? The Asquith?

Walking along 64th Road, after bearing left (west), some more pretty autumn colors.

And, Fitchett?

Heading southeast on Wodhaven Boulevard, another named avenue.

A one-block long street, Goldington Court.

And Furmanvill, at the northern boundary of St. John's Cemetery.