tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61886493607654815872024-03-05T23:51:36.608-05:00Talking PicturesNeil J Murphy - Photo/JournalistNeil J Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08852834659400991664noreply@blogger.comBlogger284125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188649360765481587.post-40803898002618728692012-02-05T13:58:00.003-05:002012-02-06T08:23:45.499-05:00Grave Humor<div style="text-align: justify;">Just because I spend too much time wandering around cemeteries doesn't mean I've lost my sense of humor. To the contrary, I think one needs a sense of humor in order to pursue this hobby; if you let the locations and inscriptions get under your skin too much, you're apt to go looking for a mausoleum with an empty niche to crawl into.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">With that said, one of my main objectives is to seek out the obscure and bizarre: the eighteenth-century sandstones with winged skulls and death's heads, inscriptions that outline how the deceased ceased, and most of all, strange names.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I began exploring cemeteries almost as soon as I got my first SLR camera, back in 1982. There was one a few miles from my house, the resting place of a branch of my family, with lots of interesting markers, especially this one, which caught my eye, and never let go:</div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv8ZAKWf1qomz0KshTXyZN4myG35ro4kTtvawlje1CpP_a3fBBMGgtSQKSRIpVRkqPxLxVVbQtQPSQtulTkRuFVkPn_7Jd7OWXstfL_BVZ4QmKvPJSpAS7jLbYjwvlU0yk1dm0VfNKXzM/s1600/Dumb+Gravestone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv8ZAKWf1qomz0KshTXyZN4myG35ro4kTtvawlje1CpP_a3fBBMGgtSQKSRIpVRkqPxLxVVbQtQPSQtulTkRuFVkPn_7Jd7OWXstfL_BVZ4QmKvPJSpAS7jLbYjwvlU0yk1dm0VfNKXzM/s400/Dumb+Gravestone.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">St. Mary Star of the Sea, Cedarhurst, NY</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">More recently I was walking through one of three cemeteries in Bethpage, New York, near the famous 'Bethpage Black' golf course. It was there that I came upon this, which is destined to become the image I will always visualize when I hear the word 'birthstone':</div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2nRi_Mx5SUus6coZIYx7QcviU-Xzd7Sa-eCjwiOYZYfaQZZHsR1-_c-0bQN_art0OVUG_bssnziNWtyrySlu3IvLWjThhDUtwNBUi7umtyVH3TjPx79-OoM29mz6xhkn2T4YlX9Qv114/s1600/Birth+Stone+-+Bethpage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2nRi_Mx5SUus6coZIYx7QcviU-Xzd7Sa-eCjwiOYZYfaQZZHsR1-_c-0bQN_art0OVUG_bssnziNWtyrySlu3IvLWjThhDUtwNBUi7umtyVH3TjPx79-OoM29mz6xhkn2T4YlX9Qv114/s400/Birth+Stone+-+Bethpage.jpg" width="321" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">That same day, in one of the adjacent cemeteries, I found this, which aptly fits the definition of 'what lies beneath': </div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKvTUaWAdd_AAqfhWXfSQ9VDDePX4UDShyK1vhHHzRx9gpa7ujkZla6ENFU2Es8JBibbLtGv8eEHK6RDwNN4_AMR91T1v3mUH9aq-RT_ze3-5An5HjV5mVXJnL8ZBKQ9eeQQk1Y7robWc/s1600/Coffin+-+Bethpage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKvTUaWAdd_AAqfhWXfSQ9VDDePX4UDShyK1vhHHzRx9gpa7ujkZla6ENFU2Es8JBibbLtGv8eEHK6RDwNN4_AMR91T1v3mUH9aq-RT_ze3-5An5HjV5mVXJnL8ZBKQ9eeQQk1Y7robWc/s400/Coffin+-+Bethpage.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Powell Cemetery, Bethpage New York</td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">For the final entry today, there's this stone from the Cedar Grove cemetery in Patchogue, NY, taken in July of 1991:</div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4XZ0xzEqGEVjsf6DdaAcK8WLPDqYIzOzwnZ9YJfI7s_476ik1tWOYNlzS5aZT4KsWo8p3niVRbuqpSBStNO8Qm4zBGQ-pXd8QS8wQtRBhfym5X0uSXpeozQKVJFz6UPaU8exPVTMszVM/s1600/Bird+Braine+-+7-15-91.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4XZ0xzEqGEVjsf6DdaAcK8WLPDqYIzOzwnZ9YJfI7s_476ik1tWOYNlzS5aZT4KsWo8p3niVRbuqpSBStNO8Qm4zBGQ-pXd8QS8wQtRBhfym5X0uSXpeozQKVJFz6UPaU8exPVTMszVM/s400/Bird+Braine+-+7-15-91.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">The Merriam-Webster dictionary lists the first known usage of the term 'birdbrain' in 1933; sadly they do not provide the example. A search through my OED reveals no listing for the word. Given that he lived for seventeen years after its coining, I hope old Bird was able to take a joke.</div>Neil J Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08852834659400991664noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188649360765481587.post-2711673208636298212012-01-28T12:53:00.011-05:002012-02-11T17:42:27.300-05:00BB-39 - USS Arizona Memorial<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Pearl Harbor has been an American Naval Base since the 1890's, and was the site of the infamous Japanese surprise attack on the morning of December 7, 1941. As well as forcing the United States into World War II, this battle also resulted in the greatest loss of life on a single ship in American Naval history.<br />
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BB-39, the USS Arizona, had its keel laid in March of 1914 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and was launched from there on June 19, 1915. She was commissioned on October 16, 1916. After a month-long shakedown cruise for some final work, the battleship was assigned to its homeport of Norfolk, Virginia. Though built in time for WWI, due to the shortage of coal in Great Britain, her patrols were confined to the east coast of the US.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">After the war, Arizona conducted fleet maneuvers in the Caribbean until her transfer to the Pacific in September, 1921. Based just south of Los Angeles in San Pedro, California, she operated there for eight years, performing maneuvers and Marine training exercises, then returned to Norfolk for a complete modernization, an overhaul which was finished in 1931. After taking President Hoover on an inspection tour of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, she returned to San Pedro.<br />
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In 1940, just before she was transferred to the Hawaiian command, the battleship was overhauled once more, this time at the Puget Sound Navy Yard. Arizona finally arrived at Pearl Harbor in February, 1941.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Though the ships logs were lost, it is known that she entered Pearl Harbor and moored at her quay for the last time on Saturday, December 6, 1941.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"> <span style="font-size: x-large;">* * *</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx6ol0LJOz3QLaoCbKyAhxX71hSnv7rkzrdExu7d-orYYbQ2zmEt0YbKMZWwZAzlyPaeSXWrjZ94pQ0cGWUQUVVDzADhbx9k8ePgQtlbhUbrcrteizUWKrsIl2w7n8-iCX0_AgLafWSoM/s1600/31-+Interior.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx6ol0LJOz3QLaoCbKyAhxX71hSnv7rkzrdExu7d-orYYbQ2zmEt0YbKMZWwZAzlyPaeSXWrjZ94pQ0cGWUQUVVDzADhbx9k8ePgQtlbhUbrcrteizUWKrsIl2w7n8-iCX0_AgLafWSoM/s400/31-+Interior.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Arizona Memorial - January 28, 1996</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">It's a quiet ride on the launch from the visitor center to the memorial. You hear the motor, and the water rushing past, but human voices become muted as the boat nears the brilliant white sloping structure. Disembarking at the dock the only sounds are from the park rangers directing the crowd; inside almost everyone speaks in a whisper. Even the children are silent. <br />
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Opened in 1962, the concrete memorial seems to float astride the sunken battleship. It actually stands on piers, and no part of the building touches the ship. It's an open-air structure, with seven large openings on either wall, and another seven in the ceiling above. Seven openings to signify the seventh of December. There is a large opening in the floor near the far end, you can lean on the railing and look down at the wreck.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span> </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Uui29pt0mh6nWBDFESwZca2_i717nnrRMPO9lOq0d_szM5PID9T_HZyaOFBaqsnHiJ-6PF2OGi9aYeYL-w38IJESwA-ZGTYo_iaj0OiZI61E8OTSQr5MQnzmAzE3MeFx9dE9uelCC54/s1600/29-Memorial+Wall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Uui29pt0mh6nWBDFESwZca2_i717nnrRMPO9lOq0d_szM5PID9T_HZyaOFBaqsnHiJ-6PF2OGi9aYeYL-w38IJESwA-ZGTYo_iaj0OiZI61E8OTSQr5MQnzmAzE3MeFx9dE9uelCC54/s400/29-Memorial+Wall.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Memorial Wall - 1,117 Sailors and Marines</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Dominating the far end of the memorial is the marble wall with an alphabetical list of the 1,177 sailors and marines who died aboard the ship that December morning, most of whom remain entombed in the waters below your feet.</span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXN-ZbpbhHCUy5wEa5SpdliZ2iljBO1oFvd8XJYhLFJx7nTIt-PtKe4sNN_P30rqJGA-eZBlDlU5uJO3iwbEpEA09IZ2zfWmOjTeu7B_Ax8v1I1dlo-YT_quC6KZMUOQoRaqtmxngez5U/s1600/21-Names.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXN-ZbpbhHCUy5wEa5SpdliZ2iljBO1oFvd8XJYhLFJx7nTIt-PtKe4sNN_P30rqJGA-eZBlDlU5uJO3iwbEpEA09IZ2zfWmOjTeu7B_Ax8v1I1dlo-YT_quC6KZMUOQoRaqtmxngez5U/s400/21-Names.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The marble and engraving are the same as you'll find in any United States National Cemetery, which lends an air of solemn familiarity to the place. But although this is not a <i>national</i> cemetery, it <i>is</i> a war grave, and is administered as such by the United States Navy as an active site. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYHdBzbf2J-5rVfxTTypSgFStrOQBMgmxvPGLpeF87hAJ1p80tuoL0zY-hqMBzSoEeRnDo7uB4bhtxmbN2UYn0HAS4q3i4Tmg8KzjbdmJY1FtGPX9DRXMRh22uk4c6zmP8ux0me7pQi9Q/s1600/14-Turret.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYHdBzbf2J-5rVfxTTypSgFStrOQBMgmxvPGLpeF87hAJ1p80tuoL0zY-hqMBzSoEeRnDo7uB4bhtxmbN2UYn0HAS4q3i4Tmg8KzjbdmJY1FtGPX9DRXMRh22uk4c6zmP8ux0me7pQi9Q/s400/14-Turret.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">Gun Turret Number Three </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">An <i>active</i> war grave, you may be thinking, more than seventy years after the battle? Well, yes, as the few survivors of the attack have been allowed to have their ashes interred on the ship in a niche within the Number Four turret, which is located below the waterline, and behind the Number Three turret, pictured above. To date, a little over two dozen urns have been placed. Men who served on the ship before the attack, but not assigned to it at the time, may have their ashes scattered in the waters over it.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">A full list of the current interments and scatterings, as well as more information about the ship and memorial, can be <a href="http://www.pastfoundation.org/Arizona/ArizonaInterments.htm" target="_blank">found here</a>. </span></div><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"> .</span></div>Neil J Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08852834659400991664noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188649360765481587.post-67366040278489369392011-12-16T11:55:00.004-05:002012-02-01T13:31:09.353-05:00Cornerstone<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMsU9zXLHKcCIweqkGa0bwmtBZfmzvj22jS8bY1SUT191sfMJCLq0DLTIVzCgrPEN5Vd2xKZpQSwjMha9tk4Ad7ldfFsTzZXrT_KKbrwVaoCb7N0aZDDyY1kLxNHfS6YjOfjhoaPmAwVE/s1600/Close-Up.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMsU9zXLHKcCIweqkGa0bwmtBZfmzvj22jS8bY1SUT191sfMJCLq0DLTIVzCgrPEN5Vd2xKZpQSwjMha9tk4Ad7ldfFsTzZXrT_KKbrwVaoCb7N0aZDDyY1kLxNHfS6YjOfjhoaPmAwVE/s400/Close-Up.jpg" width="400" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">It's a very handsome piece, dark gray with lighter speckling, three lines of type at the top and the date in the lower right, all carved in a powerfully simple typeface, fittingly called Gotham, and accentuated with silverleaf. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">It was with much pomp and PR that the cornerstone for what was then known as the Freedom Tower was dedicated and set in place at the World Trade Center site on July 4th of 2004. And it sat there while the state and the city argued and dithered for almost two years as the building was re-planned, re-purposed, redesigned, renamed and finally re-sited to the point that it was obvious that this granite cuboid would serve no actual purpose and have no physical part of the structure it was intended for. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">So on June 23, 2006, with the building now sited forty feet to its west, the stone was hauled away in order for construction of the underground infrastructure of the WTC to begin.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">And the twenty tons of Adirondack granite went east, back to the stoneyard where it was shaped and engraved. The company, Innovative Stone, didn't feel it was right to keep it in storage, so they landscaped a plaza in front of their building at 130 Motor Parkway in Hauppaugue where the stone was rededicated on September 11, 2009.</span></div><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">December 11, 2011</span></td></tr>
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<div style="color: white;">.</div>Neil J Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08852834659400991664noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188649360765481587.post-46144236773764604352011-11-10T21:37:00.002-05:002012-02-03T09:40:12.521-05:00The Metropolitan and The Essex<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiImfcSb0DOZoNTxuZFgAYafRaGL-bLlb4uJxD0GaUsVWM3gaUzquHDqxIIHMRlC0ZFp05Yoo9UDAPLAbyS8e9EmbwqmMu8P5TcktmdN6ZWZRVIYpxaI1HwumM7Qxu-wjKT8WV6xGEDPNE/s1600/Metropolitan+and+Essex.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiImfcSb0DOZoNTxuZFgAYafRaGL-bLlb4uJxD0GaUsVWM3gaUzquHDqxIIHMRlC0ZFp05Yoo9UDAPLAbyS8e9EmbwqmMu8P5TcktmdN6ZWZRVIYpxaI1HwumM7Qxu-wjKT8WV6xGEDPNE/s400/Metropolitan+and+Essex.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td class="tr-caption">October 1985</td><td class="tr-caption"><br />
</td><td class="tr-caption"><br />
</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I always liked this picture for the two-tone effect of the almost-silhouetted foreground and background and the way the midtone grays give a sense of distance to the buildings. If the buildings were as dark as the trees they'd seem as if they were both on the same plane. As it is, they're actually on three different planes.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The foreground trees are in Central Park, somewhere around the Wollman Rink. The Essex House and its neighbor to the east, the twin-chimenied Hampshire House, have been side-by side on Central Park South (W. 59th Street) since the early 1930's. Looming behind them (and two blocks south, on West 57th, forming the third plane) is the northeast face of the 78 story Metropolitan Tower, a triangular residential building which had just topped out around the time of this photo, and would be completed two years later.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I had wanted to use this picture back in 2007 for my other website, <a href="http://www.imagesofthelostcity.com/" target="_blank">Images of the Lost City</a>, but was frustrated by my inability to find its location in the park: after twenty-two years the trees had grown to the point where nothing was visible. It would have been an interesting sight, too, since almost as soon as this building opened, another, taller </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">building</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> (though with 14 fewer stories, curiously), the Carnegie Hall Tower was constructed a mere thirty feet to the west. The six-story Russian Tea Room stands between them.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: white;">.</span> </span></span></div>Neil J Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08852834659400991664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188649360765481587.post-56800204958393097462011-11-08T01:45:00.008-05:002012-01-09T15:45:40.748-05:00But Wait, There's More!<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1dLZgnjnxz_g6DmiYrikpx49S7k1KF_HGRMggaNngeT_cxEBARznXdj3h-QzZhDMY06fQDMlYS8dAb1wiyq0HZmSRilFt9dwloMV3k4OIgzO5Xjzz2EZMJztnJx7Qg7eOBgtE4RRxsCU/s1600/See+Other+Side.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1dLZgnjnxz_g6DmiYrikpx49S7k1KF_HGRMggaNngeT_cxEBARznXdj3h-QzZhDMY06fQDMlYS8dAb1wiyq0HZmSRilFt9dwloMV3k4OIgzO5Xjzz2EZMJztnJx7Qg7eOBgtE4RRxsCU/s400/See+Other+Side.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">November 7, 2011</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;">The Friends Meeting House is on Old Jericho Turnpike in Jericho. Easily overlooked, next to a multi-story professional building on the edge of a commercial area. The cemetery behind it is hidden by trees from Route 25, and about ten feet above the roadway, so you'd never see it driving by. I noticed it on my map, and seeing it was near a few others, decided to see what was there. Walking in I knew right away there wasn't anything to interest me: all the markers were identical, two and a half-foot high dark granite stones, all mostly 20th century burials. The meeting house dated from the 1700's, but any stones from that period must have weathered away long ago. Worse, all the stones faced north, away from the light, and this type of granite is hard enough to read even in good light. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;">I wandered about anyway, after all, I was here, but frankly, this was a boring place. But there's always something... </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Now, I've been to dozens of cemeteries here on the Island, and I've seen every sort of phrasing possible carved on gravestones; from tortured verse on the passing of a child (Lynbrook - "Ah, no more can we list to her laughter/nor see the fond light in her eye/Like a flower she blossomed and faded/T'was God's will that the dear one must die.") to extended descriptions of the manner of death (a 19th century man in Commack, 'by a waggon loaded with hay running over his brest') to the diseases that killed them (Southampton, 'died of the Smallpox', late 18th century). I've learned that 18th century wives were often referred to as 'consorts', and then 'relicts' a hundred years later. I've seen huge stones with space for a half-dozen names yet having but one, often that of a young woman, carved off to one side, with the rest of the stone blank. I've even seen a gravestone for <a href="http://neiljmurphy.blogspot.com/2009/10/past-is-curious-place.html">a man who <i>survived</i> a shipwreck</a>.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">So here's to Andrew Dott, Jr., the newest addition to my list of odd stones, for the past forty-two years beckoning passersby to 'See Other Side' and read his wife's curious verse:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7QYuqshteuf4rOYXdpxiwGLlSlL3iDcszqq153GBhzPHyttkaZvKkd7m6SpoKjqAh9vCmpms0wAKE2NTZy7Brd75-eANXCJBYgwOZyRugfKcF4h5dZ1-RHq6qzlnuPQch38X2kEqWpbU/s1600/See+-+Other+Side.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7QYuqshteuf4rOYXdpxiwGLlSlL3iDcszqq153GBhzPHyttkaZvKkd7m6SpoKjqAh9vCmpms0wAKE2NTZy7Brd75-eANXCJBYgwOZyRugfKcF4h5dZ1-RHq6qzlnuPQch38X2kEqWpbU/s400/See+-+Other+Side.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Quaker Cemetery, Jericho, N.Y.<br />
<br />
. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>Neil J Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08852834659400991664noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188649360765481587.post-89059741570694577192011-10-31T14:48:00.011-04:002012-02-03T00:13:13.026-05:00Hallowe'en with Harry<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBiEwb4kuR9fTxrBYoBVqW0j8jCVwnln8yIHYdVkKPlfly2iur0GM9E4uKEGBqv9mDJSzieDcoI6Fh8E7y2dLC2BILzaXrJrCIdkXhvp22yA8yH4nCDF0xd8IJnuveco19obJHmII4Lfg/s1600/4361-Memorial.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBiEwb4kuR9fTxrBYoBVqW0j8jCVwnln8yIHYdVkKPlfly2iur0GM9E4uKEGBqv9mDJSzieDcoI6Fh8E7y2dLC2BILzaXrJrCIdkXhvp22yA8yH4nCDF0xd8IJnuveco19obJHmII4Lfg/s400/4361-Memorial.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">October 31, 2011</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">I've been to see the gravesite of Harry Houdini many times over the years at the now semi-abandoned </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">Machpelah Cemetery in Queens, and even went there last year on Hallowe'en, but I never had the chance, until today, to see his bust atop the center pillar</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"> of the memorial.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5Oy-GV583JozrajodYxbgZn00rOb2-OQRuj7dICJ7jPJZQO73eUMKibhOQfO7Yyn6-Y4LVgHMYp8ImM_vc3pwrP9J1pPiz40xGbJzpI8_aUh-yyfrlSPXgRVpDzENhT0xcU_qV9yDrQo/s1600/4363-Bust.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5Oy-GV583JozrajodYxbgZn00rOb2-OQRuj7dICJ7jPJZQO73eUMKibhOQfO7Yyn6-Y4LVgHMYp8ImM_vc3pwrP9J1pPiz40xGbJzpI8_aUh-yyfrlSPXgRVpDzENhT0xcU_qV9yDrQo/s200/4363-Bust.jpg" width="148" /></a></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">The bust was originally a part of the site, which was built by Houdini (born Erich Weiss) in 1916 to honor his parents, who are memorialized in the carvings on the left (mother Cecelia 1841-1913) and right (father Mayer 1829-1892) sides of the half-circle bench. (These were cut from the original stela the parents were buried under and incorporated into this new one.) They, along with his maternal grandmother and four of his brothers, are buried with Harry in the forecourt. The stories I hear was that the original bust was was stolen so often that the family finally gave up on replacing it, and a reproduction was created by the </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">Society of </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">American Magicians and placed here only for the memorial service they hold every year on the anniversary of Houdini's October 31st, 1926 death.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">This particular bust, I learned, was created by the Houdini Museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania, after a years-long fundraising effort, and installed here, somewhat covertly, on this past September 27. You can read <a href="http://houdini.org/houdinibust.html">their account of it here</a>. </span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoUuCKnVUqrX7teNVwa-Tt5UMwJ52LRsGnoeyZ2uZzaltNEEJ7FCO_TTJ6HgTDYF3hUhY6uG7P4mVURDi0Xpogi9Okh3yiONGjAYVf8iV8r8xLt7uhGlnzNjcpBUL526D4MnZssyhkqLM/s1600/4388-Gravesite+Long+shot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoUuCKnVUqrX7teNVwa-Tt5UMwJ52LRsGnoeyZ2uZzaltNEEJ7FCO_TTJ6HgTDYF3hUhY6uG7P4mVURDi0Xpogi9Okh3yiONGjAYVf8iV8r8xLt7uhGlnzNjcpBUL526D4MnZssyhkqLM/s400/4388-Gravesite+Long+shot.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Weiss Family Gravesite - October 2011</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">But last year, when my sister and I came by, there was no bust, in fact, the cemetery gates were locked. We got onto the grounds through the adjacent Hungarian Cemetery. (The Machpelah gatehouse has been abandoned for several years now.) I was here again this past August, and while the gates were open, the grounds were somewhat overgrown in places. While not as far gone as the <a href="http://citynoise.org/article/8696" target="_blank">Bayside/Acacia Cemetery</a> in southern Queens, or the <a href="http://www.abandonedbutnotforgotten.com/mount_moriah_cemetery,_abandoned.htm">Mount Moriah Cemetery</a> in Philadelphia, it could, sadly, be only a matter of time.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcttsCQSDXA4qtpBlfo-gcpS_SFPgd1mnULIFkUtUT_OMsH59crGxdg42DhH_DoUkjmt_5rPHcnWNJeos33sXD7sEyQnmNbukT8LhZTo3T5eOsN_tXYYP3yYNrT29dnGWbbUWGvF3_zaU/s1600/4404-Flat+Stone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcttsCQSDXA4qtpBlfo-gcpS_SFPgd1mnULIFkUtUT_OMsH59crGxdg42DhH_DoUkjmt_5rPHcnWNJeos33sXD7sEyQnmNbukT8LhZTo3T5eOsN_tXYYP3yYNrT29dnGWbbUWGvF3_zaU/s400/4404-Flat+Stone.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Grave Marker. Note the small padlock in the letter 'O'</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">Houdini died in Detroit at the age of 52; he was born 26 years before the turn of the century and died 26 years after. His wife died in Needles, California, in 1943. That date remains uncarved on their stone for the simple reason that she isn't buried here. Bess, as she was known, was born and raised a Catholic, and her family would not allow her to be buried in the Orthodox Jewish cemetery. Or the Orthodox Jewish Machpelah Cemetery would not allow a <i>shiksa</i> to be buried there. Both stories are out there, take your pick. Bess can be found in the Gate of Heaven cemetery in Hawthorne, New York.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">Addendum: I received an email</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> this morning</span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"> from George Schindler, </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">the dean of the Society of American Magicians, informing me that this year's Broken Wand ceremony will be held at 1:26 PM on the anniversary of Houdini's death, <i>based on the Hebrew calendar </i></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">(</span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">23rd of Cheshvan, 5687<b>)</b></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">, which this year falls on November 20</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><b>.</b></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> If you're interested in attending let me know, and I'll send you directions to the cemetery and parking information (Machpelah Cemetery has no parking lot).</span> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: white;">.</span></span></div>Neil J Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08852834659400991664noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188649360765481587.post-11940442760806532382011-09-29T01:29:00.002-04:002013-12-05T11:27:46.098-05:00Along the Deuce<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh2b5ZeUHjxcY1NSIWlIqFKKYyLXeQP_aS7u3OGNm1R95SMGx_fnjnaP7ODoWzC25BJwyNLAR7ewqFlrTN3p2fSgYgTC2O9o-kNXpga4Xi3uUNMvSI4sVl9FQzbrVp7hX3SbUcXcFoU_U/s1600/The+Duece++-++Empire+Theater+7-88.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh2b5ZeUHjxcY1NSIWlIqFKKYyLXeQP_aS7u3OGNm1R95SMGx_fnjnaP7ODoWzC25BJwyNLAR7ewqFlrTN3p2fSgYgTC2O9o-kNXpga4Xi3uUNMvSI4sVl9FQzbrVp7hX3SbUcXcFoU_U/s400/The+Duece++-++Empire+Theater+7-88.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">July 1988</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I spent four years working on the west side of Manhattan, on 44th Street at 12th Avenue. When I first started there in 1987, the old West Side Highway structure still ran down to 43rd Street on 12th; if there were any windows on my floor they'd look right out onto the roadway. The USS Intrepid was docked across the street, a few blocks north of the Circle Line boats. Neither of them drew too many tourists back then, and given the ambiance of the neighborhood, it's not surprising. There were still concerts at Pier 83 in the summer, which was about the height of culture, unless you were interested in the mating habits of the Jersey Johns with the local crack whores.</span></span></div>
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</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">West 42nd street was still a miasma of filth and abandonment, with empty theaters and quarter peep shows on both sides of the block, interspersed with souvenir and counterfeit stores. </span></span></div>
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</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">So of course it was one of my favorite places to stroll through; at the shop we'd refer to it as 'the scenic route'. Disney was still almost a decade away from finally conquering it all, but there were other attempts that threatened to destroy the quaintness of it all. And those plans did not go unchallenged.</span></span></div>
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</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDjhLN3n1TjKhvV_G73WWV_qZQWQxLDG8eii1Q3LvWmyCVBuKSkDI3cfc-_lKdt3_BdsZeKb4RdybQ8qyZKhWZT1iAyBE2xh1pQY7wM1ouC8jfYTuUe7wXGYByuLV3kwxVL4_m7MhBgB0/s1600/Liberty+and+Empire+Theaters+7-88.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDjhLN3n1TjKhvV_G73WWV_qZQWQxLDG8eii1Q3LvWmyCVBuKSkDI3cfc-_lKdt3_BdsZeKb4RdybQ8qyZKhWZT1iAyBE2xh1pQY7wM1ouC8jfYTuUe7wXGYByuLV3kwxVL4_m7MhBgB0/s400/Liberty+and+Empire+Theaters+7-88.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">July 1988</span></td></tr>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Designs had been announced in the fall of 1988 for a development plan for the Square involving four huge office towers on the north and south ends of 42nd street and Seventh Avenue. Four bland, monolithic structures that were probably doomed to never move beyond the drawing board before the ink was even dry, but lots were being assembled and condemnation was going forward. The owners of some of the theaters began to protest, utilizing their marquees as giant picket signs, as seen below. Of course, the cynic in me still thinks they were more upset that they wanted market rate for their properties, rather than the offers they were given by the city under eminent domain, but it all made for public outcry and, pun intended, good theater.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I never took a lot of pictures on the Deuce, partly out of a sense of self-consciousness, and partly out of a sense of self-preservation. The street was usually crowded when I was there, and with an open camera bag on my shoulder and a camera at my eye, I was a good target. Notice in the second of the two pictures above, the man in the white jacket with the cane? After I took the picture I turned around, stepped back on the sidewalk, and put my camera back in the bag. He'd crossed the street by then, and hit me in the ass with the cane. True story.</span></span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmWTYjTG9j79PMJbXrFDHU9R80vmdfItpMtkPyPHLRmG3x3RuKXR9C0474xw4VR7I2Mmu6BR2hWvOtYwh_yiHdKp_67XXrN3y0AIxDFYPjU7IKBVGMGPGZidhhEnRBIQ57yq4vhxU79rw/s1600/Empire+Marquee.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmWTYjTG9j79PMJbXrFDHU9R80vmdfItpMtkPyPHLRmG3x3RuKXR9C0474xw4VR7I2Mmu6BR2hWvOtYwh_yiHdKp_67XXrN3y0AIxDFYPjU7IKBVGMGPGZidhhEnRBIQ57yq4vhxU79rw/s400/Empire+Marquee.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">October 1988</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">While I like the first two pictures here for their historical perspective, this is my favorite for its artistic point of view. Early on a rain-soaked evening, with a mix of loiterers shuffling about and pedestrians hurrying along the sidewalks. Peep show marquees reflecting in the wet roadway and lone streetlight arching into the air. You can follow the </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">vanishing point</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> all the way down 42nd street to where it ends at the river, the hills of New Jersey a gray hint beyond.</span></span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://neilstimemachine.blogspot.com/2007/08/42-riverthe-new-new-amsterdam.html">More ruminations on 42nd Street can be found here. </a></span></span><br />
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
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Neil J Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08852834659400991664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188649360765481587.post-17906763074063810332011-09-27T11:08:00.002-04:002012-02-03T09:40:46.362-05:00Manhattan Tower<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir3mSpMZkCF_eHzAzfh6_4IHQEtjZadvaaISrLYiuGNBEl0b0SbCPttDMVNuPJ6iBhvR2qG4dyE5EilBvjH_cvdF2zj0Hs99P1q9StHFqAEK5pThvcLl-m5pddaIBScZiA1xaE56gYQrk/s1600/Brooklyn+Bridge+3-11-03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir3mSpMZkCF_eHzAzfh6_4IHQEtjZadvaaISrLYiuGNBEl0b0SbCPttDMVNuPJ6iBhvR2qG4dyE5EilBvjH_cvdF2zj0Hs99P1q9StHFqAEK5pThvcLl-m5pddaIBScZiA1xaE56gYQrk/s400/Brooklyn+Bridge+3-11-03.jpg" width="251" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">March 11, 2003</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I cannot for the life of me remember why I was crossing the bridge from Brooklyn into Manhattan on this morning in March. I've been wracking my brain trying to recall, and I keep coming up empty. I know I started on the Brooklyn side; the contact sheet from this roll has images from there. I just don't know why, or even how I got to Brooklyn.</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">And as you can see, I had the walkway pretty much to myself. There was one group of about three people a few hundred feet in front of me, and I had to wait for them to pass under the arches in order to get this shot, but other than them, and a few bicycles, I was alone over the East River. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">It was a clear sunny day, late in the morning to judge from the sun's angle, and the classic Gothic towers were lit beautifully. I took advantage of the light, with my main concern being symmetry. The narrow walkway on the bridge was limiting my lateral movement, so a straight architectural composition was my goal.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I still managed a bit of creativity, I think. While the image is far from perfectly symmetrical (note that I wasn't even standing on the center line of the boardwalk), I like the way the cables running from the center of the tower form an asterisk of sorts as they lead down and across the upper third of the picture. The cloudless sky also aids the composition as it seamlessly gradates from light to dark over the middle to the upper third. Clouds would break this sense of flow, making the image jumbled and confusing to the eye. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Finally, with one exception, every line in the picture is a straight line: verticals, horizontals, and diagonals, each vertical and diagonal matched on the left and right side, the horizontal brickwork of the tower complimenting the boards of the walkway and girders over the roadways. The only curving lines of course, being the twin arches in the very center, which help to soften what would otherwise be a very severe image.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">. </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></span></span></div>Neil J Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08852834659400991664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188649360765481587.post-19954811500815001652011-09-25T11:02:00.011-04:002012-02-03T09:40:59.245-05:00Lido Sunflower<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSsHgl5qzKscAdj0ZN3zHL0UsFF0l7wKO7JazsXR6a6iBBE28MFiBJPBXyNuorxthfO511brpzIcO0-Ua3scMhlddzEY90txkDA-GvmQskO3hTFzDlqVQcSq1LmujMnEeTGEpjlQlxhgw/s1600/Lido+Sunflower.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSsHgl5qzKscAdj0ZN3zHL0UsFF0l7wKO7JazsXR6a6iBBE28MFiBJPBXyNuorxthfO511brpzIcO0-Ua3scMhlddzEY90txkDA-GvmQskO3hTFzDlqVQcSq1LmujMnEeTGEpjlQlxhgw/s400/Lido+Sunflower.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">August 1999</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">My first autofocus camera was the Pentax ZX-5n which I got in the summer of 1999. I remember I was able to afford it because the newspaper I was working for at the time had finally cut me a check for the assignments I'd done during the previous three months. (They really hated paying freelancers.)</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">One of the neat features of this camera was the 'panorama drop-in', which was a mask that blacked-out the top and bottom thirds of a single frame, to create a panorama effect. I say 'effect', because a true panorama camera would expose the image across two, three and sometimes four entire frames of a film roll, using either a wide-angle lens or a rolling slit-shutter. But those cameras cost thousands and required elaborate tripods, so for about the $350 that the Pentax cost, I was happy with the drop-in mask.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Of course, I could have just cropped the top and bottom of the image in the enlarger when I printed them, but my technique at the time was 'shooting for the full frame', that is, I never cropped any pictures that I printed. I used an oversized carrier in my enlarger that let me print the border of the negative as a frame around the image. Without a masked negative I wouldn't have a black border all around, only on the sides.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">There was an inherent problem with this, however. Minilabs at the time were programmed to automatically print negatives shot with the mask as pano prints, which cost a dollar each (or more, depending on the lab), so if I used color film, having a roll processed and printed could wind up costing a fortune. And since the prints were basically just super-enlargements, if you used 400 speed film, you could wind up with grainy, expensive, unusable prints. I had to remember to write 'print all frames as 4x6' in capital letters in the special instruction box when I had color film printed.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">That said, this picture works well as a pano, since the area of interest is in the center, and having more sky and road on the top and bottom would just detract from it. This was shot looking west along Lido Boulevard across from the beach clubs back in August of 1999. I'd been driving past this spot all summer, and I really liked the sunflowers that one of the homeowners on Marginal Road (the street to the right) had planted on the narrow median between the streets. I finally took my bicycle out that way to get some shots.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Here's why I think this composition works: on the left you have the empty, open road, angling into half of a vanishing point. On the right a busy scene with trees, houses and cars, the sunflower in the foreground, and barely discernable, the other half of the vanishing point, running behind the flower and pole to join with the left side somewhere off in the distant trees.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: white;">.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>Neil J Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08852834659400991664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188649360765481587.post-38533123492117307712011-09-24T10:38:00.002-04:002012-02-03T09:41:14.283-05:00Bleecker Street in July<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidbP1pYI_BWu1jXjZItk_KOGJHjhyphenhyphenEANAzKsYG4EOt1cqo3I-qK7H1NvXT5rxh_v8OXKhPBQDmTP7uIeGCbNWXfLyGh7effhpe5JMKuh_4tZDP1vdYn98vzyi4DNylcqiqLlFX1iYZK0Y/s1600/ESBird+7-1986.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidbP1pYI_BWu1jXjZItk_KOGJHjhyphenhyphenEANAzKsYG4EOt1cqo3I-qK7H1NvXT5rxh_v8OXKhPBQDmTP7uIeGCbNWXfLyGh7effhpe5JMKuh_4tZDP1vdYn98vzyi4DNylcqiqLlFX1iYZK0Y/s400/ESBird+7-1986.jpg" width="247" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">July 30, 1986</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Here's another example of Kodak's Recording Film, on a hot Wednesday afternoon in July. For this one I was standing on the west side of Sixth Avenue at Bleecker Street, between Churchill Square (the Downing Street Playground) and Father Demo Square. The pigeon was probably flying towards Carmine Street, a block to the north, and the Empire State building is, of course, about thirty-one blocks further north (and an avenue east) at 34th and Fifth. </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This was shot with my first 35mm camera, a Pentax ME Super. I think I had a 70-200mm zoom lens on the camera, and although I don't know for sure what the focal length was that I was using; I don't think it was racked out to the full 200mm, more likely it was at around 150mm, but after 25 years, my memory of these things is about as hazy as the sky was on this day.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The above image is also cropped from the full scene, and when I first printed this negative I made two versions: one was cropped as you see here, and the other horizontally, with none of the trees showing. I liked the way that one looked, almost like a bas-relief of the pebbly building emerging from the grainy sky. Below is the full image from the original negative. </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVVk5_MIkGbAMX9oJWxw6DRZ07wLM-yjcaZRH2fuD53szHTEaxS9gU17_KkDYKf_rwLKk4RtfGRlbwsyvxLXfD-zepwcaD_uW9ZTtAYW2b5OzJZHvmYvoeNhd5MvB0od9jCP-H9GbSnUc/s1600/ESBird-Full+Frame.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVVk5_MIkGbAMX9oJWxw6DRZ07wLM-yjcaZRH2fuD53szHTEaxS9gU17_KkDYKf_rwLKk4RtfGRlbwsyvxLXfD-zepwcaD_uW9ZTtAYW2b5OzJZHvmYvoeNhd5MvB0od9jCP-H9GbSnUc/s320/ESBird-Full+Frame.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Looking at the contact sheet, this was the first of only three frames that I shot of this scene. The other two were verticals, the second at about the same focal length as this one, and the last a longer shot (i.e., a shorter focal length, probably at 70mm) to show more of the street. I can't remember if I even saw the bird in the viewfinder when I took the picture; I may have, and then made the second to insure that I'd have what I was initially after, since I had no idea it would be positioned so perfectly, and I certainly wasn't trying to compose anything like what I wound up with. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">But serendipity has been a wonderful collaborator. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: white;">. </span> </span></span></div>Neil J Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08852834659400991664noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188649360765481587.post-42972388782818504522011-09-23T12:23:00.004-04:002012-02-03T09:41:29.482-05:00Drive-In Movie<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVaIsiqSBa2yfjAfGZfnH_Kq17m4vQgjv7kYxXXo7KDRFrHBXYpCxXPYWbi0KHr4hnu4o-AmZvjjDdvolSFyOXAom9-cYiVw8v5bJpaDaq_cmS4uN6CW0HcybTsIa9UGc7ibu0ugO_xy0/s1600/Drive-In+Movie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVaIsiqSBa2yfjAfGZfnH_Kq17m4vQgjv7kYxXXo7KDRFrHBXYpCxXPYWbi0KHr4hnu4o-AmZvjjDdvolSFyOXAom9-cYiVw8v5bJpaDaq_cmS4uN6CW0HcybTsIa9UGc7ibu0ugO_xy0/s400/Drive-In+Movie.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rocky Point, NY - October 1991</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Another of my favorite pictures, this was also one of the last drive-in movie theaters on Long Island in the late 1980's. This was taken in the early fall of 1991; I used to spend my weekends driving around the Island, looking for unusual places, when I happened upon this. </span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">A friend's family had a summer house in Rocky Point during the 80's, and I knew about the drive-in, I just didn't know at this time that it had been abandoned for a few years. The sign out on Rt. 25A was barely visible, and I remember having to park in a strip mall about a hundred yards past it, then walking back to fight my way through the brush that had grown up along the entrance lane.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I had to walk some distance, past the entrance booths to finally come upon the towering screen facing what was now an isolated meadow with waist-high grass. I wandered around for some time in this quiet, deserted bowl before I saw the car seat, and knew I had my picture</span>.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">.</span></div>Neil J Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08852834659400991664noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188649360765481587.post-12913726281326106682011-09-22T14:15:00.002-04:002012-02-03T09:53:58.594-05:00Southern Exposure<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_oPWNhsY16HtUYYJdJuo5DQkQKr7qD11NrjiXMrJZLX5lsSOA9Al6Dt1xQqDYTWB9gX_1wufYeRLLl3x3Jtc1CRcOJlylx9ICivGGhePM-seGHNsxHNgb5TVHnZwuNzwiRvchuKDsMXo/s1600/Southern+Exposure.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_oPWNhsY16HtUYYJdJuo5DQkQKr7qD11NrjiXMrJZLX5lsSOA9Al6Dt1xQqDYTWB9gX_1wufYeRLLl3x3Jtc1CRcOJlylx9ICivGGhePM-seGHNsxHNgb5TVHnZwuNzwiRvchuKDsMXo/s400/Southern+Exposure.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">February 1986</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">It wasn't a very cold Sunday afternoon in February, on the ground at least. A friend and I were wandering midtown with our cameras when one of us got the idea</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> to see if the observation deck of the RCA building (and it will always be the RCA building to me) was open. I remember we had to search the lobby for the right elevator, as there wasn't any ticket counter on the ground floor. We took one elevator up to the floor that the Rainbow Room was on, bought our tickets, then went along another hallway or two for the final ride to the top.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Unlike the Empire State, there wasn't any fencing along the parapet, and unlike today, no glass, either. Just a stomach-high (to me) ledge that you could lean on, and over. The deck itself was rectangular, with a raised area in the center with steps you could walk up. A few satellite dishes and small antenna were up there, but the best views were from the wall, where the coin-operated binoculars were.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">850 feet in the air it gets pretty windy, and the temperature drops the higher you rise. So while it may have been in the balmy high 40's in the plaza, it was pretty cold on the 70th floor. So we didn't spend a lot of time up there, but I did have a chance to make what have become a few of my favorite pictures from that time.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This is a pretty grainy image, because I was using a pretty grainy film at the time. Kodak's fastest black and white film at the time, Tri-X, was rated at 400 ISO. But working in the printing trade as I did, I knew a few photographers and custom labs and camera stores, so I was able to get hold of another Kodak film, one that wasn't sold in drugstores.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Recording Film had a basic ISO of 1000, but could be pushed (underexposed, then overdeveloped) to upwards of 3200. Nowadays, 3200 is fairly common for even pocket digitals, but during the seventies and eighties it was a specialty item used for surveillance by cops and private investigators. The grain was like gravel, but it had a charm to it, and I found myself using it in daylight as well as for night shots. But like all my favorite Kodak products, it was discontinued towards the end of the decade.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.cafepress.com/talkingpictures.574635795">This picture is available on a coffee mug! </a></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">. </span></span></div>Neil J Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08852834659400991664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188649360765481587.post-90511902211187005182011-03-28T14:01:00.008-04:002011-03-30T09:22:57.046-04:002011 LongCycle Championships Photos<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC0qZPCEFMfuza3jwzz56AI3F5R0QL1gqr6T_mE1cAIzsOrbzrk2rlkyQOObHPZXhmGovF7ZnXL2LmHdbLO8Lw0eAU-Cmu4Ew1Q9LIMhjeg-r9k4SSVM_H-YkJU_JQ4rcGIugN2CjWDrE/s400/2011Group+logo+%2528Small%2529.jpg" width="400" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">UPDATED - 3-28-11 - 1:00 PM EDT</span><br />
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">ALL PHOTOS NOW AVAILABLE FOR VIEWING! </span></div><br />
Photographs from <span style="color: red;">ALL flights</span> of the 2011 Kettlebell LongCycle championships and <u><a href="http://2011eventphotos.blogspot.com/2011/03/groups-and-awards.html"><span style="color: red;">all the awards pictures</span></a></u> are now available for viewing. Click on the link below:<br />
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<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://2011eventphotos.blogspot.com/">Kettlebell Pictures</a></b></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">A sixteen-inch wide panorama print of the group photo above is also available. Click the link for more information.<br />
<span style="color: white;">. </span></div>Neil J Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08852834659400991664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188649360765481587.post-88928934526312416642011-01-21T22:32:00.004-05:002012-02-03T09:53:11.712-05:00The Red Lion<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcUnfoUikoinkIs1KvjgFnH7VF27dz5gZdcYt8w3WOx6FxgWBjaMreQGnb6BAnkp0L7a1GXxh9AdrlzMZFwSBKula-Fi6KOD0-HGN-a3CePXD4G7Acg18-2uuj892FtrR4Q6ENtD4C3-c/s1600/Red+Lion+II.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcUnfoUikoinkIs1KvjgFnH7VF27dz5gZdcYt8w3WOx6FxgWBjaMreQGnb6BAnkp0L7a1GXxh9AdrlzMZFwSBKula-Fi6KOD0-HGN-a3CePXD4G7Acg18-2uuj892FtrR4Q6ENtD4C3-c/s320/Red+Lion+II.jpg" width="216" /></a></td></tr>
<tr style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">January 19, 2011</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">I was in Trader Joe's for my regular grocery run on January eighth when I happened to notice the plants they had in the space between the doors, where you'd pick up a handbasket or flyer or crate of Clementines on your way in. I'd forgotten they sold potted plants in addition to the cut flowers; this being right about the dead of winter here in the northeast gardening isn't at the top of my agenda, although I do have a large sunny deck to fill come the summer.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This amaryllis caught my eye. I'd had an amaryllis before, and I managed to get that one to bloom a second time quite accidentally after finding the dormant bulb, which had been left under a sink for two years.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5jP_Vb6E0DK7MfAPa9owHRg0WU1oAouBv39YH4QEL5diy6Ei1bcj8VK-CY3QRrpjJq5tpoSUkQBDOdwhUVgeBvtib43tZfcOsMGINYhA203vFIJ9Ux_0emJBo7kJl5tYHMh4iOJ0MpBY/s1600/Red+Lion+I.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5jP_Vb6E0DK7MfAPa9owHRg0WU1oAouBv39YH4QEL5diy6Ei1bcj8VK-CY3QRrpjJq5tpoSUkQBDOdwhUVgeBvtib43tZfcOsMGINYhA203vFIJ9Ux_0emJBo7kJl5tYHMh4iOJ0MpBY/s400/Red+Lion+I.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">January 19, 2011 - 11:08 AM</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">This was a nice-looking one, too. Two stalks, both with healthy-looking buds. For $5.99 I've done worse, so I took it home and set it on a small table in a corner behind a chair where it could get the afternoon sun and the cats would ignore it. </span></div></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeHevtzQxNFYiOusu2749oXXj6vUDCz5lhGBSBesvE0asJUOtf9Vq6YPsz0ZMVFLCsecXh5ls09nB3uhKn9rfTLquh7NO_8RaZATK29GBU3nncUVslqhFLRUQKtfxwxRrPjgH7QuHjnWY/s1600/Red+Lion+V.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeHevtzQxNFYiOusu2749oXXj6vUDCz5lhGBSBesvE0asJUOtf9Vq6YPsz0ZMVFLCsecXh5ls09nB3uhKn9rfTLquh7NO_8RaZATK29GBU3nncUVslqhFLRUQKtfxwxRrPjgH7QuHjnWY/s320/Red+Lion+V.jpg" width="212" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">January 20, 2011</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;">I kept the dirt damp for a week as the buds grew fatter, then moved the table (and wound up rearranging half the furniture) in front of the window, so as to get the sun for most of the day. This, along with some extra water, proved to be a fortuitous move, since by the 17th the shorter stalk pushed one bell out from its green bud, fell the next day and began opening on the 19th. This stalk has two trumpets on it; from the progress seen here I should have a good shot of the double flower by Sunday.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoDYBIpM0nDfN5J6_e1f6n5z_ZtN5yUtXbClu-TD4XPkMs57ulE6UXhx2wQ2L89uSl8fQd6DuqrMnT3MdtgjNhQp-446ZH1Z529TMoJqeZh7Sewj9ekWUa0dJGaxxZV185_OwSuQI1U9Y/s1600/Red+Lion+III.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoDYBIpM0nDfN5J6_e1f6n5z_ZtN5yUtXbClu-TD4XPkMs57ulE6UXhx2wQ2L89uSl8fQd6DuqrMnT3MdtgjNhQp-446ZH1Z529TMoJqeZh7Sewj9ekWUa0dJGaxxZV185_OwSuQI1U9Y/s400/Red+Lion+III.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">January 20, 2011</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;">Setting up these shots was easier than it may seem. There's no fancy lighting or backgrounds, all I did was raise the blinds a bit more than normal and annoy the cats a bit more than usual with my furniture-moving. The light is natures own, filtered through the window screen, and the background is the matte black of the flat-screen TV.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrk2mo7hcOKCekt0EFjgpSX2cTHB2gIhAooBOzrTNyW3DdtDB0tWWs25GxanZcWpc6g2qff_KOXDfRgShffW6Qe41z1Nr371f1d8sbJPoj4-KMgpkAhuRDolFcHMoe0UpxHt9-58l10bc/s1600/Red+Lion+VII.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrk2mo7hcOKCekt0EFjgpSX2cTHB2gIhAooBOzrTNyW3DdtDB0tWWs25GxanZcWpc6g2qff_KOXDfRgShffW6Qe41z1Nr371f1d8sbJPoj4-KMgpkAhuRDolFcHMoe0UpxHt9-58l10bc/s400/Red+Lion+VII.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">January 21, 2011</span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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</tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;">I did use an assortment of lenses for these shots, the 50mm, 17-40 and 24-105, mostly at <i>f</i>8 or <i>f</i>11 for added depth of field. Shutter speeds were 1/25 to 1/125, all handheld. The small aperture, the black background, and the high-key lighting combine to isolate the subject. This isolation accentuates the intensity of the color and draws the eye into the detail of the image.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: white;">.</span></span></div>Neil J Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08852834659400991664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188649360765481587.post-44363523548134870312011-01-08T00:59:00.004-05:002012-02-03T09:51:39.616-05:00Winter Water<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHbB8NhOsuIWyjzDzDYy2qSCDiLhWufZDlGcz3K1RfWBggtmu0LhCd3zRdCPMlPTTHTQj-0SL0apoVySqQ_XIp1Ftz2AbCR1lzNFok-BqYzocsl0CK8yqwUBseekoybeM5-WByHj6PPos/s1600/twisting+creek+%2528web%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHbB8NhOsuIWyjzDzDYy2qSCDiLhWufZDlGcz3K1RfWBggtmu0LhCd3zRdCPMlPTTHTQj-0SL0apoVySqQ_XIp1Ftz2AbCR1lzNFok-BqYzocsl0CK8yqwUBseekoybeM5-WByHj6PPos/s400/twisting+creek+%2528web%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Winter Water, Mendon Creek - February 2009</span></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The 30th annual Monkey Island holiday card was mailed from Long Beach, New York this year on the Monday before Christmas. </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">It was an informal format this year (fold on top) with the sentiment 'Twisting through the winter wood, twisting the year away' on the inside.</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> The picture was taken alongside Route 4 near Wheelerville Road between the towns of Mendon and Killington, Vermont. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I really like the way this picture came out, and many people have said many very nice things about it, for which I'm grateful. And not only because I had to climb over a pile of plowed snow on the roadside in order to clamber down the ice-crusted snowy embankment so I could capture the scene closer to the level of the creek, so there wouldn't be the extreme downward angle I'd get if I just shot from the road, which would result in a reverse keystone effect with the trees.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This was shot with the 5D using the 24-105L at 24mm. I used ISO 100 to keep the noise to a minimum, and a shutter speed of 1/80th of a second at <i>f</i>11. The f-stop is the key to the whole picture, a small aperture (and <i>f</i>11 is about as small as you want to go with a wide angle lens, any smaller and there will be distortion at the edges and darkening in the corners) gives greater depth of field, which is how all those trees are in such sharp focus.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: white;">. </span> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>Neil J Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08852834659400991664noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188649360765481587.post-8169017759368247282010-12-30T17:06:00.006-05:002012-02-10T10:00:32.709-05:00Christmas Road Trip: Part One<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Christmas Day dawned with high, thin clouds. It wasn't too cold, high thirties, so, with family obligations obliged the night before, I pointed the car east for a day on the road.</div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Christmas, New Year's and Thanksgiving Day seem to be the best time for a drive on Long Island; all the idiots are home. Except for the one in the Hummer, who came up from behind me in the HOV lane on the Long Island Expressway (I'd had the lane to myself when I got on) and hung twenty feet behind me as we went 75 MPH toward Riverhead. He wisely left at the first exit lane, which is good. If he hadn't, I was going to simply take my foot off the gas until I hit 55 and he gave me some space.</span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyz6z6tAlKHlAG843Ygbo-b7zgQYv9MFChXoyow4hBZcFG_ihNPiORv2HhvKkdFOmmhEM5KzrjEYMlRcj7yaByU2bfGJW2SFnslAqmtL4VzXceeR274RXAK24GZF_hhHwFMil20oGBLEc/s1600/Duck.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyz6z6tAlKHlAG843Ygbo-b7zgQYv9MFChXoyow4hBZcFG_ihNPiORv2HhvKkdFOmmhEM5KzrjEYMlRcj7yaByU2bfGJW2SFnslAqmtL4VzXceeR274RXAK24GZF_hhHwFMil20oGBLEc/s320/Duck.jpg" width="235" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The ride was uneventful after that, and I made it to my first destination, The Big Duck, by around eleven in the morning. The sun was shining off and on through the clouds, but the overall scene was pretty flat. I hadn't seen the duck done up for the holidays at this, its original location, before. When it sat at the entrance to Sears-Bellows park I made a nice shot that later became a holiday card.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Since I can't do a road trip without including a cemetery or two, I made sure to have a good one along the way. Green River Cemetery in Springs is the final stop for a dozen or so prominent names from the twentith century. I had only one in mind, a painter who lies under a giant rock, who overturned his convertible one drunken night less than half a mile away, killing himself and another passenger.</span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit1UIqqjE1rYCAvsWq8osNTmV6heo2IA_3Nxfof4jMOuUpMCWNzawE6K9WhzFIzMqp07yFz9habZbkjDCdqgZ9dyIfll093evKge5iRqmxVzHCsOxzI1U8TzSHCtA5YSoTv1yth_X8ohU/s1600/Pollack+Rock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit1UIqqjE1rYCAvsWq8osNTmV6heo2IA_3Nxfof4jMOuUpMCWNzawE6K9WhzFIzMqp07yFz9habZbkjDCdqgZ9dyIfll093evKge5iRqmxVzHCsOxzI1U8TzSHCtA5YSoTv1yth_X8ohU/s400/Pollack+Rock.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">To judge from the dates on the surrounding stones, Jackson Pollack had this hillock all to himself until the early nineties.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsdajqU9zZG8OGHWrW5fVgkvWOun6UMMujoLeXvhIIDql4MqqmERUDOlxEdHNtFWvj1zDLsk1Pk0KItmBrIBEUUCVJchqC5o-HDOtafARqftxsufdtZA4R3whdSW2ovWSMQBUYPh7igkA/s1600/IR+-+Radar+Tower+on+the+Hill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsdajqU9zZG8OGHWrW5fVgkvWOun6UMMujoLeXvhIIDql4MqqmERUDOlxEdHNtFWvj1zDLsk1Pk0KItmBrIBEUUCVJchqC5o-HDOtafARqftxsufdtZA4R3whdSW2ovWSMQBUYPh7igkA/s400/IR+-+Radar+Tower+on+the+Hill.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The main point of this trip was to spend some time wandering around Camp Hero State Park, a former Army, then later Air Force base located about a thousand yards west of the lighthouse.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">If you've ever driven along Montauk Highway as it rolls through the scrub pine east of Amagansett you've seen the radar tower pictured above off in the distance. The most prominent feature of the site, the </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">SAGE (Semi Automatic Ground Environment) AN/FPS-35 antenna was probably the last major structure there, built in 1958 to detect long-range bombers during the Cold War.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The road in the picture leads to the locked gate of a fence surrounding the tower and some other buildings. This part of the park is closed; the military deactivated the radar in 1980, and all operations here ceased by 1984. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYA7rGhmm6Ad-g4avFA3y9an0P_QWXMRVzzAKSinERM-OyA8tLsIoN81Ahg0mlrdtG2F1vLLsnK2_DVpOJtELbdLNgqjUfChrwarHZMtiauo0647p0TpVZho_gxYUvGKKKvZ7a1fltHiM/s1600/Danger+Sign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYA7rGhmm6Ad-g4avFA3y9an0P_QWXMRVzzAKSinERM-OyA8tLsIoN81Ahg0mlrdtG2F1vLLsnK2_DVpOJtELbdLNgqjUfChrwarHZMtiauo0647p0TpVZho_gxYUvGKKKvZ7a1fltHiM/s200/Danger+Sign.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This sign was curious; usually when I encounter these signs they don't give such specific indications of the danger involved. I followed the fence from here until I reached the expected gaping hole about a hundred feet along. (There's always a break in the fencing around these places.)</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzNCzRw7Z92O_6O1s10oY1TgAa2IFscOTEPTBMgjR0ZyGcaHWNVJn0-KT0oMtk1BBajGhQpeGo8s_fWsznHrV7qik3vbakm6ymiPChSFwuXFHZpP-mj9Z-xuPxGCVypptyJhaXt-csbLg/s1600/Cistern.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzNCzRw7Z92O_6O1s10oY1TgAa2IFscOTEPTBMgjR0ZyGcaHWNVJn0-KT0oMtk1BBajGhQpeGo8s_fWsznHrV7qik3vbakm6ymiPChSFwuXFHZpP-mj9Z-xuPxGCVypptyJhaXt-csbLg/s200/Cistern.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Winter is a good time to explore abandoned sites like this, when the undergrowth has dried up and thinned out, all the better to watch for the inevitable sinkholes and open manholes. The one here, on the right, looked to be a service box for an underground electrical and communications network, judging from the conduits I could see. I couldn't see very much, though, since it was filled with water of an indeterminate depth. Nestled as it was, surrounded by what would be in the summer tall, thick grass, I began to suspect the 'falling objects' that the sign warned visitors of would be the visitors themselves.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje_CStP1XVmzBkpAqduUhKSwxxzQKQ-bDVCPZDqAG0Ya3d_aEy9RGUh96ixc26atODF1rqFqfJR0hXhEHgEUUzKlRPzpQ_B-yqh41ulMEmJjB4vYOzAxUUm6UzbBxbWHlAjqIlWRn_fXo/s1600/SAGE+Tower+12-25-10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje_CStP1XVmzBkpAqduUhKSwxxzQKQ-bDVCPZDqAG0Ya3d_aEy9RGUh96ixc26atODF1rqFqfJR0hXhEHgEUUzKlRPzpQ_B-yqh41ulMEmJjB4vYOzAxUUm6UzbBxbWHlAjqIlWRn_fXo/s400/SAGE+Tower+12-25-10.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I can't find any stats online about the height of the concrete tower, and I wish there were something in the shot above to indicate scale, so all I can do is tell you that this thing is immense. The dish itself, according to what I found, is 126 feet wide and 38 feet high. Using that as a guide, I'm figuring the base is at least twelve to fourteen stories tall. Other than what seem to be vents, there aren't any windows, and only one door, opened, on the north side. (No, I didn't go in. I'm curious, but I'm not stupid.) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Wandering about under this thing was a little humbling in a way: the mass of the concrete, its sheer height, the 40 ton dish atop it all, which, by the way, moves freely in the wind, combine for a very interesting experience. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK8Yc14JsZBYBy0M-6uGzMu1puTl50VZE_M1x_Lasyu_NTcXL5dzynKatBfRu5km0QtraMvUdkUkeNHPgmk6BKUkdGhTTxVvna9wR9tnuIamz3IySPiSE3XLhOzGww9nieDJ6IiaDDTaE/s1600/Antenna+Part.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK8Yc14JsZBYBy0M-6uGzMu1puTl50VZE_M1x_Lasyu_NTcXL5dzynKatBfRu5km0QtraMvUdkUkeNHPgmk6BKUkdGhTTxVvna9wR9tnuIamz3IySPiSE3XLhOzGww9nieDJ6IiaDDTaE/s200/Antenna+Part.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Then I saw this. At the base of the tower. And I thought back to the 'falling objects' sign. Now I invite you to look again at the dish in the picture above, or in the earlier one. Do you see that triangular nick on the upper right corner?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Now that sign makes sense... </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: white;">.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></span></div>Neil J Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08852834659400991664noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188649360765481587.post-46323287651145479882010-12-01T16:00:00.003-05:002012-02-03T09:51:22.741-05:00Cuatro Gato<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdov3KFSgjnU2fVshXJMx_VKGgNMNh59icxsQZE2xVBx3Vb-gPNKtWde2MNqstzylGxi9pI2DhBZv55dLjJbFQvO35OhcchkrO5m5QolPfVpQg6iAki-3ZJRJsMX8jCoNMM_4m7v7Yk_s/s1600/Sun+Cats+FL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdov3KFSgjnU2fVshXJMx_VKGgNMNh59icxsQZE2xVBx3Vb-gPNKtWde2MNqstzylGxi9pI2DhBZv55dLjJbFQvO35OhcchkrO5m5QolPfVpQg6iAki-3ZJRJsMX8jCoNMM_4m7v7Yk_s/s400/Sun+Cats+FL.jpg" width="400" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Twice now I've sat down to write a piece about Jones Beach, first hesitating for the want of more pictures, then </span><span style="font-size: large;">I was waylaid</span><span style="font-size: large;"> for the second time when, after returning from getting more pictures, I was confronted with the sight of all my children sprawled in the sunshine on the living room floor. This is something I rarely see, all four of them at peace with one and other. Well, at peace given some distance.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The triplets, seen here, were on the rug, the sun streaming through the double windows, the blinds half-raised and open. Betsy (on the left) was half in shadow, and Molly, in the background, was just about blending into the distant shadows. A very high contrast scene, there was no way I could capture this without some serious help from my Speedlite:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHT67PDuFxqmJYQ6IxXu9piRYH90J-UMLJf3fdB7iKIC1gmhY6yDMy96tnRoVGdTBLZ6L_JrR7JwVQwOt5Cto_3pAkpKtD_zmjDKZUkFptP2fYYCkL75E9v-rRxplOI_iNYUyAg3x8-JQ/s1600/Sun+Cats+NF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHT67PDuFxqmJYQ6IxXu9piRYH90J-UMLJf3fdB7iKIC1gmhY6yDMy96tnRoVGdTBLZ6L_JrR7JwVQwOt5Cto_3pAkpKtD_zmjDKZUkFptP2fYYCkL75E9v-rRxplOI_iNYUyAg3x8-JQ/s400/Sun+Cats+NF.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Above is the same scene shot with just the existing light, exposed for the highlights: ISO 100, <i>f</i>11, 1/25 sec.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The challenge with a scene like this is not only to get all three cats in the picture with good expressions, preferably all looking towards the camera, but to light it so that everything can be seen without losing the sense of natural light.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I think the first picture has good light; you can tell sunlight from shadow and still see detail and contrast throughout the image. Overall it's very warm; very often shooting gray cats with a flash results in a gun-metal colored result with Betsy, yet here she looks fine.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The difference between the two pictures? Both were shot at f11, but the first one had a shutter speed of 1/200 sec, instead of 1/25, the better to handle the +2 stop compensation of a direct flash.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4b71jCBQd3grtkgXwpCAQmjB7AD-ff20YN6wFmxHrUswGbsmd9-Ev5tGUlbbKIRP2pSnJdLc8tIDyrsRMOUvUjzsU87HEx35-wXCC63v0j78ADY7YPB4hcFCt8ToS4Fodv-LM29qvdK8/s1600/4+Sun+Cats.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4b71jCBQd3grtkgXwpCAQmjB7AD-ff20YN6wFmxHrUswGbsmd9-Ev5tGUlbbKIRP2pSnJdLc8tIDyrsRMOUvUjzsU87HEx35-wXCC63v0j78ADY7YPB4hcFCt8ToS4Fodv-LM29qvdK8/s400/4+Sun+Cats.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This is the best I could do to get all four of them together. As it was, to get the first two pictures here I had to crouch down in Legs' bed with him, which he was quite tolerant of.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">. </span></span></div>Neil J Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08852834659400991664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188649360765481587.post-47502439953365864952010-11-24T19:24:00.008-05:002012-02-03T09:38:53.944-05:00Enjoy Your Visit!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">This day before Thanksgiving was bright and sunny, cloudless and chilly, with a steady breeze. I was down at Jones Beach, on Zach's Bay, taking pictures for</span><span style="font-size: large;"> an upcoming story. I began to notice a pattern of negativity, a pattern that began as soon as I arrived:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO1UR1CFoYv2jxE0u9PXBCl051XQwyKT7Q-SNlQkvbZotSu__abdpeRhhsUySRc6-dFfci9x4wruJsE-6H7awgwp3boD3ODmaB1IxU4r4m4-RNmFc0tB2UKIAqgfs8SpZ-rnQzcN6VWac/s1600/no+anything.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO1UR1CFoYv2jxE0u9PXBCl051XQwyKT7Q-SNlQkvbZotSu__abdpeRhhsUySRc6-dFfci9x4wruJsE-6H7awgwp3boD3ODmaB1IxU4r4m4-RNmFc0tB2UKIAqgfs8SpZ-rnQzcN6VWac/s400/no+anything.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Three outright prohibitions and one vague one. I mean, define 'loud'. What if I've got a huge boombox and the volume is only set to three, but it's been painted in garish colors, like some Peter Max nightmare? No pets? Okay, dogs I can see, but seriously, my fish isn't going to bother anyone. Does this bar <i>only</i> pets? Meaning, I can bring a brown bear to the beach? No Rollerblading. Hmmm. Since "Rollerblade®" is a registered trademark, as long as I wear a different brand of inline skate, no one's going to bother me?</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">(Sometimes, when you question authority, you can't help but get sarcastic.)</span><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn5AJKTn3-TKgXZAPrR3Y8AEWWlUolksqbnlA5WlWWZcQHbb67m-9Wsl_grkeZLh4n3S3is0Z2O4njTpzdIDpeoBYuZl-rr7OjrfgBOwsOt2X5CJhXksz8heYXUT98uArv2jqX6KCa8E4/s1600/no+bikes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn5AJKTn3-TKgXZAPrR3Y8AEWWlUolksqbnlA5WlWWZcQHbb67m-9Wsl_grkeZLh4n3S3is0Z2O4njTpzdIDpeoBYuZl-rr7OjrfgBOwsOt2X5CJhXksz8heYXUT98uArv2jqX6KCa8E4/s400/no+bikes.jpg" width="400" /></a> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Okay, this one makes sense. It's a busy road, and there's no shoulder.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHeYlKwbtsNdh2bRn2_TBxcjv2W2RPOfDOlG7w-c4Rh3hq9zSTP1I83mjPrt6ISx0QDDnLr4t9NJMEtRlsoO-pQuLFpXgV3Bwv40onqohjnkUpb7icaVT5nNB2b8w0T6EIq4oQQQR2D1E/s1600/no+enter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHeYlKwbtsNdh2bRn2_TBxcjv2W2RPOfDOlG7w-c4Rh3hq9zSTP1I83mjPrt6ISx0QDDnLr4t9NJMEtRlsoO-pQuLFpXgV3Bwv40onqohjnkUpb7icaVT5nNB2b8w0T6EIq4oQQQR2D1E/s400/no+enter.jpg" width="400" /> </a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">But this is the drop-off for the East Bathhouse, you should be able to get in here. (Okay, maybe not in November.)</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggfwbv7YJk3hqrD4Gt3y3zCUhrE1plewil8vOhZZ6FmKDvjfASwZr3nUl8Gj2dJ9LFmf5Lu6joGUXBq4sQYtTFqN_9pyoakbg6IYj5MR-oNEm6yhM_UbildKzD2RIUg1-t3fZDoFqetO4/s1600/no+parking.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggfwbv7YJk3hqrD4Gt3y3zCUhrE1plewil8vOhZZ6FmKDvjfASwZr3nUl8Gj2dJ9LFmf5Lu6joGUXBq4sQYtTFqN_9pyoakbg6IYj5MR-oNEm6yhM_UbildKzD2RIUg1-t3fZDoFqetO4/s320/no+parking.jpg" width="265" /></a></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">During the season, and on weekends until this one, they nick you ten bucks for parking, but that doesn't get you the choice spots near the boardwalk. And if you want to read into it, it's not a <i>parking</i> fee, it's a <i>vehicle use</i> fee. Really, it is. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidh6zXe1Jog2KeRqnY-lgL8H_mmE7VJNVmHIM37hEC6pcBbI8pTizHMD7HqoZNvWBr0fjE1XtCNNns_wcKTzrWimmSgG9QdRShXIdwl1EWmVoFRjkYmrYmlasfG_fc9nYKrV9T_BO0AeM/s1600/no+skating.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidh6zXe1Jog2KeRqnY-lgL8H_mmE7VJNVmHIM37hEC6pcBbI8pTizHMD7HqoZNvWBr0fjE1XtCNNns_wcKTzrWimmSgG9QdRShXIdwl1EWmVoFRjkYmrYmlasfG_fc9nYKrV9T_BO0AeM/s400/no+skating.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Twice-reminded about the ban on pets here (but still no mention about wild animals) and some additional prohibitions against wheeled shoes: now roller<i>skates</i>, as well as Rollerblades®, are not allowed. Still no word about other inline skates.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">But I just looked at those signs again, and I realized something bizarre. The one on the left seems to indicate that it's your <i>pets</i> that are prohibited from using skates or skateboards.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Of course, speaking of bizarre, or at least, unusual:</span></span><br />
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</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ7v3_y79wMWBukSrOxgsu0wfdTU387dxCLqVNEVDzvV_XwJ9Xl7SynkudlERP0bW4CGdcLNOfL1OjpsPLzDN6EPZBf1nPjM_4Rt4il2s6auJWOsvm_HsA7NDkzuqsHAvUxE23e65EPpY/s1600/no+kite+surfing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ7v3_y79wMWBukSrOxgsu0wfdTU387dxCLqVNEVDzvV_XwJ9Xl7SynkudlERP0bW4CGdcLNOfL1OjpsPLzDN6EPZBf1nPjM_4Rt4il2s6auJWOsvm_HsA7NDkzuqsHAvUxE23e65EPpY/s320/no+kite+surfing.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Here's a sport I not only wasn't aware was prohibited, I wasn't aware it even <i>existed</i>.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB6vxYpNRgeNeVIJl4YNssitYtuDwQ6uYRZLF-96SNNnt9a7jZbIp-TJT27hzZzeRP9JkcODtP33dfF5S58Zke-_hURnAmKXRYrZ98rYVaLWIE4n7t-h9JtXxkelShgQBUj_hw0qnLZdE/s1600/no+fires.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB6vxYpNRgeNeVIJl4YNssitYtuDwQ6uYRZLF-96SNNnt9a7jZbIp-TJT27hzZzeRP9JkcODtP33dfF5S58Zke-_hURnAmKXRYrZ98rYVaLWIE4n7t-h9JtXxkelShgQBUj_hw0qnLZdE/s320/no+fires.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Okay, no fires in the underbrush and bramble, that makes sense. Of course, it isn't a very attractive venue for picnics, anyway. I wonder if maybe they didn't just have the sign laying around, and they were looking for a place to use it?</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEkAx81TwG8WGg-j4G19UmIISkcXLuAj45k19hEau35lhX2pSD7d8HH9WeiptATRI_UvRYovZtynCogtFKNeBz53s5BzEKuuKOn_84OKvGYhISB1BpWy2DBeEMu7Qh2z2H4wEZQ_sVYRI/s1600/no+sitting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEkAx81TwG8WGg-j4G19UmIISkcXLuAj45k19hEau35lhX2pSD7d8HH9WeiptATRI_UvRYovZtynCogtFKNeBz53s5BzEKuuKOn_84OKvGYhISB1BpWy2DBeEMu7Qh2z2H4wEZQ_sVYRI/s320/no+sitting.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">It's a long, long, wide boardwalk, made of hard hardwood. Maybe it's not really hardwood, it's probably pine, but it's hard on the feet nonetheless. And there aren't really a lot of benches, either.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDsAOzGdnPFExEf6h6pR6O3KGAEw1J4vMybMwJxRUDYAMpjVgCpcZ3n0I1e3aGhr-pkk_9EIZ2Qh6RjHEK0HrXy42xNXc7HzBPS_a2_lQUO2mjRraYnRvTPWiUh0ujaxjRalUwO2ukWMA/s1600/no+fishing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDsAOzGdnPFExEf6h6pR6O3KGAEw1J4vMybMwJxRUDYAMpjVgCpcZ3n0I1e3aGhr-pkk_9EIZ2Qh6RjHEK0HrXy42xNXc7HzBPS_a2_lQUO2mjRraYnRvTPWiUh0ujaxjRalUwO2ukWMA/s400/no+fishing.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This sign I really like. It may disappoint park visitors intent upon these two activities, but just look at the face on that fish. Such a big smile! And if you've ever wondered about the expression 'happy as a clam', well...</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkR8sShAo95AknlncDj0DiTNcFYICnkWRDXjiE_4Iw_s8JDcnXGz4rT3TOqUK6-tkcZY3DCgNcN2yC9f-q0RGRYYV5xhgZMsJpfHJAH6_WY6nAAdn9gDhwog-POtfaEa-OlWJXHmZrrkc/s1600/no+swimming.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkR8sShAo95AknlncDj0DiTNcFYICnkWRDXjiE_4Iw_s8JDcnXGz4rT3TOqUK6-tkcZY3DCgNcN2yC9f-q0RGRYYV5xhgZMsJpfHJAH6_WY6nAAdn9gDhwog-POtfaEa-OlWJXHmZrrkc/s400/no+swimming.jpg" width="400" /> </a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Less happy are the ones coming to the beach in the hopes of swimming. But then...low tide, November...</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWWwEHMJoQCf9Z6AYhmmceucihDTcTOz3CgN3-BGKggsH8O_MqZlVy8rx9zBSaHxjjEkwYOxRBHp1cwI6UROE5x6Yp7NJHJC-Fjn2BiLeCM9t7sfpKHnYIHbbFBqmy0RweTwPT-9tU6Us/s1600/no+problem.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWWwEHMJoQCf9Z6AYhmmceucihDTcTOz3CgN3-BGKggsH8O_MqZlVy8rx9zBSaHxjjEkwYOxRBHp1cwI6UROE5x6Yp7NJHJC-Fjn2BiLeCM9t7sfpKHnYIHbbFBqmy0RweTwPT-9tU6Us/s400/no+problem.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Finally, the only 'NO' sign that was ultimately welcoming: the museum/gift shop. Commerce conquers all.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: white;">.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>Neil J Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08852834659400991664noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188649360765481587.post-37027518067400046172010-11-22T11:50:00.005-05:002012-02-03T09:50:38.706-05:00Sunset: The One That Got Away<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6KBZpdVUwy3ALDJkSBRp9WFPY6TjVG8FcPNZNHm-JVU4sUEJ-UftKPEFl1F2K-1LMn0lMj6K4ddBfJYim9mOTTl-HPnhg95TEielyNf3ccoT-UtDgCmBluTtOgwmLhvYOHmP47XwXQRY/s1600/Sunset+-+112010+-+430+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6KBZpdVUwy3ALDJkSBRp9WFPY6TjVG8FcPNZNHm-JVU4sUEJ-UftKPEFl1F2K-1LMn0lMj6K4ddBfJYim9mOTTl-HPnhg95TEielyNf3ccoT-UtDgCmBluTtOgwmLhvYOHmP47XwXQRY/s320/Sunset+-+112010+-+430+PM.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">I've been pretty good with in my current assignment, capturing the daily sunset, only missing the three or four rainy days in the last month. These sunsets are special to us this time of year, sinking as they do into the ocean.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Unlike my friends on the west coast, I only get to see ocean sunsets during the late fall through the winter. In other words, when it's cold. But since moving back to Long Beach after seven years, and being less than five minutes from the water, I committed to creating a series of pictures, partly to see if I could look at a common photographic theme in a different way every day, and partly to have a specific appointment at a regular time. </span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But finding that new way to see the sunset every night is getting to be a challenge. The basic landscape never changes: the ocean is always going to be on the left, a wide shot will have the the apartment towers on the right. If I'm shooting from Pacific Blvd, then there's always going to be one rock standing above the others on that groin straight ahead.. </span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTfa0nIoryIwwBijLgDULYZA5ifxTqKRUp4d5YCK6vEGKRLVJJ6hByKkqq4JNIBG3cOBpdMEI_btUERfhm-S6KtUgpYjh4bhIbyHPap-TISbz3YmCM98ZwYVLIfi2uo3-JIZZvdaZeHEY/s1600/Sunset+112010+-+426PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTfa0nIoryIwwBijLgDULYZA5ifxTqKRUp4d5YCK6vEGKRLVJJ6hByKkqq4JNIBG3cOBpdMEI_btUERfhm-S6KtUgpYjh4bhIbyHPap-TISbz3YmCM98ZwYVLIfi2uo3-JIZZvdaZeHEY/s320/Sunset+112010+-+426PM.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">What makes the pictures what they are is the weather. That's all. I just have to get there on time. The weather is going to determine if there's clouds or not, and what kind of clouds they'll be. The clouds are going to make the color, the winds and the tides affect the surf, and so on. I check the Navel Observatory site for the sunset time, and make sure my batteries are fresh. If there's been storm activity or the tides are up, I'll bring a telphoto zoom to catch any surfers.</span></span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The pictures here are from Saturday, November 20, 2010. It had been a windy day, with high, thin clouds and bright sunshine. By mid-afternoon the sky was lightly clouded over. Coming home from the market, I thought I'd have the night off, but when I got upstairs there was some pale color visible through high, broken clouds. I put the groceries away, grabbed a camera and headed out.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Five minutes later found me on a windswept beach, neutral gray clouds meeting the water, a small open patch of orange a few degrees above the horizon, a patch the sun had already descended below. The sky above the clouds was a rich blue, which threw its color-cast on the sand, making everything especially dull. Like I said, this is a challenge. These two were today's best shots, and I consider them to be among the weakest in the bunch so far. But they taught me something.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4TGAWGFEYFKDcabzsA9viJERiWR3tJq53Irdf-9AAFp4yhx0CdquJvy267ncDKDMjAUVbpmtDVi34wlnPEgy72gE8dAmn0MEDHvGuT0wAao-hVRwUbNoTQIg5kSr1IfDyumjuvi7WpJU/s1600/Rose+Cloud.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4TGAWGFEYFKDcabzsA9viJERiWR3tJq53Irdf-9AAFp4yhx0CdquJvy267ncDKDMjAUVbpmtDVi34wlnPEgy72gE8dAmn0MEDHvGuT0wAao-hVRwUbNoTQIg5kSr1IfDyumjuvi7WpJU/s320/Rose+Cloud.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">I left the beach a block west of where I came on, and walked home along Shore Road, a narrow street with apartment buildings on both sides. I got to Pacific, the Broadway, where I passed three more towers before getting to my block. My point is, I'm walking home through this canyon of sorts, never looking behind me until I look up to see this beautiful rose-colored cloud high in the eastern sky over my house. I realize what I'm going to see if I turn around, so I simply went upstairs and went straight out onto the deck. </span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqiO8FxlC1-su8vfasrq7dW4KQz2YEAk3js9iTY_4EScd_QYpRgzjg_b_CQXBPAXNoj2w9m9Wa__MveWAwAjMa71uCtp5-awbHxzaqzhxpILvpcp6VoBn9pPySfpm0Tg18IEgWHc_t-a8/s1600/Sunset+Pano+-+112010+-+445+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqiO8FxlC1-su8vfasrq7dW4KQz2YEAk3js9iTY_4EScd_QYpRgzjg_b_CQXBPAXNoj2w9m9Wa__MveWAwAjMa71uCtp5-awbHxzaqzhxpILvpcp6VoBn9pPySfpm0Tg18IEgWHc_t-a8/s400/Sunset+Pano+-+112010+-+445+PM.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">November 20, 2010 - Panorama made from 12 frames</span></td></tr>
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</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Lesson learned. It's a different show every night, so don't leave till the fat lady sinks.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> .</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"> . </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>Neil J Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08852834659400991664noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188649360765481587.post-61640722167213465422010-11-19T23:22:00.005-05:002012-02-03T09:55:26.135-05:00Waterworks for the Water Works<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnjmkc93zQHHp3NFWYpdJOtqcPf-wdSYlkx7f97teu5PcsoWehNQet-NnmBDtP-qHE-yxKLpfHVImsmWqlIPDkQ58Ag36tQQ3GUl0FVyAA7Y2jgQihokL2caGNRSMiRXTEL-56budJ-8M/s1600/1995+Entableture.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnjmkc93zQHHp3NFWYpdJOtqcPf-wdSYlkx7f97teu5PcsoWehNQet-NnmBDtP-qHE-yxKLpfHVImsmWqlIPDkQ58Ag36tQQ3GUl0FVyAA7Y2jgQihokL2caGNRSMiRXTEL-56budJ-8M/s320/1995+Entableture.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
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</tbody></table><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Without ever realizing it, Brooklyn lost a piece of history last month, a piece of history that wasn't even located within its borders, but that went all the way back to the borough's time as an independent city. A city that needed basic services to fulfill their needs, the most basic of which was water. </span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Pipelines drew this water from the vast wilds to the east on Long Island, pulled west by pumping stations along the way, the grandest of which stood in Freeport. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqlXopr6Ayz6gZ8v3xU8MtuduTJH5vY_IpF7VZmYM-QXizuKZui6HioqVc1_aCfdMcuwWBxhnTZnpfgslQsX0Va0Yjq7iaYPkXhU2xLRUYOdIs_f97NmmPzJ3VTtY1dTq2Ye9GniK-Thg/s1600/Water+Works+Pano+II.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqlXopr6Ayz6gZ8v3xU8MtuduTJH5vY_IpF7VZmYM-QXizuKZui6HioqVc1_aCfdMcuwWBxhnTZnpfgslQsX0Va0Yjq7iaYPkXhU2xLRUYOdIs_f97NmmPzJ3VTtY1dTq2Ye9GniK-Thg/s400/Water+Works+Pano+II.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">November, 2009</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Completed in the 1890's, obsolete in less than forty years, the Romanesque building operated until the 1970's as a supplemental source of water for the city. When New York no longer needed the Long Island aquifers as a water supply, the steam pumps were removed, and the building settled into quiet abandonment. Redevelopment plans were proposed and discussed: condominiums, recreational centers. It was bought, sold, foreclosed. Fencing went up, and occasionally a security patrol was posted. Somewhere along the line it burned.</span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpytK0qCZJMtS4poGZVb_z-5HZkbN3GTKB0SK49MRo6xrczw-ufe995N1aU4AblPvK-uGfxRNBAbxo2uwU52BjGLbboSwMp4NBL924WSkvH1ge5dbgcBiBMivA6RTYwinSjtZ_KiGEw8o/s1600/WaterWorks+1995.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpytK0qCZJMtS4poGZVb_z-5HZkbN3GTKB0SK49MRo6xrczw-ufe995N1aU4AblPvK-uGfxRNBAbxo2uwU52BjGLbboSwMp4NBL924WSkvH1ge5dbgcBiBMivA6RTYwinSjtZ_KiGEw8o/s400/WaterWorks+1995.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">October 1995</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The fire was the end of it, collapsing the roof of the western section. The structure was entirely made of timber and masonry, and with the roof gone, water would eventually have its way with the concrete and brick, weakening the walls and supports a little more every day, every month, every year; decades of neglect resulting in piles of rubble surrounding a ruined shell overlooked by a three story facade and tower. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8OcWwdvSJBB4uXGpMdqGJCioMP8F92oax_G1Uhg34-9cMeCpXZ539K4okQiNBfKTWNi_AuRLB9zHFkmPzPwFg2PYJDNl0Bdb23IwJ6C2QApWKeESR_C77PocdiZ8IZpuhRcTsNh63Cow/s1600/Water+Works+Pano+I.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="131" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8OcWwdvSJBB4uXGpMdqGJCioMP8F92oax_G1Uhg34-9cMeCpXZ539K4okQiNBfKTWNi_AuRLB9zHFkmPzPwFg2PYJDNl0Bdb23IwJ6C2QApWKeESR_C77PocdiZ8IZpuhRcTsNh63Cow/s400/Water+Works+Pano+I.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;">November, 2009</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">And all the while the nature preserve surrounding it closed in, despite the best annual efforts of the town crews. They usually came in each October to clear all the brush from around and inside the ruins. I think it was done less for aesthetic purposes than to prevent the local freelance vandals from having the fuel to set it on fire again.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQKLB1bktvMwzMRCUxBZyfupa0sXb1qVmtC8WN67QhI2EArot4gf0DmewKTlevB_gzsC-eCDKCHzArTGqFQvOuFHaAOMRgzFdaE75hEUG-piUD7DKU9giq5Q6rH9dr18w1vP5sIFQ_zFc/s1600/Water+Works+1995.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQKLB1bktvMwzMRCUxBZyfupa0sXb1qVmtC8WN67QhI2EArot4gf0DmewKTlevB_gzsC-eCDKCHzArTGqFQvOuFHaAOMRgzFdaE75hEUG-piUD7DKU9giq5Q6rH9dr18w1vP5sIFQ_zFc/s400/Water+Works+1995.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">October 1995</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I made my first visits here in the late 1980's, parking at the entrance to the preserve, a block north of the (fenced off) street access to the site. Getting onto the property was always something of a joke: there was seven-foot high chain link fencing running along the eastern side north from the railroad embankment to where the nature preserve began. From there the fence ran west along the northern edge of the property until it came to the creek, where it turned south, back to the embankment. </span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMpcs1GQuqqD0S1VjYeDJDycZvjOMusi3kOiNccZ3mpnF-OPBShoEznldFFkvCCMDf4eH9o2iaeFe3bHs3dDt_CqSqLlsktVpava1phXmHQQpRwTj3q0luOI36iAm_FIwK9rlmq-RbR1M/s1600/Turret+11-20-09.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMpcs1GQuqqD0S1VjYeDJDycZvjOMusi3kOiNccZ3mpnF-OPBShoEznldFFkvCCMDf4eH9o2iaeFe3bHs3dDt_CqSqLlsktVpava1phXmHQQpRwTj3q0luOI36iAm_FIwK9rlmq-RbR1M/s320/Turret+11-20-09.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;">It was here, after a pleasant walk through the woods, that you could enter the property through holes in the fence and wander freely.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">In the picture on the right, of the western end of the building, the fence runs through the trees to the left, and around the back. The breaks in the fencing were located here. This picture was taken in November of 2009. I liked to come here at least once a year, if for nothing more than to document the changing graffiti and gradual deterioration of the building, <a href="http://neiljmurphy.blogspot.com/2009/11/fifteen-and-half-months.html">as I noted about a year ago</a>. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidh9a917Bp8xodHhF6jBItVKR6M9ABwSIX28wAN_Npq55mrKtuo2dfn-gZARQd15CGFdA0F-L4ERlAwirTISkdEzQyM9ErxY7B0ylTGwktgldLM1Zx4Tc2uDOoaMLQOBE-J2MTFgId-1w/s1600/Turret+10-02-10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidh9a917Bp8xodHhF6jBItVKR6M9ABwSIX28wAN_Npq55mrKtuo2dfn-gZARQd15CGFdA0F-L4ERlAwirTISkdEzQyM9ErxY7B0ylTGwktgldLM1Zx4Tc2uDOoaMLQOBE-J2MTFgId-1w/s320/Turret+10-02-10.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;">So when I was driving by last month and saw a crane looming alongside the tower, I knew that </span><span style="font-size: large;">gradual deterioration had given way to complete elimination.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Well, almost complete: the tower still stood, but that was all. Everything else was reduced to piles of brick and mortar, and the tower would fall within days. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjknAK1dnkIFRJsKiwKfyOmLMqW9J3echhBL6RdJhVDkC-dpUubavNvDRGEtoPPRkBJFs_e1F-PKRCz4UiRjeO-O2pDhBtAcTRaKGR1ltX8MDjoMUim3DG3BlKr5yTan_LOWRYbiJIDGxg/s1600/Tower+11-20-09.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjknAK1dnkIFRJsKiwKfyOmLMqW9J3echhBL6RdJhVDkC-dpUubavNvDRGEtoPPRkBJFs_e1F-PKRCz4UiRjeO-O2pDhBtAcTRaKGR1ltX8MDjoMUim3DG3BlKr5yTan_LOWRYbiJIDGxg/s200/Tower+11-20-09.jpg" width="151" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;">It's sad to see it gone, inevitable as it was. The building was nothing more than a crumbling shell, the owner was never going to be able to rebuild it, and it was too far gone for my pipe-dream project of a stabilized ruin, like the castles of the Irish and British countrysides.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLVzfx8sW_3n8hQHF5gmpKdVKzncqMUG7TJLHwlO08fJBEssTgLCQY2AS2Ww0jSwIDOeX2tSVZ_powm36cKYSJ1B7GBQaCwylL-fYb_X4ixmDJRoIn7H1ayskbR0mTpgWknyFUdSHibUw/s1600/Tower+10-02-10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLVzfx8sW_3n8hQHF5gmpKdVKzncqMUG7TJLHwlO08fJBEssTgLCQY2AS2Ww0jSwIDOeX2tSVZ_powm36cKYSJ1B7GBQaCwylL-fYb_X4ixmDJRoIn7H1ayskbR0mTpgWknyFUdSHibUw/s200/Tower+10-02-10.jpg" width="148" /></a></span><span style="font-size: large;">What I wonder about most regarding all this is the beautifully carved frieze pictured at the top of this article. Even covered in paint it would be worth saving. These two pictures of the main tower were made in November 2009 (intact version) and October 2010 (not intact. So would that be 'tact'?). I tried my best to poke around in the rubble, but the chunks were large and unwieldy, and even though it looked like part of the wall was still standing there, I couldn't find anything but regular bricks. I really hope someone was able to take the time to rescue it. </span></div></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Neil J Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08852834659400991664noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188649360765481587.post-34420287567033722842010-11-15T00:50:00.008-05:002010-11-20T00:44:26.083-05:00Surf City - LBNY<div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeGEe8c-egcRzVGaQSsALVEcQNdbm7O2HIPr9IyeQDAidoNNpkkO0Wsv9XFwP0FQjEK72Xdgezcz2d25IossMTQA8hs8lMbPtB6MaFDq1fP3UTcRopDrh1w9L3LB5C9f77qA9Oy4RmNfY/s1600/Surfer+I.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539610424184685026" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeGEe8c-egcRzVGaQSsALVEcQNdbm7O2HIPr9IyeQDAidoNNpkkO0Wsv9XFwP0FQjEK72Xdgezcz2d25IossMTQA8hs8lMbPtB6MaFDq1fP3UTcRopDrh1w9L3LB5C9f77qA9Oy4RmNfY/s400/Surfer+I.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 268px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Assignment: Sunset, my current three-week-long and continuing project, is getting to be something of a tedious challenge. While we've been blessed with fairly good weather the last few weeks (barring the odd day of freezing rain and snow), and watching a beautiful sunset on the beach almost every night is a pleasure that many people never have a chance to enjoy, finding a new and creative way to present it often vexes me.</span></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div></div><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><br />
</span></span><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">I also realized that I was getting to the beach with only just enough time to find a good spot, either on the shore to catch the sun's reflection in the wet sand, or a more precarious position on the boulders of the groins that reach out into the surf. This was okay through October: I was able to work on things at the apartment till late afternoon, put dinner together, then get my pictures and be home in time to watch <span style="font-style: italic;">Jeopardy!</span>. </span></span><br />
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</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQjC4Urxi_Lm_CO84iLaISNPS0Z7fZ-UEt4OlzrgrAxtjPqyaNntkkdSSai5RXfHk0-B5y_WqmQwrj8vV8m9-pGYRyxqIesEVG8-hV8jgjPJiSH0V-JqCFmZq4k7y9-7HIOT5ahUmDqG8/s1600/Surfer+II.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539610418102505362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQjC4Urxi_Lm_CO84iLaISNPS0Z7fZ-UEt4OlzrgrAxtjPqyaNntkkdSSai5RXfHk0-B5y_WqmQwrj8vV8m9-pGYRyxqIesEVG8-hV8jgjPJiSH0V-JqCFmZq4k7y9-7HIOT5ahUmDqG8/s400/Surfer+II.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 268px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><br />
With daylight saving back on, I had to get my act together earlier in order to get to the beach and figure out a new way to see the same old sunset. So, since Pacific Blvd. is a surfing beach, I decided to start leaving earlier to try and get some good pictures of surfers.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">I was never able to get good action shots of surfers during my earlier years in Long Beach, though not for a lack of trying. My gear at the time just wasn't up to the task, and my ability to both manually focus and advance each frame made sequences like the ones here impossible. While I try emphasize talent over equipment in a photographer's work, pictures like these are situations where high-speed autofocusing and frame rate, along with high-quality glass, make all the difference.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGptsD4MLSDF-MLNyoiu5lVOsFil8Mc1hhj-LJeommqMlC0epMS_5ab10eCbMwH7-4cH4JYGPrBaqof1GojlG0HHt1maoHUaTHc8q807nIEE4CCglOM_oYpiOSKInoAjUBRMGpVnG9iF0/s1600/Surfer+III.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539610413585179122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGptsD4MLSDF-MLNyoiu5lVOsFil8Mc1hhj-LJeommqMlC0epMS_5ab10eCbMwH7-4cH4JYGPrBaqof1GojlG0HHt1maoHUaTHc8q807nIEE4CCglOM_oYpiOSKInoAjUBRMGpVnG9iF0/s400/Surfer+III.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 268px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><br />
I'd been shooting the sunsets with the Canon 5D, mostly with the 24-105 lens, though I'd put the 17-40 on a couple times when there were particularly spectacular clouds. The day before I made these pictures the water was filled with angry waves and happy surfers, but I had only the 24-105 with me. When I got home I checked the tide tables for the next day which looked toward providing the same conditions.<br />
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So the following afternoon, as the golden light filled the living room, I took out my sports camera, the 30D, added the battery grip, then attached that combo to the 100-400mm lens. This is more than three times the longest focal length I had ten years ago. This lens has image stabilization as well, which eliminates most of the shake that occurs at those focal lengths. The camera shoots five frames per second and its autofocus is continuous: as long as the shutter button is held down and the main focal point is on the subject, no matter how close or far away the subject moves from the photographer it will remain in focus.<br />
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All these pictures were shot at 400mm, <span style="font-style: italic;">f</span>11, 1/200 second exposure, ISO 320, handheld. </span><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_los0s48E-gnXdv6H48rsWmIgn8lYwaSFIoWlMydm5utcycX6aAoASA5NRKImsuPlHin9wy4FDU4bJuxeJyIJv49j3_kTQz4roBvydxjABqOB3mi7En819Sk-vN8F5h7nHe523LpnpTE/s1600/Surfer+IV.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539610413463533714" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_los0s48E-gnXdv6H48rsWmIgn8lYwaSFIoWlMydm5utcycX6aAoASA5NRKImsuPlHin9wy4FDU4bJuxeJyIJv49j3_kTQz4roBvydxjABqOB3mi7En819Sk-vN8F5h7nHe523LpnpTE/s400/Surfer+IV.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 268px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">As tedious as those last two paragraphs may have been for some of you to read, shooting surfers is just as bad. Most of the time you sit on the sand and watch them bobbing in the water a hundred meters off, shopping for waves like blue-haired ladies in the butcher shop.<br />
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Even though I had this camera with a long lens, I was primarily there for my sunset picture; using the telephoto lens just added to the challenge. I perched on the boulders about seventy-five feet out from the beach, far enough to have roiling water on both sides of me. The sun was still high when I arrived, so I started following a couple of surfers who were going at as many breakers as they could. It took a while for me to get my feel back for tracking a subject, and the camera/lens combo is fairly heavy, but I was able to follow a couple of guys, so I alternated my shots between the sunset in the west, then turning to my left to catch the golden light on the waves and the riders.<br />
</span><span style="font-family: times new roman;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: times new roman;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Of course, not everyone was as fortunate in their endeavors on this beautiful afternoon as were I and the surfer in the first four pictures in this article.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: times new roman;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: times new roman;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Now these last three pictures, well, I hear country music in these last three...</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0bTf-eN0JphX9Xk1rEuepByChsc5AW1_0Q5Zhn77SIiUrUKwrTpT7TeCpE57fbAaADLOs1AzheX_lCYlqiiq4e-1G0aHChwZEYdEAsVC2hI2O6E2YimFlFfDlOEmXdwuWyF23ehu3i64/s1600/Ooops+I.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0bTf-eN0JphX9Xk1rEuepByChsc5AW1_0Q5Zhn77SIiUrUKwrTpT7TeCpE57fbAaADLOs1AzheX_lCYlqiiq4e-1G0aHChwZEYdEAsVC2hI2O6E2YimFlFfDlOEmXdwuWyF23ehu3i64/s400/Ooops+I.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: times new roman;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"> <br />
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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"> ...I hear lyrics about windshields and about bugs</span>...<br />
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</div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg70rSEOtLiqQbf_RXWYejMsEJTNv5b7jbR5gUlnwPfy5rBF9iyY9J9-nsiK4P1kx4z8I6cSDpXEu7V9qij0OXqpeFJ0oCbFpOlfBFJ75g-mqu5UChhc6MdvuqA4PlHftzl1os6XHfiUGE/s1600/Ooops+II.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539610233736747138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg70rSEOtLiqQbf_RXWYejMsEJTNv5b7jbR5gUlnwPfy5rBF9iyY9J9-nsiK4P1kx4z8I6cSDpXEu7V9qij0OXqpeFJ0oCbFpOlfBFJ75g-mqu5UChhc6MdvuqA4PlHftzl1os6XHfiUGE/s400/Ooops+II.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 267px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">...and ragdolls.</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw00XegQj29xbZDKGZzTJRNa-rtSziH5w5T7p0aFsMaNmX8QvyfYDbzZWRyO6ShaoJ6hcTuH0dDlEAu8p7UKAdlXhHltqCvtjQj6cfLMCc54UFUEBUrQDKYMU8dlXfKnOfm88GwK8maDI/s1600/Ooops+III.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539610229040766642" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw00XegQj29xbZDKGZzTJRNa-rtSziH5w5T7p0aFsMaNmX8QvyfYDbzZWRyO6ShaoJ6hcTuH0dDlEAu8p7UKAdlXhHltqCvtjQj6cfLMCc54UFUEBUrQDKYMU8dlXfKnOfm88GwK8maDI/s400/Ooops+III.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 268px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Long Beach, NY - November 13, 2010</span></span></div><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: 78%;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">.</span></span></div>Neil J Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08852834659400991664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188649360765481587.post-69720243313478625892010-11-08T17:43:00.005-05:002010-11-09T18:10:17.358-05:00Wonderful Whiskers<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirSL2vgQxAa0lLS9EZAEUAPCuT2cFnjK2GaAEuDU9QMr7MuhjRqcVOInQ9j0pa2AEN-fiWWYVk2oaUs-tgZzBjhQNxh4F2-0UIfXgGxZJHw290DhXpSQCD71HKV70fvHmLK6AMC4zruOU/s1600/Molly+Whiskers+I.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 251px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirSL2vgQxAa0lLS9EZAEUAPCuT2cFnjK2GaAEuDU9QMr7MuhjRqcVOInQ9j0pa2AEN-fiWWYVk2oaUs-tgZzBjhQNxh4F2-0UIfXgGxZJHw290DhXpSQCD71HKV70fvHmLK6AMC4zruOU/s400/Molly+Whiskers+I.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537313495552482194" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">November 8, 2010<br /><br /></span></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" >Molly has the most wonderful whiskers, a brilliant white contrast to her shiny black coat. What's funny is that originally her whiskers were black: about two and a half years ago she suddenly sprouted a single white one, then another, and another, and within a few weeks they were as white as mine. which I like, especially for pictures like the one in the post below, and this one, where the brightness of the whiskers stand out against the darker background.<br /><br />Here's what I like about this composition: the way it's split in half, with a lighter side and a darker side, but with an ear, eye, and set of whiskers on either one. I love the way the whiskers are spread out and down, like butterfly wings. This was shot with the Canon 5D, 50mm EF lens, <span style="font-style: italic;">f</span>1.4 - 1/100, ISO 400. My focal point was the eye.<br />.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></span></div></div>Neil J Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08852834659400991664noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188649360765481587.post-35529889926558962962010-11-07T20:41:00.008-05:002010-11-07T23:41:03.537-05:00Late-Morning Molly<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwotNM1e8yiD_yREfqRYBuKbf-OwnHvsH41cdjBPwuuIaXaFdu34vy7_oShupThoBP6dyFqZnIk8TlPifZe5hQLKPt7l8b1XXsruYeLbL2e4tGUaQcPzYdQC_xZw6iYxTOUce7osKzs44/s1600/Unwelcome+Advances.jpg"><br /></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT1xlhLsSXIS_xjONMqhS5khmQW7TvaUqrtXhwp7wCudM28hKp38HbrtsxAZRpZI_Bqn5jZOs8iziOLf7mnTOVDK1XZQTZ7jUsiu9T775KwypSUqfkMM78zZ28Bh8ax6NWIThk6FrcPzs/s1600/Molly+on+a+Fleece+Bed.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 303px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT1xlhLsSXIS_xjONMqhS5khmQW7TvaUqrtXhwp7wCudM28hKp38HbrtsxAZRpZI_Bqn5jZOs8iziOLf7mnTOVDK1XZQTZ7jUsiu9T775KwypSUqfkMM78zZ28Bh8ax6NWIThk6FrcPzs/s400/Molly+on+a+Fleece+Bed.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5536971686745037698" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">So here we have Molly, enjoying the late morning sun, fitting perfectly to the size of her bed. (Well, perfectly after I raised the blinds a few inches.) I needed to be almost directly above her in order to get this shot, and she watched intently as I climbed, first to the ottoman, then steadying myself with my left foot on the chair.</span><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"> Just the way I wanted her.</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I don't know if my cats take a perverse pleasure in looking away from me whenever I aim a camera in their direction, or if they simply lose interest in looking at me after I cover my face. Whatever the reason, their sudden disinterest makes it difficult for me to </span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> physically </span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">attain the results I want.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">As my stocking feet sank into the soft folds of the chair, she turned away just as I framed the shot. I made an exposure anyway to check the light. This is one of the harshest lighting situations you can encounter: black fur against brilliant white in the sunshine. I shot this in aperture priority at <span style="font-style: italic;">f</span>8, which gave me a shutter speed of 1/30 second. This blew out the highlights too much, so I moved the exposure compensation down 1 and 1/3 stops, for a final speed of 1/80. I still lost a tiny bit of detail in the upper left corner, but it was acceptable.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Not acceptable was Molly's continuing feigned ignorance of me. None of my calls were getting her attention, though she'd look at me if I took the camera away from my face. Of course, as soon as I replaced it she turned away.</span><br /><br /></div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I was finally able to get the picture at the top by standing as described earlier while </span>holding the camera in my right hand (quite a heavy combination, too, the 5D with a 24-105 lens) pointed straight down. My left hand held the tempting carcass of the fuzzy yellow mouse dispatched by Legs in <a style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);" href="http://neiljmurphy.blogspot.com/2010/11/legs-play-with-prey.html">another post</a> a few days ago. This got her attention long enough for me to get a few shots off. The single eye and some whiskers lit by the sun was exactly how I envisioned this scene, being what I saw the whole time I was climbing into position.</span><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwotNM1e8yiD_yREfqRYBuKbf-OwnHvsH41cdjBPwuuIaXaFdu34vy7_oShupThoBP6dyFqZnIk8TlPifZe5hQLKPt7l8b1XXsruYeLbL2e4tGUaQcPzYdQC_xZw6iYxTOUce7osKzs44/s1600/Unwelcome+Advances.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 261px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwotNM1e8yiD_yREfqRYBuKbf-OwnHvsH41cdjBPwuuIaXaFdu34vy7_oShupThoBP6dyFqZnIk8TlPifZe5hQLKPt7l8b1XXsruYeLbL2e4tGUaQcPzYdQC_xZw6iYxTOUce7osKzs44/s400/Unwelcome+Advances.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5536979045708473410" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Unwelcome Advances: Molly and Legs</span></span><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I'm not sure if Molly envisioned our session ending this way, however. You see, this particular fleece bed and its patch of sunshine has been favored by Legs for some time now. (Last week, in fact, he was wailing in the living room. I came in to see what was wrong and find him pacing. The fleece bed was about two feet from the patch of sun. I moved it over, he climbed in, and we all had a peaceful morning.)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">He settled into the empty space and they actually coexisited for about a minute before Molly decided the top of the armchair had a better view, and was closer to the light.<br />.<br /></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> </span></div></div></div>Neil J Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08852834659400991664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188649360765481587.post-65574780457453581492010-11-07T00:35:00.007-04:002010-11-18T10:54:27.761-05:00Assignment: Sunset<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlboPPf5qZAv1x1tTpT63CFBjjsh7Si_EAOaDoBK9qtyKQvNorPBGdvHLkqWwwh7DUDduk8DQzNDc9SV9vCoxdAmRrYBksWg_aDcahRM_kjztSOXETY6PypmT2hHJ8MsYeYHN1lyk1HNk/s1600/Sunset+10-01-10.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgod9Ig6YwTb5CFCr4UGdF9mQIjEKb4bgiLA6Mx_nmG2_RiN3UGzOXju75Hocb4lmOsFPPUufRPu9Y__L4UrjZeUBwbiN1VYL38wyPewu6OcmLjTfMxKWJ9zP5FRt6UOmaXlVxqqiryrT0/s1600/Sunset+110210+547PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgod9Ig6YwTb5CFCr4UGdF9mQIjEKb4bgiLA6Mx_nmG2_RiN3UGzOXju75Hocb4lmOsFPPUufRPu9Y__L4UrjZeUBwbiN1VYL38wyPewu6OcmLjTfMxKWJ9zP5FRt6UOmaXlVxqqiryrT0/s400/Sunset+110210+547PM.jpg" width="270" /></a><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Four minutes to the sand isn't bad. It's certainly quicker than it's been for too many years, and when the late afternoon light fills the front room of the new apartment I'm torn between reveling in the golden glow and walking the 500 yards to where the Atlantic meets Pacific (Blvd.)</span></div></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Since the weather's been nice, and the sun has begun making its move to setting in the southwest, over the water, I've been opting for the walk. I figure I'll appreciate the golden glow better in the coming months when I can enjoy it from inside a cable-knit sweater with a glass of warm scotch, and maybe a cat in my lap.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZotrbpq3gV8LfuqSaGDytCm6BTNvJ4x3NxDzMLmULVRFlLOoJ2R5JLkFc9tKqt-1OAc660hAiIpAzlmabAH2wgUgJ7RKoErmI7QC-2baVRkkPNvgubAgqOInWARNfrFYWlRRYmNpn5pM/s1600/Sunset+110610+-+541+PM.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5536662511789904322" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZotrbpq3gV8LfuqSaGDytCm6BTNvJ4x3NxDzMLmULVRFlLOoJ2R5JLkFc9tKqt-1OAc660hAiIpAzlmabAH2wgUgJ7RKoErmI7QC-2baVRkkPNvgubAgqOInWARNfrFYWlRRYmNpn5pM/s400/Sunset+110610+-+541+PM.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 150px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">November 6, 2010</span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">I never made many photographs of the sunsets during the ten years I lived here last, </span><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">though d</span><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">uring my first time down here, in 1983, I did once, with my Pentax Auto 110, an SLR camera with interchangeable lenses that used 110 cartridges. It was a freezing day in February, and I think I had a flask of Jack Danial's with me. The camera's exposures were all automatic, but I somehow managed to get some decent prints. </span></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"></span> </div></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTlCpK128szgftOApJdQoHUH3VzG0p-MFqHol0K2MWAxAs3NZpv6zUZxu_fh6pNlAtd0egkiYEd9bEiS4f6c6sFKDdvvu8N3AzkMJSmnLX023N-cRjGTx7WjKNbB9RJxdfw9NNHLMg6L0/s1600/Sunset+110610+-+545+PM.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5536662509993531874" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTlCpK128szgftOApJdQoHUH3VzG0p-MFqHol0K2MWAxAs3NZpv6zUZxu_fh6pNlAtd0egkiYEd9bEiS4f6c6sFKDdvvu8N3AzkMJSmnLX023N-cRjGTx7WjKNbB9RJxdfw9NNHLMg6L0/s400/Sunset+110610+-+545+PM.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 248px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">November 6, 2010</span></span></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Ever have one of those things you always tell yourself you should do, something simple, something stupid, something you could accomplish without ever even going out of your way for, but for some reason you never quite get around to? Well, for me, the last 27 years I've meant to get back to the beach for an ocean sunset.</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlboPPf5qZAv1x1tTpT63CFBjjsh7Si_EAOaDoBK9qtyKQvNorPBGdvHLkqWwwh7DUDduk8DQzNDc9SV9vCoxdAmRrYBksWg_aDcahRM_kjztSOXETY6PypmT2hHJ8MsYeYHN1lyk1HNk/s1600/Sunset+10-01-10.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5536676825851911234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlboPPf5qZAv1x1tTpT63CFBjjsh7Si_EAOaDoBK9qtyKQvNorPBGdvHLkqWwwh7DUDduk8DQzNDc9SV9vCoxdAmRrYBksWg_aDcahRM_kjztSOXETY6PypmT2hHJ8MsYeYHN1lyk1HNk/s400/Sunset+10-01-10.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 172px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">October 1, 2010</span></span><br />
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</div><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">The anvil finally hit me on the head the first of last month, after a day of heavy storms. <span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"> </span>The </span><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">rains had ended and the </span><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">winds finally died down and the clouds to the west opened and the setting sun lit the front room like the beginning of a first act. I got one glimpse of the sky, then I got my camera and coat.<br />
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I was only moments too late to include the orb in this picture; I've since bookmarked the US Naval Observatory, but the brilliance of the sky and clouds, not to mention my unwitting model, made for an acceptable shot.<br />
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</div>Neil J Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08852834659400991664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188649360765481587.post-20381484483926732202010-11-04T20:58:00.006-04:002010-11-07T01:55:20.322-04:00Legs: Play with Prey<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGEOzhMjh88UQT2dBIDJckqOtl2AQ6uMWyPc_2YQX1EhdUhl0IodvQzvANWL05-grsFNFuuNtq21sDJ4OwUsyT3PWyJBbaKK9RXAsrwHGngrr2Zlxd7H7estYq5QfWzMkU8H5Qoc0narI/s1600/Legs+I.jpg"><br /></a><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Rodents beware, especially those hairy yellow mice, the ones with red ears and green tails...</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGEOzhMjh88UQT2dBIDJckqOtl2AQ6uMWyPc_2YQX1EhdUhl0IodvQzvANWL05-grsFNFuuNtq21sDJ4OwUsyT3PWyJBbaKK9RXAsrwHGngrr2Zlxd7H7estYq5QfWzMkU8H5Qoc0narI/s1600/Legs+I.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGEOzhMjh88UQT2dBIDJckqOtl2AQ6uMWyPc_2YQX1EhdUhl0IodvQzvANWL05-grsFNFuuNtq21sDJ4OwUsyT3PWyJBbaKK9RXAsrwHGngrr2Zlxd7H7estYq5QfWzMkU8H5Qoc0narI/s400/Legs+I.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535864218702164450" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">My Protector will start by trying to kill you with kindness, at least, that's the way it looks, but he's actually beginning to asphyxiate you with his toxic breath:</span><br /><br /></div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT1GXBx3HEjbM3hBIj-Kh6MJ37p-QYSLV6YOf171ZWsAebnjK_uH1zpoImQhZp1fz-B4c7I72084Nz7h_7aTQ2xH99qxW_CZuqXiknudAl2hnSAIzcBH3gIgBH7c-S7kQXIFzF97wGs4k/s1600/Legs+II.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT1GXBx3HEjbM3hBIj-Kh6MJ37p-QYSLV6YOf171ZWsAebnjK_uH1zpoImQhZp1fz-B4c7I72084Nz7h_7aTQ2xH99qxW_CZuqXiknudAl2hnSAIzcBH3gIgBH7c-S7kQXIFzF97wGs4k/s400/Legs+II.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535864210692736962" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Unconsciousness is sweet, though, since it helps you to to survive the battering that ensues...</span><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpsAlxDkDrbgtlsz5LxEOJKoEbjryGRRVD7nSBkMLq3El1IJbkUk76Z93dj4D6Y4NFBW7u_eaLXaTq8WxoqdKPUMBhsE6efx2oTBb_cEXuN-pfhIvwDjQsKS_SGLk4Eb5hmefUwKGBpC8/s1600/Legs+III.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpsAlxDkDrbgtlsz5LxEOJKoEbjryGRRVD7nSBkMLq3El1IJbkUk76Z93dj4D6Y4NFBW7u_eaLXaTq8WxoqdKPUMBhsE6efx2oTBb_cEXuN-pfhIvwDjQsKS_SGLk4Eb5hmefUwKGBpC8/s400/Legs+III.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535864166896925474" border="0" /></a><br />...<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">one which involves at least one barrel roll and back-and-forth between the paws..</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia3xvBYi6EVGM89rbdPUVMNsQGtv_mn-0qzrEtKC8GUoqHoPkUVedPe2xZ-Je3JDos0W8MojfkUL0ZnA8q8Ror57JHJW-RF6rZT4m2KeTRhW4A-21ZPO5mKUoRMXw8j5cbqUQaYI2lrpY/s1600/Legs+IV.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia3xvBYi6EVGM89rbdPUVMNsQGtv_mn-0qzrEtKC8GUoqHoPkUVedPe2xZ-Je3JDos0W8MojfkUL0ZnA8q8Ror57JHJW-RF6rZT4m2KeTRhW4A-21ZPO5mKUoRMXw8j5cbqUQaYI2lrpY/s400/Legs+IV.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535864154547901202" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">...ending with a surprise uppercut. Who would expect a cat to be left-handed?</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjjBYlaeUu7VN_ccXfoGV2-RvduD8CtP46TbuzPy3Pl1iTFASV7qurg6ASHbM4bEnPrB_K1SNCkWGn5sDPWrwIW8nPcMjt2kBlzDBgP0TTUrHrg-aiq-jyrcJDBABVfnNlMq-gXBNZ1ts/s1600/Legs+V.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjjBYlaeUu7VN_ccXfoGV2-RvduD8CtP46TbuzPy3Pl1iTFASV7qurg6ASHbM4bEnPrB_K1SNCkWGn5sDPWrwIW8nPcMjt2kBlzDBgP0TTUrHrg-aiq-jyrcJDBABVfnNlMq-gXBNZ1ts/s400/Legs+V.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535864150258328530" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">My hero.</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">.</span><br /></div>Neil J Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08852834659400991664noreply@blogger.com1