The Cloisters
My friends Claudia, Janice and I took the A train way uptown to 190th Street in Manhattan to visit a museum known as The Cloisters . This stately representation of a medieval monastery, sits atop a hill in Ft. Tryon Park with views of the Hudson River and the George Washington Bridge. Both Claudia and Janice have been there several times before but this was my first visit and was very exciting.
With most museums the lighting is low or in this case dark and the use of flashes or tripods is not allowed. So, it was a bit of a challenge to get images light and sharp enough without too much noise. Using an 18-270mm lens on my camera I set the shutter speed to 1/60th (the fastest I could get hand-held) and the aperture between f5.6 and f6.3 (this is not a fast lens.) The ISO was between 1000 and 1600 and changing the white balance depending on whether there was natural or electric light.
I tried to capture the essence of this lofty museum by focusing my camera on the ornately carved lintels over the door and passageways, the gorgeous pink veined columns surrounding the gardens, the mullioned windows and the many ancient religious artifacts and bits of architecture that date back from the 12th through the 15th centuries.
At one point I entered a room filled with statuary of saints, bishops, cardinals and other religious figures. I was especially intrigued by the emotion on the face of each statute carved in stone or wood. The detail in the hair, clothes and eyes; especially one bishop with extreme lines and creases under his eyes. I converted his image to black and white adding a lot of grain to heighten those details.
Along one wall by the gardens was a grotesquely carved head of a human or animal protruding from the wall and dripping water from its fanged mouth that both repulsed and amused me. This antediluvian yellow face was crusty, pockmarked and worn with age and I deepened the color during post processing to highlight these preposterous features even more.
The most beautiful and colorful objects in this cloister and the ones that afforded enough light for a sharp photo were the stained glass windows. I zoomed in on these wonderful works of art filling the frame with their rich color and texture. They must have been welcoming bright spots in a monastic building of grey stone back in the “Gothic” day.
The gardens surrounding the cloister were obviously not in bloom yet but a tree bereft of leaves against a background of blue sky and white clouds is a subject I never tire of photographing and then converting to stark black and white for a very dramatic effect.
I hope you enjoy the photos below and the rest of the gallery at www.photobycate.com.
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Just Some Street Stuff
Although freezing cold yesterday I needed to get out of the apartment and go for a walk. Dressed cozy and warm in wool and down I walked along Astoria Boulevard toward the train station taking shots along the way of the everyday things that most people ignore but I love to photograph.
One interesting item caught my eye at the intersection of Astoria Blvd. and 23rd Avenue where there is a tiny triangle of a park with one bench and a few trees. Outside of this little park I found a bronze plaque about the size and shape of a man-hole cover embedded in the sidewalk depicting the symbols of the Zodiac. This is the first time I noticed it and have no idea who put it there or why. So far my researches on the internet have not turned up anything yet, but I’ll keep trying and update this post at a later date.
I took the train into the East Village and because it was getting very cold I did not wandered too far just around 1st and second avenue from East 8th Street down to East 4th street and back photographing the old and unusual as I saw it. I really enjoyed the street lights covered in a colorful glass mosaic artwork from the base right up the cylindrical pole as I walked up 8th Street. I took my favorite shots of bicycles and locks, store fronts displaying something outrageous or interesting, people in a cafe eating alone or socializing face to face, old facades and strange bits of abstract art. My favorite shots are of the Double Bubble gum ball machines. So colorful and bringing back many sugary childhood memories of back in the day where a penny could buy you a little handful of candy!
When I could no longer feel my fingers or the tip of my nose I turned myself toward Broadway and the N train uptown to Queens taking photos along the way. I can’t say my day was full of excitement and challenge but it did give me a few good shots to add to my Urban Scenes, Bicycles and Locks galleries and a good reason to stay indoors sipping hot coffee for the rest of the day.
Enjoy the photos below.
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South Street Seaport
I know, I know I haven’t written or taken any photos for the entire month of January. This was due partly to a bad cold and sheer winter laziness. My good friend and fellow photographer RC Hall threatened to squeal on me to the photo police so I figured I better get my little heiny in gear and out the door.
Off I went to South Street Sea Port to capture the fading beauty of the old masted seafaring vessels the Peking and her Liverpool cousin the Wavertree who spend their retirement entertaining tourist from far and near with their history of the shipping industry in days gone by.
Saturday was overcast with occasional sun peeks through the clouds adding a dramatic background against the tall masted historic ships. It was my kind of day though not too cold, not too warm, not too windy nor crowded. Since I visited the seaport last a new promenade has been erected on the right side of the ships (facing the water) and is three levels up with fantastic views of the seaport and the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges. The promenade is nice and wide so you don’t feel crowded no matter how many people there are and plenty of little benches and steps to sit on.
I love the old shiver-me-timbers atmosphere that overwhelms me as soon as I step foot on the pier! I was in my element taking shot after shot of the grit and grime that I have come to know and love while photographing the urban landscape. Everywhere I looked was a treasure; salt washed planking on the docks, rusted chains as big as NYC street pretzels coated with barnacles instead of salt, cracked and peeling paint. All sorts of rope coiled, looped and knotted, years of paint caked on port holes and rivets, warped and aged decks of old tug boats, corroded cleats and mangled bits of rotting metal and wood. I sooooooo enjoyed myself.
Did you know that the old red and grey kiosk standing in the middle of the dock as you enter Pier 17 is actually the old pilothouse from the top of the steam tugboat New York Central No. 31, built in 1923 in Brooklyn, NY ? Neither did I but i stumbled upon this information while key-wording my images. The tug was once of a large fleet of such vessels owned and operated by the railroads! I applied an aged photo filter (see images below) to my image of this pilot house in keeping with its aged history.
When I had my fill of photos of the pier and ships I spent a few minutes taking shots of the front window of the little museum shop near the Peking. On display is a wonderful carved wooden bust of an Indian Chief with a feathered bonnet. What intrigued me was the glass window was shattered on the right corner. The resulting cracks spread out from the corner creating a sharp wide burst across the face of the Indian Chief. Terrific effect. I was so busy taking photos I never thought to go into the museum; alas next visit I will make it a point to open the door and walk inside and say hello to my Indian friend.
Yar mateys, tis all I haf ta tell ye of me voyage to the seaport. Enjoy the images below, arrrh.
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