Category Archives: Blog

Another kind of photo blog…

My older brother is building a plane in his garage. He has been working on it for over 4 years now, and it is nearing completion. As a kid, he was always building model planes, modifying cars and anything else he could try. His dedication, skill and attention to detail are quite inspiring… I would love to have even a small bit of each. Over the years he has documented every step of the build with photographs, including the set up of his workshop. He has put up the site to help other builders (and let them know what they are in for). For a taste of the work he is doing, check out the “instrument panel” section.

Check out his site here : http://701builder.com/

Looking Back – It’s almost spring!

The weather has been keeping me inside, so I have decided to start posting some of my favorite older pictures. I’ve added a new category to the site called “Looking Back” that these posts will get filed under.

The first picture is from the New York Botanical Garden from 2003 or so :

Bee on a flower
Bee on a Flower

I was shooting with a Nikon D100, and the 28-105mm. I’m pretty sure I had my 6T close up filter on when I took the shot. The combination of the 28-105 in macro mode, and the 6t and get very close as I mentioned in a previous post.

The next photo was from 2005, also with the D100 and a 300mm f/4 prime lens taken in my backyard:

Butterfly on flowers
Butterfly on Flowers

In my rush to get the butterfly before it took off, I slightly overexposed the flowers, and got the white balance wrong. Thanks to the magic of Raw image processing, I managed to salvage the shot to some extent. The 300mm f/4 is another one of my favorite lenses. If it wasn’t so heavy I would carry it with me everywhere.

Eagle Rock Reservation

In my previous post I mentioned my lack of inspiration at Brookdale park. In a search for alternative shooting locations, I took a drive over to the Eagle Rock Reservation. I think this 400+ acre preserve is going to be the focus of much of my weekend shooting for the next few months. There is not much in the way of color there right now, so I processed my shots as toned B&W. I am really looking forward to shooting here in the spring. Right now, there is so much brown and gray (dead leaves, bare trees, rocks), that moss and grass start to look colorful.

As soon as I saw this fallen tree, I noticed how the roots looked like fingers stuck in the earth. It looks like an evil hand digging into the ground.

Eagle Rock Reservation - Fallen Tree
Eagle Rock Reservation – Fallen Tree

The vine like plants in the next image can be seen on many of the trees. They look like an invasive species, but I’m not really sure.

Eagle Rock Reservation - Spiral Vine
Eagle Rock Reservation – Spiral Vine

I really liked the “cutaway view” of the roots of this tree. There is a small stream that washed out the soil, just out of the frame. It reminded me of an illustration in a science book, showing the normally invisible root system.

Eagle Rock Reservation - Exposed Roots
Eagle Rock Reservation – Exposed Roots

You can give yourself a Rorschach Test with this image. I see a skeletal hand on the right side and a weird frog/bug in the upper left. Am I nuts?

Eagle Rock Reservation - Root Formation
Eagle Rock Reservation – Root Formation

There is not much going on in the last image. I just liked the symmetry of the mushrooms on the trunk.

Eagle Rock Reservation - Trunk and Mushrooms
Eagle Rock Reservation – Trunk and Mushrooms

I am still trying to find a little direction for the layout of the site. I am only going to keep a single post on the front page for the time being. I am also moving away from using the flash based slide show. I had a few people comment that it took away their ability to view the images at their own pace, which made absolute sense. If you got this far, leave a comment and let me know what you think of this site! Thanks.