esrosedotblog

The NYTimes has a new toy.

A 360 degree camera that gives a wide eyed look at various places in this country.

This one is seasonal.

Peer Out From a Bergdorf Window

How about Sandboarding in Peru.

There is another one of a Trump rally in Ohio. And you don't have to actually be there!

Another of a derrick placing a cross on the top of a church.

The quality is not the best. And it helps to lean into the screen a little. But these are pretty good improvements on one's need to crane and rubberneck.

Also a solution for those of us who wish a photo showed more than the specific frame. A look behind and to the sides.

Labels: photography

Photographs from the New York Times from the almost past year.

Not exactly "memory lane" but transfixing nonetheless.

They are, besides being potent reminders of the times, really great photos!

I had forgotten some of these events. Some, are news to me.

I love the annual recaps.

It reminds me that I live in rich and abundant times.

And it is a far superior New Years' event than standing out in the cold among all the yahoos in Times Square.

But for years, we watched it at home. The glass ball.

What was I thinking?

Well, nothing. It is just a talismanic event. There is no doubt that January 2 will be the same as every other day. That is, in a general way. But in a specific way, yes. Beautifully so.

I will be here for that one too. If I can.

Labels: news, photography

I spent a while looking at these this morning.

For some reason, I felt a whole series of reactions. Mostly emotional. It is worth taking the time to look.

The older I get the more I realize that "looking" is most of life.

Forty Portraits in Forty Years

Labels: life, photography, women

Hot in more ways than one.

I love this photo from Bend Oregon.

The couple in question had scheduled their outdoor wedding near where this fire began raging. They moved the whole thing in town but got this photo before they went indoors. The story is here.

Labels: fire, photography, photos, wedding

Don't ever underestimate the younger generation.

They are, as always, in every decade of my life, a great bunch, these kids, with a wonderful point of view to offer the critical old farts about life in America.

Looking at Our Hometowns

In this project by the NYTimes, kids all over America take and submit photos of their hometowns and their life there.

It is wonderful.

I got so involved that I forgot it was time to go to the store and was waylaid over half an hour.

I resist this kind of intense accidental involvement especially on the internet, the great time wasters, but this caught me completely off guard.

Very touching and enjoyable.

Labels: America, photography

WONDERFUL

From todays NYT. Anthony Sherin. Found art.

Stay with this. There is an arc and a throughline.

Making this film was pure serendipity. After a January snowstorm in New York City, I decided to do some work on another film, in my home in Washington Heights. But as I approached my desk, I thought I heard a piano plinking. I looked out the window and saw a piano on the curb below. I was mesmerized by the pattern that emerged. Passers-by would slow, stop and play. Some played well. All day long they collected and dispersed, and into the night they measured, shoved and deliberated the piano’s fate. (If it stayed on the sidewalk, the city could have issued a fine.) I was riveted. Pianos have histories. No one who stopped seemed eager to leave it behind. Their thoughts were obvious: Can we take it? Who abandons a piano? Is it worth anything?........Anthony Sherin is a New York-based filmmaker and editor. His documentary “Original Intent: The Battle for America” was broadcast on PBS in 2009.

Labels: films, music, photography

LOCAL COLOR

South of here is the Salton Sea. Well, east of here. It just seems south because the road twists and turns and ends up at Mexico.

Once a resort, the Sea has been left behind by time and increasing pollution. It is also isolated from the rest of the world. In the middle of nowhere.

This photo essay tells the story.

At the Salton Sea, Something Like Nostalgia

It is worth an auto trip. You must get out of the car.

You can see the imprint of the dream in the desert. It is pretty depressing. But then, not. In its own bedraggled way there is a very faded elegance there. An outline of the vain hopes of the developer and everyone who came to be by the sea.

Labels: desert, photography, photos

TWINS

Labels: photography, photos

GETTING THE BEST SHOT

I have one of these cameras and always put it on automatic. The only time I used manual, I got a black and white photo by mistake. Which John loved, incidentally. An enlargement hangs in his bathroom.

I don't think that I have any special settings like "fireworks". Or if I do I have never found them.

But the rest of it? Doing my own settings? I am seriously out of synch with the whole thing.

I have pretty well learned to aim and focus and to avoid hot spots, contrast, a real problem with digitals.

When I come right down to it, I am mostly not interested.

We never look at the photos that we have.

I am reminded of my friend Jim's speculation. Some day, he will die and "they" will come to clean out the house. They will take a look at his photos of a long extended trip to China and say "here is the album of that time he went to China" and then toss it into the dumpster.

All of our prints are now in my iPhoto. The hard copy "old fashioned" film photos are in albums. A lot of them show a sandy beach, a sunset, palm trees and some people in bathing suits. No years, no names. Even less interesting than China.

Franklin and Booker are well documented and are probably curated more accurately than any of the humans.

We do have a lot of family and friend photos that have been sent to us. Those we look at. Keep them coming.

Labels: photography, photos

BEAT UP

We saw some of these photographs in Provincetown a decade or more ago. They are quite something to see.

Poet With a Kodak and a Restless Eye

Allen Ginsberg took many snapshots of his friends when he was young.

Many of the friends are now iconic.

What is more, he wrote on the prints, by hand, commenting on the time or place or situation that the photo represents.

One feature of this collection is, sadly, the price that many of these guys paid for their "experiences". Over time, there is a kind of fall from grace that occurred. Only a few survived unscathed. Ginsberg for one.

We saw him in the hallway at Boston Symphony Hall shortly after seeing the photos. He looked pretty good and was almost totally ignored by the crowds. His time had passed, icon or not.

Now he will have a movie about his life and he is James Franco. I will be watching with interest.

Take a look at the slide show.

I think that the show we saw had as many photos in them. Fascinating.

Labels: art, history, photography, photos

GEAR

I am not a camera fanatic but I am interested in the technology as it lunges forward into our times. I am also interested in cinematography and how "they do it".

Look at at this little film. Use the big screen.

This film was shot with a still camera!

The Canon 5D Mark II.

It costs about $2300 and will put 22 minutes on a single 18gb card. That doesn't seem right but that is what he says.

This short is "filmed" on one card.

The effects and the feel of this are amazing.

See here.

I got onto this because I had read that the last program of the popular series House had been done with this camera.

Amazing.

Labels: films, photography, photos

POPCORN

This exhibition of world leader portraits is incredible to watch.

Platon: Photographs of World Leaders

The photographer Platon has recorded a very brief comment on each portrait.

One you start watching and listening to this you won't be able to stop.

It is like aural and visual popcorn.

Very funny. To the point. Enjoy.

I especially liked the one about Mugabe and Gadhafi. The villains. And Gordon Brown, Netenyahu. Very nice.

Oddly, Platon is now a staff photographer for The New Yorker which doesn't have many photographs.

I guess that is about to change.

Labels: photography

SOMETHING YOU MIGHT WANT TO CHECK OUT IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A VISUAL BREAK

Pixdaus

Seven or eight photos a day and a huge archive.

Some entries are way over "shopped" but most are straight on good photography and very pleasant to see.

A lot of nature.

Labels: fun, nature, photography

TRIPPIN'

Labels: photography

IMPRINT

Labels: photography

IO PLUME

I don't care much about what or why the plume is there.

I sure do love this picture though.

The Prometheus Plume

I look at the APOD every day and usually yawn at the latest universe shot.

There are so many of them. They all look the same to me.

But, I live for one of these photos. Something totally unique. Beautiful for itself.

Today, a winner.

Labels: APOD, photography

PARTY PIX

We have been having fun with the photos from the birthday party 012807.

The photographer delivered the disc Sunday night and I now have them installed on two computers and a backup disc.

I have sent a few email photos to people who are close.

This is a wallow in good feelings.

Very nice.

I plan, eventually, to get a photo to everyone who came and has a photo in the deck.

I think that he missed only a very few.

I am not going to put them on line and you will not see any of them here.

I like the anonymity in life and I try to preserve it for the people who I interact with when I write or work with the blog.

Actually, I don't think that I have ever put my own photo on here either. And do not intend to.

Franklin has made an appearance here. He craves attention.

The house has appeared from time to time. A car.

But no people.

I can tell you about the photos though.

What fun they are.

Labels: me me me, Party, photography