Best Marmalade

I mostly take pictures of people, but from time to time I see an object I like or I help out with something Caroline has been asked to do in the still life realm. Recently it was a jar of marmalade.
I put the jar on our marble dining room table, clamped a spoon to a light stand and filled the spoon with marmalade. The shot was lit by four windows, two behind the jar and two in front of it. The marmalade was the best I had ever tasted, made by Jennifer Mercurio here in Garrison.

Meditation can be dangerous

Man turned to stone by staring at Central Hudson power lines. Sculpture by Emil Alzamora in his open air studio in Beacon, NY.

Abandoned tennis court

I was going to call this "The State of British Tennis" until Murray beat Federer in the finals of the Shanghai Masters the other day, so I'd better be careful. We'll see.

Leather worker's tools

Jason has recently had a surge in orders for his work and has taken on helpers. From an early age he had experience with production. His father manufactured pushpins and allowed his son to roam the factory. Click here for Jason's website.

Tree roots, Norton Island

On the witch's trail, Norton Island, Maine

Headless woman

A store front on Franklin Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Saturday night dinner

Went to Brooklyn and saw nothing. Returned with dinner from Fairway's, above. Ham on the bone from Maine, good, but a little smoky. Dried fruit, gherkins, tomatoes and salami all excellent. Top right are dried cherries marinated in Dow's 5 year old Tawny port. Extravagant you might say but the dried cherries were extremely sour and I already had the port which was too sweet to enjoy. But it did a wonderful job of taking the excessive sourness off the cherries.

Kentile Floors sign

We passed the sign on the way to brunch at Bar Tano. As impressive as it was I did not want to photograph it because the detail of the light toned brick in the building was distracting. Later, returning from a stroll around Park Slope the building was in shadow. The shadows come from the elevated portion of the F and G trains that crosses the Gowanus Canal.

(History lesson: The canal was too deep for a tunnel to be built under it.)

Waiting out the winter

In the summer we live out here from seven in the evening until we have eaten and drunk enough. I put up lights that reflect off the surrounding trees and the pale yellow walls of the house. The logs act as tables for plates, glasses and bottles. The chairs are wintering in the garage. Had to use a very small aperture, f/22, to get the depth of focus, so I put the camera on a tripod and held an umbrella over it.

Slippers

Slippers bequeathed to the puppy. They were old but would have gone on a little longer. L. L. Bean are out of stock as most retailers at this time of year are out of stock of anything you might want.

Wrought iron balustrade, Newburgh, NY

Newburgh, NY has many houses without stoops, houses with both stoops and balustrades missing, but in some cases the house, stoop and balustrade are still in place - not many. How this beauty survived on Liberty Street, along with the stoop and the house, goodness only knows. The house was boarded up but still standing. Wouldn't this piece last just five minutes in an Antique shop on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn?

Taken wide open on the trusted Rollei, to get the narrow depth of field.

More on Newburgh, go to http://www.kasterine.com/newburgh

November 2009

A corner of our living room needed something. The table top on which the branches and vase stand had rusted through and I had a new one welded on. I'd always liked the table and this is now its new home and a subject for the camera; as long I continue to find things or foliage to put on it. I photographed it soon after I placed the branches there, but a few days later it was much more interesting with the fallen leaves.

Loaf of bread

Food and wine have played a large part in my life, mostly eating and drinking it but also reading about it. I was about to list a few writers I've liked, but got stuck at Elizabeth David. I have admired food photographers, Robert Freson and Irving Penn in particular, but have never tackled it myself. Here is a loaf of bread on a fifty year old bread board.

Winter 2008

Here's something different. Something to bring in the New Year with a ... I was left with this after breaking the handle of the mall. From time to time I photograph landscapes and still lives and this picture I did a month ago. Next week I will probably be back with a portrait.