Magnolia Blossom was lying under a tree at Pomerance Park when I met her, near the ruins of Wyndygoul, the old Seton home.
A chance encounter, almost didn’t see her, almost stepped on her actually.
I found her interesting and took her home where I set her on my desk then proceeded to ignore, and eventually forget, her as I worked.
I found her there this morning as I was getting ready to go out for my morning coffee. She was pretty much as I had left her. Though having lost some of her freshness and looking wilted, she was still attractive, interesting, still so full of colour.
I took her out to breakfast.
Alone together in the upstairs room of the coffee shop, I began to undress her.
[Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M5 MarkII Lens: Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-150mm F4.0]
56mm; f/13; 4.0s; ISO 25020mm; f/4.3; 1/60s; ISO 40022mm; f/4.5; 1/60s; ISO 40070mm; f/5.5; 1/160s; ISO 160025mm; f/4.7; 1/60s; ISO 32020mm; f/4.5; 1/60s; ISO 320150mm; f/5.6; 1/160s; ISO 160025mm; f/4.7; 1/60s; ISO 320150mm; f/5.6; 1/160s; ISO 160022mm; f/4.5; 1/60s; ISO 250150mm; f/5.6; 1/200s; ISO 1600
all images edited in Snapseed: Cropped or expanded to 5×7 ratio; a little vignetting, detail reduction to give a soft focus look
Most mornings I go out for a walk. Depending on weather I try to get five to six miles in on weekdays, eight to nine on Saturdays, Sunday I rest. I carry a camera in one hand, my iPad in the other.
At the three mile mark (sometimes a little more, depending on my route) I stop at what has become my coffee ‘local’: a patisserie called Aux Delices in Riverside, Connecticut. I get there shortly after they open at Seven and and take a coffee and croissant upstairs to the usually empty dining room where I sit at my regular table reading though my copy of the internet.
As I sit, people come and go and I can’t help watching, listening and, of course, taking pictures. Most of these I never post, especially if they show their full faces, but I thought I’d put some of them here including a couple of selfies I took using the Olympus’ remote control app on my phone.
2021.03.20 – Olympus OM-D E-M5 MarkII (Lens: Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 25mm F1.8; Settings: ISO 200, F/3.5, 1/200sec)2021.03.16 – Taken with iPad Pro back camera (as you can see from the reflection)2021.02.26 – Olympus OM-D E-M5 MarkII (Lens: Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-150mm F4.0-5.6, Settings: 14mm, ISO 200, f/4.5, 1/80 sec) 2021.03.24 – Taken with iPad Pro back camera2021.04.02: Remote Selfie -Olympus OM-D E-M5 MarkII (Lens: Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-150mm F4.0-5.6, Settings: 31mm, ISO 200, f/7.1, 1/125 sec)2021.04.03 – At My Regular Table – Olympus OM-D E-M5 MarkII (Lens: Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-150mm F4.0-5.6; Settings: 22mm, ISO 200, F/4.5, 1/80sec)2021.04.05 – Olympus OM-D E-M5 MarkII (Lens: Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-150mm F4.0-5.6; Settings: 15mm, ISO 250, F/4.1, 1/60sec)2021.04.06 – Olympus OM-D E-M5 MarkII (Lens: Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-150mm F4.0-5.6; Settings: 16mm, ISO 320, F/4.1, 1/60sec)2021.03.28 – Taken with iPhone Back Camera2021.04.02 – Taken with iPad Pro back camera
I’m always curious about the shopping carts I see abandoned on sidewalks around town, many quite far from the stores they come from, but not close to anyone’s home or even a bus stop.
2020.06.09: East Putnam Avenue, Greenwich
I imagine in them a desire for travel…
New surroundings, …
2021.03.23: East Putnam Avenue, Old Greenwich
To make different friends …
2020.11.21: East Putnam Avenue, Cos Cob, CT
In the end, though, they become lost and depressed …
2021.03.01: Ferris Drive, Old Greenwich
Having found no place that fulfills whatever expectations they may have had, some seek to find their way back home
2021.03.21: Arcadia Road, Old Greenwich, CT2021.03.01: Arcadia Rd, Old Greenwich, CT
Some wait, hoping to be found and brought back …
2020.03.11: East Putnam Avenue, Old Greenwich, CT
While others fall into a deeper depression and give up
2020.03.11: East Putnam Avenue, Riverside, CT2021.03.20: East Putnam Avenue, Cos Cob, CT2021.03.20: East Putnam Avenue, Old Greenwich, CT
When I go for my morning walks around town, I am constantly on the lookout for something to photograph. My eyes usually gravitate toward lost, discarded or misplaced things (toys, balls, gloves, bottles, etc.).
A few days ago I found a beautifully rusted chain link. It’s a little over two inches long, a quarter inch thick, and worn with a gap on one end where it must have escaped from whatever it was attached to.
2021.03.09: Finding the Missing Link (OM-D MK5ii, 36mm, f/5.2, 1/80sec, IS0 320 – iAUTO mode)
I took a picture of it on lying on the side of the road where I found it and started to walk away, but it had so captured my imagination that I went back to pick it up.
2021.03.09: Rust on Copper (iPhone XR Back Camera 4.25mm, f/1.8 #1: 1/60 sec ISO 160, #2 1/81 sec ISO 100)
For the next few days I carried it around to with me to photograph against different backgrounds using both the OM-D and my iPhone. When using the Olympus I almost always used manual settings – or at least in aperture priority mode; with the iPhone I just hoped for the best and that Snapseed would rescue the bad shots. I hope you enjoy the results as much as I enjoyed taking and editing them.
2021.03.09: Missing Link on the Window Sill (OM-D MK5ii 14mm,- #1: 14mm, f/6.3, 1/200 s, IS0 200; #2: 14mm, f/22, 1/60 s, ISO 400; #3: 18mm, f/22, 1/100 s, ISO 400)2021.03.09: Wood and Iron (OM-D MK5ii, 18mm, f/4.2, 1/20s, IS0 400)2021.03.09: Hitting a Brick Wall (OM-D MK5ii, 49mm, f/22, 1/20s, IS0 400)
2021.03.10: Different Textures (OM-D Mk5ii – #1: atop Iphone and Table Cloth, 18mm, f/4.2, 1/60s ISO 1600; #2: atop Cashmere Scarf, 39mm,
2021.03.10-12: Missing Link on my Desk (OM-D Mk5ii – #1: 29mm, f/4.9, 1/15s, ISO 1600; #2: 17mm, f/4.1, 1/15 sec, ISO 1600; #3: 31mm, f/22, 13.0 sec, ISO 200)
There’s no denying it: although I profess myself to be a misanthrope, I do like to occasionally spend time sitting in a bar, watching people and listening in on conversations around me.
But what I like most is to take pictures in that special light that you really only find in a bar.
2021.03.07: The Town Dock Tavern, Rye, NY (iPhone XR Back Camera, 4.25mm, f/1.8, 1/60 sec, ISO 160)
People and things just look so different inside a bar than they do in the outside world (and I’m saying this is true even before I start drinking!).
2021.03.07: AC’s Boots (iPhone XR Back Camera, 4.25mm, f/1.8, 1/30 sec, ISO 400)
This afternoon my wife and I went to the Town Dock Tavern in Rye, about ten miles from home, to visit our friend Margaret who was bartending.
2021.03.07: Who invited Basil Hayden? (I don’t know, but I asked him to stay a while) (iPhone XR Back Camera, 4.25mm, f/1.8, 1/60 sec, ISO 250)
There was only one other person there when we arrived, but soon a few regulars started coming in. The place became lively with laughter and friendly conversation.
2021.03.07: Basil Hayden, Front and Centre (Guinness on the left) (iPhone XR Back Camera, 4.25mm, f/1.8, 1/30 sec, ISO 400)
Margaret made sure we were acquainted with everyone and we felt most welcome.
2021.03.07: Margaret’s Steady Hand at the Helm at the Town Dock (iPhone XR Back Camera, 4.25mm, f/1.8, 1/30 sec, ISO 640)
We ate, we drank, we enjoyed the people, and then we remembered that tomorrow was Monday.
2021.03.07: Clam-orous Dishes! (iPhone XR Back Camera, 4.25mm, f/1.8, 1/40 sec, ISO 320)
I want to explain the picture below (also the featured image) because they look less than flattering to the people in them and I call them ‘If Hell Had Happy Hour I’ and ‘II’ because nobody looks to be having a particularly good time, but this is one of those tricks of timing where, in that one split second, everyone looks off. It’s like when you pause a video in the middle of someone talking – that most beautiful or handsome person you wanted to stare at for a while looks like the biggest doof in the world!
I guarantee, everyone was having a wonderful time, they were some of the most pleasant people I’ve ever drank with and I hope to hang with them again someday soon.
2021.03.07: If Hell Had Happy Hour I (iPhone XR Back Camera, 4.25mm, f/1.8, 1/40 sec, ISO 320)
Like many people, I’m fascinated by the way different objects reflect light or images. Capturing this on ‘film’ hasn’t always been easy for me. Been a bit of a learning curve.
2021.02.27: Lugano Wine Bar, Old Greenwich (OM-D MKVII 15mm, f/10, 0.40000 sec, ISO 200)
A lot of times I think I’m taking a photo of what I’m seeing only to find out that either my point of view isn’t exactly the same as my camera’s or that I didn’t have the settings right and the beautiful reflection I thought I caught looks undefined or washed out. Fortunately post processing with tools such as Snapseed, GIMP, etc., can help bring out the beauty that was there in my eyes.
2021.02.28: Sunlight Reflecting on Wet Blacktop (iPhone XR Back Camera, 4.25mm, f/1.8, 1/121 sec, ISO 32 – Left is original image, Right is post processed with Snapseed )
2021.03.02: Sun Reflecting Off a Copper Table (OM-D MKVII 14mm, f/20, 1/500 sec, ISO 200)
I love the way different surfaces reflect objects and light: how very smooth surfaces (water, glass, polished marble) act like mirrors, rough and dented surfaces provide only a rough idea of the images they reflect. There’s an analogy somewhere in there for the way we think and relate our ideas to each other.
2021.03.01: The Perrot Library Reflected on Binney Park Pond, Old Greenwich, CT (OM-D MKVII 14mm, f/5.6, 1/25 sec, ISO 200)2021.03.07: Narcissist (OM-D Mk5ii, 54mm, f/6.3, 1/400 sec, ISO 100)
Not all reflection is about light and images – sometimes a reflection is seeing something two people are doing that looks almost the same.
2021.02.27: Reflecting (OM-D MK5ii, 16mm, f/4.1, 1/15sec, ISO 1600)
Three weeks ago I got home to find a package at my door. I wasn’t too excited: we’ve all been experiencing a year of random packages showing up almost every day with stuff you ordered who knows when, while you were thinking god knows what, drinking scotch in the dark and surfing the internet (or is that only me?) Surprise, surprise, though: it was something I actually remembered ordering and had been looking forward to: a reconditioned Olympus OM-D E Mark 5ii with a 14-150mm lens.
2021.02.08: Shooting through a metal pipe – 10mm, f/5.6, 1/25sec, ISO 1600
I found it cheap on eBay, having gone on a search after seeing it listed as the equipment used in someone’s blog post (wish I could remember whose. I’ve gone back looking, but can’t find it. As I said, scotch in the dark and surfing the web).
I unwrapped the package, put the battery in the charger (so glad they included one, because I hadn’t thought about it) and loved forward to taking it out the next morning. Immediately I liked its look and feel: it more closely resembled the film cameras from my past – it even looked more like my old Canon AE-1 than any or my more modern Canons – its size and weight also felt great in my hand: smaller, but a little heavier than my Rebel, and … I don’t know… more fun to swing around.
2021.02.08: Jim Enters Lugano – taken using the WiFi remote (16mm, f/4.1, 1/60sec, ISO 500)
Many things on cameras are easily understood at first glance – here’s the shutter release, there’s the wheel you turn to set the picture-taking mode, here’s the button to release the lens, etc. Other things take some reading and getting used to. For example, setting for manual focus: with my Canons there’s a switch on the lens, itself; with this camera it’s software driven and I have to go into the settings menu – already, I can tell this will be a pain in the ass since I’m used to switching from auto to manual focus ‘on the fly,’ as it were.
2021.02.10: Morning at Aux Delices (14mm, f/4, 1/60sec, ISO 500)
To get to know the camera I did what I do with a lot of things: I downloaded the manual to generally ignore, but look at from time to time, and started carrying it everywhere and taking pictures, feeling my way through the different settings.
Generally I like the camera – I love the lens! – and the pictures it takes. There really are only two things I don’t like about it:
First, the so-called ‘super control panel.’ To me, its not so super. Perhaps this may be because it’s a reconditioned camera, but I find it hard to use the touch-screen functions. The first time I tried to select ISO setting, I tapped and tapped and tapped until I almost didn’t want to take the picture anymore. Finally I typed somewhere else, magically activating the White Balance setting, then used the arrow pad to move to the ISO setting.
Second, the aforementioned switching from auto to manual focus.
2021.02.11: A Bird in the Bush is Worth 1/2 A Bird in the Hand – MANUAL FOCUS MODE (150mm, f/5.6, 1/250sec, ISO 250)
The WiFi functions are fun – clunky, but fun – this being my first camera with built-in WiFi. I like the ability to transfer pictures directly to my iPad for editing instead of waiting to get to transfer from camera to laptop to iPad. I’ve also used the WiFi remote a few times.
2021.02.24: Shopping Cart Under the Bridge (15mm, f/4.1, 1/60sec, ISO 640)
All-in-all, happy with the purchase and the pictures. I sort of feel bad for my Canon, though: it’s been sitting on the shelf for the past three weeks, only getting sun a couple of times when I wanted to use a camera I was a little more comfortable with.
iPhone XR Front Camera, 2.87mm, f/2.2, 1/121sec, ISO 64
My last post was about my friend, Jim, who didn’t like being photographed.
Jim died unexpectedly in his sleep yesterday morning.
We all say ‘unexpectedly’ about a friend’s death, but this truly was. We had lunch at our favorite coffee shop the afternoon before and had been out later that night for our usual Thursday night ‘writing workshop.’ We had a good time talking to each other and one of his favorite bartenders, Natasha.
Nothing seemed amiss. We parted happy company around 9:30. I got an email from him Friday morning at 5:20: ‘Very nice’, was all it said, referring to a couple picture I had emailed him, taken while we were out. I had taken one last picture for the series of him not liking to be photographed, not knowing, of course, that it would be the last. He had read my last post and was happy with it and, now, was truly into the small Instagram/Facebook series I had created.
2021.02.11: The Last ‘Jim Doesn’t Like Having His Picture Taken’
Jim and I have been friends for close to, if not a little longer than, four years. I think I said three years before, but I’ve found pictures dating back to 2017. We would see each other often for lunch and dinner, but over the Covid year, after my regular morning coffee shop shut down, we started meeting every day at Aux Delices. The only mornings we didn’t see each others were those days where one of us had an early call or had too late of a night out.
On those days we didn’t see each other for breakfast we would be chatting along with another friend, Nagy, throughout the day.
2020.01.21: From a recent conversation involving burritos and strippers – frankly, I don’t remember what brought those two things together.
He was good friends with my wife, Jane. My daughter, Elyse, he thought of as one of his own. We have different best friends throughout different parts of our lives and I’m glad to be able to say that he’s been my best friend these last few years.
2018.08.04: Jim, Nagy, Elyse and me
A word about this post’s ‘featured image’ – copied below. I took it this morning where Jim and I usually met for coffee. The Panama hat he gave me about two months ago from his collection of hats and baseball caps – he let me know that it was an authentic Panama hat which, actually, are not from Panama, but from Ecuador. The sunglasses came from his kitchen counter – I picked them up on my way out of his apartment yesterday. I wanted them for two reason: first, I wanted to have something of his (I know, I already have the hat, but this was something still his); second, sunglasses, are a perfect metaphor for life and friendship: they can be precious, they can protect you, they need care, and they can be lost so unexpectedly and it’s upsetting.
2021.01.28: Jim hates having his picture taken, so we worked out a compromise
One thing that’s happened this past year has been the great reduction of my social circle. It was never big to begin with – a group of women I usually sat with for morning coffee during the week, a bunch of regulars I would see and talk to at various pubs and restaurants, a couple of guys I would have coffee with on the weekends – but now it has diminished to, essentially, 7: two people I see daily for coffee, two couples my wife and I see occasionally, and one other guy – a crazy-talented artist who drops by with paintings every once in a while, the intervals between which have increased since, after nearly a year of unemployment, he found work.
2021.01.29: Jim hates having his picture taken
One of my coffee friends is Jim. I’ve known Jim at least three years. We became friends a through mutual appreciation of alcohol – a friendship which developed over the years over our common interests in software development, politics, art, whisky, and general conversation.
2021.01.30: Jim at breakfast not having his picture taken
In a recent post I mentioned my inability to stop taking pictures. This includes pictures of people I’m hanging around with. Jim presents a problem. He doesn’t like having his picture taken – at least not candidly and with the frequency that I take them. I decided to turn this reticence into a sort of regular feature of my Instagram posts.
2021.01.30: Jim not having his picture taken during a recent writing workshop – the cork pictured is from a bottle of Brenne, a French single malt
In addition to morning coffee, we meet regularly for dinner at the couple of places we feel safe going to, and almost weekly on Thursdays for a <air quotes> writing workshop </air quotes>. The reason for the air quotes is that, actually, it’s my wife attending a writing workshop while Jim and I discover the benefits of good whisky (Scotch, mostly, but bourbons, ryes, and others are welcome).
Anyway, thought these would be fun to post here. All photos taken with my iPhone XR Rear Camera (ISO and shutter speed whatever the hell the phone thought it should be) and edited in Snapseed using a combination of filters – including ‘tune image’, ‘details’, ‘curves’, ‘vignette’, ‘brush’, and ‘vintage’ – sometimes more than once each.
2021.02.02: Attempting to avoid having his picture taken, Jim tries to blend in with my morning paper
2021.02.04: From this week’s ‘Writing Workshop.’ Actually got Jim to pose for the second one. (Might be the last we attend at this place since it was so, unexpectedly, packed.)2019.11.06: A rare unobstructed picture of Jim
Monday we had a large snowfall here in southern Connecticut – the largest in five years. By some reports we got 14 inches, by all we got no less than 12. Not a lot by some standards, but certainly more than we’ve become accustomed to here.
2021.02.01: Brookside Park, Old Greenwich, CT (Canon Rebel T2i – 27mm, f/5, 1/1000 sec, ISO 800)
Around 3PM, snow still falling heavily, wind gusting to 30 miles per-hour, I got cabin fever, bundled myself up, and went out for a walk – initially just around the property, eventually about six miles around town. Of course, I had my camera and phone for pictures.
2021.02.01: Walking up Marks Road, Riverside, CT (iPhone XR, Front Camera, 2.87mm, f/22, 1/121 sec., ISO 50)
Though the selfie above doesn’t show it, except for the occasional wind I was pretty comfortable.
2021.02.01: Skiing on Riverside Ave., Riverside, CT (iPhone XR, Rear Camera, 4.5mm, f/1.8, 1/184 sec., ISO 25)
I was happy to see I wasn’t the only person out. There were people enjoying the nearby Bruce Park and I was passed by a woman cross country skiing down Riverside Avenue.
2021.02.01: Ducks Enjoying Binney Park Pond, Old Greenwich, CT (all photos: Canon Rebel T2i, 55mm, f/5.6, 1/1000 sec, ISO 800)
In my editing of these pictures – all on Snapseed after transferring them to my iPad – I tried to give them a winter postcard effect through the combination of a number of different filters, sometimes using the same ones more than once.
I may have mentioned before that, in addition to Snapseed, I use GIMP on my desk- or laptop for editing as well, but I must say I was surprised (and continue to be surprised) by the variety of effects I can get out of playing around with so simple a tool as Snapseed, which I once dismissed as a silly phone app when my daughter first recommended it. But, then again, my daughter, recommended it and she knows what’s what, so I had to give it a try.
I hope you’ll enjoy these efforts as much as I enjoyed both the walk, taking the pictures, and the editing.
2021.02.01: The Arch Street Tunnel, Connecting Old Greenwich to Riverside, Connecticut (all Canon Rebel T2i, 1/1000 sec, ISO 800; #1: 30mm, f/5, #2: 55mm, f/5.6, #3: 41mm, f/5)2021.02.01: Swamp Vue, Riverside Avenue, Riverside, CT (iPhone XR Rear Camera, 4.5mm, f/1.8, 1/217 sec, ISO 25)2021.02.01: St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Riverside Avenue, Riverside, CT (iPhone XR Rear Camera, 4.5mm, f/1.8, 1/98 sec, ISO 25)2021.02.01: Old Farm Structure, Riverside, CT (iPhone XR Rear Camera, 4.5mm, f/1.8, 1/244 sec, ISO 25)2021.02.01: Old Farm Structure, Riverside, CT (Canon Rebel T2i, 55mm, f/6.5, 1/100 sec, ISO 100)
2021.02.01: The Riverside Avenue Bridge, Riverside, CT (both: iPhone XR Rear Camera, 4.5mm, f/1.8, ISO 25; #1: 1/341 sec, #2: 1/217 sec) [SIDE NOTE/FUN FACT: The Riverside Avenue Bridge which spans the Metro North Railroad tracks is the oldest cast iron bridge in Connecticut, originally built in 1871 over the Housatonic River then moved to this location in 1895]2021.02.01: Ada’s Kitchen and Coffee, Riverside, CT (iPhone XR Rear Camera, 4.5mm, f/1.8, 1/320 sec, ISO 25) [SIDE NOTE/FUN FACT: Ada’s was at one time Riverside, Connecticut’s first Post Office. It eventually became a candy store run by Ada Cantavaro until her death at the age of 88, a very popular establishment with the kids attending the near-by elementary and middle schools. After her death, her family restored it and opened a deli in this location, keeping her name.]2021.02.01: 127 Winters and Counting, 98 Riverside Ave., built 1894 (iPhone XR Rear Camera, 4.5mm, f/1.8, 1/235 sec, ISO 25)
