Shutter Speed Priority

Mike and I were recently in NY--my dad has broken his hip. For the drive home I figured it was a good occasion for testing out the setting "Shutter Speed Priority" on my new camera-- since I was in a moving car (and shooting through a dirty window, no setting for that.) Here are some of the results.

I grew up just a tad South of here, with the window by my deep-green, corduroy-reading chair looking  down on Madison Ave from the 5th floor. I would pause from my book to watch the world go by. It was quite a world.

Just for the record--I still love NY.

And so home.

I love this new camera.

Strange Thanksgiving

Strange Thanksgiving, when things happen that are hard to feel thankful for. But which remind you of all the things that you never stop to be grateful for, the backdrop of life, all that keeps going, Creation. Which make it easier to be thankful.

One thing I am grateful for is my new camera, which allows me to take pictures like the above, which I'm pretty sure I will cherish for the rest of my life.

Or this one, of nature in my neighborhood.

Or a little farther afield

The town where I work

The place where I work

The people who I work with, though I do not have a group photo with permissions. And the people who I love, alive, sick or dead.

And the maker of it all, of whom, obviously, I do not have a photo or permissions ;-)

PhillyPhotoDay

Last Friday, Oct. 26th was PhillyPhotoday and the Library hosted a workshop in which I took part. Above is the pic I submitted. I pushed myself to try and go beyond my usual traditionally composed, bucolic mode. I like this one because I was able to combine so many disparate elements without losing balance. Framing the image, to the far right and left, and the lower center, are curves. The rest of the picture looks like what could be chaos--different angles, materials, colors, time-periods, planes of perception, yet balanced and harmonious. Like a city, like Philly, like a human being. My camera's dating is set with PM and AM topsy turved, so I hope the wrong dating doesn't disqualify it.


Here are a few more I took.

 

 

And one bucolic I could not resist, the Horticultural Society's grass planting in the Library's Shakespeare Park.

My new camera is bringing me a lot of happiness by allowing me to do good stuff that previously I had only been able to imagine.

Philadelphia Photo Arts Center

Library Workshop Leader: Joseph Baumgarten

Autumn in Vermont

Recently came back from a beautiful place, beautiful in a mighty, magnificent, gentle way. And no, that's not an oxymoron.

We stayed at a small B&B in Arlington on the Battenkill River where my husband could walk outside to fly-fish. Below is the view from the bedroom window,

Southern Vermont between the Green and Taconic Mountain ranges is one of those places where wilderness rubs right up against culture. One of the highlights of our visit was a Rockwell Kent show at the Bennington Museum.

Rockwell Kent, well, rocks. Many of the paintings in the show were done in his studio that was on the Northern ridge of Red Mountain. In Arlington. The same Red Mountain whose Southern face towered over our B&B.

 Beautiful country. The below shot was taken on Red Mountain facing South.

Besides art and wilderness there is one of the best independent bookstores around--Northshire Books.

 

Also pleasing is the sculpture garden of the Southern Vermont art Center.

I think I may have found a street where some of "The Trouble with Harry" was shot.

And went on a successful quest for the church in this Kent painting, which is called"Pilgrim Church," or "Hen and Chicks."

 Found the hen.

And ditto the chicks.

 And of course I found some sheep.

Either I have writers block, or the pictures really are more elegant than any possible words I can find.

 Either way, I want to go back. Did I mention the food is really good?

The above pic was taken from an outlet shopping mall parking lot. Cause yes, there are lots of outlet shopping malls. And no bad views from any of the lots.

But then it is hard to go indoors, cause for a moment, you miss out on the views all around you.

Here is some illustrative commentary from the Kent show.

Collegeland II

 Quintessential Carpenter Goth New England, eh?

The antibiotics are working but too slowly for my liking. Please forgive any listlessness to my style. Problems breathing tend to make me a little blue, a little anxious, all too fragile. So time to distract myself with beauty, in this case, the beauty of Collegeland.

These tall zinnias (with butterfly,) were growing on a gorgeous hellstrip half a block from a crop of dorms. Luscious color and attractive cup shape to the opening buds. Here's some more from the same hellstrip. Sage and Sedum, yum.

Walking around Collegeland is lovely for much the same reason Northwest Philly is lovely, though the regional style is somewhat different. I have come to really admire the virtues of the  urban village: older, well-built unique houses pretty close together, different sized lots, big trees, sidewalks, front porches, short front paths, and either no fences or see-through fences.

 This being New England most of everything is wooden, well made and well kept up.

I do not know why my heart is so much in New England, but it is. As a kid I had no interest in America at all, all I wanted to do was read about and imagine the British Isles. I even felt a bit angry at being born in a place that only had a few centuries of recorded history. Shouldn't God have known better? I was SUPPOSED to be English.

But New England grew on me. Camp and college, trips and family history, realizing that early American history had its interests too, till now I would love to be able to spend 8 months of the year there.

And garden there, they do have lovely gardens and the shorter, cooler, less-humid growing season makes for fresher, more intense gardens.


Speaking of gardens, while walking we came across...

This is a several acres park, owned by a private foundation and open to free public access.

My guess is that a lot of volunteering, love and money has gone into creating and maintaining this oasis.

If you read the history of the park you will find a common story often behind such worthwhile efforts. It started out as the estate of a rich family whose money was made in less than exemplary ways (Southern slave-holding, in this case.) Over time, as descendants multiplied, spreading out the cash, and the costs of grandeur rose, keeping up the estate became harder as the descendants became gentler or softer, depending on your view. In the end the land is given to a foundation or local government. The social cache of the founding family and friends usually provides enough status to draw in the financial resources needed.

In the end, good is made to come from bad.  The community gains from what were originally misdeeds and mistakes.  And  gardens rise celebrating the sweeter irony of what it means to be human.

 I love Collegeland and it's liberal, civilized, prosperous, protected, historical world. There is no community that lacks absurdities, hidden cruelties or silly conventions. These things are even part of what makes community, just as there are no communities that lack all virtues either. But as the balance of virtues and vices go, some communities do manage to weigh up far better on the virtue side. And Collegeland, to me, feels like one of them.