Blue Evening....

Snow became rain which became fog...it was really too dark to take these pictures but...

Get Out of the Car Next Time....

Driving to my cousin's house I passed this wonderful old barn in disrepair...I'm not quite happy with the focus or composition but I was reluctant to get out of the car and I took these pictures in a hurry, worrying about the traffic...

This one is just for fun...

Green...

Green food...definitely yummy...

Cold Walks...

I'm glad we went for a walk yesterday when the temps were in the 30's...today I woke to 3 degree weather and it has not warmed up much...

To make a perfect winter day like this,
You must have a
clear, sparkling air,
With a sheen from the snow,
Little or no wind;
And the warmth must come directly from the sun.

It must not be a
thawing warmth.
The tension of nature must not be relaxed.

The earth
must be resonant of bare,
And you hear the lisping tinkle of chickadees
From time to time
And the unrelenting steel-cold scream of a jay,
Unmelted, That never flows into a song, A sort of wintry trumpet, screaming
cold;
Hard, tense, frozen music,
Like the winter sky itself;
In the
blue livery of winter's band.

Henry David Thoreau

Photography Class Starts...

I'm taking an adult ed photography class for eight weeks to help keep me motivated to take more pictures and to learn more than the basics...

In the first class we really just started to get to know one another and the instructor started getting to know our individual skill levels and what we hope to get out of the class...all levels of skill present and every single camera is different...

...we wandered the high school hallways taking pictures...

...we took pictures with different iso settings...



...and different perspectives...


..our homework for the week is to read the entire manual that came with our camera...somehow I never did read the whole thing!

Four Museums in Two Days...

Just a short subway trip away from Brooklyn...



...at the International Center of Photography we were invited behind the desk to watch Obama's speech...and to celebrate...No photos allowed in the museum...however I did some research at home on Edward Steichen...a photographer of fashion and the famous..This photo of Gloria Swanson was one of many on exhibit...

"Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face, the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited, and the wealth and confusion man has created. It is a major force in explaining man to man."
Edward Steichen

..then on to the Metropolitan Museum ..where we could have spent a week wandering...absorbing Renaissance art and Calder jewelry...

Fra Filippo Lippi (b. Florence, ca. 1406–d. Spoleto, 1469)
Portrait of a Woman and a Man at a Casement, ca. 1440–44
Tempera on panel; 25 1/4 x 16 1/2 in. (64.1 x 41.9 cm)
Inscribed on edge of woman's cuff: LEALT[À]
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Marquand Collection, Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1889 (89.15.19)

The next day we went to the American Folk Art Museum - again no photos allowed inside..I enjoyed the juxtaposition of Mark Rothko paintings with primitive portraitist Ammi Phillips' portraits...Reds!

Untitled

Mark Rothko (1903 - 1970)
New York
1970
Acrylic on canvas
60 1/4 x 57 1/8 in.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., gift of The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc., 1986.43.173
(c) 1998 Christopher Rothko and Kate Rothko Prizel/Artists Rights Society, New York
Photo courtesy the Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Harriet Campbell

Ammi Phillips (1788 - 1865)
Greenwich, Washington County, New York
c. 1815
Oil on canvas
48 1/2 x 25 in.

Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, gift of Oliver Eldridge in memory of Sarah Fairchild Anderson, teacher of art, North Adams Public Schools, daughter of Harriet Campbell
Photo courtesy Imaging Department (c) President and Fellows of Harvard College

...and finished up at the Whitney Museum viewing a very wonderful Alexander Calder exhibit...

Alexander Calder, 'The Hostess', 1928. Steel wire, 11 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 11 7/8 in. (29.2 x 11.5 x 30.2 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York; gift of Edward M.M. Warburg. © 2008 Calder Foundation, New York/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

and a huge exhibit of Eggleston photos...

William Eggleston, "Karco", c. 1983-86, from "The Democratic Forest", 1989. Exhibition print, 16 x 20 in. (40.6 x 50.8 cm). Cheim & Read, New York © Eggleston Artistic Trust. Courtesy Cheim & Read Gallery.

“I had this notion of what I called a democratic way of looking around: that nothing was more important or less important.” Every detail, no matter how insignificant, takes on meaning."

...inspiration...

Breakfast in Brooklyn...

Visiting Mr and Mrs R in Brooklyn is always fun...





..Breakfast at Terrace Bagels is always on the "to do" list...



Bagels with cream cheese and lox...




...is a good way to start a day of museum hopping.

Corylus "Contorta" Winter Studies...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...also known as Corkscrew Hazel and Harry Lauder's Walking Stick. While I was taking these the chickadees acted as though I didn't exist...they were very intent on the bird feeder...

Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

Loved this movie! Beautiful cinematography...colors...music...story...A Dickensian story set in India...

Poinsettia Dilemma...

The problem, for me, with poinsettias is that their beauty outlives their use as a seasonal decoration...yesterday the afternoon sun struck this plant in a heart-warming way...just what I needed to get away from taking more snow pics...So do I throw it out because I am tired of it and Christmas is over?...



I tried making this collage with Picasa then uploaded it thru Flickr to make a larger image...still learning...

Garage Graffiti and Games...

Taking photos while waiting for car repairs...







...I loved the graffiti. When I got home I wished I had taken more.