iPhone Friday

Sometimes all it takes is stopping by the side of the road to appreciate the stunning desert landscapes and warm light just before sunset.

This week’s edition takes me back to February of 2023, when I spent some quality time in Valley of Fire state park in Nevada. Arriving from the East coast at Las Vegas airport, I hopped in my rental car and drove toward Overton to check into my hotel. As it was still early in the day, it was exploration time!

Here’s one of the roadside vistas…

Desert Vista

As you can see, there is great landscape just about everywhere in this area, as I literally pull to the side of the road to take in this view. As it was January 31, sunset was on the early side, which made for wonderful, warm light across the desert floor.

Just another great moment to take in the view! Enjoy!

Thursday Throwback – 18

In 2011, Art in the Park celebrated diverse art installations in Elm Park, Worcester, Massachusetts. Among the featured works was Antoinette Prien Schultze’s “Temple of Roses,” a stunning glass and stainless steel sculpture.

Today, I am taking you back to the year 2011 and an event close to home. Art in the Park is a celebration of wonderful, inspiring art installations in Elm Park in the city of Worcester, Massachusetts. Artists’ submissions for this event include a variety of installations with lots of different materials. It’s always fun to take in these amazing works and experience them under lots of different weather conditions.

Here’s an image I captured of one of the works of art…

Temple of Roses – Art by Antoinette Prien Schultze

In this image I capture a detail of the Temple of Roses work by Antoinette Prien Schultze. The glass and stainless steel temple shape sits on granite (out of view in my image). This inspired me to use a reflector behind the sculpture to create the sense of a strong solar disk behind the temple shape. For me this connected with the name of the artwork, Temple of Roses.

For more of Antoinette Prien Schultze’s outdoor sculptures please take a look at this page. I hope you enjoy!

Wednesday Window – pt 20

This week’s Wednesday Window post shifts focus to contemporary glass and window designs, coming from advancements in materials science.

Last week’s entry in this series of Wednesday Window posts was a look back at the New England mills and their re-use. This week I am going for something a bit more current day. The use of glass and windows has changed dramatically during this time period. A big part of this has to do with the evolution of materials science, especially in the area of glass. Glass has become more resilient, adaptable and functional.

Here’s a look at a very large number of windows…

Glass Pincers

This look up in New York City has more windows than I want to count! The reflections on the different surfaces create visual interest from many angles, as we examine each tower.

I shot this image with my FujiFilm X-H2 with a slight bit of underexposure to reduce the brightness of the day. In processing, I used Adobe Camera Raw’s Modern 04 profile at 50% opacity to push the alien nature of the colors a bit more.

This is my mid-week contribution to the Monday Window thread, a creation of Ludwig Keck. To read more about Ludwig, check this page.

The Pigeons of New York

My visit to High Line Park provided a leisurely perspective of the city, enhanced by the breezy conditions. A highlight was a massive pigeon statue, titled “Dinosaur” by artist Iván Argote.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post on Urban Landscape, I thoroughly enjoyed visiting High Line Park. It’s such a fantastic way to get different view of the city in a more unhurried fashion. It may have been rather breezy during my Sunday exploration, but that just added to the fascinating vistas.

Here’s one that really caught my attention…

High Line Pigeon

Yes, there is a gigantic, hyper-realistic pigeon statue on the High Line; and it is titled “Dinosaur”. It’s a pigeon with the size of a Tyrannosaurus Rex! This sculpture was create by Iván Argote, an artist who lives and works in Paris, France. A great description of this project can be found at this link. The video is worth watching!

The other thought that crossed my mind when I saw this pigeon was the B-side of Elton John’s Daniel release: Skyline Pigeon.

Urban Landscape

Observations from my visit to New York City, highlighting contrasts between old and new architecture.

As I explored a little bit of New York City this weekend, there were definitely some things that struck me, as a tourist. I’m sure that for residents, these are normal, everyday non-observations, but for me they stood out. As I came prepared with my trusty Fuji X-H2 in hand, I have a significant number of images.

I’ll kick off with this one…

Old vs. New

This is a view from the High Line Park and what struck me here is that the old and the new construction are so radically different and contrasting. The solidity of brick against the fluidity of glass surfaces, and the chimney, which has no modern equivalent, as we hide those details. I expect that over time more of the brick facades will disappear and be replaced with multiple angles of glass and shiny surfaces.

Much more to come!

A View from 24

A view from the 24th floor, reaching across avenues and streets toward a landscape of structural giants.

I’m making a short visit to New York City, where I am always intrigued by the vistas. Being surrounded by skyscrapers gives me a sense of being in an otherworldly landscape, as their size and angles appear beyond what feels human.

So here’s a view from my hotel room…

Surfaces to the Sky

A landscape of angles, juxtaposition of directional language, as if it is looking to outdo their neighbors. Each is built to impress, make a statement of the importance of what is happening inside each edifice. If these structures could speak they might tell us epic sagas of great achievement, or would they?

Return to the Forum

The Forum Romanorum, located on the Palatine Hill near the Colosseum, is a historic site filled with the intrigue of the Roman Empire.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s iPhone Friday post, I really enjoyed the Forum Romanorum, which is on the Palatine Hill. This is located across the street from the Colosseum, which was featured in that post. I have a bunch of photos from that visit and I have to spend some time with them to have them presented at their best.

In the mean time, here’s a teaser that still needs work…

Forum Romanorum

The Forum Romanorum, or ‘Public Place of the Romans’, is steeped in the history of the Roman Empire. Many significant events took place on these grounds, a lot of which were not that savory. Murders, secret plots, weighty decisions and grand speeches were among these events. Walking across these grounds, one can feel the weight of history.

It is a truly memorable experience to visit the Forum and I heartily recommend it over the Colosseum.

iPhone Friday

Let’s go back to a photo from a 2017 trip to Rome, specifically a classic shot outside the Colosseum.

As I looked for an image to use for this week’s installment, I came across some shots from our trip to Rome in 2017. The amusing part is that I was almost misled by the Mac OS Photo app, as it bundled my photos shot with my Fuji camera with my iPhone shots. Of course, metadata saved me!

So here’s a view in Rome…

Roma Classica

Of course, this is a classic tourist shot outside the Colosseum. What I like about this image is the sense of scale as there are people visible on the second level on the left in the image.

This also reminds me to go back through all of these vacation images to put together a more consistent set of posts about these locales. In the mean time take a look at a post from 2017, ‘A Walk across the Forum – pt.3‘which happens to be my most successful post ever thanks to WordPress highlighting it.

Thursday Throwback – 17

In September 2009, I explored the Harvard Forest in Petersham, Massachusetts, capturing its vibrant colors.

For this week’s edition I’m going back almost 16 years to September of 2009. During a day of exploring the colors of New England and finding interesting spots to photograph, I traversed part of the Harvard Forest in Petersham, Massachusetts.

Let’s take a look at what I captured there…

Harvard Forest Pond

This forest is an ecological research area of about 4000 acres that is managed by Harvard University. There are two major programs that are run on this property. The first is the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program, which is funded by the National Science Foundation to sturdy New England’s natural ecosystem. The second is the National Institute of Global Environmental Change program funded by the United States Department of Energy, which emphasizes the study of physical and biological processes in relation to climate change.

These are key programs to further our understanding of the impact that we’re having on our environment. We can hope that they are not affected by the current set of changes, but I do have concern about that.

Wednesday Window – pt 19

This week features Linwood Mills, a revitalized site transformed into affordable senior housing,

After last week’s frosty view of a window in an old New England mill, I’m bringing back another mill for this week. This photo goes back to 2009 and at that time it was m ore than a bit dilapidated. While that may lend charm to an image, there is a positive twist coming up.

Here’s a view of these substantial mills…

Linwood Mills

Since the time of this photo, these mills have been revitalized into affordable contemporary senior housing. The details on this project can be found on this web-site. It’s great to see this kind of adaptive re-use, as it retains the character of the towns and provides a means of ‘recycling’ great structures.

I definitely love seeing more of these comeback stories!

This is my mid-week contribution to the Monday Window thread, a creation of Ludwig Keck. To read more about Ludwig, check this page.