A Giant Goes to Heaven: R.I.P. Fr. Lawrence Boadt, CSP

To those who have known and loved and worked with him, it came as both a relief and as a very sad event. Renowned Scripture scholar and Paulist Father Lawrence Boadt died this morning after an incredibly courageous battle with terminal cancer. The Paulist Fathers' obituary says it all much better than I, so please read it there. 
I not only belong in all three of the above categories, I am also one of the untold thousands who, in their theology student days, could never have passed Old Testament without having used his magisterial book Reading the Old Testament.

Also, I suppose I have the dubious distinction, as a photographer, of having been the last person to photograph him. Here are some images from the farewell party given for him only last month when he stepped down from the helm of Paulist Press, of which he had been CEO and Publisher since 1998. They show him in his typical way--always smiling and always glad to be around people. He may have been one of the greatest Old Testament scholars in the world, but he never stood on ceremony. Gracious humility was his style. In November 2009, as we were both returning from Montreal on the same flight after attending the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, he cheerfully guarded my luggage while I did some last-minute duty-free shopping and then drove me home from Newark Liberty Airport. This was typical of him.

As he lived, so he died. His colleague at Paulist Press, Fr. Mike Kerrigan, CSP, who devotedly looked after him during his illness, said that watching him go toward that inevitable meeting with his Creator was an inspiring and transforming experience.
R.I.P., Fr. Boadt. May not only the angels but also Fr. Isaac Hecker and the other early Paulist saints lead you into Paradise. I know St. Mary Magdalene will be on the welcoming committee--I already had a word with her.

Shooting from Your Hotel Room

I love reading about what the great outdoor photo pros do to get their shots--getting up in the middle of the night to get to That Magic Spot before sunrise; climbing a high mountain for that breathtaking panorama; they've done it all, and my personal hero in this regard remains the late great Galen Rowell.  Yet, many of even the most adventurous photographers will admit to getting some great shots from the comfort of their hotel rooms. Now, I love to be out and about and would never consciously book a hotel with this "perk" in mind, but after my brief trip to Boston last weekend I got to thinking about times when I have got some nice images from my room.

Here's a shot taken through the window from a Holiday Inn in Knoxville, Tennessee. Perfection in composition had to take a back seat to trying to avoid nasty reflections appearing in the shot; as it was, I had no tripod with me and did have my room in total darkness.

Montreal--there's something very special about the light in Quebec's capital city. And any time the sun begins to reappear after a storm, the light can be stunning, so when I arrived in Montreal one day last November just as the sun was breaking through after some rain, this was a bonus.

And last weekend I stayed in the gorgeous Royal Sonesta Hotel on the Cambridge side of the river. This time I didn't have to worry about shooting through a window; my 8th-floor room had a balcony with a view of the Boston skyline and the Charles River. Here is a night shot plus one from about 5.30 the next morning.  For this trip I had my Gitzo tripod to use with the Nikon D90, though when we spent a full day walking round the city, I decided instead to go tripodless and use my Canon G11 instead. (The Nikon D90 and tripod reemerged that evening for a Sunset Cruise on the river!) 

I did decide that I sorely (and I mean sorely!) needed a more compact and lightweight tripod to take on trips for which I'm relying on public transport; it's amazing what we take for granted when we can simply dump everything into the car.  I've got my new travel tripod and will report on this in a future blog. Meanwhile, I'd love to hear how you cope with your gear on such things as buses and planes.

Empire State of Mind

I love that song "Empire State of Mind" by Alicia Keys, even if the title does lead you to expect the lyrics to be about more than just New York City--but then the obvious alternative was taken by Billy Joel many years ago! Anyhow, it's one of those songs to which I fantasize about putting a slide show. It's not going to materialize, but nevertheless, happens I've been shooting in the city a couple of times lately--nothing fancy, just me and my Canon G11 (love that baby)--so I thought I'd post a few shots here.

I could spend forever standing on or near the steps of the big Post Office Building.  The vantage point to the rear of MSG across the street is great, as is finding ways to shoot the pillars of the building itself.  This morning I walked down to Chelsea and got a couple of typical views, and then a shot of a colorful abstract structure on top of a marquis for a cinema on 23rd Street.

Today was the Puerto Rican Day Parade, and two men were selling flags and things outside Penn Station to people being disgorged onto Seventh Avenue from the station underground. It was the first time in my life I ever went and asked a complete stranger if I could photograph him, but this jolly man obliged with a big smile.

Finally, a view from inside the Marriott, and then an exterior of the Brooklyn Diner. The Empire Diner, a legendary fixture in Chelsea, closed its doors forever a few weeks ago and I discovered the building is no longer worth photographing, so it was nice to find the Brooklyn Diner instead.  Be sure to check out my Hudson Valley blog from time to time -- hudsonvalleyandcatskills.blogspot.com.  I hope eventually to have a mini-feature there on diners in Orange County.

Sunflowers for Wishes

Everyone loves sunflowers. Photographers, especially, love sunflowers, and so do Duane and Kim Button of Buttonwood Farm in Griswold, CT, whose annual Sunflowers for Wishes event has helped them raise money for the Make-a-Wish Foundation. Each July people comes from miles and miles around to enjoy and photograph the acres and acres of sunflowers on Buttonwood Farm and to queue up for the justly famous ice cream (in July they even feature a special Sunflower flavor!). In addition to the armies of parents posing their kids against the flowery yellow backgrounds, I've met several serious photographers, as well as artists who set up their easels to capture the yellow beauty in the medium of their choice.

In 2004 Duane Button got the idea to use the sunflowers to raise money for Make-a-Wish, and so for nine days in July they sell sunflower bouquets at $5.00 each, as well as T-shirts and cards, and offer hayrides round the farm, and all the proceeds go to the Make-a-Wish Foundation. In 2009 Sunflowers for Wishes raised over $70,000 for their cause. That's a lot of sunflowers! On one day alone when I was there in 2008 they sold 1,000 bouquets—that’s 5,000 sunflowers, harvested by a crew of dedicated volunteers—and it didn’t even make the tiniest dent in what’s growing in the fields.

If you live in the Northeast and want to photograph sunflowers, and a trip to Kansas or Tuscany is beyond you budget, then I highly recommend the Sunflowers for Wishes event at Buttonwood farm. This year's event is July 17-25, and you can get directions at their website. Happy photographing!

New York closes state parks, historic sites

Thanks to New York State's budget crisis, a substantial list of state parks and historic sites are closed, or have their operations reduced, as of tomorrow. In some cases the result is as relatively trivial as a reduced golf course season; in others, entire historic sites are simply being closed. It may be hyperbolic to use a word like "tragedy," but it's certainly exceedingly unfortunate--and, I think, a very great mistake--to be so shortsighted as to deprive people of the opportunity to learn about our history through visiting these sites. Several of them are connected with the Revolutionary War and, in addition to the signs and plaques explaining what's there, have also offered reenactments with people dressed in period costumes.
So, today I went and photographed one such site that I had never visited before--the New Windsor Cantonment in Orange County, not too far from where I'm now living. This is where General George Washington moved his army for winter quarters in 1782-1783. These photos show a wide-angle view with the old monument and a tomb of an Unknown Soldier. Another historic site to be closed in this area is the Stony Point Battlefield, a strategic Revolutionary War site that overlooks beautiful Haverstraw Bay and includes the Stony Point Lighthouse.
Farther upstate, in the Adirondacks just outside Lake Placid, one casualty of the closings is the John Brown Historic Site commemorating the famed abolitionist.
I have no intention of getting involved in political commentary in my blog, but I can't post this "in memoriam" without expressing the hope that the November elections result in some common sense in Albany. The people of New York deserve that.

Nancy's Mean Street Machine -- Canon Powershot G11

Ever since I took my first tentative steps into serious photography, my SLR cameras have always been Nikon. From my much beloved Nikon 6006 right through to my present companion, the D90, Nikon has been my choice, largely because this is what my son Anton has always used, and it was he who sold or gave me my first bits of equipment to get me started. So you could say that Nikon is a family thing.
Alongside my "big" cameras, however, I've liked to keep a compact handy, for those times when the SLR wasn't practical, or as a backup "just in case." My first was a Nikon Coolpix L20, then I acquired various new toys made by Olympus and Canon and Nikon again.
But then came the day when the Fates put me together with the Canon Powershot G11. It was at BetterPhoto's New York Summit in October 2009, and George Schaub had one of these beauties and was extolling it to the high heavens. That was it, I had to have this. And like the man who sold all to buy the field with the treasure, I gathered all my compact digitals, along with some lenses that had become surplus to my requirements, and sold them to raise the money to buy the Canon G11.
As George said, it's the greatest little street camera. I've used it to shoot in the streets of Lake Placid on a dark winter's night after a cold day out in the Adirondack woods with my heavy gear;
taken it to work to shoot trees at lunchtime; made some waterfront shots while awaiting my lunch date; and most recently,
taken it along Newport, Rhode Island's Cliff Walk at a time of day when the D90 (and necessary tripod) would have been an encumbrance and potentially dangerous.
The G11 is so new, only the very latest Adobe Photoshop update supports its Raw files, and only quite recently have books about it come out. After researching what was available, I decided on the one by Jeff Carlson and was immediately able to put the chapter on Portraits to practical use (my lunch date, of course!).
No, I'm not being paid by Canon to plug their camera, but I just wanted to share my experiences with my great street camera. Which one is your favorite?

Clermont, the Lighthouse, and the Yarn

It had been several years since I last visited Clermont State Historic Site on the borders of Dutchess and Columbia Counties, and so yesterday, with Walt Whitman’s “When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd” ringing in my brain, I set off for the NY State Thruway and the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge. Clermont, one of the famed Hudson River estates, dates from the 18th century and was the home of the prominent Livingston family, among whom was Robert Livingston, co-inventor (with Robert Fulton) of the first practical steamboat. You can tour the mansion itself or just simply enjoy a walk on the exquisite grounds, which feature a stunning view of the Hudson River and the Catskill Mountains beyond, as well as picnic on one of the benches provided for the purpose.
The lilacs were indeed in bloom, and I got some nice shots of the mansion with the lilac trees. But once again, this was one of those photo occasions that surprised me with the unexpected. Surprise no. 1: Standing on the bluff above the river and looking downstream, I noticed a lighthouse at the edge of the water. My 400-mm zoom lens was at home, but I was able to get nice shots by zooming my 70-300-mm all the way out. This turned out to be Saugerties Light, one of the more famous Hudson River lights, and one that’s normally photographed up close, because you can reach it via a brief hike from the parking place in Saugerties, and I’ve done this. But here I was able to shoot it from an unusual vantage point overlooking the Hudson—an unexpected pleasure.

Surprise no. 2: An annual event called “The Chancellor’s Sheep & Wool Showcase” was being held at Clermont yesterday. By this time I had decided to put away my heavy gear and wander around with my Canon G11, very practical for getting informal shots in this sort of setting. There were exhibits of newly shorn wool and booths displaying and selling colorful balls of spun yarn, all ready to be knitted into a nice sweater. The picture here was from the booth of Year Round Yarns, whose shop is in Valatie, NY. It was my favorite booth of all.
What about my readers? If you’ve experienced any photographic “surprises” recently, let us know!