Venetian Alleyway [Sky Watch Fridaty]

Well, not much of a sky to speak of, but, I like the silhouetted objects against it. This is from another of my archival slides that I scanned and made digital. Having done that, I decided it looked better in B & W. While it is not your typical view of Venice, who could resist such a nice narrow street and the lighting at dusk?

Rochester Downtown [Sunday Stills]

The reflection of the Gannett Building off the Blue Cross Arena windows is a favorite image for folks photographing downtown -- This particular shot had to be cleaned up in Photoshop Elements to remove unsightly lamp posts along the sidewalk, as well as a sign and parts of some smaller buildings [and a few additional tricks]. Having said all that, I hope this does not detract from the fact that the building has cast a grand reflection!

Salt Lake City Aerial [Sky Watch Friday]

This image has a rather interesting history. First, it was shot through the window of an American Airlines jet as we were approaching the Salt Lake City airport [this was sometime in the Spring of 1978]. The Kodachrome slide was stored in a carousel or Vis-File page over the decades. A few years ago, when I began scanning some of my archive to go digital, I chose this one. Like all my other slide scans, I had had to clean up the accumulated Schmutz in Photoshop Elements; but, this one was in dire need of color correction. Much of the blue still remains, and there are other imperfections that need attention. Some day I will get back to work on it -- but, for now, I  still find it a pleasing image -- especially knowing that I had only one or two chances to get the shot.

Venetian Dusk [Sky Watch Friday]

 

I thought I'd go back to my archive and look for an image that is a 'change of pace' compared to my recent postings.  This shot was originally in slide form, scanned, digitized and cleaned up. You wouldn't believe the Schmutz that accumulates on slides that were stored in Vis-File pages. Fog can really enhance the mood of an image, and I was lucky with this one. Happy Passover/Easter to all!!!

Skylight [Sky Watch Friday]

My wife and I recently visited Rochester's Memorial Art Gallery. It is a wonderful little museum that has an impressive standing collection of art, but also periodically stages excellent new exhibits. The current show, Crafts & Modernism, drew us in. But, in addition to the standing, hanging and leaning objects, there were other attractions to enjoy. As we were about to exit, I couldn't help but stop and admire the blue sky through the skylight in the Atrium. I suddenly realized that I had a shot for my month's assignment on geometry -- this has any number of plane geometry figures [rectangle, square, trapezoid, parallelogram, ...]. So, I whipped out my cell phone and.. voila.

Aruba Palms [Sky Watch Friday]

 Our 'sun vacation' in Aruba this January seems like a distant memory -- although the months of gray skies and cold weather are slowly waning, it's uplifting to remember the days on the beach, and the swaying palms silhouettted against the colorful sky at sunset. Yikes -- I sound like a travel ad --

Arches & Flowers [Sky Watch Friday]

This image is an edited version of one [Mission San Jose] that I posted last month in SWF. Since I had been reading about converting color images to B & W, and then selectively restoring some color element(s) [using Adobe Photoshop Elements v.8], I thought that I had a good candidate to play with. What you see is the outcome of that experiment, which I’ve renamed Arches & Flowers. I like it more than the original. In any event, it was a fun exercise, and much simpler than I had imagined. Hope you like it.

In Memoriam [Sky Watch Friday]

Rochester has a most unusual, powerful and moving Vietnam Memorial. Located over a large area within Highland Park, it commemorates the loss of 280 lives using a series of plaques/posts that snake their way around the site. Each post [see below] contains a small disk depicting their military branch, and a inset plaque with their name, age and rank, as well as the name of the high school from which they graduated. The last piece of information brings everything closer to home and  more personal. Another highlight of the memorial site is a monument containing the figure of a soldier in the act of walking [literally] into a granite wall [below right]. One can imagine a number of interpretations for the symbolism of this structure -- each of them gut-wrenching. I don’t often get over to visit the memorial, but each time I leave away with deep emotions. These photos were originally in color, but after conversion to B & W, I thought that they had a more profound impact. 

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