Category: Travel

Reason #10,389 Why you should always have a camera with you

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beer delivery guyWorking for B&H I often get asked what is the best camera out there.

My reply is often: The one that is in your hand.

A camera can shoot 10 frames per second and have the highest megapixels out in the market, but if it is in your bag at home, or on your shelf, chances are you are missing some great shots. I recently received my point and shoot digital camera (the only digital camera that I own) back from repairs and it is great to have my always attached to my hip Ricoh GRd back in action. I took this photo of the week last week during the 10 minutes that I went outside my office for lunch.

In other Gabe news:

Nancy and I are preparing for our Tuscan Vacation. We fly to Rome tonight and take the train up to meet our good friends David, Barbara, and Mamina in Cortona, Tuscany. They invited us a year ago to stay with them in their Farmhouse and take lots of pictures and eat real Italian food. David and I have come up with a photo theme and plan on a lot of Night Photography as well as early morning photo shoots. I anticipate several siestas under the Tuscan Sun. Nancy and I previously visited Italy and Tuscany in 1997 and a 54 image show came out of that trip…so the expectations are high!

Here are two pictures I plan on expounding upon while on the trip:

abandoned farmhouse, tuscany monster gardens

And if you want to really make fun of me, here is my gear list for the trip:

Mamiya 7 with 65mm lens – This will be my main camera and I will be shooting with TriX film as well as the recently rereleased Ilford SFX infrared film.

Widelux F7 – This is a small panoramic camera. Who can resist panoramas?

Zero Image 4×5 pinhole camera – Rumor has it that I like to shoot pinhole cameras. This camera hasn’t got a lot of use lately and I’m ready to show it the large format love.

Nikon F3 with 70-210 lens – Okay, this might be overkill but this is the only telephoto lens I have and I have a feeling I’ll be wanting to zoom into some Tuscan villas from the distance.

Believe it or not, all this gear fits into one bag. I don’t plan on bringing all these cameras with me all the time. I just want options.

And let’s not forget that little Ricoh camera that never leaves my hip!

It is highly unlikely that I will be posting any updates on the website while in Tuscany. But we will be back on August 27th with plenty of stories and images!

Ciao for now!

Blue Whale Birthday

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blue whale94-feet-long and weighing in at 21,000 pounds, the blue whale model on display at the Museum of Natural History’s Milstein Hall of Ocean Life gives you the rare chance to actually stand under a life-size whale. Sculpted of fiberglass and polyurethane, it is the largest model of the largest creature that has ever lived on Earth. First constructed in 1969, and recently renovated in 2003 the whale is suspended in the hall at a single point to the roof trusses of the building!

Look Mom, no wires!

A lot of us are fascinated with the sea, it covers 2/3 of earth, yet we have explored about 5% of it. I know I’m fascinated with the ocean and I can barely swim!

A recent journey back to the Museum rejuvenated my fascination of dioramas and Big Blue here. As a child I always loved visiting the Museum of Natural History in New York with my parents and often dreamt of blue whales floating above me like a mobile. A good friend of mine, Angelia, often told me that one of her favorite things to do at the Museum was to sit under the blue whale, her spiritual animal, and just be at peace. The sounds of the ocean are all around you and the heavy blue lighting also make you feel, well, a little below sea level.

Now today just happens to be Angelia’s Birthday…I hope you have a whale of a day!

What’s your spiritual animal?

Happy Anniversary!

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wedding siteWe made it! One year ago on June 24th at 6pm I married the beautiful Nancy Bartlett under this arbor. Nancy and I revisited our wedding site Clermont about a month ago, and I took this Pinhole shot of a section of the arbor in which our vows were spoken. I know it is typical to say, “I can’t believe it’s been a year!” But I can’t, and when I think back to that amazing day and how it all came together with the sun finally breaking through and shining down upon all us all in the cutting garden at Clermont…it makes me glow.

A year later, Nancy and I are finishing up our honeymoon up in Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington. Honeymoon Part II is kinda the continuation of our original honeymoon which was a 7000 mile drive across the US of A visiting 14 Baseball Stadiums, family, friends, and lots of Road Food. Originally we wanted to end our honeymoon in Seattle, visiting our good friends Angus, Carrie, Jonny, and Maria along the way. Well, time got the most of us and we only got as far as San Francisco, but we vowed to ourselves that we would hit Portland (Angus and Carrie) and Seattle (Jonny, Maria, and the Safeco Field) in 2007. In the end it all worked out for the best, as the powers that be scheduled the Boston Red Sox (our favorite team) to play Seattle on June 25th 2007, the day after our 1 year anniversary. A plane ticket purchase and Jonny biking down to Safeco Field to secure the tickets to game guaranteed our anniversary would be a success!
So here we are in the Northwest, still in love and still watching baseball!
Go Sox!

Coney Men

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coney man (2001) Coney Man (2007)

My first visits to Coney Island were probably when I was around 11 years old. I would go with my dad and visit my relatives who lived in Brighton Beach. Since I moved to Brooklyn in 2001, I’ve been taking the F line to Coney Island every year. The summers are hot and crowded but not as much as the WeeGee heydays of the 1940’s when you couldn’t even see the sand on the beach because there was so many people there.

Nostalgia reigns supreme these days at Coney though Keyspan Park, the beautiful AAA ballpark of the Mets, is driving more people to the southernmost tip of Brooklyn.

Here are two pictures that I took 6 years apart of two Coney Men. The benches have changed and maybe the men have gained a little weight, but the classic planks of the boardwalk remain and lead you along your personal Coney Island of the mind.

Photo of the Week (Jun 3-9)

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Drive In, Grafton (colorized)I spent Memorial Day weekend with the Bartlett Family in Grafton, West Virginia and this was the last shot I took as we were departing town. This image was shot with black and white film and the slight colorization was a pleasant mistake in photoshop. It was an amazingly nostalgic weekend as Nancy’s dad, Brooks, took us on a tour of his old haunts. I listened carefully to Brooks’ stories since many of the landmarks and buildings are long gone. Grafton is a town that has fallen under much economical hardship since it’s major industries like the B&O Railroad, Carr China, and the Hazel Atlas Company either declined or closed down altogether. There is the beautiful Tygart Lake and Valley State Park to attract visitors, but Grafton is most well known as the birthplace of Mother’s Day in 1908. There is a good chance you’ll see more shots from Grafton soon since it was really difficult to pick one shot from this series. Many thanks to the Bartlett Family for hosting us and sharing their stories… and their moonshine!

Oh yeah, the Drive-In was playing Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End later that night.