read a good poem: gloss of the past

there is such a terrific tyranny of pink in the city these days, but this bough in madison square park might be my favorite...

© anita aguilar

***

Gloss of the Past


Pink Dawn, Aurora Pink, Misty Pink, Fresh Pink, Natural Pink, Country Pink, Dusty Pink, Pussywillow Pink, Pink Heather, Pink Peony, Sunflower Pink, Plum Pink, Peach of a Pink, Raspberry Pink, Watermelon Pink, Pink Lemonade, Bikini Pink, Buoy Buoy Pink, Sea Shell Pink, Pebble Pink, Pink Piper, Acapulco Pink, Tahiti Beach Pink, Sunny Pink, Hot Pink, Sizzling Pink, Skinnydip Pink, Flesh Pink, Transparent Pink, Breezy Pink, Sheer Shiver Pink, Polar Bare Pink, Pink Frost, Frosty Pink, Frost Me Pink, Frosted Pink, Sugarpuff Pink, Ice Cream Pink, Lickety Pink, Pink Melba, Pink Whip, Pinkermint, Sweet Young Pink, Little Girl Pink, Fragile Pink, Fainting Pink, Helpless Pink, Tiny Timid Pink, Wink of Pink, Shadow of Pink, Tint of Pink, Shimmer of Pink, Flicker of Pink, Pink Flash, E.S. Pink, Person-to-Person Pink, City Pink, Penny Lane Pink, Pink Paisley, London Luv Pink, Pretty Pink, Pastel Pink, Pinking Sheer, Pink Piqué, Pink Silk, Plush Pink, Lush Iced Pink, Brandied Pink, Sheer Pink Champagne, Candlelight Pink, Fluffy Moth Pink, Softsilver Pink, Pinkyring, Turn Pale Pink, A Little Pink, Pinker, Pinkety Pink, Heart of Pink, Hug that Pink, Passionate Pink, Snuggle Pink, Pink-Glo!, Happy-Go-Pink, Daredevil Pink, By Jupiter Pink, Stark Raving Pink, Viva La Pink. 


 - David Trinidad, via the poetry foundation

read a good poem: travelling

"secret spot," versailles park

***

Travelling

This is the spot:—how mildly does the sun
Shine in between the fading leaves! the air
In the habitual silence of this wood
Is more than silent: and this bed of heath,
Where shall we find so sweet a resting-place?
Come!—let me see thee sink into a dream
Of quiet thoughts,—protracted till thine eye
Be calm as water when the winds are gone
And no one can tell whither.—my sweet friend!
We two have had such happy hours together
That my heart melts in me to think of it.

--William Wordsworth via poets.org

read a good poem: the white

These are the moments

before snow, whole weeks before.

The rehearsals of milky November,

cloud constructions

when a warm day

lowers a drift of light

through the leafless angles

of the trees lining the streets.

Green is gone,

gold is gone.

The blue sky is

the clairvoyance of snow.

There is night

and a moon

but these facts

force the hand of the season:

from that black sky

the real and cold white

will begin to emerge.

--Patricia Hampl via the writer's almanac

photos © anita aguilar

lens experiments: mad square view I

i have a feeling you're going to be seeing a lot of leaves and trees...

with the lensbaby (5.6)

nov 10, 2011

pretty city 2011: the dash to the finish line

snapshots from a very spirited pre-marathon 5k, "the dash to the finish" in central park

my friend, steph!

ryan hall - love the 5 boro gloves and the official ing marathon cap

all photos taken on nov 5, 2011

© anita aguilar

parkway south

gsp (south)

© anita aguilar

post-irene: lucky and pretty

hope folks can now have a relaxing sunday...

@ anita aguilar

nocturnal stills

april 23, 2011

photos © anita aguilar

snow day 2011: union square park

***

"puddle shots 2011"

all photos taken on january 12, 2011...

© anita aguilar

before the firestorm

i personally cannot complain about the christmas weekend blizzard.

i don't have a car.

i don't need the subway or bus to get to work.

i wasn't stranded anywhere.

and: we have the best team at our condo--by 10am on monday they'd shoveled clean the widest swath of sidewalk in all of murray hill.

but it's hard not to be outraged after reading and hearing about conditions in other parts of the city, as a result of misjudgment and inaction at the local level.

(meanwhile, jersey knew what to do.)

***

here are a few shots from the very first afternoon, before the city got all stomped on and sloppy, and well before the effect of bloomberg & co's snafu was fully evident.

it was pretty, especially in madison square park...

all photos from december 27, 2010.

© anita aguilar

good night light

november 20, 2010

photo © anita aguilar

fall: into black and white

a couple of weeks ago i slipped into the mary boone gallery to catch lee friedlander's recent western landscapes on the last day of the exhibition.

individually and as a collection, the photos were tonally soothing.

some were haunting.

some were pretty.

(i maybe love fallen trees and bark a bit more than the average person, as any poor soul who saw all my snapshots from bryce canyon will attest? i have tons of photos like this, taken with my very first point and shoot, a canon A95)

but what stood out to me was how perfectly exposed the friedlander black and whites were. no heavy shadows. no blowouts. how did he do it? a white sky and dark bark give a lot of contrast--you really have to know light and metering to find the right balance.

when i started to really become interested in photography a couple of years ago, even before i bought my digital slr, i sought advice of everyone i knew that was a photographer (enthusiast or pro) or photo editor.

one friend recommended that i take a black and white film photography class, she said it would be the best way for me to understand "light," which sounded incredibly romantic to me--the sensitivity of the film and paper, all those groovy chemicals, the "big reveal," in the bath.

everyone else simply said, eh, shoot "raw" in color and convert it later, which struck me a little as cheating?

(voila! i mean, that took 5 seconds. and it's not bad, eh?)

anyway, i went both ways--took one black and white photography class at SVA which wasn't great (and i wasn't great at it). i'll occasionally convert color images to black and white, but mostly as a way to salvage a poorly exposed shot.

***

last year, i came across a short interview with ny times photographer todd heisler--i think his black and whites are so elegant--and i remembered almost every bit of advice he offered (it was after reading this that i started to play with curves; i also employ his post-prod "time limit" to judge a particular shot) but i didn't really adopt his use of the monochrome setting. but i've decided that's the next step for me, to shoot, and try to "see," in black and white...(though this is there is so much nice new york color right now, it's gonna be hard to resist).

these first test shots reveal...there is a whole lotta learning to do.

union square, nov 3, 2010

union square, nov 3, 2010

union square, nov 3, 2010

all photos © anita aguilar

storm king, part 10: i've never been to england

but what has lasted in my imagination, at least since last winter, are david hockney's dreamy renditions of the yorkshire landscape, which you can see here.

these "new york trees" are my dream of england.

things looking up

on 38th street, between park and lex, nyc.

photo © anita aguilar