Tag archive: brooklyn

Return to the Vale of Cashmere

Can you tell that I can’t get enough of this place?

I was looking at this photograph yesterday when I made a connection between the photographs I am currently taking and an experience I had growing up. When I was young, I spent summers living with my great-grandmother in rural New Jersey. My grandma was a gloomy woman, and her house had suffered from years of neglect. I spent my days there practically alone, reading dusty books that hadn’t been off the shelf in ages, exploring the contents of her musty basement, and playing in the wildly overgrown back yard. Her house was literally being swallowed up by the earth.

KFC Parking Lot, Fourth Avenue

Everyone knows that the Colonel puts an addictive chemical in his chicken that makes you crave it fortnightly.

New Crush

Photograph by Dalton Rooney

I have a new crush, and it’s name is Polaroid SX-70.

Prospect Park Zoo

I don’t know if it’s the promise I made to myself to take more pictures or just the weather, but I made it to Prospect Park to take pictures twice last week, and even went to Central Park on Saturday. In general I think Central Park is too crowded and the landscape views are a bit claustrophobic. Of the three rolls of 120 I shot last week, the photos from Prospect Park are looking much better.

While on one of my walks through through the park, I decided to take a path I’d never seen before and discovered the secluded Vale of Cashmere. It’s hard for me to believe that I’ve been going to the park for seven years now and never discovered this beautiful area (see the photograph from the post below). It’s nestled high up on a hill above Grand Army Plaza, full of birds and squirrels and rabbits, and men hiding in the bushes (oh hey there!). I later learned of the Vale’s somewhat checkered past, known as a cruising and drug spot as well as the site of some anti-gay attacks and at least one murder.

Taking a picture, part five: processing in Photoshop

Thanks for your interest in my “Taking a Picture” series. Just as a note, I have continued improving my digital workflow and some of these notes are now out-of-date. Feel free to drop a line in the comments or contact me directly if you would like more information on my photographic workflow.

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