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.

I’m not entirely sure, but I think the perceived possibility of danger in the area makes it even more attractive to me. I will definitely be going back, although I’m wondering if going with a buddy might be a good idea.

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 Just as a note, I have continued improving my digital workflow and some of these notes are now out-of-date.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.

As an experiment, I am posting this example as a video. Feel free to ask for clarification in the comments if there’s anything in particular that you want to know more about. The embedded version is pretty small; click here for a slightly larger streaming version on Vimeo.com, or download a larger version directly from my server.

This series of blog posts follows the process of creating an image from the beginning through to the final print. When I’m done, I’m going to give the print to someone who has commented on one of the posts along the way.

Click here to read other posts in this series.

This was supposed to be the day when I posted the next installment in my “taking a picture” series, which will include a contact sheet evaluation. Unfortunately my Hasselblad developed a light leak and half of my photographs from yesterday are ruined! I ordered a new light seal kit, which should be here in a few days, but unfortunately that post will have to wait for a little while.

In the meantime, I will continue to post the few photos I can salvage from that roll. Here’s one I like quite a bit, I think that I may ultimately add it to my “By the Sea” portfolio. I recommend clicking through to see the larger size, I think this is one of those photographs where size really does matter. I am looking forward to printing this one.

Here’s a link to the Google Map. As you can see from the satellite image, this is on a small peninsula which juts into Raritan Bay. Taking a closer look at that peninsula, I can already tell that there is a lot to explore as I work my way further in.

This is one of the most bizarre structures I’ve ever seen.