Trefoil Arch Passage

There are 35 bridges and arches in Central Park - each one unique. Trefoil arch is, in a way, the most unique, as it's the only one where each entrance to the passageway is shaped differently. The west-side arch is a round Roman one, while the east-side opening is the trefoil (three-lobed) one you see here.

Trefoil Arch was designed by Calvert Vaux and
Jacob Wrey Mould, and constructed in 1862. It serves one of several paths that connect Bethesda Terrace to Conservatory Waters.

Welcome to our newest Forum member, Carl! Warren's message that you were joining prompted me to check, and I realized that I'm way behind in holding up my end of the forum. 

Vaux's Folly

No, I’m not trying to say that Calvert Vaux, the co-designer of Central Park, was foolish; perish the thought!

In architecture, a folly is a building designed and constructed purely for the delight of those who behold it. Belvedere Castle is exactly that, and has delighted visitors to the Park since 1869.

Strictly speaking, an architectural folly is built for no practical purpose, but since 1919, the National Weather Service has operated a weather station at Belvedere Castle. You can just about make out some of the instruments, above the peak of the main turret, in this photo. So next time you’re in New York City and here a radio weatherperson says, “… and the temperature in Central Park is…”, you’ll know where it comes from.

Belvedere Castle is a major stop on my Central Park photo safaris, as the view from its ramparts is stunning. Also, the Castle itself, perched high on Vista Rock, is photo-worthy both from below and close-up.

This post is in honor of our friend and blog founder Warren, whose "everyone check in" email reminded me I haven't posted here for a while. Thanks, Warren!

More Nikon FM Photos...

Just after I took a few snaps of the gentleman, this beautiful young woman stepped in to pose in front of the vintage bike. I think she looks like a young Joan Collins... maybe even more lovely.

The other photo is an abstract of shadows of the cast iron railing on the steps of a brownstone on W. 15th Street. The brownstone was indeed brown, and I gave it the sepia treatment.

These were taken with the Nikon FM that Warren generously gave me!

Vintage Model, Vintage Film Nikon

I kibbitzed my way into getting a few shots of this photo session last Saturday in Central Park, NYC.

Now this is pretty special, because it was taken on actual film with one of the actual classic Nikon SLRs that Warren generously sent to me a couple of years ago. This was a long time coming, because I promised Warren that I would use these beauties, but this is the first time I took one out for a spin... my apologies, Warren... and I'll try to make up for it in the next few weeks by shooting more with them!

For the record, I took the handsome black Nikon FM with me, mounting a 50mm f/1.8 Nikon Series E lens that belongs to a Nikon EM I bought in 1983. My film was Kodak Gold 200 (less than six bucks for 3 rolls at Target!) I took the roll to Costco tonight and had them develop the negatives and scan them. For about four bucks and change, I got the processing and a CD with 5444 x 3658 .jpg scans of the 24 negatives. Now, if my math is correct, 5444 x 3658 pixels comes out to about 19.9 megapixels - not bad!

I'll spend some more time with Photoshop CS5 to see if I can squeeze more performance out of these scans, but meanwhile, this image is "processed" in Picassa version 3, the free photo editor from Google. The scans all seemed a little overexposed, so I used the shadow slider in Picassa to darken a bit, corrected a little blue cast, and then converted this image to sepia, which seems to me to fit the subject.

I wanted to take the Nikon F2 Warren has also sent me, but at the last minute, I realized I never got split-rings for it so I could attach a proper camera strap (the snap-swivels on the straps won't fit through the strap lugs on the F2 body)... and I wasn't able to get the triangular split rings off of the FM or any of the other SLRs I now have. I'll take a trip to my local Ace Hardware this weekend and get several sets, one of which I'll attach the the F2's strap lugs.

Warren, thanks again for these wonderful cameras - I'll be finally putting them to good use over the next few weekends. In particular, I'll take them into Annapolis and shoot some scenes that I've already done digitally, so I can do some comparisons. I have a 43-86mm Zoom Nikkor that I snagged for a good price on eBay that's going on the F2 - I think it will looks especially cool with that classic lens (it's the newer, 11-element version.)

I have several more photos to post from my NYC trip, taken with the FM, that will follow this one.

My First Camera

Sounds like something from Playskool! But it was actually my Dad's Kodak Retina I, a little Stuttgart-made 35mm folder with a decent Schneider lens.

Along with a 1948 GE light meter, a gift from my friend Roger Wesalo, I was in business. With a camera as basic as this one, I had to learn all the basics. I even had to get good at estimating distances (in meters) because there was no rangefinder - just scale focusing. So that lead me quickly to understand depth-of-field.

My college friend Ed Hollingshead took this in NYC in Central Park sometime in the fall of 1967, our freshman year at Stevens Tech in Hoboken. I used to poke fun of Ed because of his left-handed, East German Exacta SLR. Little did I realize then that years later, I'd be a collector of Commie Cameras!

Central Park Lamppost

You can find these lampposts throughout Central Park. Not only are they attractive, they can help you figure out approximately where you are. Look for a small metal tag near the base with four numbers, for example "7624". The first two numbers signify the street (in this case 76th) that is directly outside the park to the east or west of your position. The second two numbers seem to be arbitrary, but are unique to each lamppost along that east-west axis.

If you ever find yourself in an emergency in the park, you can call the police and give them the 4-digit number of the nearest lamppost; they'll know within a few dozen feet where you are.

The blossoms just beyond the lamppost in this photo are cherry trees in full bloom in mid-April. I used Channel Mixer in Photoshop CS3 with the red filter preset to convert the image to black-and-white and bring out the blossoms.