A walk along the Hudson

Yesterday, after sitting for a new friend's photojournalism project, I took a long walk from the new West Houston-to-TriBeCa stretch of Hudson River Park down through part of Battery Park City's riverfront. I love the Hudson River. Going there always soothes me.

I took many, many photos of flora, structures, and construction along the way, later discarding a little more than half. I got lucky when I reached this fountain pond and found some folks throwing scraps of bread to a duck, some fish and a couple of pigeons. These are a few of my favorite shots of the day.




Fountain pond, Rockefeller Park
Battery Park City
(c)2008, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

What is beauty?

My email buddy Amanda Vallo--who has the Monday Morning News blog ("humor and insight on life and living with a spinal cord injury")--has surprised me this morning, and brought tears to my eyes, by including one of my photos in her video essay on beauty, posted on YouTube.

Here's what Amanda wrote about her video:

this is the beginnings of my contest entry for "Be on TV!" the BBC is looking to get 1. 15 sec. clips of disabled people introducing a BBC program. and/or 2. disabled people's thoughts on what beauty means to them. i'm hoping the final entry is a winner! : )

Best of luck, Amanda!

"Giant leaves floating in the sea"

Golden Ray photos of amazing mass migration
by Nick Allen with photos by Sandra Critelli, Telegraph.co.uk, June 24, 2008

Fly By Night

Jeff Scher's Fly By Night
from his New York Times blog, The Animated Life

Jeff Scher is a painter who makes experimental films and an experimental filmmaker who paints.

Joe Wigfall: Winner of WNYC photo challenge

Joe Wigfall Wins WNYC Street Shots Challenge

A wonderful project and an inspiring winner. Enjoy this video!

Strolling in and around The Cloisters

Along walk to and within The Cloisters
Fort Tryon Park, New York, NY
[To see a photo larger, click on it.]
All photos (c)2008, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

A matter of seeing

New York Botanical Garden
(c)2008, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Field Trip #1

From time to time, we'll take a little detour into other territory. Today, let's visit beekeeper Gerry Gomez Pearlberg's blog--Global Swarming Honeybees--and read her musings on life and death and some bluebirds of happiness.

Global Swarming Honeybees: Of Happiness

Widening our circle of compassion

All photos: Arizona
(c)2008, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

A human being is a part of a whole, called by us "universe", a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

Albert Einstein

unorthodox portraiture?

New York Botanical Garden (c)2008, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

I am beginning to work with two intriguing possibilities in mind:

• Every photo of a non-human is a portrait.
• Every photo of any kind is a self-portrait.

And, you know, maybe there's a third:

• I tend to take a lot of photos of non-human kin from nature.

This one, then, is either a self-portrait or a cousin with a pretty good family resemblance. What do you think?