Thomas McEldowney Photography
a distinct lack of updates is hardly new on this blog but there have been a few life changing events in the way that needed taking care off.
Yesterady I took a day out to work on a new series, a sneak preview of which can be seen on my flickr stream, but I am mostly experimenting with b&w – i find it works best under harsh mid-day sun as in the pic above, taken in Portugal a couple of weeks ago
Is there a way of illustrating just how cold a place is through a photograph? I’m sure the masters of photography could do it, but for me, i’ll just have to get a picture of a brass monkey crying but believe me when i say New York 5.30am in the snow is a cold cold place
first time to leave Manhatten (the last time i was in NY i don’t think i left Brooklyn) to go over to Jersey to try to capture the sunset on the skyline….. like an absolute eidgit I left the adapter for my tripod in the hotel room so not able to get a real good panorama – beautiful spot, Hoboken, though.
It was particularly nice in the sunset because it seemed to give the skyline that yellowy 70s kodak feel – and if any city looks good in a 70s feel its this one. It is late now and that might not make sense.
and when the light finally fell – the lights were pretty great as well.
I have been pretty excited about the Museum of Modern Art, and it is pretty great – the chance to see these Warhols, Pollocks, Ansel Adams and Monet pieces to name but a handful, is amazing.
Close up of Jasper Johns ‘ Flag’
Interesting as well there are some pieces I really wanted to see for myself that didn’t disapoint – Jackson Pollocks stuff has such deep layers that you can never really appreciate in photograph form (interestingly I find it very hard to look at a Jackson Pollock without humming some Stone Roses songs) – and some is disapointing…. i think that too many prints on the walls of student flats has probably ruined Pablo Picasso for me.
And, there is some stuff I just do not get
Robert Ryman – ‘Twin’
McEldowney, Thomas ‘Wall of MOMA’ 2008
Top of the Rock – Click for huge
Ok, i caved in – i like to think I am not a particularly consumerist person – but you try having a 5 year old craptop with a busted screen and living around the corner from a 24hr Apple store without caving in… so this is my first post from a shiny new macbook – and its a thing of beauty.
Thing is… and this is a little embarassing… i’m not completely sure how to use it – this morning it told me that I had filled the hard drive already… not good – turns out that iphoto and aperture love to fill the HD – so i’m not too sure how to use it – i’ve been trying to download a trial version of photoshop until i get home but thats proving unsuccessful as well – so it will have to be un-manipulated photies for a couple of days.
One of the difficulties, if you can call it that, about New York is that there is so much ‘obvious’ photography, landmarks, streets, statues and bridges that are photographed from every conceivable angle — Brooklyn Bridge (above), the Flat Iron Building, Grand Central (both below) photographed by everyone to the point where you wonder if there is any point – but its impossible not to photograph them…. a million people have probably taken the image above, and a million more will probably take it in the future – people with bleeding edge digital cameras, with disposable cameras, home-made pinhole cameras, all were out today trying to put their own slant on the same familiar lines of Brooklyn Bridge.
Speaking of impossible the screen on my laptop is truly goosed – 1/8 of the screen is a solid white bar, reducing further the resolution of my already battered old laptop. There is an apple store around the corner from my hotel.. i think i know where this one is going, i have seen Vista, i don’t like it. Photoshop CS3 doesn’t run under Linux – another acolyte for apple-fandom awaits.
“In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”
toblerones, unfeasible knives and some bmx’ers – never photograhed bmxing before – and now have a new found respect for anyone who can do it well – its difficult, pretty unpredictible and very difficult to get the backgrounds clutter free
Asphalt-issimo BMX / Skate fest Geneva 2007 pics here
Last night I decided that I wanted to climb Mont Blanc – thats it in the picture – the highest point, I spoke to a couple of people and tried to assess just how much of a task this would be, general opinion seemed to be that my fitness was fine, and the mountain was not really about fitness but altitude acclimatisation and weather – particularly weather… so… i’m thinking that this could be something worth doing – if for nothing else it gives me an excuse to get out in crampons on the scottish hills this winter – time was when the ranges of snowdonia would have given me enough snow to practise on – but not any more. Mont Blanc 2008 – who’s with me? Its either that or the crazy 160km mountain marathon that starts from Chamonix and goes through Italy and Switzerland via the foothills of Mont Blanc – now that is crazy.
Anyway, i digress – perhaps the best view of the mont blanc range can be seen from le Brevent
Well the weather cleared and some great walking was had, but to be honest I never took as many photos as I did on the first couple of days as there was nothing quite as good.
One walk in particular should be commented on if for no other reason than for me to have a whinge – the walk starts from Les Houches (980m) and ascends firstly to Col de Voza at 1653m and on to Nid d’Aigle at 2372m – but you can take a cable car to Bellevue at 1801m – take it. There is absolutely nothing to be gained from walking the first half of this walk – unless you have some sort of weird love of walking on very steep roads – on the second half though, the walk becomes worth it, a spectacular walk alongside glacier de Bionnassay
As you can see from the picture – the weather was not really the best and we pretty much missed out on any spectacular vistas but we did see a few of the fellas pictured above, bouquetin or alpine ibex.
No gallery today as frankly the pictures just aren’t any good
