Roughly 3 years ago. Still the same. The Mole-Richardson Tungsten Fresnel lights are long gone. Same as my Studio Space deal.
Today, shared untold Submariner stories with my young neighbor. Young lady personifies the best of us. And so it goes.
Aisne-Marne American Cemetery – Belleau, France
Made this photograph in late September of 2o17. From St. Paul Metro Station in the Marais District of Paris, it’s a short ride to Gare Est. Then, a morning express train to Château-Thierry. Next, a local taxi.
99 years after the Battle of Belleau Wood and 1 year before the American President, in Paris, chose not to attend the Centennial Memorial. It was attended by the Commandant of the Unites States Marine Corps. And Marines.
On my visit, I walked the Battlefield in silence and solitude. The American President who dishonored Marines, I do not forgive.
Somewhere around 2014, after downsizing to a Townhouse on the far east edge of Wake County, I attempted to put down roots in the local community – aka teaching photography classes for Town of Clayton Parks & Rec. Center. Got along well with the young lady in charge of programs. Which failed spectacularly when she was promoted and replaced with – I am not making this up – two men. But that’s not what this is about.
I’d discovered YN-560 III speed lights – fully manual, with built in radio receivers for wireless remote control – for $58 each from B&H in NYC! Robust and throw away cheap compared to OEM speed lights by a factor of 8 or 9! Killer good for head shots and a whole bunch of other stuff
So teaching a lighting class at the Clayton Community Center one evening, a newly purchased YN-560 III suffered an infantile failure in the hands of a student. I assured her, it was something that happens with electronics and next day, logged on to order a replacement. And the $58 price was now $85! Confused, I asked the Google to explain and the answer was a new Tariff.
Which explains why I decided yesterday to buy, probably my last camera, from B&H in NYC, ahead of the 25% Tariffs announced, today on goods from Japan. Yeah, another $550 for I have no idea what would’ve been a deal breaker.
Tonight, 3 July 2025, is Don Giaovanni on WCPE. Long ago, after teaching a Photography Class at Page Walker Arts & History Center, I listened to Thursday Night Opera on my drive home. Usually, understand not a word.
Soprano Lora Fabio – Page Walker Arts & History Center, 24 November 2013
Yet, it was a comfort. A connection to humanity. Across generations and centuries. And once, at a Winter Concert at Page Walker, ostensibly making photographs for Cary Citizen, after I thought I had the story, put down my camera and – I didn’t know a human voice could do that. Later, unable to speak – she understood. I was jelly. “Song To The Moon” from Rusalka by Dvorak – oh my.
Heard my upstairs neighbor empathically say, through blessedly open screens to fresh air after a rain cooled off the unrelenting heat of the week! She is rightfully resentful of Rabbits munching her plantings. They are gastronomically cheeky, as a lady a few apartments down, feeds them.
And having been self embarrassed at previously missing a photo opportunity by having to dive into my camera bag to find a lens, mount it and check the battery and memory card, I’ve left a ready camera near my door. Disclaimer: I tossed a piece of celery leaf from my dinner outside. It was left, ignored – I was had! And the missing piece of ear -not easy being a Rabbit! Still, we both agree on Billy Holiday.
This afternoon, I finished a fresh edit of “Nunsense”, a 2013 Cary Players production of the musical. It is near the end of all the plays I photographed for Cary Citizen. And I plan to give the finished archive to Cary Players, gratis. But that’s not what this is about. It’s about declaring spiritual free agency.
Primarily, I believe, due to cultural family inertia, I was sent to 1st Grade at a Catholic Elementary School. At that age, you believe the grown-ups, especially in 1956. Eventually I got my Catholic religious ticket punched with 1st Communion, complete with a blue suit and a big family party that funded a new bicycle! And later, Confirmation, where you’re supposed to be old enough to choose – as if I had a choice.
In about a month, I’ll be 75. And I vividly remember being hauled from the asphalt playground to meet Sister Mary Edward of the Order of The Sacred Heart. Drug dealers wish their bull dogs looked that mean. I was accused of being a “bully”, having been seen swinging back at a real bully and defending myself, like my TV Cowboy Heroes. So 2nd Grade me was made to hold out my hands, palm up while Sister Mary Edward beat them with a varnished yardstick. It was real wrong and while I didn’t have the courage to declare my spiritual free agency until late in High School, I knew. I’ve been to churches of three different faiths this year for Choral Concerts. They were wonderful.
Fifteen minutes before my turned off, 225 F oven, renders portions of slow cooker pork stew (seasoned neck bones, homemade stock and all the vegetables that needed using) to go on brown rice & millet in homemade veg stock, I’ve some time to write.
Best I can remember, I cycled through 13 or 14 DSLR’s between 2007 and now. There are, 500 or 600 K clicks later, a lot of stories. But today, duh, I realized all my work had to do with intimacy. With us humans. Even my OBX photographs are about, being alone, with clarity.
This is from one of my last portrait sessions. A young woman I’d known as a young Dancer. And I got to visit with her and her Mom and give them the prints they ordered. It answered the question of why, I made photographs.
This from 2012. Some images stay in memory. We visited and talked story. Child was a gift, unaccepted. For a moment, I was photographer and parent. Grown, she met her promise.
Late today, in dangerous heat, I watched a U-Haul Truck unload into an empty apartment in my building. While I was tending the Clam Sauce for my Linguini. In comfortable air conditioning. A vivid reminder of life changes.
Stopped working in the Fall of 2022. And now, luxurious with time, seeing it again. School holidays were Golden Time for me. I could move a ton of lighting gear into studio for a week and schedule dancer sessions. The Artist & Dad genes in me kicked in. I was, chest beating proud of them all. Her folks know!
Studio Session, Cary Ballet Conservatory – 27 Dec 2019
Studio Session with Willie Hinton at Cary Ballet Conservatory – 12 June 2021
It was, a collaboration of Dancer & Photographer, each using hard won skills & passion for making genuine Art. Makes life worth living.
Studio Session 23 August 2021 – Cary Ballet Conservatory
The news today included a strike by Employees of the Louvre. 45 years ago, newly discharged from the U.S.N, luck found me attending a large group (required for Ed. Majors) lecture class at the College of Charleston. The Prof was Tony Jansen . I was young and full of my salty sailor self and stupidly blew off his insight and brilliance. I was making Art, he was just talking about it! ‘Cept he knew and studied and thought a helluva lot more than I had.
And even then, the “Mona Lisa” at the Louvre had gone beyond iconic. I think it was 2007, first visit and it was a mob. Good luck actually being able to see the painting. Today, with selfies, pointless and intolerable. I do recommend the Musee D’Orsay, Wed. mornings and a Visite Pass. You’ll have about 20 minutes on the fifth floor before the selfie crowd.
Summer Solstice starts this Friday evening. Here in North Carolina, it’s been been July muggy heat, early. Saw my first Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on my Viburnum. Missed making it’s photograph mostly due to my inactivity (aka lazy old guy photographer).
Redeemed my professional embarrassment with a Bee. And today, a young Cottontail who took leisure ‘neath the shade of my Apt. Complex Landscaper Protected aforesaid Viburnum. Doves, Towhees, Chipping Sparrows – way more entertaining than any streaming service or social media app.
This is not AI or Photoshop. Made this image of Yates Mill Pond in Nov. of 2024. It’s simply the Mill, reflected in the pond, from an observation deck opposite.
When I was making this photograph, test driving some new to me gear and working on finding my balance as a newly relocated widower, I fell into conversation with a young man sitting on a bench there. He was a young man. Younger than my sons. And regardless of my “I’m just an old guy photographer schtick”, it didn’t take long to realize he was trying to find solace from family conflict, driven by their inability to comprehend his experience of war.
So, my Dad gene kicked in and I listened. Which is, as I explained to my very young neighbor today, just the same as the woman at BJ’s Warehouse who checked me out today and lost her husband one month ago – after taking care of him with Parkinson’s and working full time. And we talked about losing a spouse. But mostly, I listened. It was, for both of us, hard reflection. And solace.
I’ve lost the news article today that quoted residents of Le Marais about the recent ban on smoking cigarettes. And it’s been awhile (2017) since taking a vacation in that hood. Still, it felt like home. The history is sobering.
Click an image for full size
Early this week, I made photographs of a Kindergarten Graduation Ceremony at a wonderful nearby school where a young neighbor and dear friend, teaches. I finished the edit this afternoon. Gave her a USB Drive to share with the School, Faculty and Parents. Without parental permission, I can’t show them here. And BTW, anyone who thinks teaching is easy, in spite of being a Fitness Buff, she was wiped out from long days at the end of school year.
But I did have permission when I made this photograph. And I could not stop thinking about the fact that this young woman, guiding the very young dancers here, was adopted, from a far away land. And pray every child has a good teacher.
Cary Ballet Conservatory “Aspiring Dancers” 18 May 2019
Sometimes, especially for old photographers, sleep is elusive. This, from almost exactly six years ago, was a child seeking refuge from Stage Fright. And the image has stayed in memory. I know exactly how she feels.
Cary Ballet Conservatory “Aspiring Dancers” 18 May 2019
Late in 2018, I decided to let go of film & medium format cameras. New digital versions were astronomically expensive and the film versions were costly, in money and time.
This photograph is from a last portrait session with a Pentax 645N Film Camera and Kodak Ektar film. Had the film processed and scanned the negatives myself. The process after that is just the same as a Digital Negative.
But that’s not what this is about. It’s about Art and Artists. Which explains the rolls of Ektar film in my frig., that fit my 1914 Kodak Autographic Junior & 1925 Kodak Brownie Model F.
Old guy, responsible me, has been mulling selling my post widower, post house sale purchased, 645 Digital Gear. Nah. The Muse Provides. I got plans.
Portrait Session at Cary Ballet Conservatory – May 2018
As I explained to my young neighbor, it’s all her fault! Bringing her dumpster rescue dog to visit after her work day, to visit and talk story.
And I told her about the N.C. State Vet Student who was fostering this rescue that was her proof of ability to spay. Who I connected through a connection of dog rescuers. And volunteered to a make adoption photographs. And we did!
By now, I though I’d be further along, organizing and curating a dozen years of work at Cary Ballet Conservatory. The delay is mostly due to the luxury of quiet time and vivid memory. And reflection. An example is this photograph.
Eight years earlier, her Mom hired me to make photographs of her First Communion at the Church Altar. A new and agreeable Monsignor literally gave his blessing to me working during the Mass.
Cary Ballet Company: Space & Tech Rehearsal, 13 March 2019 – Cary Arts Center
One year later, nearly to the day after I made this photograph, there was another Space & Tech Rehearsal for the 2020 production – just days before COVID cancelled pretty much everything. And that Fall, I became a widower.
Things sort of got back to normal by late 2022 – but my “creative spirit” tank was on fumes and I retired.
Now my goal is to share what I learned about Craft and Art. Working on that!
Today, FedEx delivered a lens that I’ve spent six months searching for. Bought my first copy around 2010, just as it was discontinued by the mfr. Paid $1,400 then, a sum of intense discussion between my newly corporate laid off self and my late wife. But embarking on my encore career, I’d promised myself I’d never miss another photograph of an actor because I lacked the right gear. That it was a youth theater performance, was to me, irrelevant.
Sold it after she died, with a bunch of other gear, no longer used or needed by a retired photographer.
And then recently, volunteered to photograph, pro bono, some Elementary School events. Which caused me to look for a replacement that was, like a Hens’s Tooth, not to be found. So, bought some almost wannabe lenses that just didn’t resonate. And will be sold soon. Here’s the bittersweet part.
Covid changed everything. And caused an exciting, beautiful young dancer to return to Latin America. And unable to cope with his illness and crushed dreams, ended his life.
Made this photograph nearly 15 years ago, on a weekend. Hiding out from some of my late wife’s about to visit relatives.
North of Hatteras, found an off season, duck hunters motel in Manteo. Cheap. And like the song “Sheets so thin, I could see myself grin”. The National Seashore is open 24×7. 0430, fuel up with guys filling boats with ice and gas.
Later, got a pre-dawn, cursory glance from an ATV riding Park Ranger, patrolling the beach. My tripod explained my presence.
So I was left in peace. It is, in a way, a prayer.
And my plan is, in about 10 years or so, or whenever one of my vital parts hits its expiration date, my ashes will be scattered, about three miles east. In compliance with North Carolina State Law.
Which allows that maybe, 100 years from now, I could be a speck of a kids sand castle on Nag’s Head. And so it goes
This afternoon, nearly demanded an outdoor excursion, especially ahead of two days of forecast rain.
I visited what I consider a cathedral, the Wildflower Garden at Hemlock Bluffs Nature Reserve. A 19 year old lens and a beater camera body with 146K clicks on it. Old and worn, like me. Click an image for full size
Listening to the 1958 recording by Tony Bennett, sometimes, inhibits sleep. Maybe because of the Cole Porter lyric.
Or maybe, because of some photographs I made at Camp Lejeune. The day of a year long deployment to a far away land, of danger, long ago.
And I told a very young friend about it today. And I showed her these.
“Every time we say goodbye, I die a little”
“Every time we say goodbye, I wonder why a little”
“Why the Gods above me, who must be in the know
Think so little of me, they allow you to go”
“When you’re near, there’s such an air of spring about it
I can hear a lark somewhere begin to sing about it
There’s no love song finer
But how strange the change from major to minor
Every time we say goodbye”
When taking out the trash, a ready camera is always a good idea!
I made this photograph in January of 2022, about 10 months before age & widower grief convinced me to retire. And I remember being struck by the artistry of a very young woman. Told her that plainly, afterward, in the lobby, in the presence of her father.
This evening, at A J Fletcher Opera Theater in Raleigh, I watched her dance the lead role in the ballet “Coppelia”. I can’t even imagine the work she’s invested in her craft since. But I know great art when I see it. Makes life worth living.
Wandering through my travel archives on a warm, windows open afternoon.
Worn out after food shopping, exercise and vacuuming, I parked my tired old body next to an open screen on a gorgeous day, after the landscape crew mowers & blowers were done, savoring Bourbon & Beer, while dinner warms.
And watched this Senior Citizen Rabbit cruise by and chow down on low hanging Holly Leaves in front of my apartment. And thought about how many times I read “Runaway Bunny”, long ago.
My young neighbor called out to get my camera – and I did.
Public Event – “Lazy Daze” 2012. For CaryCitizen.
Made this photograph about 14 years ago. Public event, shooting for CaryCitizen. And it has stayed in memory.
Raleigh Civic Chamber Orchestra: The Way from Birmingham
My very young neighbor & Music Teacher & Cary Concert Singer member, told me about this performance – with regret – as she’d be away on a planned Spring Break. Bought a ticket and went to the Stewart Theater in the Talley Student Union on the NC State Campus. It was a luxury to be an audience member there instead of working in theater rear, photographing performances of the Cary Ballet Company!
The performance by Orchestra and Chorus was world class and wonderful.
There are benefits to living near a State Capital with great Universities.
*”Cold Dog Soup” by Guy Clark
The last time I visited with this young dancer was during a Saturday Studio Session. I’d hired her to guide young dancer audition sessions. She had all the technical dance foundation I didn’t. Some “No Shows” allowed time to visit.
And we discussed how even though she had a contract with a professional Ballet Company, when she looked at the hours, it was barely minimum wage.
Later, I learned she went back to university and then entered the corporate world for far better money. Art is really, really hard.
I knew the print was still hanging on the second floor of the Cary Arts Center but had no idea it was in the Town’s Website: Four Off The Floor
It’s well intended but displays the picture maker reflected in the glass (which I no longer use on displayed prints). And the focus is really soft.
Here’s what I wish it was displayed as:
Made this photograph, 3 July 2011 – a Sunday. At the newly renovated and yet unopened, Cary Arts Center. There was a”Wet Paint” sign on the theater stage and I’m not sure if they had a CO (Certificate of Occupancy ) yet.
Didn’t know yet but I would spend a lot time there, working, until the Fall of 2022.
I do know that the adult male in the upper left, had just arrived from Belgium, with the rest of the Brussels Chamber Orchestra. The three young violinists were members of the Triangle Youth Symphony.
I don’t understand how anyone can read music and play it. Some sort of mysterious alchemy. Art, I finally realized, is my spirituality. It sustains me.
True story. Made this photograph in the “Annex” of the since sold & relocated Cary Ballet Conservatory. A Mom from the 3D Project Jazz Company left me a voice mail message (remember voice mail). Which I listened to on my laptop speakers in a Paris Apartment. Replied, we were flying home next day and yes, I could do a Sunday promo shoot.
No time to plan or rent gear.
Did have a 5 by 9 ft piece of black velour from Joann Fabrics. My late wife had sewn in rod pockets for hanging as a background. They’re laying on it.
Had one light up on a boom but was standing on a shaky piece of the lobby furniture while the Instructor, a big man named Yaqshaan Medan, was holding my belt & waist band, while I reached out over the very young dancers, with back button focus. And it worked!
Which explains why I entered it, this week, into a Digital Only Open Juried Photograph Completion.
That’s a lie – the real reason is, I have to remember to breathe when I look at it.
Beer, Brats & Wiener Dog Races! Online Gallery here.
“Big Something”, “Southern Culture On The Skids”, “B-52’s” and “Imagine Circus”. It was a party! Plus, a half million bucks for the less lucky. Good show!
I no longer live behind a golf course, my tripod on the empty expanse in the midnight, sky above the tree line. This week, a Lunar Eclipse will happen again. I’m pretty sure, it will look like this. Eugene Cernan, the last Man On The Moon, left his daughters initials, “TDC”, on it. Still there.
This was my second year covering the Cary Diwali Festival for Cary Citizen.
It was 20 October 2012. Families & Faces! Online Gallery here.
Diwali, also called Deepavali or Deepawali, is the Hindu festival of lights. It symbolizes the spiritual victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance. Photographed for Cary Citizen, 22 October 2011.
I’m gathering speed on the array of photo editing & writing projects in plan! Today was editing and posting another Koka Booth Amphitheater event I photographed for Cary Citizen, in 2011. It was my sophomore year covering Town of Cary public events, which explains a lot more “keepers” than my freshman 2010 attempt. I was learning.
Eid al-Fitr is a holiday celebrated within Islam. Eid al-Fitr is the end of the month long, dawn to sunset fasting of Ramadan. It follows a Lunar calendar, so this year, 2025, it falls on 30 or 31 March, depending on location. Fourteen years ago, it fell on Aug. 30/31. The Town of Cary Festival was held on 8 Oct. 2011
Gallery here.
Written about this before. The idea keeps revisiting me. It’s been 13 years since I made this photograph but I know the date and venue, like it was a tattoo. This young dancer, in full stage makeup and street clothes was, to my astonishment, my very first experience with a “Muse”. Trust me on this, Muses are very, very real. She and this appearance, changed my work and understanding of light for the next decade. And she appeared, in another form, 10 years later. And is currently helping with the nascent outline of a book (s).
As an “Old Guy” on the backend of my life on this planet, it is wonderful to be free to read and think (and cook) sans the pressure of all the stuff that younger folks are pressured by. No Mo Fomo ;-).
The post brought this book, and two others today, that will take days to digest.
I promise you, the prints are so good, you’ll look at your latest fancy, feature packed $$$$$martphone and wonder why.
His story is compelling and very human. As an artist, his discovery of theater lighting, his understanding of the mask we all wear – we are soulmates across generations. Art matters.
https://karsh.org/exhibitions/karsh-a-fifty-year-retrospective/
In this Sunday memory, Departmental Road 9, Belleau, Departement de l’Aisne (France), FR. It was a Monday in Sept. of 2017, 99 years after War.
The local American / French Museum was closed, so we walked along farm roads in gorgeous late September sunshine and quiet, to our destination.
You can get there easily from Paris, by Metro to Gare de l’Est, then express train to Château-Thierry and local taxi to Belleau. And can walk the battlefield in silence. Click images for full size.
The Musée d’Orsay is a very favorite place – so much so, my late sweetheart tolerated me spending three consecutive days, exploring.
This 1/16th scale casting, ordered by the Sculptor Auguste Bartholdi in 1899 stunned me. It predates the inscribed poem by Emma Lazarus at the base of the full size version in New York Harbor.
Driving on errands today, I listened to Willie Nelson sing “Living in the Promiseland“. It reminded me of the poem by Ms Lazarus.
Paris is hard to explain. Atop Tour Montparnasse is, I think, a good place to begin. And the Châtelet Metro station, with “Prelude To Paris ” playing. These from 2016 & 2017. Late September is wonderful.
Click images for full size
Shopping, laundry and chores all done yesterday. Groundhog was right!
My 2005 Chevy Silverado W/T in front of apartment door – 19 February 2025
A few hours of afternoon Sun & 60’s was an irresistible lure to get outside in cold, gray, gloomy February. The Gardens at Page Walker Arts & History Center, in my home town of Cary, North Carolina were a very convenient venue for the students in the Photography Classes I taught there.
Today, they were a tonic for my Winter ennui. Click image for full size.
Wonderful Symphony & Choral performance last night at the Carolina Theatre of Durham. And home, thinking about the breadth and importance of Art, sleep deferred.
Cary Ballet Professional Training Program – Cary Arts Center, Dec 2015
I’d forgotten that the 2010 EID Festival at Koka Booth Amphitheater was my first attempt at making photographs of an event for Cary Citizen . Eid al-Fitr is a holiday celebrated within Islam. Eid al-Fitr is the end of the month long, dawn to sunset fasting of Ramadan. It follows a Lunar calendar, so this year, 2025, it falls on 30 or 31 March, depending on location. Fifteen years ago, it fell on Sept. 9/10. The Town of Cary Festival was held on 9 Oct., so pretty close.
I had zero knowledge or understanding of Eid. Like nearly every community event I photographed, the children made sense of it for me. Gallery here.
Yesterday afternoon at the North Carolina Museum of Art got my creative wheels in gear. Working in theater was always magical to me. Especially with no audience to disturb and freedom to move around. I never found it work.
Cary Ballet Conservatory Rehearsal for “Cinderella” 11 June 2014
I was on the edge of digital camera technology, in December of 2010. 14+ years later, this is still in my heart. Time since, allowed me to learn how to take an image to what I saw. And it’s good to have training as a painter. Caravaggio and Edward Hopper would understand. 20″x 16″ Print on order.
Cary Ballet Company Dress Rehearsal “A Gift For The Little Match Girl” 17 Dec. 2010, Jones Auditorium at Meredith College – Raleigh, North Carolina
Post retirement (old guy) reflection on my work as a photographer, created an itch I’ve been scratching, to curate and show the result of a dozen years. Still early on and skimpy. May take a year or so: http://www.brookemeyer.com
Photographer & Clients at “Picture Days” 2016
Bravo Academy of Dance – Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Discovered today, my research was real wrong and the chocolate shop, “Maison Georges Larnicol” at 14 Rue de Rivoli in Paris is still there! Dieu merci!
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There was and is, a “corner joint”, Le Bûcheron, just down the stairs and around the corner, from an apartment on Rue Ferdinand Duval, Paris.
Searching today, I discovered the Chocolate Shop next door is no more. Post dinner, it was a wonderful stop before late evening home.
The meals and memories, are delicious
Wishful thinking, after a rare North Carolina snowfall. Made these at the March 2011, Town of Cary “Kite Festival” at Bond Park. Imagined I was the Mom in the photograph – I wanted everything to be okay, for Madonna and Child.
My 2005 Chevy Silverado W/T in front of apartment door – 21 January 2025
Academy & Chatham Streets – Cary, North Carolina – 26 Dec. 2010
Today’s news included Washington D.C’s Annual Snowball Fight! Which coincided with last nights onset of insomnia and finally, beginning to organize and curate a dozen years of photographs. This is, a favorite.
Bond Park, Cary, North Carolina – 4 Dec 2010 – Photograph for Cary Citizen
It was an outdoor Pumpkin Painting, 2nd event of 1st day, making photographs for Cary Citizen. It was the clarity I was searching for.
Cary Ballet Conservatory – “Celebration of Children In The Arts” 16 Oct 2010
This was my first experience making rehearsal photographs in a theater.
For a decade, it was always, Magic!
A new copy of a book published in 2011, shipped from a Berkeley, California book store on Monday, arrived in North Carolina very early Wed. morning! Yes, it’s a present from me, to me.
Freebie version here: https://archive.org/details/kodakgirlfrommar0000unse/page/n9/mode/2up
I had no experience making photographs of a studio rehearsal. 14 Decembers later, this is still, vivid memory. It was an affirmation of joy without guile. An expression of, the best of us.
An ad page from the April 1920 “The Ladies Home Journal”, 10.5 x 16 inches. Arrived today. My display is complete!
Not my photograph, the eBay reseller’s image. I can’t improve on this.
And yes, I’m going to make some photographs with the one I have. It may be awhile though – an upcoming 3rd Grade Christmas Choir Concert has priority. I’ll shoot that with some 100 year newer glass & digital camera. Stage lighting!
There was and is, a “corner joint”, Le Bûcheron, just down the stairs and around the corner, from an apartment on Rue Ferdinand Duval, Paris.
Searching today, I discovered the Chocolate Shop next door is no more. Post dinner, it was a wonderful stop before late evening home.
The meals and memories, are delicious
The Stylus on Kodak Autographic Cameras is almost always missing. Found this on eBay. Located in Spokane, Washington. Arrived today!
Not my photograph – I can’t improve on this.
This Portrait, aka Close Up Attachment, fits my 1925 era No.2 Kodak Brownie Model F. Instead of a fixed focus distance of 8 ft. and beyond, it allows photographs at a distance of about a meter. Which suits a head and shoulders portrait.
Found it, the only one I could find, on eBay, in a vintage camera shop in the Netherlands. USPS, in cooperation with NL Post, delivered today. Original printed instructions, from 100 + years ago were in the tiny box. In French. No problem!
Listening to KJazz 88.1 this evening, José Rizo played a wonderful recording of “My Favorite Things” by Laili Biali. And in the luxury of my new found peace and contentment, thought about things that I treasure. That’s what this will be about.
Fits my 1925 Kodak Brownie Model F. Shipping from the Netherlands.
Fits my Kodak No. 1 Junior Autographic with f7.7 Anastigmat 110mm lens. Shipping from Medina, Ohio.
The luxury of age is time, without demands. Today, while still surfacing from a nasty head cold and long before my slow cooker of really good collards are ready, I played a DVD of the Cary Ballet Conservatory Recital of June 2016, “Anastasia”.
I have it because I made a courtesy head shot of the Videographer, Jeff Philips at InFocusStudios. Watching it today, reminded me of just how lucky I was to find the right place for me, as a photographer. And it dusted off my memory, remembering their stories and families. I was extraordinarily lucky.
These two will renew your faith in humanity. And danced, wonderfully!
Found on eBay in Vancouver, WA. and delivered today (seller’s photo) Purchased for parts. Had one in better condition but someone (for good reason) had swapped out the Autographic Back. Ironically, this one had it’s original back swapped for an Autographic Back. I’ve restored balance to the Cosmos!
Kodak made these from 1914 to 1924, producing about 800 thousand. This Model, with the f7.7 Anastigmat lens, was $15 (about $478 today). The good part is, 120 film is still readily available. And explains my 4 rolls of Ektar 100 in the fridge. Yep, very fine grain color film in a camera designed for orthochromatic Black & White. It could work!
An original manual, dated June 1917, confirmed the number of the optional Portrait Attachment (3), essentially a diopter lens. Add to the camera’s lens and minimum focus distance is reduced from 8 ft. to 3 1/2 ft. with the 110mm lens. So, a head and shoulders portrait, like a head shot. Found one on eBay today, in the original metal case with instructions. Bought it. In today’s dollars, I paid the same as the 1917 price of fifty cents.
Stay tuned for the test shoot results before year end!
On the recovery side of a nasty head cold (yes, I’m current on Covid, Flu, Pneumonia and Pertussis vaccines), this was delivered today. Last time there, the Gift Shop didn’t have my size. The Paris Opera is a cherished memory and my late sweetheart’s chosen topic of the last lucid conversation we had. It was the 50th Anniversary performance of the Balanchine Ballet “Jewels”, in good loge seats and a fine late supper on Blvd. Hausmann before the Metro, back to our apt. in Marais. The memory and sweatshirt offer comfort. Like the “Cary Ballet Company” sweatshirt I’m wearing. A gift I’m proud of, from CBC.
This is Public Domain and widely available for free as a PDF and ePUB. But there is something intimate across 100+ years, holding and reading a book.
Found this on eBay. About the same as a fast food meal but more satisfying.
Today, the Post Office delivered this eBay purchased, hard cover, Library Version, Twentieth Edition. Published in 1935. Tres moderne!
The Dewey Decimal (pre ISBN number) “770” was still on the spine, from the East Craftsbury, Vermont “John Woodruff Simpson” Memorial Library.
The book’s content, excepting the Kodak product pitches, isn’t very far from what I taught in my Basic Photography and Lighting Courses for the Towns of Cary & Clayton Parks & Rec..
2024 “Smartphone” users could learn from it! And “Make Good Pictures” 😉
Today, the Post Office delivered this eBay purchased, soft cover version. It is, undated. Driven by curiosity and enabled by the freedom of time, found it’s a 1912 first edition! Shown above in a 1913 Kodak Advertisement contract directive, found at Eastman.org.
Which partially explains the Kodak No.1 Portrait Attachment for my Brownie No. 2 Model F that I found and bought on eBay today from a shop in the Netherlands. Been searching for weeks!
I’m guessing it’ll arrive about the same time as the new Melody Gardot CD that I pre-ordered. Good timing on my part! Before new tariffs on European goods 🙂
Cary, North Carolina – 15 Nov. 2024
Made with new to me glass & camera (aka “Used”). The constant is a comfort.
Yates Mill, long ago. Yesterday there was no Dam overflow as we’re missing about three inches of rain in the past month. And Fall is a few weeks late.
Visited the Pond Loop Trail today at Yates Mill. Fall is late -Monarch Butterfly on my Viburnum yesterday, no frost yet and none forecast in the next ten days.
My Plant ID is strictly amateur. Click images for full size.
Feeding on my patio Viburnum Blossoms today. Should be flying to Mexico
There is a 2 mile trail around the Lake at Bond Park in Cary. Today was weather so good – you had to be there. Click images for full size.
“Psyche and Eros”
Cary Ballet Conservatory “Prix Challenge” – 6 Aug 2022
FedEx is tomorrow, delivering four 20×16 Prints on my favored Fuji Deep Matte Paper. On 3/4″ mounts, ready for the float frames I ordered. This is one that I hope I got right.
Late afternoon visitors & sunset – 9 Oct0ber 2024
Last week, I renewed my North Carolina Museum of Art Membership. Today, I visited. And walked around the West Building where I’ve photographed both personal portraits and a few boutique commercial sessions.
Hadn’t been in years. And discovered someone had relocated a rose blossom from the adjacent garden to this decorative, black concrete wall. Apropos.
3D Jazz Project Promo Session – Feb. 2019 – Cary Ballet Conservatory
Long, long ago, I was the resident Field Tech at NASA’s Glenn Research Center (nee Lewis Research Center) for the long gone, Digital Equipment Corporation.
Pretty sure the Scientists & Engineers & Techs I worked with, would approve.
The background image is NASA’s. The foreground is mine.
The photograph is all of us.
Roadside Drainage Ditch – Wake County, North Carolina – June 2014
Trumpet & Piccolos. Since turned into suburban “Lawn”.
Abandoned Lot – Wake County, North Carolina
Ten years later, it still resonates. Some things are beyond description.
The latest version of these prints shipped from my lab today. So did the Nielsen Profile 13 Float Frames that will mount & place them on my apt. wall.
I saw a Herb Ritts Exhibit at Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, Oct. , 2016. Stuff you can’t make up – a 5 minute walk from our apt. in Marais.
Dry mounted prints on standouts in float frames. No glass or mattes. Nothing to get between the viewer and photograph. Meme chose.
The reality of my age and lack of conditioning urged me to go walking a mile or so every other day, for awhile in my new hood, before I go back to the pool. Shared the road with this bunch today.
Cary Ballet Professional Training Program – ADC Preview – 26 Jan 2022
I am well and comfortably retired and my work still resonates in my heart.
I know that I will show and write about photographs I made by the light of the “Windows In Studio A”. Like all things, it has, like me since changed. As has the young dancer shown here. Who I admired and found to be a perceptive and thoughtful assistant in studio sessions. Some images stay in memory.
Today’s hike at Hemlock Bluffs: Wildflower Garden and Swift Creek Loop Trail. Click images for larger size
Cary Ballet Company “Space & Tech Rehearsal” at Cary Arts Center – 12/12/12
I’ve read about Muses. It was serendipity that made this image. Later, looking at the days work, this stunned me. And had no idea why. And realized while I thought I knew what I was doing, didn’t. So I spent the summer learning. And ten years trying to get it right. I owe her. A lot. In about a year, I’ll have a web site & book that explains. The title of both is above.
Sanderlings – Kiawah Island – 3 Dec 2017
My extended Ballet family will get it!
Perennial Sunflower & Eastern Tiger Swallowtail – Hemlock Bluffs – 5 Sept 2010
Okay, a Nature Preserve. Where I went 16 years ago to practice and learn how to make photographs with the gear I had. Same as I did today with some new to me gear.
And try out ideas that I had no idea of the result. Knowing that a Digital Negative was just the beginning. Plus a good sweaty workout on about a mile of forest trail, humping 25 lbs of gear. A very good day.
Had some new to me gear to get used to. On a gorgeous Fall preview day at a favorite place, Bond Park in Cary. There were Moms & Dads & Kids with Ice Cream. And Sunfish Sailing Lessons. And Mallard Ducks.
The lens I wanted to use, DHL is inexplicably holding nearby after arriving from Nagoya, Japan last Friday, until next Tuesday. So I used the lens I got for portraits. Made with a Pentax 645Z & FA 645 150MM f2.8
Last time I attended was 2018, event coverage for “Cary Citizen”. Today, in gorgeous Fall preview weather, I found some old friends. And some old friends found me. Vitamins for the heart.
Selling & moving forces a lot of decisions. My mental task list for the next week is full. Meanwhile, nutrition and sleep are still required. So are the tasks necessary to complete the transaction. An upside of my age is understanding the necessity of balance.
Digital cameras allowed me to make hundreds of thousands of photographs in low light with high shutter speeds to freeze motion. And yes, I paid for “fast glass”, f2.8 & f4 but it was wonderful.
What I think matters, is the idea. The Art. Among those half million plus shutter clicks, some stay in memory. This is one. I’d write something about an English Music Hall but sometimes, words are inadequate. This from 2016.
I’ve carried more than one baguette back to a Paris apartment. Including the one missing from my photograph, which we’d just bought.
The opening Clarinet glissando in Gershwin’s “Rhapsody In Blue”, I love – as did and does, United Airlines.
And had me guessing if it was possible with a Trumpet, during last night’s performance by the Cary Ballet Company of “Who Cares”. A Google search assures me, a Trumpet is capable of a glissando.
I made this photograph a dozen years ago. The performance was part of a music festival headlined by the Brussels Chamber Orchestra. My enthusiasm and Cary Citizen Press Pass allowed me to spend a lot of time in Cary Arts Center with them. A collaboration with NC Opera brought this Countertenor to a performance.
I’m a rough old cob but I had no idea a human voice could – you had to be there.
I don’t know what year this was, image metadata was washed out when I made the Jpeg. And I’m not about to abandon the comfort of a gorgeous spring day to go back indoors to dig into an image archive. What I’m certain of, it’s a dress rehearsal at the Cary Arts Center.
The instructor moved away later, from a lobby full of hugs and tears. Years after, while I still had a LinkedIn account, she was very kind in response to my request for pre-ballet dance school recommendation in the greater Atlanta area.
As an artist, this was my Superbowl Fifty Yard Line. Why I made photographs.
Ulysses Owens Jr – Cary Arts Center – 2012
This is a photograph that stays in memory. I made it during a sound check for a Nnenna Freelon performance with my Cary Citizen Media Pass. CAC was like a home to me, shot the very first performances there (Brussels Chamber Music Orchestra) with a “Wet Paint” sign on the stage and a Certificate of Occupancy that still had wet ink on it.
Been awhile, but the pianist, bassist and drummer were in from NYC, percussionist was local. There was a communion of spirit that transcended everything but making music. I did my best to be invisible. And they let me shoot, as they let each other play.
Sleepless, about 2 AM, kJazz88.1, played a track from his new album. Serendipity.
If you landed here, surfing for any of my “Brooke Meyer” URLs, it’s not a mistake. Sunset my 14 year old event site today. It was time. The “About” page explains.
I can find any photograph that was published there, if you can tell me something about it.
Palais Garnier, Paris
True Confession: I tuned to watch the 2014 SuperBowl for the sole reason of hearing Renee Fleming sing. Football – meh.
Today, eMail brought me the 2024/2025 Paris Opera Season Programme (once you buy Tickets online, you’re on the email list).
Ms Fleming will perform next March, in 2025. If the Boss Lady was still alive, I’d be scheming to sell her that we could afford the plane tickets plus we really should visit Paris. I’d sell her with this excursion: Chihuly At Biltmore . She was a ginormous fan!
Cary Ballet Professional Training Program – Valentina Facal
ADC Studio Preview 25 Jan. 2022 – And don’t it feel good!
Prompted by a delightful conversation today with a 50 year younger neighbor while bringing in groceries. Sunshine modeled her face and I almost went into Portrait Photographer mode. Didn’t. And spared her my latest Old Guy joke.
Cary Ballet Company Spring Gala – Space & Tech Rehearsal – 13 March 2013
News of the day can make sleep, elusive. My remedy is revisiting some favorites, like this one. The digital image is medicine for my analog soul.
And thinking about it, at 3 AM, is part of a currently low priority background task running between my ears, a gestation period for writing a book about the Craft & Art of Photography. I aim to make it my task beginning next fall, and occupy me through the winter.
My immediate and necessarily higher priority program, is transitioning to a sustainable, old widower habitat – sans every Thursday HoA Landscape Contractor Leaf Blowers!
Goin’ to Carolina, it won’t be long and I’ll be there
Disclaimer: The previous post is a predicate to making any sense of this one.
It was December in 1998. Driving on I-77, from northern Ohio to my new job with IBM in Research Triangle Park. I was excited and hopeful.
Ohio was my cradle, where I achieved escape velocity with a Navy Enlistment. And returned to, seeking refuge from a typically poor, youthful marital decision. And left, following the death of both my and my wife’s parents.
North Carolina was my choice. Oxygen for the spirit. As Mary Oates Spratt Van Landingham described it on 6 Mar. 1900: “A Vale of Humility between Two Mountains of Conceit”, referring to North Carolina’s location between South Carolina and Virginia. I was far too familiar with South Carolina.
Twenty five plus years later, I’m at peace. Like at the Coda of a Ballet. As a Widower, the Pas de Deux is necessarily spiritual but still, genuine. I wish that was so for all.
Photographed for Cary Citizen
Another excuse to get outdoors on a sunny, early spring day. Like today!
It was a Town of Cary sponsored “Kite Festival” at Bond Park. And I was surprised to get a request from “Our State” Magazine to run this -which they did – in the March 2014 issue. My first published photograph! Yeah, yeah, they had pages to fill.
Which doesn’t diminish my delight in being outdoors now, watching the top of a Long Leaf Pine, sway in a gentle breeze in a Carolina Blue sky.
The Allman Brothers explain in this freebie at the Internet Archive: “Blue Sky”
It was an excuse to get outdoors on a sunny, early spring day. Like today!
A car show. I think it was Don Bulluck Chevy in Rocky Mount. And I remember making this photograph. Had taught myself to be semi-competent with Manual Exposure! Probably, 2010.
And I remember this was in a Chevy Nova II. So ridiculously overpowered. The craft and care it took to build was clear for all to see.
Edgar Degas was an insufferably insistent photographer in his late life. But I’m confident that he would have been flummoxed by this.
Moi, immediately recognized the significance – she was ordering takeout! Dancers need to put fuel in the tank!
I was 100% ignorant of Ballet when I discovered Cary Ballet in 2010.
Deanna Seay, seen above, invited me to just come and watch her classes. And I thought “This is hard – really hard! Baseball and Basketball and Football is easy compared to this.” Then I surfed the Web-O-Sphere about her and discovered how much I didn’t know. She was very kind.
Reading the news, I wish this for young people. Not Hate, Hunger or War.
Kids Together Playground Cary NC, 16 October 2010
I was floundering in the Spring of 2010 after an earlier than planned exit from a corporate career (as Yogi so eloquently expressed, we “agreed different”). I was trying to figure out my place in the Sun. Got a Wake County “Certified Pool Operator” Certificate and earned a modest paycheck, running our HoA Pool that summer. But it was sort of a “Lady of Our Perpetual Responsibility” guilt avoidance – “Yes, I have a job.” Another I/T job would’ve had me in counseling.
Money wasn’t the immediate issue, we’d put away enough acorns in mast years to get along. The real issue was, I was 60, burned out on corporate I/T (IBM/Lenovo) and had no clue about where I’d lived for a dozen years. Life had been commuting on I-40 to RTP and conference calls. A highly paid bubble.
I’d been learning the craft of photography since a Parisian pickpocket boosted an obsolete Point&Shoot in 2007. That was my “justification” to buy a robust DSLR and a good, non-kit lens. The Art part or “Why” was latent (wife #1 did not want to be married to a Painter & Teacher). I was learning the Craft of Photography or the “How” part. Read the manual until I understood the tool. But I had zero clue how to make any kind of business from that.
Looking for kindred spirits, I joined Cary Photographic Artists. Which led me to a new, hyper-local, online publication where they advertised their Open Competition – “Cary Citizen”. Which led me to a coffee at La Farm with the Editor, Hal Goodtree, where I pitched me being a “Contributing Photographer”.
So armed with a legitimate Press/Media Pass, I asked to cover small events, with heart. It was a raison d’être to explore my community. And I’d have to figure out how to tell stories with photographs – no excuses.
The above photo is from my very first assignment at Kids Together Park “Fall Foliage Walk”, not five minutes from my house and which I didn’t know existed. I began to learn about where I lived. That was Saturday morning.
That afternoon was my second assignment, “Children’s Celebration of The Arts” at Cary Ballet Conservatory. Which I also didn’t know existed.
And there, I found what I was looking for. My photograph, below, had nothing to do with the event. And everything to do with the next dozen years.
Until I wore out. But it’s a really good worn out.
With some hours before the irresistible hoopla of the Super Bowl and desirous of no more examples of inhumanity in the global news, I surfed over to a camera forum dedicated to the brand I used in all my work.
A poster asked for help with the abysmal results he got from a newly purchased, expensive camera featuring the latest auto focus automation – in this case for birds (it’s always birds). It hit a nerve about a relatively recent eBay sale and the fallacious belief that automation will trump understanding and skill.
I made this 13 years ago, with #3 of 12 DSLRs I’ve used since. Hardly current technology.
The technique is straightforward. Reassign Focus from the Shutter button to a button on the back of the camera aka “Back Button Focus” – it’s free! Yes, it does require (horrors) reading a page of the manual. Or watch a You Tube video.
Set the focus function to “Continuous” (mfrs call it different names but it’s still a Rose). Leave it with a single center point . Then point at what you want in focus while holding the rear button with your thumb and track it. Mash the shutter button when you see what you want. Disclaimer: 60 to 80 K of Dancer images per year may result in a callous on your thumb.
Static subject, on a tripod? Just release the back button. Or change the focus mode to “Single”.
Back to eBay. I honestly listed a “Bargain” condition camera body with the real shutter count, some 6OK shy of the mfr. rating. A guy bought it and two hours after he picked it up, e-mailed me it was no good, couldn’t focus on birds in flight. I had set it to mfr defaults. But I’m pretty sure he didn’t read any of the manual.
I immediately refunded his purchase, realizing any explanation was pointless. He did return it. Kept it and another copy, as my retirement gear. Haven’t experienced any issues.
As for the birds, this from camera either #6 or #7 (always kept two of the same model), in 2014
There is a communion of spirit and a meritocracy in theater. Especially dance. I was as helpless as a Moth to a Lamp
As I explained to some folks yesterday, some images stay in memory. This is one. This week, on my almost daily walk, I saw the shadow of a large wing span. Looking up, I expected to see a Vulture, properly attending a recently departed neighborhood Squirrel. It was, in glorious surprise, a Great Blue Heron, who with astonishing wingspan, navigated between two houses into the ravine behind that begins Clemmons Educational State Forest . And I wondered how it survived the fertilizer and pesticides of the Golf Course behind it. Like finding a Rose in Snow, despite the Plows and Salt.
Pre Ballet Student
Rehearsal for Cary Ballet Conservatory 2018 Recital
“Jungle Book”
“Spring Works” Mixed Repertoire by Cary Ballet Company
Cary Arts Center 17 March 2018
I started writing about photography recently mostly to help some friends and students understand some principles of the Craft. That part is the “How”. Gaining that knowledge gives you a chance at the other part, the “Why” or Art. I was going to write about making this image. About why it’s important to learn and understand lighting, composition and posing. All those things are important but still, mostly craft. After staring at this blank narrative for a long time, I realized everything I had to say was in the photograph. The key is something no camera can provide. Universally, every dancer I’ve met, from high school students to principals in major companies, said the performance on stage, those few minutes of a lifetime, make it all worth it. It is, the moment, the clarity, the poetry, the magic of the best expression of ourselves, creating something that transcends the mortal and the specific. Which is why, as an artist, the few minutes of my lifetime it took to make this portrait are worth the years it took to reach them. The proof print of this image is much richer than any electronic display. That image, that moment, I hope her children will share.
Senior Portrait Session, Cary Ballet Conservatory, April 2015
In theater, all is left outside and the play is the thing. Unless it’s Tap Dancers for the “Hippo Ballet” and your heart melts.
2013 Annual Recital, Cary Ballet Conservatory Dress Rehearsal, 6 June 2013.
Jane Austen completed “Pride and Prejudice” in 1812. Last Sunday, I made this portrait of a modern devotee.
The J.C. Raulston Arboretum served as “Derbyshire”. It was the very first time I could “see”and abandoned what I’d planned.
Cary Ballet Conservatory Pre-Ballet Class – Hard on teachers, easy on the heart.
Cary Ballet Conservatory Annual Showcase
Three pre-ballet students in animated conversation before dress rehearsal. Excitement was in the air.
Chapel Hill High School
Last week, Monday through Sunday, I photographed the dress rehearsals and performances of “Anastasia”, a production of the Ballet and Jazz Companies of the Cary Ballet Conservatory. 21+ hours of rehearsals and 5 performances with 300 plus dancers in each. This was made before the first rehearsal
