CLICK NOTES ONE:

TWILIGHT

BACKGROUND TO PIC# G-098 (in ‘Works — A Summary’) — MYKONOS WHITES@TWILIGHT’S CUSP FROM SILVER TO DUSK (lower right)

The first sunset at Mykonos was mesmerizing. I found a spot high on a hill behind a windmill and took in the picturesque ambiance (see Pic# G-107 in ‘Greek to me’). All the non-iPhone photos, it turned out, were shot… didn’t turn out, I mean, because of a wrong setting. Quite upsetting! Being a sucker for sunsets, I had wanted that perfect one. But the second night I did not want to just click a redo.

I find the whole island to be quite inspiring. There are many vantage points, so I venture out to locate a new spot. I climb up a different path of the hill only to find the most wondrous sundown locale ever. Some may call it contrived. Not me. Sunset here is a community event. The welcoming atmosphere enjoying the world’s beauty as choreographed with New Age music touches and moves me close to tears. That it is mostly young people does not detract from the positive vibes. As the sun sinks past the horizon there is appreciative applause (as they sometimes do in Europe when a vacation jet touches down for a safe landing).

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CLICK NOTES TWO:

RAYS

BACKGROUND TO PIC# G-054 — SUNSET MAGIC@OIA, SANTORINI

The third of these is my favorite shot of 2018. It had been a dream of mine to see the white houses with their blue window frames and rooftops. I was not prepared for Oia. We saw the town from a boat (Pic# G-078), on its mountain top. Quite a stunning sight framed by deep blue water and sky. We were given the option of hiking up the steep incline or utilizing conventionally wobbly donkey power.

It was quite crowded and touristy on top. Tired travelers awaiting the sundown showdown. I couldn’t see myself in hordes of hundreds waiting for that shot.

What topped it off for me was suddenly having to fight a bunch of donkeys and their guides after a hard day’s work who were being aggressively navigated the opposite way, against the stream of visitors. They wanted nothing do with the spectacle in the sky nor on the ground. This was madness. I had to find a separate spot. Find myself… I went away from the water view, and suddenly it was quite quiet, for a moment. You see the crowds on the hill to the left embracing their water views, but I sensed the magic lies not over the water, but how the rooftops are colored in changing tones of warmth with another couple of people taking in the perspective. And oh yah, Oia sings.

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CLICK NOTES THREE:

FISHY

BACKGROUND TO PIC# L-001 — ALL CAUGHT UP@SANDY HOOK

I had Leo the dog in tow, or rather, in the lead, for a beach walk on Plum Island, Sandy Hook.

The light was golden-eerie, twenty minutes before cinnamon on the possible road to crimson.

We came upon a little boy who was beside himself as he was about to capture a great catch on his smartphone to document and share with his world.

The dog had little patience for this. No discernible whiff of the wild emanating from the sand shark, no wiggly movements that might have piqued Leo’s interest.

It was a private glimpse of an exciting adventure that they would (and the gadgets would assist them to) remember for a lifetime.

Father, son, trophy fish that didn’t get away.

We moved on past, quickly, so as not to infringe upon the special moment, realizing fully well that the scene wasn’t joyous for all.

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CLICK NOTES FOUR:

TO THE MOON

BACKGROUND TO PIC# L-002 — RESPITE@RALPHS

Scurrying on 8th Avenue by the Port Authority Bus Terminal, in a rush for something Off-Broadway, I remember looking left at the statue of the iconic bus driver and Honeymooner, Ralph Kramden. I stop dead in my track. There I see it, this precious little snippet worth preserving, of course unbeknownst to the individuals depicted in this snapshot.

The center of attention is this wonderful lady with an aristocratic look on her face, delighted to be sucking with unapologetic fervor on a cigarette. This is her oasis, this is a time of sustenance just for herself and nobody else. A celebration of the day just mastered.

It may be pushy to try and pinpoint her backstory, or too easy at first glance. She seems to be with near-clear certainty a street person, since people in this part of town do not usually wear flip-flops in September, on the flimsy side, and a coat. Whether by design or chance, her turquoise color scheme impresses, including headscarf and shopping bag. This is her moment to sit back, and this particular spot is her much-deserved respite at the feet of none other than Ralph Kramden.

Her neighbor, parked on the base of the statue, is just a bit player, but necessary, in this particular scheme. He has his life’s momentary essentials stooped at his feet, travel gear and a handy, red shopping bag, as he is fully engulfed in a cell call and oblivious to his surroundings. Meanwhile, the reflection in the window captures a tiny bit of the usual Manhattan street bustle.

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CLICK NOTES FIVE:

GLORIOUS

BACKGROUND TO PICS# B-010/B-011 GRE@ WALL OF CHINA I/III

The appeal China holds is not its bright city lights, no matter how well they manage to penetrate the pollution haze. It’s always been the Wall, truly high on my bucket list of things to see before I kick it. Two opportunities to hike the steep inclines and spend some time: the first one on my own, features the rarest of glorious clear skies at Badaling near Beijing, and the mere presence and scaling of the old chiseled rocks, it pretty much matches my wildest dreams.

The second time is with business friends, and we negotiate 90 minutes to explore on our own, but then I get cell messages within the hour how come I didn’t have enough yet. The weather is only so-so, and people are evidently more into bargain hunting in the fake markets of the capital about thirty miles away. The message is this: there’s always going to be jerks around; if you can, by all means follow your heart, navigate your own path, take in the sights.

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CLICK NOTES SIX:

BITEY

BACKGROUND TO PIC# L-004 — BEWARE OF A CRITIC TH@ BITES

An early-morning beach walk around Provincetown with Chelsea holds immense appeal. She is fine to take off leash at low tide and is good at listening to commands. When I observe an artist taking in the invigorating, in-your-face light, I spot a great lens opportunity of her committing to canvas a bright red boat stranded on the flats as well as the object she renders. And then I find that the dog is monitoring the scenes as well, contemplative, not totally sure what to make of it. The title and connotation of this photo got a few chuckles and head-nodding at a recent showing by the shore.

What happens in real life is that the artist turns around toward me, must have heard the click of the camera, and shouts, totally ticked in tone, with an enormous edge, “Did you just take a photo of my art? I will not have that!”

I mumbled something like, “No, you won’t,” ordering Chelsea loudly to heel as we turn away.

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CLICK NOTES SEVEN:

ALLEYCAT

BACKGROUND TO PIC# Y052 — C@S OF CRETE

One can derive from these very notes that a cat person I am not. I mean, not that I agonize over them or harbor outright anti-feline feelings, but the perception is that companionship does not rank highly on their need scale, so why wouldn’t I feel likewise toward them?

The saying goes that curiosity kills the cat. Their patience at observing, inquisitive staring and thirst to figure things out is what intrigued me about the two shots from the cobbled back alleys of Chania, Crete, which were taken days apart. Prey tell, there is a brooding, mysterious quality how this black-eared predator prowls the street or peers in the open door, as in, come on now, get me my treat or my milk, because you owe me. The merchant in the back, hands held high — precious. The warm lights and colors make me love this collage. The sun refletion on the pavement and the golden light in the store window on the right, the yellow walls, to me they all add up to holy Meow! life is fully worth exploring.

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CLICK NOTES EIGHT:

TRUE WEST

BACKGROUND TO PIC# B-087 MAGICAL W@CHFUL MITTENS, MONUMENT VALLEY

There are three primary reasons how come I wound up in the United States. Here’s one.

My love of Westerns. As a young teenager I was totally taken by Karl May (prolific German author of adventure tales) and his series of books about frontier life in the American West. Then there were the “cowboy” movies that we watched on TV, as a family, with outrageously rugged, windswept landscapes as backdrop, surreal with wagon trails grinding by and ‘savages’ lurking on a hilltop awaiting their chance to strike. Somewhere I may have sympathized with their motivation, even though knowing well that they always wound up on the losing end.

Seeing Monument Valley on the Arizona-Utah border for the first time, I was so wowed… what a country. To me its outrageous sandstone majesty rivals other sights in Zion, Bryce, Yosemite. My third visit offers what memories to last a lifetime are made of. We stay at ‘The View’, a new motel right on the outskirts of the park. Drudging in from the parking lot after a long day of traveling one can’t hope for anything but a clean place to put your head down for the night and rest up for the next day of hiking and talking things over with nature. For good measure, we smuggle in a bottle of Cab and a couple of beers from a far-enough away supply house in a wet county, because this is contraband Navajo country. Pulling away the curtain of our room we are blown away like rarely before or since. This photo snapped itself a bit later, after sundown. I hate to overuse the word magical, but what is it then…?

The next day offers many mesmerizing vistas, and the surrounding land, while fully frequented by car, pickup trucks and wild horses, is quite astounding.

CLICK NOTES ELEVEN:

FACIAL

BACKGROUND TO PIC# L-058 DELOS DIVA AND MORE

We’re getting a little personal here. Sometimes it is faces, languished looks, reaction shots, selfie posings that add an exclamation point to a particular scene, and I find capturing them hard to resist. We’re talking public domain here, but I take reasonable care not be obvious in what I do, fiddling with a tele lens is the preferred disguise and tool for my fait accompli. Only once was I caught red-fingered, so to speak, for the classic photo of the German shepherd observing the artist in the Provincetown flats, and that was not at all to incorporate a facial expression, so it doesn’t count.

I admit it is a bad habit, and I will use it sparingly and discreetly. At a time when so many dream of being a model, my lame excuse is that perhaps there are worse things that could happen.

CLICK NOTES TWELVE:

AIR

BACKGROUND TO PIC# C-127 PEST AEREAL

Having had the freeing feeling that “to fly is human” as a skydiver of 80+ jumps, I now prefer being in an enclosed cabin, sitting by a window and observing the lay of the land ‘en passant’. It brings a hint of the adventure back, even though not the same rush (thank God) as in my earlier free falling years, but it is soothing, calming and helps me bring the scenery in perspective.

Among many examples I fondly recall: Alps, Newfoundland, Budapest — I especially like when wings or engines strut their competence in a particular shot. Nothing special about these, definitely a weakness, but fun.

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CLICK NOTES THIRTEEN:

WALL ART

BACKGROUND TO PIC# C-016 ‘RAINBOW-FREE ON YONGE’

I’ve been a sucker for murals, especially those that provide a splashy contrast to a drab or rundown or inconspicuous area. Some may consider them a nuisance, I love the freedom they tend to denote. Freedom to exhibit, or show off, if you will. In most inner-city cases it may well combine an act of thievery, i.e. ‘steal’ a blank or ugly wall, with a donation of something creative that the artist may have contemplated and envisioned for quite a while, and quite likely applied under cellphone or flashlight in the cover of darkness. Often, the work is signed, as branding so to speak,for followers who search out the name, in the rare cases that the work is not identifiable outright.

The photo collage immediately below is from a Toronto playground in the gayer part of town and has symbols of the neighborhood interspersed, with kids on a rope climber, for extra contrast. A sharpie, held somewhat like a weapon or an injection needle, may be a bit on the provocative side, which is street art at its finest. See also the example underneath from LA. Then the other Venice and a street angel.

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CLICK NOTES FOURTEEN

HOPPERESQUE

BACKGROUND TO PIC# L-116B ‘Relaxn@ Lincoln Center’

Nyack’s famous son, Edward Hopper, has always held a magnetic mystique dipping the individual in the middle of a situation, as observer or backdrop, yet essential. Mysterious, melancholy, stark, feeling or thriving in being unnoticed. The guards are down, it’s a person stalling on the path to somewhere, lost at least for a little while. Refuel, relax, reconsider.

The sceneries to me, in a way, are all about the light which blankets the situation like a quilt of contrasting color patches, comfortable enough, but a little scratchy and not exactly warm. Life is life.

It’s one or a few people carving out a spot vis-a-vis society.

CLICK NOTES FIFTEEN

ALIGN

BACKGROUND TO PIC# L-101 ‘Sunset People@ Chania’, also L128 ‘Venice Vaper’

Talk about the mood conveyed in a Hopper painting… Sometimes the stars align in a Momentaufnahme which is a fancier word for snapshot, and as you scrutinize details you notice what makes the result gel. Case in point, the ‘Venice Vaper’ above, under Click Notes 13/WALL ART: the old building shows elements of a gaudy grandeur, made prettier by some loud murals, the birds on the wire and in flight, yet the human passer-through this environment makes the whole scenario more gripping, so much better than “composed” in a grand design. Remember, my photos are spur the moment, unrehearsed, unstaged, unsanitized. People populating the canvas as extras can add an extra-special something to the atmosphere.

‘Sunset People’ below is classic, one person, possibly two with eyes on the sky, unimpressed passersby mind their own agenda — without them it would just be another lighthouse silhouette, gray on orange. I got up from the restaurant dinner fare because the moment seemed in alignment and ripe  for the taking.

CLICK NOTES SIXTEEN

MONEY SHOTS

BACKGROUND TO PIC# Y-045 ‘N@ional Buck of Yellowstone’

On rare occasion during a vacation, restless me split from the family on a little excursion of my own because I wasn’t up for an afternoon nap or wanted to do an exploratory early-morning walking tour to catch how the city wakes up. The three examples are a continent away.

In Galway I stumbled upon a park where students lay about to chat leaving a polite distance from each other and enjoying a mild clear afternoon, separated by the Bay from the picturesque Long Walk row of houses. In this shot as in the one of Reykjavik’s Cathedral of Christ the King the clouds play a prominent part. To me clouds are an asset in almost any configuration. 

The sight of the big elk in his keen majesty in proud contours against the pinkish mountains can make you emotional and hopeful that nobody will shoot at it with anything but a camera.

CLICK Notes seventeen

indie spirit

BACKGROUND TO PIC# L-129 ‘4ever@last’

Getting back to the word Momentaufnahme which is one of those German words that has founds its way into the English language… Capturing a moment is not the correct meaning, snapshot is a little bland — it is more like absorbing the moment, even though, technically, it could denote a recording of the moment. Which sounds unnecessarily dry. Well, for this series, recording the acoustics would help… But it’s more than sound that draws me to this milieu, it’s that particular group-feel as a favorite tune gets presented and the whole venue of many hundreds, sometimes thousands, are electrified, singing, swaying along.

Ranking easily in the top 5% of a field is pretty good. in terms of ‘maturity’ at an Indie Rock concert I am easily in the top 5, and it doesn’t faze me in the least. Music in the past ten-plus years, to my ears and sense of rhythm, has been every bit as good as the 60’s which was the early prime of my growing up.

In a good year I’ve hung out at about a dozen shows, mostly in smaller venues. The National, Snow Patrol, Cloud Cult, Bush, Gaslight Anthem, Manchester Orchestra, Front Bottoms, the Menzingers, so many more absolutely awesome bands. SXSW Austin a few years back was a revelation.

People-watching is the most fun surrounding the pre-show ambiance. Jimmy Eat World, Ra-Ra-Riot, 3rd Eye Blind, Morning Parade, the Chevin, Biffy Clyro, Death Cab for Cutie, Rogue Wave, Tigers Jaw, Hold Steady, Tokyo Police Club, the Wrecks. Oh don’t stop, what great experiences, such great unbeatable stuff. 

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Click Notes Eighteen

Angelic?

BACKGROUND TO L-130 ‘Mykonos Magic Reson@es’

I’m a romantic realist. What does that mean? I see and acknowledge when a situation is special. Grasp it, applaud figuratively — I don’t know how I do that, but my heart knows.

Case in point is the precursor of what I described in Click Notes One: When I made it up the hill over Mykonos and stumbled upon the sunset oasis, I saw people gathered around a table under an airy roof of leafs and twigs high up on a cliff overlooking a sea of white houses surrounded by the South Aegean. While I was not sure what to expect further, I knew it had the makings of something wondrous. It was the little boy on a swing, his hair kissed by the setting sun, and to the left, the angelic toddler, in a quasi-gold framed silhouette, his left index finger up, vaguely pointing in my direction, the woman, all smiles in a flowery summer dress — and me, utterly unnoticed but noticing.

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Click Notes nineteen

early corona days

TIE-IN TO PIC# Y-067 ‘Sunb@hing @Ramapo Park’

March 20, 2020. May we not forget when we were first directed to stay pretty much cooped up in and around our homes.

So I took a little bike ride, abbreviated somewhat because it was 20 minutes past dusk. I listened to a podcast along the way (‘Fresh Air: How One Orchestra, Faced With a Pandemic, Played On’). 

Breath of life, inhale, let it be invigorating, I tell myself — and, somehow, it is. 

Downhill, uphill, the roads are deserted, kind of, there’s a family eating dinner out on their front porch; we wave exuberantly, which oddly triggers an onset of tears, so I pedal faster. There is a certain kinship with the few people out; the ultra-orthodox all dressed-up going to their Sabbath services, waving, which they never do; the reserved young Irish family from a block away playing ball on their lawn in the near dark, waving. 

My favorite nearby park is deserted and as precious as during the best of times. For the turtles it’s too dark or too cold or too something to be out and enjoy their floating log for the first time (that I’d witness) this season. Other than that, other than this pesky, deadly virus that seems set to destroy life as we know it, other than the fiscal meltdown, all is well. All will be well, I convince myself, and to always remember that life is beautiful.