Photography: And We Think We Have It Tough Now!

This is a continuation of the series of photos I took while at the George Eastman House. Hopefully you’re not sick of it yet!

I love this You Press The Button. . . display which shows and describes what a 19th century photographer had to go through:

Here’s a close up of the writing so you can read what George Eastman went through in a photo shoot:

Can you imagine lugging all of this stuff around!

Makes me appreciate the old photos even more! In a hallway there was a display of cameras, with this sign – please don’t squint to read it, I’ll make it bigger in the next photo:

Here’s a closer view of the words so you can read if you would like:

This is a really cool long display of old cameras – this photo only shows a portion of the cameras in this display:

I leave you tonight with this old ad for a Kodak Brownie:

Seeing all of this makes me appreciate my digital camera so much more! Wait until you see what else I have for you!

Advertisement

George Eastman House – The Orchids

There are orchids in various locations at the George Eastman House. The first orchid I came across was this beauty in the dining room. I love the little hairs from the leaves:

The next orchid I came across was in the hallway along the conservatory.

It is in front a mirror, so I had to play with the camera and the mirror – a view into the mirror showing the conservatory.

Another beautiful orchid in the same hallway:

And right next to it, this gorgeous beauty, here an up close and personal shot of it:

And lastly, a beautiful orchid in the billiard room:

This is interesting because I just created a three panel display for OHA for their booth at Central New York Blooms, and researched David Campbell, who was first a landscape architect with training in Scotland, and then Syracuse’s Superintendent of Parks (1902-1922). As the Superintendent he created several parks in Syracuse, the main one being Thornden Park, which used to be the home of Major Alexander Davis. When it was Major Davis’ home, David Campbell was hired as the landscape architect, and, the main thing David Campbell featured was orchids.

Sonnenberg Gardens has lots of orchids around, too. It must be a Victorian thing to feature orchids around your home, if you were wealthy, that is!

My friend Rosa told me that orchids grow in the wild like weeds in Brazil. Can you imagine?

More on the Eastman House tomorrow! I can’t believe how much more there is to share – and I didn’t capture everything I saw in photos.

George Eastman House – The Discovery Room

In one of the rooms on the second floor of the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography & Film is the discovery room where kids of all sizes and ages can play with different cameras and things. Nobody was in there for a while, so I took the opportunity to play and photograph. First up, I love this old poster and sign saying you can actually touch the cameras!

Next is a Stereoscopic viewer – which, as you probably already know, has two side by side images that are exactly the same, and when viewed through the viewer it looks like one 3-D image. My Mom has one of these and I *love* it. She has some awesome stereoscopic cards from Yosemite. Please scroll down one image if you want to read about the Stereoscope.

Next I looked into the Mutoscope which featured ‘Felix the Cat.’

I took a couple of photos of the show:

The bag hanging on the other side of the tree is full of bees. Felix doesn’t open the bag, but the other animal featured in the movie does and has to run like heck after he peeks in the bag and realizes it’s full of bees. I would have taken more photos of this, but somebody came into the room and stood right next to me. I so don’t understand the herding instinct of humans and why people have to be right next to me waiting to do what I’m doing when the rest of the room is empty. It is something I don’t do at all.

And there was the Thaumatrope which is something like the Mutoscope. No photo because I would have caught the humans that were harboring close by to me in the photo. I don’t like unknown people in my photos!

You can also make a sunprint here, which looks really cool!:

I’d like to make a sunprint next time I go there! I’ll have to bring in one of my plant pressings to use.  This room is fun! There was more but the big humans were still in the way.

George Eastman House – Int’l Museum of Photography & Film

Yesterday I took my hide down to the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography & Film. I really wanted to see the forced spring bulbs in the conservatory, but ended up with several other surprises, too. I had quite forgotten how big and beautiful and interesting the place is. I have blogging fodder for at least a couple of posts! I’ll start with the conservatory, since that’s what I went there for. This is the view that first totally soothed my winter-sore eyeballs as I looked into the conservatory from the dining room:

Here’s a closer view of the flowers in front of the Aeolian pipe organ. The pipes from the organ are hidden behind the latticework on the second and third floors.

Not only a great view for the eyes, great smells of spring flowers for the nose. Then I walked into the conservatory and look to the left and saw and smelled paperwhites, hyacinths, tulips and amaryllis:

And looking to the right I saw more of the same. Here’s a close-up of a gorgeous amaryllis with the limestone wall in the background:

Here’s a close-up of the tulips in the left of the second photo:

I walked around to the other end of the conservatory, and these are the tulips and daffodils are along the right side I couldn’t show you in the first photo.

Here’s a close-up of the same tulips:

I went up to the second floor (more on this later) and looked down into the conservatory.  Mmmm, look at all of those plants!

Here’s a close-up of the hanging planter chandelier:

Here’s a view of the other end of the conservatory from half-way up the stairs. The extensive grillwork was designed by Samuel Yellin.

And the elephant’s head. Not the original head Mr. Eastman got while on safari in Africa in 1928, but a replica. And fortunately he didn’t go around killing elephants for their heads.

And I’ll leave you with more beautiful amaryllis and paperwhites:

And another tulip close-up:

Stay tuned! I’ll post more about my tour of the Eastman House later!

More Spring Flowers

Please don’t get me wrong, my brain hasn’t stopped working – I’m very busy working on various projects and thinking all of the time – I just need something new to happen to blog about because I’m bored with blogging about the snow, etc. So here’s some more spring flowers for you until something happens for me to blog about. I took these on April 29, 2004 at Wintherthur.

Tomorrow I may have something to blog about!

P.S.  I just found out that the Phoenix Airport has the new x-ray scanning machine that scans right through your clothes to find any hidden weapons.  Joy.  So much for my privacy.  I thought it was bad enough getting my personals patted down by another woman (big time yucko), now they’ll get to see my everything.  I just *can’t* think about it.

My Brain is on a Blogging Vacation

Seriously, my brain isn’t thinking about my blog at all, and it’s usually working overtime all day long looking for things to blog about. It’s something I can’t make it do. If it needs a vacation, I can’t force it to write. So I’ll leave you with a photo I took at the National Arboretum on May 1, 2004 when the azaleas were at their peak and just absolutely gorgeous.

And I hope my brain gets over its blogging vacation soon!

The Moon

After all I did today all I only took time out to take a pic of the moon that was taunting me on the way home. And this pic isn’t very good and I’m too tired from the day to figure out why right now.

But I did have a great day!  Hope you did, too.  They’ll be more blogging later, I promise.

Five Things, Plus a Few More

I saw this on Laurie’s Don’t MAKE Me Get My Flying Monkeys and Mary’s View. The thing is to list at least five things that most people don’t know about me. I was thinking about this while doing the treadmill this morning. Some people probably know this stuff if they’ve followed my blog for a while.

1. I play the piano and have since I was real young after I saw one of my cousins play so well, but I had to play in public way too many times (not any more) because people thought I was good at it.

2. I’m a Master Herbalist and was invited to go to the Amazon rainforest by James Duke, and I turned it down because I don’t do bugs. Down there to show respect to the Shaman, you have to *eat* bugs. I don’t do bugs on my skin, why would I do bugs in my insides? I would love to go to the part of Brazil where Rosa is from sometime, though!

3. I love several types of music from “head-banging” (for a great workout, cleaning house and driving) to blues (B.B. King is one of the best) to classical (Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, etc.). I however, hate rap and whatever else it is the 18 year olds listen to. Whatever it is, it messes with my brain waves big time (I had to listen to it at the gym one day and thought I was going to go insane).

4. I’m still trying to figure out what I want to do when I grow up. And I’m never going to grow up – that’s boring!

5. Thanks to my French-Canadian heritage from both of my parents I started getting silver hair when I was 18. My brothers and cousins are getting silver, too. I started coloring my hair because my brothers made fun of me, and then it got so tenacious I stopped (i.e. I would color it one day and the next day the white part would be showing through again). Now people think I’m old and I’m not and I don’t care. I do hate it when baggers at the grocery store ask me if I want the bags to be packed light or if I need help getting them to my vehicle. Let me show you what I can handle punk as I throw the heaviest bag over your head. I mean, “no thank you” I can handle the heavy bags myself.

6. I am a really nice person even though it doesn’t seem that way sometimes (like my comment above).

7. I don’t have a ton of friends, but the friends I do have I care about very much. That includes my blogging friends I’ve known for a while now and the ones I am getting to know now! 🙂
8. I am ferociously independent, to a fault sometimes.

9. I am a major tree hugger. And for all of you who will be seeing me sometime this year, here’s what I look like, except I have bangs now and cut my hair shorter. Argh, I can’t believe I’m posting this.

10. And I am ferociously private, and can’t believe I’m telling you any of this stuff and showing you my photo. But I still maintain most of my privacy! 😉 Now I’m off to hide somewhere for a while.

Warner Castle

I ended up going to Warner Castle, present home of the Rochester Civic Garden Center. Built in 1854, Warner Castle was designed by Horatio Gates Warner to resemble the ancestral castle of Clan Douglas which he saw on a trip to Scotland.

The entrance hallway was very bright. It has two portraits, one each of Mr. and Mrs. Warner. My photos didn’t turn out as good as I would have liked, so instead I give you a quick shot of the upper wall / ceiling.

Looking straight ahead I saw this staircase. I love stairs as you first enter a home.

I walked in and looked to the right and saw this beautiful wall.

The first big room to the right has this fireplace. Tables and chairs are in the way of getting a perfect shot of this.

A partial shot of this same room.

The walls are full of old photographs and paintings. The following is of George Ellwanger with his peony bed, rock garden, and large-leaf magnolia. Looking at this photo I can only imagine what it looked like in real life. I mean, look at all of those peonies! And the huge magnolia tree.

Here’s an example of the many paintings. This one is of Witch Hazel. Hamamelis virginica, Oct. 17/08 (October 17, 1908).

The wall leading up the stairs is gorgeous, too:

As is the wall in the upstairs hallway:

There is a library upstairs, and this was in one of the rooms. It is a “chromolithograph published in 1872 by James Vick. At that time Vick’s Seeds was probably the largest mail order seed seller in the world. This is one in a series of about 10 chromos of this size.”

Another gorgeous wall. It was such a sunny day it was hard to capture these walls!

I love mirrors – especially big old mirrors like this one, so these next few shots are of the mirror and the reflection. None of me reflecting back at ya though! I know how to get out of the way!

Did I mention I like staircases and banisters? I do! Especially ones that curve around like this:

And this:

Here’s the view down the stairs. I love the black and white floor below:

I’m back downstairs again, investigating the left side of the castle. Here’s another fireplace, with tables and chairs in the way again. Hmmm, glad to see this place is used!

I found this cute little circular nook in the same room:

I bought a couple of books on sale – a good one on shrub id. And while checking out had a great conversation with the lady checking me out about cameras since mine was still hanging around my neck, and then I left via the entrance with the Gate House, which faces Mt. Hope Ave.

The sun was perfect and it moved just enough to make it not perfect while I was playing with the settings on my camera. Okay, there’s one for shooting in auto mode.

And an archway of the gate house. I need to do some research to find out what these gate houses were for. If anybody knows, please feel free to comment!

It was interesting to tour this castle and to talk with pleasant people today! Oh, and can you find a bird in any of my photos above? There is one, maybe more! NOTE: My Flickr friends can go into Flickr and see large photos of all of the above to make it easier to find the bird!

P.S. I am curious to know more about this castle and the interior so I’ll be doing some research.

Forced End to My Strike

Okay, I was forced to end the strike. After going out and doing stuff today, I came home to “drip, drip, drip.” WTF. “Drip, drip, drip.” Oh crap. Water was dripping in via the sliding glass door molding. Don’t ask. I don’t know. I AM going to write to “Ask This Old House” because I can’t get anyone to tell me how to fix this. I mean *everything* is fixable, right? Oh, and yes, back to the forced end to my strike, I had to go out and get the snow off the roof. Maybe that was the problem, I don’t know. I’m too tired to think about it now. However, I *did* not shovel. Let me just say that it is so cold that snow is sticking to everything.

Oh, so one of the things I did today was go to an employment agency that one of my friends works through. I walk in and the receptionist be-och says “whaddayaneed?” Huh? What. Do. I. Need? Not, “Hello, may I help you?” What. Do. I. Need? Hmmm, here’s my list of What. I. Need. It begins with people learning manners. I know some people don’t have manners anymore, but it still always shocks me.

Okay, the thing that generated me *going* in to an employment agency is I’m not getting any hits on sending in my resume, etc. to these places online or via email. I figure if they can see me, they’ll say “we have to hire her!” That and my list of wants keeps growing and growing and growing. . . the latest want being a DSLR! I mean, I can’t take fantastic photos with a point & shoot now can I? Well, I can try, and I will keep trying, but I *know* I can do better.

I’ve rambled on enough. I will be taking photos somewhere this weekend so I have something better to tell you and show you other than this tiring snow.

Here’s another Wisteria photo, this one from Wave Hill, taken on April 30, 2006:

I sooooooooooo cannot wait until spring.