Rocco Galatioto, nice photos and good food

We want to wish all the best to our visitors and followers. Looking forward to another year of nice photos. Thank you all for visiting.

The Fulton Ferry Landing used to be part of the city's maritime transportation system. It was the Brooklyn end of a ferry that went from Manhattan to Brooklyn. After years of neglect, the landing was restored as part of a plan to improve this valuable area of the city. The late day light makes for a stronger image. It was shot on Kodachrome X that had a speed of 64. This accounts for the slight softness of the images.

A few days ago I posted photos of the three at Rockefeller Center of 1975. It looked the same as the present one. It's very hard to take an image that is different but I always try. These are photos taken  yesterday.

Here are some samples from the street photography I enjoyed making in the seventies. Classic photos of New York in the seventies. They were all shot on Ektachrome with the Leica M-4 but two were converted to black and white for technical reasons because the original slides had developed  serious color shifts.

I'm scanning my slides and found many from the incipience of the South Street Seaport in lower Manhattan. This photo is from 1973 when the area was beginning to be developed. The seaport itself was operational but the surrounding area was still basically the old Fulton Fish Market. Now it has been developed into one of the city's trendiest spot with restaurants, bars and upscale shops. This cat was just sitting on the edge of  a building that was to be converted into boutiques and other shops. I must admit that the seaport was developed tastefully. It's a great place to visit.

Charlie, my  Louisiana Catahoula Leopard Dog got very tired last nigh after helping Santa. He gave it his best and is taking a well deserved rest. On a more serious note,I want to extend holiday greetings to all my visitors. I really do this for your enjoyment. relaxation and, occasionally, photographic education. Thank you for visiting.

Of course the real spelling in Italian is Verrazzano but since no other than Italians can pronounce double consonants, the point is quite moot. It is a magnificent bridge no matter what the spelling. I just made these images from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn where there's a lovely park from where the bridge can be best admired. The original color images where converted to black and white to augment the gloom of this grey day.

 I  have just returned from a little off season shooting trip to Coney Island and I'm  pleasantly surprised at it's resurgence. The thunderbolt roller coaster is a prime example of this rebirth. It's state of the art. There are trendy stores on the board walk and throughout and the whole area is very clean and well kept. The damage caused  by hurricane Sandy has been repaired and the place has assumed a very user friendly look. Of course Nathans is still there and it also has been modernized. Great going New York.

Well, winter has arrived in the northern hemisphere so we must make the best of it. Although I absolutely detest this season, it  presents us many photo ops and before you know it spring will be here. As you can see, we have changed the color scheme to a wintry one.

Here are the decorations on Mulberry Street in Manhattan's Little Italy; all decked out for the holidays.

The fascination with rail roads is as strong as ever and the interest in steam locomotives lives on and on. These images are from the Pennsylvania Rail Road Museum in Strasbourg in Lancaster County. It's a lovely place to visit.

Three images from Tangiers that I found as a result of my scanning and digitizing my images. These go back to 1974 and were shot on Kodachrome II with the Ninkon F.

A shot of the colors of summer of the Gulf of Castellammare. It is really this colorful and wonderful.

In its glory days Coney Island had three major roller coasters; today only the Cyclone remains. Here are photos of all three shot in 1974. The Cyclone The Tornado The Thunderbolt

As I have stated on a prior post, I cannot believe how superb GAF film was. Always ready to buck the trend I would always carry some GAF film, formerly ANSCO, in my bag. Many tears later, the colors are still very vivid but of a slightly different hue that the super popular Kodachrome. In those days different effects were gotten either via filters of films. I was loath to use anything in front of my lenses lest a masterpiece of a lens would be compromised by a filter. Well I am glad that I did shoot this memorable film. These shots date from 1973 and were originally shot at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Perhaps, but they do make for great places to visit during the Christmas season; not to mention great photo ops. My talented wife Marcy took her new Canon G-16 for a spin and came back with these great images. These are among the more tasteful stops. There are many others that are really over the top.

With all the diatribe regarding immigration, it's always good to remind ourselves that we are a nation of immigrants and no symbol is greater in pointing this out than the Lady in the Harbor.

Pictures are literally everywhere, one must have  l'occhio vivo or a sharp eye. This simple shot resulted frpm a Port Authority tour of the New York Harbor back in 1974. It was originally shot in color but the black and white conversion works better.