Rocco Galatioto, nice photos and good food

My wife keeps insisting that we walk around the park and she always takes along her Canon G-9. These shots show what she can achieve. What makes them even more interesting is the flare and the grain that are caused by the not very sophisticated lens on this camera . However these weaknesses are what create these wonderful images along with Marcy's ability to see a good image and snap it.

It's the time for the neighborhood feasts in the many Italian neighborhoods in New York. This tradition dating from the old days of fairs, was brought over by Italian immigrants and survives even in this age of instant gratification and communication. Naturally, today what was once a source of entertainment is seen as quaint and even exotic by the new inhabitants of these areas. Here is a photo taken at a time in the day when magical images are made. Early evening. The colors are super saturated without the benefit of Photoshop. This is the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Brooklyn.

If you have six thousand dollars burning a hole in your pocket. this one is for you. 28mm F 1.4 Summilux for the M mount   Leica has announced that that very soon their fastest ever 28mm lens for the M-system of rangefinder cameras will be available. The Leica Summilux-M 28mm F1.4 ASPH could be in stores on June 22nd, and will be priced at £3975/$5950. Ouch!  

The rose garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden is now open for the enjoyment of all.

Little has remained from the two world's fairs held in Flushing Meadow Park here in NYC. This is the US Steel contribution to the 1964 fair and it has mercifully survived and has become a new symbol of the big apple. It is a magnificent structure. This was shot with the original Canon 5-D, my first full frame DSLR and the 16mm Canon 16-35mm F 2.8 L lens.

Let's face it, the best light is from a window facing north [in the northern hemisphere] of course. If this light is not available, a simple umbrella will do nicely. A white reflector is useful because film or digital has a limited dynamic range. These two old photos were shot in my studio on East 26th Street in Manhattan, many years ago. The camera was the Nikon Ftn with the Nikkor 105 f 2.5 lens on Tri-X Pan. I used to employ this technique on location when shooting corporate portraits to the surprise of my subjects  were used to being photographed by lesser mortals who used a plethora of lighting equipment only to impress. I must state that one they saw the results my costumers were duly impressed by my si mple technique. I learned this from my teacher Josef Btreitenbach.

This is a shot dating from Memorial day 0f 1971. It was shot with the Leica M-4 and the 90 mm Elmarit F 2.8 on Ektachrome that I developed with Unicolor chemicals. This was a sad situation because this old veteran was in the reviewing stand watching a very poorly attended parade. It was during the height of the Viet Nam war and  many people were not interested in such events.