Seasonal shot

It's getting very green and lush out there. Two early digital images shot at this time of the year in Old Lafayette New Jersey. 

A trip to the farmers' market

I have posted and raved about my favorite place to buy fruit and vegetables. A true farmers' market where items are very fresh, of high quality and very reasonably priced. I am talking to the market at Castellammare's Piazza Petrolo knows as "lu scaru." These items are from an April visit three years ago. Naturally in Sicily the growing season is 12 months so there's always fresh vegetables to buy. The eggplant was from a green house along with the delicious cherry tomatoes but their flavor not quite as spectacular as in the summer, was very good indeed. We see medlars and naturally citrus fruits that Sicily is famous for. The fava beans were just picked.

Some old nature shots

Since it's not easy to go out and shoot these days except for the morning dog walk, I am always looking at the archives to post images. These date from the summer of 2009 and are digital images.

What a way to earn a living

Beach sellers walk back and forth on the long beach and try to sell their wares. They are mostly African men but there are also some  young Chinese women. It's very hot and that contraption is very heavy and bulky. A very hard way to make a living.

The OL of Mount Carmel (Brooklyn) feast

These images date from July of 1986 when I was asked by an Italian publisher to photograph the many Italian feasts in the various ethnic neighborhoods in New York City for a book.. The neighborhood is North Brooklyn that now goes by the gentrified name of Greenpoint and the church is our lady of Mount Carmel of Brooklyn. Here here the main attractions are two so called lifts. The larger of the two is an obelisk that has a statue of the saint on it's very top and musicians seated on it's base. The smaller one is shaped like a boat and carries men dressed as Moors with colorful costumes, made up faces and scimitars. The legend states that the town of Nola in Campania, now famous for its pasta, was saved from the threatening Moors by the appearance of the saint. These structures are heavy and there's always a large of faithful who volunteer to participate in this arduous task. Calling some of these characters faithful is a stretch to say the least. Nevertheless, everyone has lots of fun along with the throngs of spectators. Interestingly enough there's a similar legend in my town of Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily. Here the bad guys were the English who after raiding a Spanish ship threatened to lay waste to my town. The English started out as pirates but this is not something that these "civilized" people want you to know. The Madonna appeared on the mountains and the bad English fled after soiling themselves. Sadly the book in question was never published for "Italian" reasons too complex to explain here. I did get paid well and was able to keep many negatives and slides that I eventually scanned.

A few abstract images from way back

I was fascinated with what became the South Street Seaport. Back in the summer of 1975, it was in it's infancy but afforded many photo possibilities and some were abstract ones. These images were shot with a 6X6 camera on Ektachrome 100 that I developed in Unicolor chemistry. I loved the large images and their quality. Finally, I scanned them and now they are safe from further deterioration.

Have a great week

Have a relaxing Sunday