TELLY SAVALAS. Gordon Jenkins wrote this song in 1964. Sinatra was inspired to do the album September of my Years after hearing it. Others also made early recordings of it including Tony Bennett, Andy Williams, Harry Nilsson, and Nat King Cole.
In this Telly Savalas version of “This is All I Ask,” listen for the soprano floating above his baritone voice and the flute and oboe towards the finish. —–PG
“Beautiful girls—walk a little slower when you walk by me.”
We recently talked about different schools of photography and we mentioned the latest approach which uses digital cameras and special softwear. Some of those effects can be achieved in-camera by using menus that offer a variety of novel ways to alter your images, but much more can be done with post-camera processing on computers using Photo Shop or other programs. But many photographers today still favor traditional ways to express themselves visually through photography, even though they may still use a digital camera.
The photo above is a straight night image with natural light. New digital cameras allow the ability to do low light images without flash. Post camera adjustments of the above photo were minimal involving some minor cropping and color enhancement.
Below is an example by Moe Demby of digital alteration of a photograph.
The photo below is by Barry Underwood whose work is currently being shown the Sous Les Etoiles GAllery in New York City. It is yet another kind of contemporary photograph where the artist stages the event. In this case he created sculptural shapes as well as lighting with LED’s. He than combined those elements with a regular color photograph to create the finished product “Rodeo Beach 2009”
“Rodeo Beach, 2009.” By Barry Underwood. Photo from the magazine “Photograph.” Image on exhibit in NYC. 2014.
Then there is Gary Winogrand who created a form of street photography in the mid 20th century that paid little attention to composition or image niceties. He was after scenes about how people lived their lives, and he produced hundreds of thousands of pictures. Below is one of his typical images from the J.Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. It was obtained with a simple 35 mm camera and black/white film .
This photo is from a current show of Winogrand’s work at “The Getty.” It is the simplest form of photography, and yet it is, in some ways, the most complicated.
LA International Airport 1964 by Gary Winogrand. J. Paul Getty Museum.
Elvis drives into Vegas for the first time. This digital photo is taken off the moving imagery by Paul Goldfinger. Modern camera sensors helped me with this one.
So, if you thought that photography consisted only of snapping pictures, this review gives you a tiny idea about a variety of ways that photography can be used to express an artist’s ideas and to convey them to the viewer.
By Paul Goldfinger, Photography editor @Blogfinger.net
HAROLD HASTINGS AND JILL HAWORTH: If you want to do photography you have to go where the action is–Life is a Cabaret.
SAM MOORE (b. 1935) and CONWAY TWITTY (1933-1993): “A Rainy Night in Georgia” Sam Moore is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He became famous for his twenty year career as half of the soul music duo of Sam and Dave.
In this version of the Brook Benton classic, Sam Moore does the high parts, while country singer Conway Twitty does the lower parts. Some critics consider this to be one of the all time great duets in popular music. It was recorded right before Twitty died suddenly.
It was raining the day we visited Tybee Island, near Savannah.
By Paul Goldfinger, MD. Editor. Blogfinger.net. Ocean Grove, NJ.
This image was originally shown on Blogfinger one year ago. It reminds me of the old guys who get together each morning at Wegmans or at a diner. They sit (or stand) around and talk politics or reminisce about their military service, or they complain about their kids.
I did, however, see a group of older women doing the very same thing at the upstairs Wegmans café.
When I see them again, I will take their photo and ask them what they’re talking about.
“To my dear sister with all my love, Adelaide.” Photographer unknown. Photo found at a flea market. It is technically magnificent.
I don’t know, but Adelaide looks like she might be a tango dancer. I can imagine Carlos Gardel singing this tango while Adelaide and her partner glide around the dance floor in some intimate corner of Buenos Aires. (If this music sounds familiar, it may be because Al Pacino, playing a blind Army officer, danced the tango to this song with a gorgeous young lady in the movie “Scent of a Woman.”)
Adelaide is a mystery woman. Can you think of who she might be? —-Paul @Blogfinger (we also wrote about her in 2012)
Eileen has been my main model over the years, although our two boys had lots of photos also. What makes a snapshot a portrait? I can’t say exactly, because who’s to say when that transition happens. But I always to try to make my photos into something more. Of course, if you are shooting portraits, it helps to have natural models, like in this photo where 4 blue eyes are staring at me. Stephen turned out to have green eyes.
At some point I gave up color photography, but now, with Blogfinger and digital, I have returned. My photographs are always done with natural light—ie no flash. This one was shot with window light and a lamp in the back.—–Paul
MISS PEGGY LEE: “Them There Eyes” But Peggy, they’re blue!
Ocean Grove, New Jersey. May, 2013. By Paul Goldfinger. Re-post from May, 2013 on Blogfinger.
ALLISON ADAMS TUCKER. “Volver” (by Carlos Gardel) This song is from the 1930’s and was written in Argentina. It started out as a tango. It was featured in a movie called Volver with Penelope Cruz which won awards at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.
The version below is not from the movie. I’m not sure if it is a tango or a cha-cha or what? Anybody know? It is performed by Allison Adams Tucker, a contemporary jazz singer from California who sings in multiple languages including Spanish, French, English and Italian.
It was 34 degrees this morning at about 9:00 am when I drove on Wickapecko Road and noticed that the trees were lit up with snow. It was beautiful—Currier and Ives. I stopped and began walking over by the water. It was suddenly apparent that the temperature was causing the magical snow scene to quickly disappear. The white was melting, turning the trees from a snowy Christmas card to an icy, slushy exhibition, twinkling in the warming sunlight. Bits of frozen material were falling on my head making a clickity sort of sound on my hat—a sort of wintery “Raindrops are Falling on My Head.”
From a photographic point of view, not only was the light changing fast, but the subject was also being transformed from magical to mundane. I had to shoot fast, so I took about 15 quick frames, and it was all over.
It reminded me of Ansel Adams who was driving at dusk along a country road in New Mexico when he spotted a georgeous scene. He realized that he only had moments before the light was gone. He jumped out of his car and “struggled” to set up his large format camera on a tripod with the proper filters. He understood that he only had seconds before the moonlight would change. He took one frame and knew that negative would be the only one that would work. Later he wrote about how the painstaking process in the darkroom was accomplished.
Moonrise Over Hernandez became his most famous image.
“Moonrise over Hernandez.” Ansel Adams “almost ditched the car” when he spotted this scene near Sante Fe. Notice how the crosses are illuminated. Click to enlarge.
I bought this from the photographer when he was selling prints on a staircase leading to a brownstone in NYC. I think it’s wonderful, so I am featuring it again after showing it and writing about Chaim Kanner 6 months ago. Go to the link and take the video tour of Paris:
Here is a different song to accompany this image. It is by Cyrille Aimée and Diego Figuerido (guitar) called Que Rest-t’ll. Cyrille is a 30 year old jazz singer from France who is now based in Brooklyn.
Some of you may have doubted that I actually was a practicing doctor. Here is a photograph that just surfaced from Dover General Hospital and Medical Center, c. late 1970’s. I don’t recall, but I was either making an announcement or amusing myself with a silly joke. Of course, I had no idea that someone would be taking my picture.
5th Avenue in the ’70’s. August, 2014. By Paul Goldfinger from the NYC Street series. © Click to enlarge this uptown girl.
