Fine work

A couple of readers were kind enough to comment on yesterday’s piece about the Reader application put out by the New York Times and pointed me to two NYT photoblogs in the process.

One is Lens and the other is 1 in 8 million. Both are well worth a visit though the latter does take a while to load owing to the inclusion of sound and video. That said, the presentation of both is superb and the use of short introductory sound clips in the ‘1 in 8 million’ blog is inspired, doing just enough to pique your interest.

From the ‘Lens’ blog – Michael Wolf’s essay on glass

From the ‘1 in 8 million’ blog

For a truly splendid profile of an exceptional man, take a look at this piece on Harry Reininger by Sarah Kramer. It’s the scarcity of such people in New York that contributed to my departure from that modern Gomorrah in 1987.

Nice work, NYT!

By the way, it is incorrect to ascribe the demise of newsprint to financial engineering, as one commentator on yesterday’s column states. Rather, the causes are:

• A drop in literacy owing to falling educational standards
• Craig Newmark (Craigslist) who has singlehandedly destroyed classified advertising revenues for newspapers
• A disconnect between the views of newspaper journalists and their readers
• The trash that is modern television programming – truly the opium of the masses
• The self-destructive practice of making content available free online

Financial engineering does not account for the drop in circulation. I am no defender of Wall Street, but it is hardly to blame for the above.

Downtown

Another early Sunday morning snap from downtown San Mateo, CA.

The multiple plates you see are through rods, bolted at either opposing wall. This is what passes as “earthquake proofing” here. No kidding.

A fine example

Built in 1925 in the Spanish Revival style, the US Post Office in San Mateo, California is on the register of historic places. Thank goodness. This should prevent some latter day vulgarian pulling it down and replacing it with a glass and steel box.

5D, 24-105mm at 70mm,1/4000, f/6.7 ISO 250

Snapped in early morning light.

The best day for Hopper

In addition to avoiding the clutter of urban life, the early Sunday street snapper sees what Hopper would be painting today.

Downtown San Mateo, CA. 5D, 24-105mm at 24mm, ImageAlign Pro, 1/2000, f/6.7, ISO250

Snapped this morning. A round trip to PS2 and ImageAlign Pro corrects for the slight tilt in the verticals resulting from the wide angle lens setting.