A Vincent Mounier Photography Blog

Monochrome Games
April 28, 2013
Having fun these days with black & white, long exposures and everything in between. The bottom shot is a 5:30 minute long exposure. Notice how the pilings' shadows appear beautifully drawn once the motion of water has been neutralized. Midtown and George Washington Bridge seen from New Jersey's Palissades Lower Manhattan from Brooklyn Bridge Park
Two Bridges, a Run - Part 2
April 23, 2013
[This is part 2 of 2] I'm now entering Battery Park and go past the World Financial Center, along North Cove Marina. Runners had been casually showing up around me since Brooklyn, now they congregate; I have merged into a high traffic, trendy lane and late afternoon on a beautiful weekend is exercise rush hour. The sun is shining low on the Hudson River, a warm afternoon glow that is pleasing and welcomed as I am finally wearing shorts after a long winter. The Statue o...
Two Bridges, A Run - Part 1
April 20, 2013
Having been spoiled by gems such as Vancouver's Seawall,  I tend to complain and moan about my New York runs. Nothing fresh, nothing green, nothing clean. In addition to normal chimeras and recent lower leg issues, my routine deals with thick crowds, high noise, abusive smells and clueless drivers. So once in a while, in order to break such routine and infuse the workout with something new, I bring a camera along and force myself to look at the city I am crossing with u...
A Push to the Catskills
April 16, 2013
In 2009, at the apogee of fall colors, Marie and I decided to take her visiting mother to the Catskills. Granted, Maureen comes from one of the most stunning places on earth - and I've seen my share - but even in Cape Town, one cannot find or imagine the explosion of yellows and reds that daubs landscapes with tones of seasonal impressionism throughout the North American Northeast in fall. Waterfall along Peekamoose Road We had stayed up there a few days and on one of ...
Kaleidoscopic City
April 2, 2013
Following subdued black and white (re)views of the Big Apple a few days ago, here are fragments of the same surreality, polychromatic this time, clichés impacted into one another by hues of modern design and the very sour stigma of time. This is 2013 and the eyes of anybody looking towards Lower Manhattan from the four cardinal points of nearby shores collide or flirt - it's open to interpretation - with the now supreme silhouette of a tall phoenix.  Born from its own ...
Monochrome City
March 31, 2013
Here are a few glimpses of Manhattan and Jersey City caught this week-end on a small photo excursion. I was looking for a specific type of water foreground I did not find, it will have to be the Brooklyn Bridge Park next time. For now, some black & white. Color shots will follow. Manhattan from Liberty State Park, NJ "My god, it's full of clouds" Ferries on the Hudson, a sick twist of fate in the background, like a splinter in my mind Petrol for po...
Chinatown, Some Night
March 25, 2013
Adash from Brooklyn into Manhattan's Chinatown proper, ignoring Queen's Flushing and the southern Sunset Park areas, always seems to funnel us towards Dim Sum Go Go There we feast for a bargain, the famous XO sauce throning at the table like an old ally. The beer is Chinese, the service blunt and dishes are ordered by putting check-marks on a photocopied menu with a short pencil as if playing bingo. The fish and crab tank has been empty for many moons and a heteroclite,...
Austere Roosevelt Island
March 22, 2013
If you had a strange dream last night about visiting an island on which stood an old asylum, so dark looking and oddly shaped it belonged in a Jack Nicholson movie, and then walking over to a blinding white marble memorial where sharp lines and murmurs pushed you to seek an escape back across the water on an aerial tramway to a gigantic city and its inhuman skyscrapers, let me just tell you that you visited Roosevelt Island. Midtown seen from Roosevelt Island The thin ...
Hitting the Road
March 18, 2013
Within a couple of months, Gods willing and fate an ally, we will temporarily exchange top for bottom. Yes, these are both braai pictures, but one was taken on a lovely Brooklyn terrace in the midst of New York winter and the other in a South African National Park during local summer. They are separated by 85 ocean-filled degrees of longitude and forever live in opposite hemispheres. Time will go into bradycardia, seconds will last an eon, the Landcruiser's odometer ...
Silvermine on my Mind
March 16, 2013
Incisively split in two by the challenging pass of Ou Kaapse Weg - which I tackled painfully a few times on two wheels while last-minute training for the 108-kilometer-long bicycle tour Cape Argus with Henri, my 80 year old father-in-law who by the way just bagged the Argus for the Xth time on March 10th - Silvermine is a perfect escape for day hikes. Picnic at Bertie's Balcony While visiting last December, Marie and I used the very little free time we had to venture i...
Frankies Spuntino, a Decibel Too Far
March 15, 2013
Last night Marie and I, on the-spur-of-the-moment, decided to go out and eat at Frankies in Carroll Gardens. We'd been there a few times, the food was nice and the restaurant has quite a good reputation. It's a twenty-something minute walk from home and upon arriving, we were pleasantly surprised to be told there would be a five minute wait. Up until that point, it had been a good idea. I'd had a rough day though and was le-tired. I leaned against the wall in a narro...