A Vincent Mounier Photography Blog
Waterfront Snapshot, A Night, A Run
With the next installment to The Namaqualand Bloom likely delayed until after Christmas, I'll try and post casual glimpses of this and that in the meantime.
Below is a very average picture of the view down the East River on my current run home from 34th Street. I have now traded the Hudson waterfront for the East Side of Manhattan, and while a bit too close to the FDR highway, the path offers great views of the three southernmost bridges into Williamsburg and Brooklyn. ...
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Quick Update
December 11, 2015
Those of you reading this blog on a semi-regular basis will have guessed. I find myself quite busy these days and experiencing a serious shortage of a quintessential ingredient to blogging: time. Between the holidays, approaching like the light at the end of the tunnel which one knows all too well to be a train, the complete rebuilding of my computer - it had been dragging its tired chips for much too long - and the bloody battle for domination endlessly fought by my work ...
The Namaqualand Bloom, Part 3 - A Canyon Through the Flowers
December 1, 2015
Nieuwoudtville is a quaint, otherworldly little town sitting squarely at a biased crossroads in the middle of immense fields. The main artery is the very ordinary R27 leading inland from semi-coastal N7, up the escarpment, across the border between the Western and Northern Cape provinces and into the Karoo proper, towards Calvinia. At about a right angle and slicing right through town, a dirt road lazily offers travel alternatives as well as farming access, disappearing no...
The Namaqualand Bloom, Part 2 - A Clever Dinner Trick
November 15, 2015
Morning came, light slowly oozing into our tent's quiet darkness. The wind had long exhausted its last breath and with that, new weather had moved in, warm and cloudy, casting a pale veil over the land. I took a thirty minute round-trip walk down to the park's ablutions block, lucking out as the sun briefly dashed out of the cast to ignite the fields. Having been told by a barely awake camp staff member that coffee could not be taken back...
Interlude
November 1, 2015
But, for now, I am trying to shake a cold loose and get a hold of my runaway time and spirits.
This was shot on Tafelberg Road at the foot of Table Mountain, Lion's Head is in the background.
Pincushion
The Namaqualand Bloom, Part 1 - Luxury is a Luxury
October 19, 2015
Growing up in the south of France, I think I might have taken flowers for granted. As a kid I never doubted their supremacy and thought they were as intrinsic a part of nature as clouds and oceans.
Québec, I knew, mostly lacked said flowers, but I assumed that was an exceptional stigma brought on by euphorically snowy winters and since Canada lured me in on occasional visits with maple syrup, marshmallows, peanut butter, poutine and color TV, I had unconsciously disrega...
Verrazano-Narrows to Gowanus
This weekend's run was a partial repeat of one I had done many years ago, along the southernmost flank of the Brooklyn mass. I rode the R subway all the way down to its conclusion in Bay Ridge, warmed up to the foot of the gigantic Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and launched into my return home on the waterfront. Staten Island stretched on the opposite side of the channel, large container ships were crossing the narrows and people were strolling, rollerblading, cycling or fishin...
This is not Mordor but...
October 1, 2015
Those of you who have been reading this blog for years are used to it by now. Every once in a while, I get itchy fingers and eyes, and redesign the site from floor to ceiling. I have oscillated between white and dark themes since the very beginning. In my opinion, white is easier for reading but dark serves photography better. Entre les deux, mon cœur balance. So for now, these premises are going to remain in the shadows. There should eventually be an option for you to cho...
Refueling for the Pope
September 25, 2015
This was shot at 6:58 PM tonight (12,800 ISO) from our Brooklyn garden as popular Pope Francis, visiting New York City, was holding a mass at Madison Square Garden. I kid you not.
A fighter refuels in flight, NYC airspace, 09/25/2015
Of Flowers to Come
September 24, 2015
It will have taken a while.
Between the Brooklyn move and the South African groove, this blog has been in near hibernation. But let this be the end, or rather the beginning. We are still working on the place, but after gardening, interior design, unpacking and braaing, there usually remains a moment to work on the 3,600 pictures I brought back, and that excludes Marie's own gems.
Fear not, these will be sifted down to a couple dozen 'acceptables', and sprinkled over ...
On the Menu, a South African Spring Rolled in Flowers
September 1, 2015
After a hectic move from dreaded Harlem to our old beloved Brooklyn 'hood, from the depths of the most stressful professional year of my life, and out of Africa, shall soon spring a few blooming pictures and if luck holds, a story or more.
Three days from now, I will accomplish the ritual passage from here to there, from rush to lush, north to south, ugly to pristine, equal pollution to unfair beauty. I will be Cape Town-bound, not to say spell-, joining Marie in our ye...