A Vincent Mounier Photography Blog
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...
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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 ...
Prospect Park Last Winter
April 5, 2013
As the mercury topped at 17 degrees Celsius today, it is fun to remember the past chilly days. Here, a walk through Brooklyn's Prospect Park while a trace of snow lingered on the ground.
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
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...
Comet Pan-STARRS, a Peek
March 10, 2013
Discovered in June 2011 with the help of Hawaii's Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System, after which it was named, comet Pan-STARRS [C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS)] is a newcomer that will never be seen again, its elliptical orbit around our sun lasting 100 million years.
Last night, March 9th 2013, the weather was near-perfect and Marie and I decided to try and catch an early glimpse of the visitor. Rushing by some 100 million miles away, the comet was there,...
The South African Food Scene
March 7, 2013
These are glimpses of a lunch down in Cape Town.
It would seem that I promised pictures of the Food Barn in a recent post and never delivered, so here we are.
Chef Franck Dangereux left La Colombe a few years ago to start his own barn, and has been quite successful at it. Delicious food, quite an amazing place as you can see, despite noisy upstairs diners - it's all wood after all...
So these images were taken at his place on the day we flew back home to New York ...