A Vincent Mounier Photography Blog
Fleeting
With so very little time lately to write, shoot and post, I am left with glimpses of daily magic, fleeting and easily missed, unrecorded and rarely told...
Here is such a moment; I was lucky to have a camera handy.
Marie on our roof - Un apéritif au coucher de soleil
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Once Upon a Time, my Brain
April 20, 2012
I can still vividly remember learning stuff like maths, meteorology and aerodynamics, and I can almost feel the buzz that followed. Sure, this was college and I am now steering away from those years will all the momemtum my (life)boat has gathered.
Still, what's happened to my brain? Or as Caymanian fellow Philip would have said, "Wappin'?"
How much did I retain of all that raw material? Can I still solve a trigonometric equation? Can I estimate the dry adiabatic coe...
And Another Skin Bites the Dust...
April 11, 2012
It's chronic. Seasons pass, the light evolves, routine becomes unbearable, and I change the blog's look. Bear with me.
I had to shelve the major overhaul I had initially planned, as much work is still needed for a complete redesign and time is rare. Instead I tweaked the colours a bit to find balance between a dark template and a paler post background, allowing me to take advantage of CSS3's awesomeness in the area of fonts and shadows...
It's called Salt & Peppe...
A Bridge Not Too Far
April 7, 2012
Walking back from a very colorful lunch in a small Greek restaurant in Queens recently, we ventured further east to the river which we followed for a while to the John Robert F. Kennedy Bridge. Three more bridges remained above us to the Long Island Sound and six more separated us from the ocean to the south.
Robert F. Kennedy Bridge
Robert F. Kennedy Bridge
The other bridge
Back on the subway, which runs above ground this far north
April Fool's Web Fever
April 1, 2012
Here are a few of my favorite April 1st web stunts, most discovered by coincidence. I'm so glad to see that serious people still take the time to have fun. Or maybe that's what makes them serious. Check these out right away, before they disappear: Google Chrome Multitask, Ubuntu Inter-Face, Gmail Tap, Google Self-Driving NASCAR.
Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM Lens Review
March 30, 2012
A word of warning: this will not be a full-blown, technical review. Others have done much better than me at The Digital Picture, Deep Green Photography and Ken Rockwell.
Instead it is an emotional statement. The very first tests, un-scientific and even a touch anarchic, are still leaving me speechless. Such is the consequence of using pro-grade glass.
Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM at 300 mm - Full shot
Until now, I have shot everything that fitted the 100mm + ra...
Where the M.I.B. Hang Out
March 27, 2012
I'd initially wanted to go to Pelham Bay but a late start forced me to reconsider. Scrambling for options, I opted for a ride to the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, a public space in Queens I had never been to and which had long ago hosted two World's Fairs. It was a mistake.
The subway ride on a construction-crippled grid took forever with two transfers and a bus. I arrived late and was forced to shorten my visit. So I speed-walked through a long alley, past a dried up f...
Rockaways, the Birds
March 20, 2012
As promised, here are seagulls caught in the act of being seagulls, on a Rockaways beach. I'm not sure whether this was ballet, food fight, corrida, circus, dog fight, clumsiness or art.
There are way too many pictures of the same birds, but they are meant to be viewed rather fast, as many frozen frames of a chaotic scene in choppy playback.
Just picture a complex society despite the appearance of anarchy; hidden rules, a strict hierarchy, taboos and big egos. In fac...
New Yorker Fix: When Desperate for the Ocean, Head for the Rockaways
March 16, 2012
So we did. Marie had just come back from two months in stunningly gorgeous South Africa's Western Cape, and I had just gotten over not coming back from anywhere. Needless to say, we were both thirsty for a sea breeze and a limitless horizon.
Fort Tilden Beach, the Rockaways
So we crawled like ants under the Brooklyn maze and then emerged and bounced a few times on a bus until we were ejected a stone's throw from our destination. The beach held had a surprise for us. It...
Ben the Lab Sails to the Undying Lands
March 10, 2012
He greeted me when I first stepped foot in Constantia, arriving from the Cape Town airport, still jet-lagged but already conquered. He accompanied Marie and I on our very first hike into Table Mountain, freely trotting around as I learned to negotiate the double corgi leash.
Hout Bay
He was there on a memorable January day, when rings were exchanged in a luxuriant garden and two lives happily and forever entwined.
He was there for breakfasts, hoping along ...
The Much Anticipated Canon 5D Mark III Hits the Streets
March 8, 2012
Some four years after the extremely successful Canon 5D Mark II full-frame DSLR camera was released, the 5D Mark III just hit the streets.
It will be competing head on with the new Nikon D800 and observers are expecting a good fight. While Nikon was perpetuating the sensor size hike up to 36MP, Canon has chosen instead to bank on improving quality and kept the sensor at 22MP; the company's obvious bet is that with a better sensor, users won't need the extra pixels.
T...
Kitty on a roof
February 29, 2012
Don Estorbo de la Bodega Dominicana was kind enough to pose for me recently as he once again accepted to venture into his old rooftop cattle fields, winter having obviously been vanquished and the prospect of a crunchy snack snappier than ever...
Don Estorbo de la Bodega Dominicana
Another photographer was soon alerted to the scene and we just stood there, shooting like mad, like aerial paparazzi, begging the celebrity to give us his best profile, his less dusty side, ...