A Vincent Mounier Photography Blog
2017 Solar Eclipse
While others were spending hours if not days planning for this, I had a few minutes only to dash down to an open space and put my good old Canon G15 - only camera available at work - to good use. I first tried shooting through borrowed eclipse glasses but got crappy results. So I turned the density filter on, set manual focus to infinity, underexposed a couple of stops, and waited for the sun to travel through the right cloud density.
Here we go, merely a partial eclipse s...
3 Comments
Never Say Never
... As for your interest being purely theoretical, never say never: I have a feeling the only way to photograph a backlit saucisson on a 12.5 x 5.5 foot terrace would be to use HDR…
Yours truly to a friendly stranger - July 27, 2007
Well, we never said never. Instead we chopped the starting "n" off the word, and eventually, photograph a saucisson on said terrace we did. Along with a hundred other marvelous feasts, duly vetted by a big black cat and which ended up in a w...
The Eagles Are Coming!
Out on Staten Island recently, we spotted a pair of juvenile bald eagles, not quite bold yet and their heads still dark, later joined by a parent.
Mt Loretto, as often said here, is special. It is probably the only park in the five boroughs that is not packed on a summer weekend. Almost alone, we had our picnic on a favorite bench facing the ocean and watched large ships cruising by a stone's throw away. Happy birds were everywhere, a groundhog scuttled as if we had been B...
King Flees February Revolution, Long Live the French Second Republic
"Paris, February 26, 1848
Late in the night…
I feel compelled to report on the extraordinary series of events that have transpired in the last few days. Carried along as I was by the sounds and colors of a singular unrest that possesses our city, and with so many signals to process and digest, my quill has remained mostly dry. Yet it now appears certain that these were significant signs; once again, the Revolution is upon Paris.
Even though the moral...
New York Harbor Sunset
June 18, 2017
Enjoying a picnic recently at the Brooklyn Bridge Park, Marie and I were treated to an ideal evening and flamboyant sunset that reminded me of Vancouver colors.
Many people were on the lawn around us, some with food and drinks, others their mobile phones. Some were introverted, others a touch too loud. Some absorbed the scene with delight, others simply sat in it. But most, like us, were simply happy to be there.
We spread a kikoi out on the grass and sipped on lightly ...
Dark Garden
Being plagued by the modern disease of workaditis, I mostly get to see our wonderful Brooklyn garden when a late afternoon sun sinks lazily behind urban mountains called the Next Street Range.
There we sit among plants and mosquitoes, tracking a few neighbors with peripheral supervision. We greet a friendly dog through the fence, denying any Pavlovian ties. We sneer at nosy squirrels, wishing teleportation existed. We marvel at the bees and their ballet, hoping an orchestr...
Four Owls and an Osprey
After two Staten Island weekend outings in a row, we worried that our necks might turn red—mine actually was pinkish for the lack of sunblock—and instead steered confidently north to the Bronx.
Landing in Pelham Bay on a sunny Easter Sunday was nothing short of paschal. The immense parking lot was bustling and the usual driving chaos prevailed. Hundreds of people were setting camp up on the grass for communal BBQ's and hundreds more lay on the sand like sardines, beggi...
The Airplanes of my Dreams
April 18, 2017
This will be a self-indulging blog post, insomuch as one post can be more so than another, given the rather egocentric nature of blogging to begin with. This disclaimer out of the way, it is no secret that I love flying, and I adore planes. I will take pictures of planes before I even take pictures of birds. But recently on Staten Island, they competed wing to wing.
The contrail shot below is my favorite. Marie was scouting for foragees in the distance and a...
Feathered Arrows
April 8, 2017
After weeks on end of what the French refer to as "métro-boulot-dodo", the commute-work-sleep routine of large-city dwellers, I reach a tipping point where escape is no longer simply needed, it is quintessential, a survival skill. So we pick up a bubble car a couple of blocks away and head out of Brooklyn like dogs on a scent, pulling hard on the city leash and aiming for nowhere near here, and possibly beyond.
Now in case you are not familiar with bubbles, they...
Caribbean
March 18, 2017
The first time you visit Caribbean shores, everything is new and mesmerizing. A comforting sun roasts your skin to perfect rust, pristine beaches salt you up and wash away da worries, time slows down to the beat of reggae and locals turn out to be of two equally appealing breeds: lazy, friendly and colorful natives, living to dream, and hardworking, friendly and colorful expats, living the dream.
You soak it all up passionately, almost desperately, knowing that the bliss i...
South African Birds 'n Things
March 5, 2017
Since I cannot always be posting about epic road trips and cinematic landscapes, here is a mellow batch of pictures taken in the Constantia garden and nearby green belt last summer, just because. Because I miss the never-ending aerial ballet of the birds, and because there I have been and there I will always long to return.
Lesser double-collared sunbird
...
Addendum to the Karoo Parenthesis - Aerial Shots
February 17, 2017
This will be the closing Karoo Parenthesis, the images having mostly been shot on our two-hour-long first leg of the return flight from Cape Town after the Karoo trip last August.
Strangely, South African Airways flies its largest planes on the short haul to Johannesburg, and while the same aircraft sometimes simply refuels and actually takes us to America, this time the older Airbus A340-300 stayed in O.R. Tambo and a A340-600 took over for the crossing.
After tak...