A Vincent Mounier Photography Blog
Walking Down the Memory Lane
April 29, 2016
Yesterday on the web I unexpectedly came upon the soundtrack of the old French movie Le Rapace. I downloaded the file, gave it a quick antivirus check – even though only a French user could have made this track available and everybody knows that French viruses spread on an honor basis only – and opened it with Winamp.
Thunder. Lightning. Stars exploding in giant supernovae. The darkest of black holes suddenly opened around me and I fell in, helpless, as if a distant ele...
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Feather Count
A couple of months ago, walking home from the subway with a hook towards Whole Foods, we came upon a gathering of people who stood on sidewalks, pointing up animatedly and aiming phones. At first I had thought they were looking at a plane but the object of their attention turned out to be a pair of large red-tailed hawks.
The birds appeared to be collecting little sticks from the top branches of a tree to build their nest, which they puzzlingly had elected to place on t...
The Namaqualand Bloom, Part 5 - Luxing Out at Babylonstoren
April 5, 2016
Having disdainfully discarded the main artery option and instead opting for a rougher drive south on yet another isolated dirt road, we sliced our way through beautifully empty Karoo-like scenery, stacked landscape layers fading to the horizon like memories in a tired mind, losing sharpness as they grew distant.
Karoo
In Clanwilliam, we rejoined the busy N7 exactly at the point where major roadwork had impressed us on the way up. It did again. Of massive proportions, t...
Truffle!
February 24, 2016
This was Marie's outrageously delicious gift recently, once-in-a-lifetime splurge - or maybe more, who knows, hard to resist once you know the way. We accommodated our truffle six or seven different ways, my favorite being a very simple pasta dish which reminded me of a fun dinner at Manhattan's A Voce years ago when Marie's mother had been visiting and full MINO* was in effect.
There is something viscerally raw and gripping to walking into an apartment that smells of t...
Devinette Macro
February 23, 2016
Shot with my makeshift macro rig, a reverse-mounted 50 mm lens and a can of Pringles attached to my flash for close-up directional lighting. I lazily skipped the focusing rail and paid dearly with lousy focus. So, very shallow depth of field, and you are looking at a few millimeters worth of surface.
And Koken Bites the Dust
February 22, 2016
After enduring years of disappointment by the team who started SlideShowPro, abandoned it, then began working on Koken only to sell it once they were bored with it too, I was on edge. Then recently having to seek technical help from the folks at NetObjects who acquired it, I was asked for my FTP credentials as only form of support and after hesitating, I reluctantly agreed. The support team then proceeded to wipe my .htaccess* file without making a backup. When confronted,...
A 'Possum in Brooklyn
All right, well this is impromptu and of the lowest quality, but I'm not sure either one of us had seem an opossum in the city, ever.
Marie came home saying there were two of them in the front garden next door, so I jumped three feet in the air, grabbed my camera, a jacket, and fumbled out the door while feverishly setting my ISO as high as it would go. It was just before six in the evening and darkness was almost complete; shooting with a 300mm lens, I had to compromis...
A Lazy Blogger's Guide to Enlightenment
February 9, 2016
Now that I have your attention, I shall begin with a disclaimer: it was a ruse. The purpose of this post is merely to report on the state of things, not to instruct you on how to alter them. The latter you will have to learn by yourself.
My blogging activity has recently dwindled to the trickle of a faucet in a drought. Work has been keeping me on my toes during the day, and wide awake at night while the toes are resting. In addition my core website, Vincent Mounier Pho...
Coney Island in the Snow
January 25, 2016
Jonas, the whale of a storm that engulfed the Northeast this weekend, has sailed on to meet the Atlantic Ocean and worry some boats. According to the Weather Channel, New York City's Central Park recorded some 26.8 inches of snow, second only to the 2006 storm - and by only one tenth of an inch - in the last hundred and forty years.
While the media was cashing in with a few reported deaths, whipping shoveling-induced and carbon-monoxide-related deaths into a saucy omele...
Winter Storm Jonas Tickles The 'Hood
January 23, 2016
I might have been running in shorts and a t-shirt on Christmas Eve but winter has finally arrived, nature slamming down its first winter storm on the Northeast like a hand slaps an ace at the table, ending the game.
Jonas arrives with a pedigree, I guess, distinguished heir of a series of blizzards which for your convenience I have documented here.
Marie is quite sick so we kept our afternoon walk short but we could not resist going out. NYC is blessed receiving this...
The Namaqualand Bloom, Part 4 - The Ghost Farm
January 19, 2016
From picturesque Nieuwoudtville we drove up a low dorsal in the fields, etched with mesmerizing green and orange patches, and doing so we left the Namaqualand proper behind, having changed provinces, switched weather patterns, traded low lands for higher grounds and returned to the Karoo which had been my first off-the-road crush when I initially visited South Africa.
As if a magic slate had been shaken, flowers thinned then dispersed, dryness returned and the road that...
'Twas The Night Before Christmas... And I Was Running In My Shorts And T-Shirt
December 24, 2015
One had to be there to believe it. This season has been all over the place but we have got to be shattering records. I never thought I would be sweating on a late afternoon run into dusk, on Christmas Eve, in New York City.
The photos are my phone's - mea culpa - and the hand was hurried and not always so steady.
So here is the proof, even though I could not get my app to show the date - No less than 22°C or 72°F!
To be clear, I have not suddenly opened a fountain o...