Detail, Hibiscus, Pier 44 Waterfront Garden
Happy Valentine’s Day
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Tag Archives: Photos
Atlantic Yards Camera Club
Update 2008.02.12: Since the original post, I’ve added several more links to posts and photos from the other photographers who were present.
Photographers in a flurry
Amid snow flurries and near-zero windchills, a stalwart group of about two dozen Brooklyn photographers, bloggers, citizen journalists, community activists, media and supporters gathered for a “photographers’ rights free expression mobilization.” We stood around in the freezing cold to talk and take pictures.
Related Posts
Links
Atlantic Yards (Flickr photo pool)
Brit in Brooklyn
Dope on the Slope
Fading Ad Blog
featherrock’s Picasa Web Album
No Land Grab
not another f*cking blog! (threecee)
Picture New York
Clinton Hill Blogade
Updated 2008.01.21: Added links to participants’ reports
The Clinton Hill Blogade, by Luke (missing from photo)
Today I attended the Clinton Hill Blogade, an ongoing series of more-or-less monthly meetups of Brooklyn bloggers. 17 people attended today’s event. A good turnout, considering the windchill was in the teens today.
Robin Lester of Clinton Hill Blog, Lesterhead and Flickr, hosted and coordinated today’s event at Frank White Cafe on Atlantic Avenue.
The next Blogade will be February 10 in Carroll Gardens/Cobble Hill, hosted by Eleanor Traubman of Creative Times.
Blogade
Frank White Cafe
Related Posts
Links
Brit in Brooklyn
Brooklyn Optimist
Clinton Hill Blog
Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn
Reclaimed Home
Two Flatbush Churches Receive Grants
Flatbush-Tompkins Congregational Church, Dorchester Road between East 18th and East 19th Street, Ditmas Park Historic District
Four Brooklyn churches are among the 66 religious properties statewide that received preservation funding from the New York Landmarks Conservancy.
– Four Brooklyn Churches Receive ‘Sacred Sites’ Grants From Landmarks Conservancy, Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Two of the four in Brooklyn are in Flatbush.
Holy Innocents Roman Catholic Church, on Beverly Road between East 17th and East 18th Streets in Beverly Square East, was awarded a Robert W. Wilson Sacred Sites Challenge Grant Pledge of $40,000 for the restoration of its copper roof.
Flatbush-Tompkins Congregational Church in the Ditmas Park Historic District was awarded a grant of $10,000 for window restoration. FTC has got a hell of a lot of windows. I’m sure that $10K doesn’t begin to scratch the surface. I suppose it’s probably for their stained glass, rather than these.
Here’s a view from the inside.
The other two are St. George’s Episcopal Church of Bedford-Stuyvesant, which received $6,000 for stained glass restoration, and St. Philip’s Episcopal Church at 334 MacDonough Street in Stuyvesant Heights/Bedford-Stuyvesant, which received $10,000 for the restoration of its tower, masonry and roof drainage.
Links
New York Landmarks Conservancy
Holy Innocents Roman Catholic Church
Flatbush-Tompkins Congregational Church
Park Circle Mulchfest 2008: Sunday, January 6
219 trees were chipped at this location on Saturday, 564 on Sunday. The two-day total was 783. Not bad for the first time at this location.
I left Saturday about 12:45pm, so I didn’t get to see how the rest of the day went. When I arrived Sunday morning, there was already a full corral of trees waiting to be chipped. I don’t know how many of them were left over from Saturday. It’s likely that many of them were dropped off overnight.
There was a much bigger turnout of volunteers today than yesterday. It took a while for everyone to get signed in this morning.
It’s a good thing we had all the volunteers on hand. There were several large truckloads delivered during the day.
As expected, many more people brought their trees today rather than yesterday. There was a pretty regular stream of arrivals. Most of the folks brought their trees by car, but they also walked, as this couple did, wheeled their trees in laundry and shopping baskets, and even biked them in.
The chipper didn’t operate constantly all day. We’d build up a large batch of trees, then the Parks staff would crank up the chipper and polish off the pile quickly. When the timing was right, and the chipper was active, folks dropping off their tree got to watch their very own tree getting chipped.
In the interest of photos of garden bloggers, here’s an action shot of me bringing a tree from curbside to a Parks pickup truck. It’s not in my garden, but it’s somewhat gardening-related. Several of the Parks staff and some of the volunteers addressed me as “Santa”.
Guardian of the Tools
Related Posts
My Mulchfest posts
Park Circle Mulchest 2008 [Flickr set]
Links
Mulchfest 2008, Parks
Park Circle Mulchfest 2008: Saturday, January 5
Update 2008.01.06: I’ve added a post with photos from today.
Trees check in, they don’t check out.
Today I volunteered for the city-wide Mulchfest at the Park Circle location. I had a great time, and I’m going back tomorrow.
The 3rd Street entrance to Prospect Park has been the focus of past years, and it was this year as well. By 11am, we heard that they had already handled over 300 trees. All the media were there, as well as the Parks Commissioner.
This is the first year that chipping is being done on-site at Park Circle. It was slow to start at 10am, but the pace picked up during the morning, and by the time I left around 12:30pm, I estimate at least 200 trees had been chipped and shredded, with more arriving every few minutes. Parks trucks went out with staff and volunteers to cruise the streets in the area for trees left for curbside pickup. They brought those back to park Circle for chipping. That was the source for most of the trees, though we had several drop-offs as well.
Because today was Three Kings Day, many people in the area of Park Circle had not yet taken down their trees. Tomorrow should be even busier.
The chipper empties into the back of a specialized dump-van/track. A couple of times during the day, the truck backs up and dumps out a huge pile of mulched Christmas trees.
The mulch is available for residents to come by and pick up. I got four big bags of it to use in my backyard. Parks staff and volunteers also moved the mulch to mulch trees around Park Circle. We’ll be doing more of that tomorrow, as well.
Two of the volunteers at Park Circle were from the radio station Hot97. They sent a small crew over from 3rd Street to Park Circle. I think they interviewed everyone there, including me. So sometime in the next week there will be a very brief (about 10 seconds) video of me on their Web site.
Thank You Very Mulch!
Related Posts
My Mulchfest posts
Park Circle Mulchest 2008 [Flickr set]
Links
amNY takes a look at Prospect Park South
170 Stratford Road, Prospect Park South
Tomorrow’s edition of amNY has an article on Prospect Park South, my neighborhood neighbor to the north, in their real estate (what else) section:
Deep in the belly of Flatbush lies an enclave of colossal freestanding houses, characterized by turrets, oriel windows, grand entrances flanked by columns and expansive wraparound porches.
– City Living: Prospect Park South, amNY, January 3, 2008
I don’t know about “deep in the belly”; PPS lies rather to the northern end of Flatbush.
171 Marlborough Road, Prospect Park South
Unusually for a real estate piece, the article hints at some of the disparities and tensions with which Flatbush is challenged:
Though the neighborhood never fell into disrepair, relations between Prospect Park South and the less-wealthy surrounding areas have seen some rough times in the past.
In the 1970s, muggings and various thefts occurred along Church Avenue and Cortelyou Avenue, the main drags of the area. It had gotten bad enough that Prospect Park South’s residents began paying for private neighborhood security. According to residents, things have improved since then.
Still, some have their doubts about the relationship between Victorian Flatbush — a blanket term for Prospect Park South and the cluster of ritzy neighborhoods to the south [I don’t feel that “ritzy, but okay] — and other parts of Flatbush.
“To be honest, it’s separate,” said one resident, who did not want to be named. “There’s just not much interaction between the two; a silent hostility, perhaps.”
The article includes a brief interview with local realtor and long-time resident Mary Kay Gallagher.
145 (left) and 155 (right) Argyle Road, Prospect Park South
Related Content
My Posts tagged Prospect Park South
My Flickr Collection of photos of Prospect Park South
My Flickr photos tagged Prospect Park South
Brooklyn Botanic Garden, December 2007
Center Hall, BBG Lab and Admin Building
Last Friday I visited the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. It started out as a beautifully sunny day, clouding over as the afternoon progressed.
Admission to the gardens is free for non-members on weekdays through February.
The occasion or excuse for my visit was to register for the first course in their Certificate in Horticulture program. Their Winter sessions were already booked, but I was able to sign up for the Spring session, which starts in April. Outside of work, this will be my first classroom education since I studied American Sign Language over 25 years ago.
All that aside, it was a beautiful day. Here are some highlights from my visit.
Baby
Baby, BBG’s specimen of the Titan Arum, Amorphophallus titanum, is in leaf this year. Each year, the Titam Arum will either flower or, more usually, put out a single leaf.
Baby, with humans for scale
This whole structure is a single, giant compound leaf.
The petiole, shown here, has the same distinctive mottling I saw on the base of last year’s inflorescence.
“Baby” in bloom in August of last year
Bonsai Museum
Camellia japonica “Julia Drayton” trained as a bonsai in the literati style
Detail of the roots and moss at the base of a cascade style bonsai of Pinus mugo
Three bonsai
Magnolia Plaza
The photo at the top of this post is from inside BBG’s Laboratory and Administration Building. That’s where I went to register for my course. Here’s a view of the center hall from the outside of the building, taken in March of 2007.
And here’s a view of that main entrance from the inside.
BBG’s Lab Admin building was landmarked earlier this year.
The Magnolias themselves seemed to be in bud, a couple months too early.
Hopefully, they’re smart enough to not get too optimistic. We’ll have lows in the teens this week.
Not everything was as monochromatic as the photo above suggests.
Athyrium nipponicum and Helleborus foetidus
Japanese Hill & Pond Garden
The highlight of my visit, as I expected, was the Japanese Garden.
It being a weekday, and the middle of winter, and the middle of the holiday week, I almost had the garden to myself. I even had a precious couple of minutes when there was noone else there, which has never happened on any of my previous visits. It was lovely.
First Snow, and Snowbirds, of the Season
Updated 12/6: Added Brian of Brooklyn, who has the most photos I’ve seen so far.
Updated throughout the day Monday, December 3, to add links to other blogs with photos of the first snow.
Slate-Colored Junco, Junco hyemalis hyemalis, in my Flatbush backyard
We had our first snow of the season overnight. It was in the 20s all day, gradually warming, and it will be in the 30s tomorrow, so it will all be gone soon. I didn’t get any pictures of it myself, but others did:
A Brooklyn Life
Bay Ridge Rover
BK11201
Brian of Brooklyn
BushwickBK
Ditmas Park Blog
Gowanus Lounge
Loopweaver
McBrooklyn
Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn
Pardon Me For Asking
Self-Absorbed Boomer
Sustainable Flatbush
I didn’t get out of the house today. Too busy cleaning, getting ready for guests tomorrow evening. But I was keeping an eye on the bird feeders yesterday and today. The winter migrants are firmly established now: Juncoes, Chickadees, and a little crested one whose name escapes me at the moment. I was looking for nuthatches, my favorites, but I didn’t see any this weekend.
American Goldfinch, Cardulis tristis, in winter plumage. I think this is a female. Thanks to Flickr pals megankhines and PhotoJeff for the id!
Requesting photobloggers experiences with Schmap
Update 2007.12.10: I gave them permission to use the photo – a view of Governor’s Island from Red Hook – and they included it.
I got an email this evening notifying me that one of my Flickr photos has been short-listed for inclusion in a Schmap guide. I’ve never heard of them before this, and just want to know if anyone has any experiences with them as a content contributor. Please share publicly in the comments or email me privately at [xrisfg at gmail dot com].
Schmap is advertising-driven. My photos are licensed Creative Commons for Attributed, Non-Commercial, Non-Derivative works, so they’re asking me for my permission for them to use my photo:
While we offer no payment for publication, many photographers are pleased to submit their photos, as Schmap Guides give their work recognition and wide exposure, and are free of charge to readers. Photos are published at a maximum width of 150 pixels, are clearly attributed, and link to high-resolution originals at Flickr.
The creative commons license that you’ve assigned your photo(s) provides for non-commercial use. Our Schmap Guides, though free to readers, are ad supported: if you would like your short-listed photo(s) to continue to our … final selection phase, please therefore read our ‘Terms of Submission’ and press the ‘Submit’ button, no later than our editorial submission deadline – Sunday, December 2.
Here are their Terms of Submission to which they’re asking me to agree:
1. PHOTOS
The term “Photos” refers to one or more photographs and/or images licensed by You to Schmap pursuant to the Terms.2. LICENSE GRANT
Subject to the terms and conditions herein, You hereby grant Schmap a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual license to include the Photos in the current and/or subsequent releases of Schmap’s destination/local guides.3. FAIR USE RIGHTS
Nothing in these Terms is intended to reduce, limit, or restrict any rights arising from fair use, first sale or other limitations on the exclusive rights of the copyright owner under copyright law or other applicable laws.4. LIMITATIONS
The license granted in Section 2 above is made subject to and limited by the following express limitations:(a) Schmap may only distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, and/or publicly perform the Photos pursuant to the Terms.
(b) Schmap shall be required to keep intact all copyright notices for the Photos and provide, reasonable to the medium or means of utilization, the name of the original author (or pseudonym, if applicable) if supplied, for attribution in Licensor’s copyright notice, terms of service or by other reasonable means, and a credit (implemented in any reasonable manner) identifying the use of the Photos in any derivative Photos created by Schmap.
(c) Schmap shall, to the extent reasonably practicable, provide Internet link(s) to your Photos.
(d) Schmap shall not sublicense the Photos.
(e) Schmap shall indicate to the public that the Photos are licensable to others under the Creative Commons license that you have assigned to the Photos prior to Schmap’s initial short-listing of your Photos, and provide a link to this license, where reasonably practical.
(f) Schmap shall continue to make its destination/local guides available at no cost to end users.
5. RIGHTS
You confirm that You own or otherwise control all of the rights to the Photos and that use of the Photos by Schmap will not infringe or violate the rights of any third parties.6. NO OBLIGATION
Schmap shall have no obligation whatsoever to reproduce, distribute, broadcast, or otherwise make use of the Photos licensed by You to Schmap hereunder.7. NO AFFILIATION
While the Flickr website and/or Flickr API have been used to short-list your Photos, Schmap claims no affiliation or partnership with Flickr.8. MISCELLANEOUS
[Lots of legalese …] If there is any dispute about or involving the Terms or the license granted hereunder, You agree that such dispute shall be governed by the laws of the State of California without regard to its conflict-of-law provisions. You agree to personal jurisdiction by and venue in the state and federal courts of the State of California, City of San Francisco. The license granted in the Terms may not be modified without the mutual written agreement of You and Schmap.