Shots of the Day – 23 - The Gates

The Gates, Central Park, New York City (25 February 2005)

On the next-to-last day of my working life, I took a vacation day and went to New York City to see Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s latest monumental work right before it was dismantled. The two artists are known for their heroic fabric expressions…like wrapping the entire German Parliament building or placing floating pink aprons around eleven islands in Biscayne Bay.

The Gates, Central Park, New York City (25 February 2005)

Throughout Central Park, over 7500 steel archways were positioned along 23 miles of paths. The installation, in place for only 16 days, cost many millions of dollars and employed hundreds of people to put it up and take it down. Each archway or gate had a curtain of bright fabric that was untethered and hung still or blew with the wind. The sophisticates among us might say the color of the panels was saffron. I suspect the rest of us (especially Syracuse and Tennessee fans) would call it orange.

The Gates, Central Park, New York City (25 February 2005)

The artists’ statement for The Gates says, “The…free-hanging saffron colored fabric panels seemed like a golden river appearing and disappearing through the bare branches of the trees”

The reviews of the project ranged (as one might expect) from a delightful and colorful addition to the bleak winter landscape to an abomination. I’ll certainly agree the lines of warm color stood out across the barren fields, through the leafless trees and from the tall buildings.

The Gates, Central Park, New York City (25 February 2005)

This was my first serious outing with a digital camera…a Nikon D-70. It was four months after it was purchased and had been taken to Monument Valley and Vienna…but I was too timid to fully commit to this new technology. Computers intimidate me and a digital SLR is just another computer. I relied on my film camera and took only a few shots with the new kid in town. But now it was time to take the plunge…’no guts, no glory’ and all that.

Glad I did.

Tip of the Day – Take Care of Your Images

I was cruising through the Archives, looking for an image that could be turned into a brief, witty, short, easy, ‘Shot of the Day’ post. I’m still getting untracked after the holidays and am not up for some lengthy, researched discourse.

‘Orbit’ by Jerome Kirk, (15 November 2013)

To that end, there is a place where I keep favorite shots. Every year, I copy the images I really like into a ‘Best of the Year’ folder. I find it helpful and fun to have one place where I can find the year’s winning pictures.

The ‘Best of 2013’ folder has a few shots from a very pleasant visit to the Storm King Art Center in upstate New York. The 500-acre property has trails through woods and fields where scores of sculptures, some quite immense, are positioned. The land in all directions is hilly and undeveloped so there’s nothing but nature as a backdrop. It was a warm, memorable, late autumn day.

‘Storm King Wall’ by Andy Goldsworthy, (15 November 2013)

Conceived as a 750-foot construction, the artist didn’t stop and

the wall continued to wind through the woods, then across a pond

to the end of the Art Center’s property. It is now 2,278 feet long.

You might say, “OK. This is nice. I should check the place out when I’m in the area. Where’s the tip?” I still can’t explain how this happened…still expect them to show up again…as mysteriously as they disappeared. Some time after I copied the favorite few over to another folder, the original folder of ALL the trip’s images disappeared. Poof.

‘Storm King Wavefield’ by Maya Lin, (15 November 2013)

Seven 400-foot long waves have been fashioned from the earth. 

This is the largest of three wavefields created by Maya Lin, 

famous for designing the Viet Nam Memorial. The work 

was done to reclaim land that was formerly a gravel storage 

area for the state highways. It invites people to walk 

on it and feel like they are lost among mid-ocean waves.

Although it very well COULD have been my mistake…some unintended twitch on a ‘delete’ command, I refuse to believe it was that. I save. I back up to an external drive. At that time, I was transitioning to another larger drive which ultimately failed and needed to be replaced. Whatever. A time came when I wanted to see those pictures again and I couldn’t find them. Not on the computer. Not on the external drive. Not on the replacement drive. Poof.

‘Five Swords’ by Alexander Calder, (15 November 2013)

Good thing I copied the few favorites I did. They are the only pictures I have now…unless I check those older drives a seventh time…they might still be there…somewhere…maybe.

Tip of the Day – Take care of your picture files. Pay attention. When it comes to important steps in your file management, cut down on the multi-tasking. Back up everything to an external drive or DVD’s. Back up the back-up’s. Serious shooters have an additional back-up which is kept at another location in case a disaster strikes the house.

I need to be a more serious shooter and archivist.