James V
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The Artist and the Architect
A casually dressed man sits in Piazza Santo Stefano, legs crossed, with a sketchbook and soft pencil in hand. His provenance unknown, he strikes the observer as a gentlemen of leisure, perhaps a professional, perhaps an architect. His gaze is a study by which one determines proportions, angles and horizon. His pencil moves deliberately, with…
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The Art of the Photoblog
(originally dated October 17, 2020) This is a copy of the first post I ever produced for a Photoblog, describing my inspiration for starting one.
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The Rawness of It All
After using the Bf for about 2.5 months exclusively in JPEG mode I decided it was time to try it with RAW files. With this kind of endeavor comes the need to critically evaluate my use of the software and its results. The magic with RAW is the software conversion and photographer’s processing. When making…
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The Risky Advance
About 30 years ago, while a frigid cold winter was invading the New York Metro area, I was expressing my disgust with my grandfather about the weather when he turned around and said “the Hudson River is beginning to freeze over with solid ice.” “What?” I asked incredulously. He responded in his diphtheria afflicted voice,…
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The Photographic Trope
Tim Carpenter, photographer and author, has published a book titled: To Photograph is To Learn How to Die. This book dances around many of my thoughts when considering the motives and goals of my photography. I will try my best to paraphrase his work and if possible, dovetail it into my own simpler, if not…
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Building Bridges
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”- Rita Mae Brown Recently I have been culling through old photos and came to the conclusion that my photography, and its subjects, hasn’t dramatically changed in the past 10 years. It’s as if I am a mad man,…
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2025 Picking Pics (from a westernized perspective)
I’ve decided to review my photos for 2025 and select a few for posting to help analyze why they speak to me. Curating photos is difficult for the photographer. I’m sure the professionals would disagree, but the truth is that a hobbyist, by definition, isn’t a pro and therefore, requires more TIME to complete the…
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Architectural Vulnerability
by James V October 24, 2020 Urban architecture has always fascinated me. From when I was eight years old, I dreamed of designing a high rise. I still do and the ideas for one continuously gestate in my mind. I wanted green terraces in the late 1980’s, floating in the middle of a skyscraper. Actually,…
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The City That Never Sleeps
The Christmas holidays distort reality in New York City. For a short time, the visitors revel in the holiday spirit, the street performers cater to the holiday cheer and the windows on 5th Avenue are decorated to interest the tourist with a style that is all New York… Sigma Bf, Meike 55mm 1.8 Pro But…
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The Fog
A mile East of here lies Manhattan Island. To be invisible from this location, a dense fog must take hold over the river and grip the atmosphere with a stranglehold; such is the overt presence of a 22.8 sq. mile island with more than 100,000 buildings and 1.6-1.7 million residents. Buildings reach more than 1400…
Amateur in photography. Amateur in life. 