Paris

Paris is a wonderful city that has all of my favorite things

 – great museums, interesting historical places and delicious food. 

What more could you want? 

 We’ve visited twice so I’ve had the chance to see all the highlights

 – including Notre Dame,

the Eiffel Tower, 

the Arc de Triomphe

and Versailles. 

But I think it’s walking around and enjoying the beauty of the city

and the buildings along the Seine that I enjoy most.

Ciao

PJ

© 2013 PJ Lehrer

Embroidery: Orange Tulips

It was an easy decision to use these yellow/orange tulips to represent tulips

in the Flower Power series,

because the photographs I took of them were so exquisitely beautiful. 

I could barely take my eyes off of them.

A big thanks to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens.

Ciao

PJ

© 2013 PJ Lehrer

Park Ave “No Limits” Exhibit 2013

An exhibit of Alexandre Arrechea’s steel sculptures lined the Park Avenue Mall for the past few weeks. 

I managed to get over to photograph them on their very last day. 

I guess they were in a rush to move them as they had already begun digging them up!

The pieces are a cross between NYC’s iconic buildings and a garden hose.

Very clever. 

 They looked particularly interesting against the surrounding buildings. 

But as I have discovered over the years, when you take photos on the Park Ave Mall

the real trick is to avoid ending up looking at photos of traffic, since it is never ending.  

Somehow you have to figure out how to incorporate it and still end up with a nice pic.

  

I think I did fairly well with these.

In fact, that last one reminds me of a Charles Sheeler watercolor

"Incantation" Brooklyn Museum, New York

Or photograph.

"Ford's Rouge Plant"  Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Ciao

PJ

© 2013 PJ Lehrer

“Incantation” by Charles Sheeler.  Retrieved from

http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/987/Incantation

 “Ford’s Rouge Plant” by Charles Sheeler.  Retrieved from http://www.changinggears.info/tag/charles-sheeler/

Tulips

Tulips are another great spring flower

because they come in such a wide variety of vibrant

and beautiful colors. 

I have also discovered

that if you shoot them with the sun coming from behind them

they become translucent. 

I am sure that it is not a coincidence

that the ones growing at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens are planted to maximize that effect. 

Of course you still have to be willing to get up close and personal with them

in order to get the best photographs!

Ciao

PJ

© 2013 PJ Lehrer

Brooklyn Botanic Garden

The weather on Memorial Day was so beautiful

I decided to head over to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

It’s an odd time of the year to visit. 

The big spring show was pretty much over

and the roses are just starting to bloom.  

But there were still enough remnants of spring to entertain, 

even if the overall feeling was like arriving just after a really great party had ended. 

The show stealers were the peonies. 

They are huge, colorful and waist high. 

What more could a photographer want?

Ciao

PJ

© 2013 PJ Lehrer