March 15, 2011- midday
A trio today. These were all taken at the same time in the early to mid 1980’s. They are undated but I seem to feel that they are from 1983. I have distinct good memories of taking these pictures and for that reason alone I’ve decided to post them. Although the pictures are old some of the scratches and squiggles are from my old scanner. I decided to leave the imperfections in. Down the line I may change my mind and rescan them.
This was taken looking across Sheepshead Bay towards Manhattan Beach. The water had frozen and you can see the way the ice is cracking in the foreground. The wake in the water is frozen in place and if you look closely you can see birds walking on the ice.
The piers there have been significantly improved and rebuilt over the years. It was a years-long process. I think this picture speaks for itself, a nice use of light and shadow.
It isn’t only the piers that have been renovated. Across the street from the piers are now rows of modern restaurants and shops that replaced mostly wooden single family homes. While the construction was going on residents and activists lobbied against most of it. They complained that the area would lose its “fishing village charm.” Being young I totally disagreed with them at the time but looking back they were totally right. The area is now a more upscale and less rustic (though “rustic” in this case is a matter of degree, depending upon how rustic it may or may not have been in the first place.) The fishing industry is not what it used to be, and part of it is because of ridiculous fishing rules. It used to be that you could keep a fluke at 11 inches, then 13, and who knows how high it is now. Of course, commercial fishermen can keep far smaller fluke. If you are raising the size limit in order to preserve the species, why pick on weekend fishermen whose take is a mere fraction of what the commercial fishermen take?
The picture above is of a long gone house. Look at the birds on the roof. Just a second before I snapped it there was a fourth bird in the middle of the row. You can see him flying away. The fact that the birds are now asymmetrical still bothers me because it was the symmetry that impelled me to take the picture in the first place. And don’t judge the era by the car. It was already old when I took the picture.
Tomorrow I’ll continue the “piers” theme with a modern picture of the decaying Atlantic City pier.
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Tags: bmj2k, Brooklyn, Mr. Blog's Tepid Ride, Mr. BTR, photography, picture postcard, Sheepshead Bay
Despite the waves I walked below the pier on the dry sand below. It was still not high tide (I can only imagine the surf then) and there was enough dry sand to keep my feet from getting wet. As I walked underneath the experience of the surf crashing in and causing great echoes all around was very surreal.
I walked out on the pier as far as I could. There was a visitor center at the head of the pier. It was closed and the gates were shut but not locked so I slipped in and walked out until I found a fountain, pictured below. Beyond the fountain were some ancient rusted gates that were securely locked. That was as far as I could go. When I walked back I found that the gates I entered through were now chained, but the chain was loose enough to let me slip out.
Mr. Blog's Tepid Ride 
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