Pre - Christmas Blizzard hits the Vineyard

A rare, pre - Christmas snowstorm blanketed the Island last Sunday. We were not as hard hit as some places, such as New Bedford (24").  I measured 15" on my outside porch. Late Sunday afternoon, once the heavy snow abated, and my good friend Howard Wall plowed us out (we live down a long and winding half mile road), I scoured our whited - out landcscape for photo ops, with the Vineyard Calendar 2011(!) in mind. Since Edgartown was all lit up with seasonal decorations, I checked that out first. I headed home around 8:00, with the notion to get up early the next day to "do" Oak Bluffs. Al in all, I got some nice captures, maybe some that are worthy of calendar consideration. If you have a favorite one or two, please feel free to let me know which one(s) by emailing me at: peter@petersimon.com. Happy Holy Daze!

Remembering Walter

                 Obama delivers eulogy at Lincoln Center in Sept.

    Walter Cronkite died this past summer, and with that, so did a major piece of my history. I had known him for many years, both as a subject of whom I had photographed for various article through the years, but also as a personal friend. Back in my hippie days, he and his wife showed up at one of our "pot luck" cookouts up in Gay Head. To my left were my hippie friends passing weed, and to my right was Walter carrying on some weighty conversation with the likes of John Updike. He always seemed to fit right in! He even hung out with Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead (who played at his memorial).

     Years later he fell passionately in love with my sister Joanna, shortly after his wife had passed. Joanna actually had sold them their apartment in NYC, in her role as real estate broker, in the early 90's. Joanna and he were inseperable for the last four years of his life, and we became part of  his extended family. Long into the summer nights on the Vineyard we'd chat about world events and be regaled by his great war stories. Not only were his remarks wise and learned, but his casual one - liners were real knee slappers - totally unexpected witty exclamations when least expected.

Special evening with Walter at our home in 2007

    I was invited to his incredible Memorial Service in NYC at Lincoln Center last September, and was moved to tears upon several occasions. Walter gave me many memorable gifts through the years, but his parting shot put me over the top. I finally got a chance to photograph our President, after having failed so miserably weeks before while he vacationed here. The photo I wound up with, having smuggled my camera in to the carefully secured event, shows the unique perspective I have about Walter. Here our current President is fairly miniscule in the shot, and Walter, all knowingly, beams pleasantly on a much larger scale. And that's just the way it was meant to be!

Gearing up for Thanksgiving

Lianna poses for Peter

    Just two days ago, I had the pleasure of photographing one of the more stunning young ladies on the Vineyard! Her name is Lianna, She graced our gallery to pose wearing some of Ronni's jewelry, then we asked her to wear some of her various garments (knitted hats, shawls and crocheted jewelry). Then I handed her a copy of the soon to be relevant Vineyard Calendar 2010 and the picture just glowed warmth, holiday spirit and joy. Thus, Lianna has just become our new poster girl for our fall advertising campaign and soon to be sent eblast. She did this all for a half dozen calendars! Now, that's what I call Vineyard bartering in the finest tradition.

     Meanwhile, yesterday I went under Dr. Rocco Monto's knife (once again) for a third knee operation (mostly to correct what hadn't gone right from a partial replacement proceedure in Boston almost two years ago). So I'm somewhat bedridden for the next few days....the only new photos I could take would be from my bedroom window. That reminds me of a poignant book published many years ago by a NY photographer named Ruth Orkin who photographed Central Park from her apartment window during the last year of her life as she died of cancer. It was an amazing book, published in the mid 80's. Hopefully, I'll be up and around next week. We'll see....meanwhile, happy (almost) Thanksgiving!

Goodbye to baseball '09

    Well - now that the baseball season is officially over, I can finally exhale. I am a total Mets junkie, and have been since 1962. I even wrote a book about the in 1986 - "25 Years of Baseball Magic." I've thought of doing a sequel - a 50th year anniversary celebration, in 2011...but now I'm not so sure. Well, at least the Yankees won, so my nearest rival (the Phillies) can't repeat. All that being said, I am reminded of how promising the beginning of the baseball season was for me. Citi Field opened to great pomp and circumstance, and I was a guest at the formal debut of the Jackie Robinson rotunda. I reunited with Jackie's widow Rachel, and her kids Sharon and David. And that night, the Mets actually managed to win! I even wrote an essay about the occasion for the Vineyard Gazette!  http://www.mvgazette.com/article.php?20744

The Mets starting team, all wearing Jackie's uniform number.

                                         Chaos on the infield.

     Alas, it was not meant to be a memorable season.....but these pictures remain so. There's always next year!

Fall Colors

    While the Vineyard isn't exactly "known" for it's color wave (in contast to Vermont, for example), we do get a nice glow starting around Columbus Day through the end of October. Each year I grab my camera to capture some high lights. I just can't help it! This year, the colors seemed more festive than usual. While I was driving around, I decided it might be fun to take pictures through the windshield at a very slow shutter speed (half a second) to get some sense of motion and swirl. Now, holding a camera in one hand, and steering the wheel with the other isn't always the greatest idea, but I tried it for short spurts. I like some of what resulted.

                                             Autumnal swirl.

     On a different but equally beautiful day, I coaxed a new good friend (Kate) to go swimming at Seth's Pond, despite the fact the water temp couldn't have been more than 50. She was a good sport. The way the leaves were reflecting in the still water was what caught my eye...but I needed another element. Thanks Kate!

Off - season cool down at Seth's Pond

      As I post this morning, all the leaves are (almost) gone, and the sky is grey. California Dreaming, on such an autumn day!