Recollections From the Montauk Monor

In 1978, my friend and brother-in-law, Kenny, and my long gone ex-girlfriend, chipped in and bought me a 35mm camera. It was a Miranda, I think a Sensorex. Anyway, I eventually destroyed that poor camera, not once, but twice! More about that another time...

These two photos are of the famed Montauk Manor, out on the eastern tip of Long Island, N.Y. I took my soon to be ex-girl friend who bought me this great camera that I would destroy twice, out to see this place that I worked at to show her how magnificent it was.

A little about the Montauk Manor. 

Apparently, this place had quite the history. You can look it up on several sites on the net. But...

Way back in the early 70's, the place was empty. It had gone through some major renovations, and it was finished in many areas, but was still unused. My dad, Ed Sr., was out of work (construction worker-crane operator) and so to make some money for a family of 9, he got a truck, some oxy-acetelene cutting torch equipment, and hired out to cut up large metal things for scrap metal.  This was probably 1972.

Ed Sr. got a contract to chop up the huge boilers in the basement of the Montauk Manor. My dad, "hired" Ed Jr. (myself) and my brother Stephen ( pressed in to family-style work for no cash status) and off we went to Montauk Manor to chop! Those suckers were big. The project was too big for us, actually. But we chopped up those boilers anyway, and even more importantly, we did get to sleep there in one of the big empty rooms for a couple of nights. Very creepy and way spooky.

Interestingly  (and I don't have any photos from the time) there was an old US Submarine Torpedo testing base just a couple of miles from here, where we chopped up old railroad tracks. 

By the way, my dad did give us a few bucks, which I promptly spent on Eric Clapton's Layla LP!

It was worth it. I would need it to sooth myself when my future " long ago, soon to be ex-girl friend" would dump me!

More From the 1970's

I played a lot with a Kodak Pocket Instamatic110 camera for awhile, but it just didn't do it for me. I shot quite a few cassettes of film. Most of the pictures are not really worth posting and have little value except sentimentally. I posted a few more here simply because they were interesting and well, I can!

The following 4 shots are from a day trip I took with an old girlfriend, to New London, Conn. Actually, It was a pretty cool little trip. We took the ferryboat from Orient Point, the eastern most point on the north fork of Long Island, across Long Island Sound. We cruised around a bit, and had some fun. We got to climb around a vintage WWII submarine, see a sub-base and factory.

The last 3 are from Fire Island, NY.

Coffee Pot Style Lighthouse, of Orient Point, Long Island NY 1977

Old WWII Submarine, New London, Conn. 1977

General Dynamics Submarine Factory, New London, Conn. 1977

Harbor, New London, Conn. 1977

Summer days at Fire Island, NY. 1977 We stayed a while at the hotel that my sister and brother-in-law ran at the little beach town of Kismet, on Fire Island. Great time.

Yours Truly, Fire Island, NY 1977 - Note the lack of Body Fat, I sure do!

Fire Island Lighthouse, Fire Is., NY 1977 Before Renovations

Kismet Boat Basin, Fire Island, NY 1977

My Very First Photos

As I noted in my very first posting, my very first photography experience, as the photographer, was with a cheapy 110mm camera. When I look at theses few pictures, which are the best of the bunch, it makes me smile. This was 1976, the year I graduated high school, West Islip, Long Island, NY.

I remember that day fairly well, walking around our neighborhood in a snowstorm with this camera just shooting photos left and right. I had never really done that before. I got kinda hook on it.  

By the way, look at the difference between the "uncorrected" photo of the dock scene, and the post-processed version, 35 years later. Thank goodness for editing software!

These pictures show pretty much my lack of understanding as far as composition is concerned, but it's still fun to look back. Enjoy!  

Snow Covered Lane, Winter 1976, 110 mm

 Bay Side Dock in Winter, 1976 110mm Corrected on the left and the uncorrected image on the right.          

 

  Winter Twilight, 1976 110mm

  Canal View with Snow & Ice, 1976 110mm 

A Fresh Start!

I decided to dedicate this site to my next great creative passion after painting - photography. Yep, photography.

From my teenage years through today, I've had a camera in hand ( 1970's - Kodak 110 Instamatic). Most of the time, I used my photography skills and photos to inform my painting. But, after many years of shooting photos, and many, many 10's of 1000's of photographs (seriously), I realized that I had some pretty good shots thrown in the mix, just sitting in albums, or on CD's & DVD's, with no one getting an opportunity to see them, collecting dust. So, why not post them on my unused blog  (also collecting electronic dust)!?
Thus, this new direction.

Now, I want to take this moment to say that I make no claim to being a professional photographer, and as such, this is just a site posted by a dedicated-amateur-picture-taker.
In addition, I've had quite a few photos sent my way over the years from friends and family, and for the shear kick of it, I edited and "shopped" some of these photos. In such cases, I will make note of the particular picture and proper credit to the original photographer as is appropriate.
I look forward to this new creative outlet, and it's my hope that those of you out there who check this site will find it enjoyable and uplifting. 

JJ & Hoppa

So, here we go, let's have some fun...