He Made My Day!

I have an amazing story to tell.  Back on December 4,  I wrote about going to the NY Philharmonic rehearsal.  To do that I took a 7:36 AM train to the city.  There was a conductor on that train who was so friendly, and had such a sunny disposition and talked to each of the people as he checked their tickets, like he knew them personally, which of course he did.  When he came to me he asked how I was doing and said he hoped I had a nice day.  I was amazed to see how great he was in the way he did his job! Above and beyond!  Well this morning I went to the city again for another NY Philharmonic rehearsal, and guess who the conductor was!  So I listened to him as he greeted everyone with a smile and asked people how their kids were, or inquiring why he hadn't seen a customer in a while,  and I just felt the happiness and the connection he had as he went through his work day. What a wonderful way to go to work!  I was sorry later that I didn't ask to take his picture.  Well, don't you know that after I exited the train in Penn station, as I walked by the end of the car, there he was in the window, and he greeted me again and wished me a good day.  So I kind of explained what a saw and how it made me feel so good, to watch him with his passengers, and I said that he made my day!  And then I asked him if I could take his photograph, and he said "Yes,"  What a wonderful start to my day!

 

The Harbor is Freezing!

While we were having coffee and donuts I could see that the harbor is freezing over!  I don't remember the last time I saw ice on the harbor.  I can 't tell how far across the ice goes, but it looks like it is half way!  The forecast is for temperatures to stay low until next Wednesday, so the freezing will continue.

You can see that the ice does not go that far north.  I guess because the harbor is so much wider there.  I made those footprints so that the photograph would be more interesting.

With the sun to the south,  the backlighting brings out the texture of the ice which makes it more interesting.

This is a closer image of some of the raised up parts of the ice.  What I need to do when I have a chance, is to bring my drone down here and then the view from altitude will let us see how far across the harbor the ice goes.  I will try and do that the day after tomorrow.

 

They Didn't Plow Our Parking Space!

We went to the beach today with our coffee and donuts. We were surprised that they hadn't plowed the whole parking lot, like they used to do. They had run a plow twice down the length of the lot, but there was no room to park!  Our parking spot was not plowed!  So I backed our car into the snow from the plowed road and that's where we sat to have our coffee and donuts.  Looking out the window I realized that I liked the tree seen against the clear blue sky, with the snow in the foreground.  I will, of course, be writing an angry letter to the town, complaining about the failure to plow our spot!

 

Snowstorm, More Photos

 

This first photograph is from this morning, when I woke and saw how much snow we had gotten overnight.  All I could think of is "There's a car under there!"  The next few photographs are from yesterday.

This is the old Sea Cliff Water Company building that was a pump house at one time.  It had not been used in years and then the Village bought it from the water company and it is being refurbished to be used for village activities.  It is a classic building and looks so nice in the snow here along with the large tree in the foreground.

I think that this is kind of an exercise in composition.  The fence and the bench look like they are made of similar pieces of wood, and when I saw the crossed rails I realize that was what made this photograph interesting.  Without the crossed rails it would have been just a bench and a fence.

After walking along the shore I started up the long hill to the center of town.  Halfway up I saw this house and loved the monochrome color scheme - white and gray, and the American Flag made it all more interesting.

This house is the iconic Victorian home in Sea Cliff.  It is called "The Woodshed" and I have photographed it over the years, but always from the other side so that you can see all of the building in its stunning architectural beauty.  So I thought this was an interesting way to look at it in a snowstorm, with the tree in front of it.

And so back to today.  After breakfast I got out the monster snow blower that I love dearly!  It makes short work of what used to be a couple of hours of shoveling snow by hand.  I was done clearing the driveway and around the cars and the walk to the back door and a path to the BBQ.  Then I used a shovel and broom on the front porch and the steps, and then the back porch and steps.  An hour and a half and I was done.! Then I headed over to our neighbor's house.  Her neighbor across the street is really good with doing her driveway with his snow blower, which I used to do.  He cleaned her driveway yesterday afternoon, and so this morning I cleaned off the snow that had fallen after that.  What do they say?  "Many hands make light work!"

Today's Snow Storm

A lot of photographs from today!  I won't say too much about each.  We woke with about 4 inches of snow on the ground.  At about 1 PM I ventured out while it was snowing moderately.  When the snow is falling, there are wonderful "atmospheric effects" that are kind of like fog, where distant objects begin to fade into the distance.  Anyhow this is a way to see how deep the snow was in the driveway, with the car as a good "measuring stick" where you can get a sense of the snow's depth.  Today I am going to post the more practical photos of the storm.  Tomorrow the more artistic images.

First order of business was to find the buried newspaper in the driveway.  I finally figured out how to do that with this four-tined garden tool, dragged gently through the snow at the bottom of the driveway.  I was about to give up since I was about 25 feet up the driveway from the street, but then I found it!  In the past I have given up looking and then completely shredded the paper with the snow blower!

I love the foggy look of the trees in the snow.  The further they are from me, the fainter they are.

I call this photograph "One Rock, Nine Geese."  And that's what you are looking at!

I loved this pairing of one bench and one small tree with the rest of the harbor completely obscured.

And of course, any photographs of Shore Road needs to include one photograph of the line of sycamore trees, either from this direction, or from the other direction.

I was pretty bundled up with my LL Bean "mad bomber hat" which is the warmest hat I own for this kind of weather.  I wanted a shot of myself in the storm but I hadn't brought a tripod, of course so there was nowhere to put my camera to use a self timer.  But at the top of the street after turning the corner there is one of these convex mirrors that a neighbor uses to check traffic.  Perfect!

The snow stopped about suppertime, and then a very light, almost misty rain began and continued until about 11 PM.  This is a quick shot with my cellphone of Kathy's car with snow up to the centers of the wheels.  Today was a wonderful day for walking in the snow for my photographs.  I did about 2 1/2 miles and spent an hour and a half out walking around.  Felt wonderful to be out in the snowstorm, which I carefully dressed for, of course.

 

Ten Degrees!

I checked the temperature this morning when I woke up and was stunned to discover the temperture was 10 degrees!  The different upstairs windows had different patterns on them, and strangely the south window in our bedroom had the most interesting pattern.  Perhaps that was because of the two of us sleeping in that room our breath created more moistue than in the other rooms devoid of people.  In any case, I grabbed my SONY a7 and the macro lens that I have for it and went to work trying to make a nice composition of the crystalline image. How astounding is mother nature!  As I write this tonight we are are waiting for the snow beginning to fall all day Sunday, and then of course the cleanup on Monday morning.

 

A Desperate Man

I was desperate.  I had no photographs for today's blog.  At least nothing new.  I was using images from two different exhibits at two different museums and needed something new.  So I grabbed my camera and headed out for my 2.6 mile walk, desperate to find a photograph.  I got to the bottom of Laurel Avenue and saw the clouds and the sunlight over the water, and thought "Well, at least it's something" And I started shooting.  And what to my wondering eyes did appear but some seagulls flying around!  What luck!  I clicked as fast as I could and managed this as the best of maybe 4 photographs with a flying seagull in it!  Whew!  I have something, and so won't let you down.