The Orchards are in Bloom

Upstate New York is apple country!  And at this time of year, all the trees in all the orchards are in bloom.  It is a stunning sight, with row after row after row of trees, extending into the distance. It is spectacular enough that I stopped and turned around the first time I saw these rows of trees under gray skies.  Then I did the same thing about three more times.  It was hard to pick the best scene and the best shot.  I chose this one because I loved the wiggly shapes of the tree trunks on the three trees at the heads of these rows. I posted the first shot, and then thought I was done.  Then I started thinking about the pictures again, and decided to post a second shot.  I still can't decide which is my favorite.  Please click on these shots to see the pictures in more detail.

Astronomy Appreciation Day

Today was Astronomy Appreciation Day at the planetarium, an event sponsored by our club and the planetarium.  We set up some special telescopes on the lawn outside, so that visitors could look at the sun in both white light and hydrogen alpha light.  This father and son took the time to look through one of the telescopes to see what they could see.  I loved how it was important for this dad to make sure his son got to observe the sun.

Springtime is Lilac Time...

...in Rochester, New York.  When I went to school in Rochester, and then when I lived there, I remember that slogan.  Rochester has a Lilac festival every year, but I have never been to it.  On this trip I went to the George Eastman House, which I always do, and there weren't any Lilacs, BUT there was Wisteria in bloom in George Eastman's garden.  The Wisteria was lovely, especially given the beautiful architecture on which it grows. I couldn't decide between these two, so you get to see them both.

The Tappan Zee Bridge

OK, first things first here - I was NOT driving the car when I shot this picture!  I got tired on the trip home, and took a nap while Kathy was driving.  I woke up just before we got to this bridge, and I realized that this was a perfect moment.  They have already started installing pilings for the new bridge, and it is expected to open in 2017.  This a spectacular structure - construction began in 1952, and the bridge opened in 1957, and is the longest bridge in New York State.  The total length of the bridge and approaches is 16,013 feet.  The cantilever span (what you are looking at in the photographs) is 1,212 feet long.  It is a beautiful, complex, magnificent structure, and the new bridge will not be anywhere near as interesting a bridge.

Riding With Herm

This is my friend Herm.  I have known him since my first job at the Rochester Times-Union - I was a photographer and he was an art director.  He has been my mentor in so many things.  He taught me to ski, and we used to go hunting together, and then he got me involved in Amateur Radio, and then cycling.  He rode across the entire United States on a bike with a writer, for a series in the paper.  So when we go to Rochester, I now bring one of my bikes, and we get to ride together. He is four years older than me, and he can kick my butt on the hills! How did I do this shot?  I held the camera out to the side with my right arm, and just pointed it in our general direction.  I had to shoot a lot of images to finally get this one. 

Chimney Bluffs

This is Chimney Bluffs State Park on the shore of Lake Ontario, near the town of Sodus, in case you want to look for it on Google Earth.  It is an astounding landscape.  We walked for a mile at the very edge of a cliff that was undercut by erosion. The Bluffs were formed from drumlins, which were created by glaciers.  The wind, rain, snow, and waves, both from above and below has formed the landscape into razor-sharp pinnacles.  Some are as tall as 150 feet from the lake shore. The panorama is ever changing - the average erosion of the bluffs is 1 to 5 feet a year. And would you look at the color of the lake! Those are the actual, natural colors of the water.

Field Trip

My brother-in-law Vince and I went on a field trip today.  When I was at Eastman House, the woman at the cash register told me that when Ansel Adams came to Rochester many years ago, to do photographs for the University of Rochester, he also went to a place called Chimney Bluffs State Park. I had never heard of this but used Google Earth to look at the site, and you could see almost a mile of something that looked like sand dunes on the shore of Lake Ontario.  So we went there today and were amazed at what we saw.  The formations looked as if they belonged in Utah, instead of in New York State. We hiked for about three miles, along the very edge of cliffs that were a hundred feet above the water, and got some really interesting photographs.  Here Vince is working at carefully composing a shot.