You Don't See This Every Day...

I was on the way to the train station in the next town over, and I saw this as I went by.  They are demolishing this water tower so they can build a new one.  This one was built in the 1930's and sometimes in the winter it would leak, and then giant icicles would form, and then drop down with a sound like an explosion!  The new tank is going to cost $6.5 million dollars, and take 8 or 9 months to complete the project.

What is amazing is how quickly the demolition is going.  This is a photograph two days later, and a day after this there are only the legs of the tank sticking up into the sky.

Rain, and Some Rain, and Some More Rain...

Did I mention rain?  It rained today, not a heavy rain, but a steady rain for a good part of the day.  I decided I needed to record this in some way.  But instead of putting a closeup lens on the camera and going out under the tree to try and get a close view of some water drops, I dug out my 300mm f/2.8 telephoto lens and put it on my Nikon D300, which gave the equivalent of a 450mm lens.  So I stood on the porch out of the rain, and looked at the trees through the lens to try and find a nice composition.  I love this one because of the delicacy of the branches.  And if you enlarge the photo by clicking on it, you will see streaks of raindrops as well.

Using My Friend, Again!

My friend since college, Jim Wildey, would always say, as a joke: "Hey, what are friends for, but to use..."  He would say that after I asked him if he could come by and help me put up some new sheetrock!  Well, I learned the lesson well.  Here is my friend Stan, and once again - twice in the same day - I asked him to do something for me that would result in a photograph.  This is a Sol LeWitt wall drawing, "552D" in the atrium of the Morgan Library and Museum.  It is a huge painting and I couldn't get it all in, but I thought it would be interesting if there was a human figure in there, for interest.  Guess who I chose to walk in front of the painting several times...

If You Travel With a Photographer, Beware...

Yeah, if you hang out with a photographer, you are liable to get photographed, whether you like it or not!  Stan and Ann and I went to the Morgan Library today to see a wonderful exhibition of the photographs of Duane Michals.  In addition to the photographs, they had on display this parabolic mirror that he used in one of his photographs.  So I had Stan stand to one side of the mirror while I viewed the mirror from different positions, until I got this image - maybe the worst photo of him ever taken!  But, hey we are friends, and that's what friends do!

Dumb Luck!

I had my long telephoto zoom on the camera, and I was doing some closeups of a gull, sitting on a rock that was above water.  I kept waiting for the gull's head to be in profile and I took several shots while he looked all around.  All of a sudden he took flight, and I reflexively clicked the shutter, because that's what I do.  When I pushed the button on the back of the camera to show me the image that I had shot, I couldn't believe my eyes - the gull with its wings at full spread!  Like I said, "dumb luck." 

Sunset and a Rock

Today was the usual - a walk along the harbor for exercise, while carrying my camera in case I saw something interesting.  While walking along I saw some color on a lower deck of clouds.  As I walked the color became brighter.  Wow, a sunset!  It was then that I noticed a reflection of the sunset on the water.  Wow, that's something different.  I walked along until I saw the rock and realized that I needed that for the composition to be complete.

A "Do-Over"

I shot a LOT of photographs at Stan's opening, and thought I had picked the best two images of Jennifer Choi, the violinist, for the blog.  I was going through the overage today after posting the photographs and found THIS shot!  This is the best photograph in my estimation, of all that I took!  How did I miss this?  I was talking to Stan and he sent me this email: "Ha, that always happens, you find something better a day later!"  So that made me feel better.  I love the graphics of this photo, the way the arms, the violin, and the bow are all at different angles which makes for a strong design.