No Dunkin' Donuts - Week 16

So it is week sixteen of the sheltering in place.  We arrived at the beach, and it was cool and cloudy, which is new for our beach visits.  I had no idea what to shoot, but then one look at the beautiful cloudy sky and I quickly set my cup of coffee on the table and started photographing.  I thought that would be my photograph, but while I was shooting this couple walked to the beach behind the table and I shot several frames.  I think having them in the photograph made the photograph more interesting.

Storm Clouds

I went out on my bike ride today, without checking the weather.  Why should I?  Well, for one, because the forecast today predicted thunderstorms in the afternoon.  But the sky looked great when I left for my ride late in the day.  It wasn't until I was on the home stretch that I noticed that the sky was REALLY dark to the north.  Uh-Oh!  So I stopped at the top of my last hill and checked the radar on my iPhone, and it looked like the storms would graze us, but not move through Sea Cliff.  As I cycled along the harbor's edge, I stopped to photograph the dark gray sky and the storm clouds to the north.  Looks like I dodged a bullet here!

Archive - Traveling - Kitt Peak, Arizona

Another beautiful photograph from my archive.  This is a "Desert spoon" or "Sotol" plant.  I spotted this one on the long road up to the peak of Kitt Peak Observatory which is on a mountain about 40 miles west of Tucson.  This plant is a spectacular thing to see.  Once mature, the plants bloom with a tall, pole-like flower spike that holds on the plant through the winter.  The flower spike can grow to a height of 15 feet or more and can be up to 3" thick!  I can't find it written anywhere, but I am sure someone told me that the main body of the plant grows most of the year looking like a bush, and then in the Fall, the spike shoots up all of a sudden.  That must be something to see!

If There is Anything New...

It was a week ago Friday that I spoke of Grace, when she was sitting under the umbrella:  "If there is anything new in the house - an empty box, some wrapping, a blanket on the floor, she is under it, or on it in a second!" Q.E.D. "quod erat demonstrandum," which, loosely translated means: "thus it has been demonstrated".   :-)   Kathy is working on small quilt squares an so got out her tiny ironing board and her tiny iron.  She put the board on the floor, and within five minutes, I kid you not, Grace was stretched out on it!  These cats crack me up!

Patterns

I went to the post office this afternoon to mail a small package and when I parked my car, I happened to look out the passenger side window.  This is what the window framed.  I stopped for a second, and then looked and what I saw was the contrasting patterns of the fence and the porch railing.  I decided it was a picture.  OK, not the world's greatest picture, but something at least for today's post!

Motorcycle Garden

Our neighbor across the street bought a motorcycle several years ago, and he loves riding it to work in the nice weather, and before coronavirus.  I have spent a lot of time talking to him about his "bike" and asking technical questions about his Harley Davidson.  Anyhow, yesterday two other riders on their bikes came to visit our neighbor.  This is how they parked their bikes.  I guess this is a safer way because the bikes can't roll downhill.  The other bike was to the left of this one.  So what grabbed my attention was the contrast of this black motorcycle and the beautiful garden.

Two Kinds of Lavender

Kathy has been growing lavender in a garden box next to the driveway for years now I guess.  I have photographed it before, I am sure.  But today I looked and realized that I hadn't noticed, or hadn't remembered that there are two colors of Lavender in the garden!  How could I not notice that?  I thought that the two colors might make an interesting photograph so I spent some time trying to find a nice composition and a nice design within the frame.  Hope this works for you.  It's better if you click on the image to see it in more detail.

No Dunkin' Donuts - Week 15

Last week I spoke of being stressed about coming up with a photograph, and so I decided to do "art."  The result was a donut on the hood of my car!  I thought of that kind of art as "realism."  Well, this week, my art is "surrealism."  This is just too bizarre a photograph to be anything else other than surrealism!  See what happens when you get desperate creatively!

Archive - Traveling - Bryce Canyon

I attended three workshops with Mark Klett and I think it was the second one that began at Bryce Canyon National Park.  We stayed overnight so I got to do some photographs late in the day, and early in the morning, and at night I got to do some stargazing with binoculars under the spectacular dark skies at 9,000 feet in Bryce.  I was using a 4x5 view camera and shooting Polaroid 55 P/N film, which gave you a negative and a print all at the same time.  You had to put the wet negative, after you peeled it off the Polaroid print, into a white plastic bucket that contained sodium sulfite and which I carried around with me all day, until I had a chance to wash the negatives at night in a motel bathroom.

Archive - Traveling - The Sonoran Desert

Another photo from the archives.  This is from a photographic workshop I took with the photographer Mark Klett in Arizona.  We spent a week camping in the desert and photographing each day.  There were about 15 of us in total - Mark, and his assistant and one other person from the workshop organization.  It was a great group of people with varying levels of experience in photography, but such a nice group to travel with, eat with, camp with, and learn from Mark.  This is a photograph of a Saguaro cactus, and its nurse tree surrounding it.  In the Sonoran desert, Palo Verde, Ironwood or Mesquite trees serve as nurse trees for young saguaro cacti. As the Saguaro grows and becomes more acclimated to the desert sun, the older tree may die, leaving the saguaro alone. In fact, as the Saguaro grows larger it may compete for resources with its nurse tree, hastening its death. Consequently, young saguaros are often seen near trees, but old saguaros are not.

Archive - Traveling - Jersey City

So I got bored being locked down and running out of things to photograph, so I decided to drive to Jersey City where I could take a beautiful photograph of lower Manhattan from across the Hudson River.  This was worth the drive, right?  OK, so I didn't do that.  I took this photograph in 2006 when I was on the faculty of the Northern Short Course doing my lighting course.  I was going through an old hard drive and found this photograph.  If you were to take this photograph now, you would see the new One World Trade Center across the river.

Grace and the Umbrella

Cats.  Endlessly fascinating!  I was out in the rain a few days ago, and when I came back in the house I put the umbrella in the front hallway to dry out, and within a minute, Grace was under it.  If there is anything new in the house - an empty box, some wrapping, a blanket on the floor, she is under it, or in it in a second!  She always make us laugh as she explores everything new.

Where are the Ears?

OK, so you are probably wondering what I looked like before and after my first haircut in 3 months.  The thing that was most interesting to me, is that my ears disappeared!  I probably should have had my picture taken in profile, and the long hair down the back of my neck would be much more obvious.  Actually my hair didn't look all that bad, but it sure feels good to have it cut.

Almost Like Europe

I caught a glimpse of this down a side street on the way back from the grocery store today.  So I turned around and went down the side street.  What caught my eye was the adobe color of the stucco and the brilliant color of the flowers, even from some distance away.  So I parked my car and tried to figure out the best photograph.  In the first photographs I took I tried to crop out the electric meter in hopes that it would look like a photograph from Europe or something.  Then I backed away a bit and included the modern electric meter.  I think this photo is more interesting because of the contrast of the older looking flowers, and the modern meter.  The shot where I tried to make it look like it was old, with just the flowers on on the wall, but it was kind of dull.

No Dunkin' Donuts, Week 14

Man oh man, the pressure was on this week!  I had run out of ideas of things to shoot for our Dunkin' Donuts Day.  My creativity barrel was empty.  I really needed to think of something to do before Tuesday, so I would be prepared.  And then it hit me.  I would do "Art."  I would think of a picture beforehand and create it on Tuesday.  So my idea was "White on White."  I would put the powdered donut on the hood of our white car, and it would be "conceptual art."  Brilliant, right?  Then when I did it, I saw the reflection of the sun on the hood of the car, and there was my brilliant photograph!

Just Because it is Pretty

So this is a follow up to my post yesterday, of me in my drone pilot uniform!  After I photographed the side yard, I flew the drone up to it's maximum legal altitude, which is 400 feet.  what is surprising is how much the drone can see from that altitude.  This picture was taken with the drone still up directly over my side yard, believe it or not.  When I am in an airplane, I am limited to 1000 feet over a populated area.  So 400 feet is a good choice for aerial photographs, even though it is lower  I was so surprised at how beautiful the harbor and Long Island Sound looked on a clear day with a brilliant blue sky.  It's the clouds in the distance that make this photograph special.

"Mommie! There's a Creepy Guy in the Yard!"

I have a rational explanation for this, I do!  I wanted to fly my drone over the back yard to see how bad the lawn was in terms of poor growth areas.  But it was sunny.  The controller I use for the drone has a clip that holds my small iPhone.  On the iPhone is all the information I need for flight - altitude, speed, control mode, and battery life, and I can see what the drone camera is seeing, and I take the picture with a button on the iPhone.  So in bright sunlight, as you may know, you can NOT see the screen of the phone clearly.  So I thought, "What if I put a black cloth over my head to block the sun?"   It worked PERFECTLY - I could see all the information on the screen of the phone.  But I knew that I looked stupid, so I got one of my cameras so Kathy could take a picture of me.

Tiny Ferns

You are all familiar with our famous Japanese maple tree.  It has gotten quite large, so much so that the lawn underneath parts of it has been taken over by moss.  The moss actually is pretty and I don't have to mow it!  Additionally, really tiny ferns have started to grow in between the moss.  It is amazing to see these ferns - they are so tiny.  Some are only 2 or 3 inches long.  I used a close-up lens to take this photograph, and being so close to the ferns may make the ferns look larger than they are.

Paola, Lucia and Janet

We drove by the hair salon we both use yesterday, and noticed that it was open.  So I called for an appointment for today.  When I arrived I saw Lucia, the owner,  in the center, with Paola on the left in the photo, and Janet on the right, sitting outside with masks on, getting some sun.  What a perfect photograph for our times!  It was so nice to see them all, because it has been more than three months since I have had a haircut!  There were only three of as customers, due to the required spacing.  Usually the salon is full of women and I love all the voices of the ladies talking and chatting.  I guess it must seem strange that I love being here, usually the only guy, but there is such a sense of life here.  I come away with that affirmation, as well as a really nice haircut.

The Line at COSTCO

We went to COSTCO yesterday.  We needed some towel paper and toilet paper, and now that they have restocked, there was plenty of both available.  No more hoarding, thank you.  Kathy and I were trying to guess the best time to go there.  She said late in the afternoon, and I thought we should go in the middle of the day.  Guess who was wrong?  I was.  There was a long line that went all the way down to the end of the building and around the corner!  Fortunately, the wait was only 17 minutes.  Shopping was quick because the limited the number of people in the store, and checkout was a breeze for the same reason.  It was worth the wait.

A Treasure from the Lost Hard Drive

When I was working for the paper, I made many trips to the North Fork of Long Island.  There were so many interesting things to photograph, and I stopped frequently to collect treasures like this.  I cannot remember where this is, but it is such a "perfect" shot, with the house and tree together.  When I found it on the misplaced hard drive, I knew I needed to post it for everyone to see.

No Dunkin' Donuts, Week 13

It was an absolutely beautiful day today, for our Dunkin' Donuts breakfast at the beach.  I think the temperature was about 76 degrees and there was a really nice breeze off the harbor, so, for the first time, we got out of the car and used a picnic table.  Not the table I photographed last week, which looked kind of scummy.  But that wouldn't have mattered because, unknown to me, Kathy brought a little tablecloth!  So our breakfast was quite civilized.

Here is a portrait of Kathy and I with our bounty!

Montauk, NY 11954

Yeah, I used to be a good photographer...  This is one of my favorite shots that I did for my Montauk Zip Code story that never ran in the paper.  It was taken late in the afternoon at Ditch Plains, the favorite beach and surfing spot.   I don't remember anything about doing this shot.  I probably saw these kids with their boards, and told them I was from Newsday, and asked if I could do a portrait.   I just love the warm, soft light in this portrait - the light there is just amazing.  And I love that each of these young men is the perfect archetype of an east end surfer kid!

Wait, How did You Do That?

Kathy has been weeding parts of the lawn by hand, since the weed killer that comes with fertilizer never seems to make a difference.  We hired one of those lawn companies for a couple of years, several years ago.  They came and fertilized and sprayed, and there were still weeds.  One time I went out to talk to the guy, and asked about some weeds in the lawn that looked like violets.  He had made several visits since the season started and the "violets" were still there.  So I asked him, and he said: "Oh, yeah, I could spray them..."  Huh?  Anyhow, Kathy decided to weed the lawn by hand.  I also noticed another woman doing the same thing at a house along my bike ride..   So how did I get this photograph?  I was flying my drone around the property for fun, and used that to take this overhead picture.

Rainstorm!

Early this afternoon we got a pretty good rainstorm.  So I got an umbrella and my toy camera and went out to look.  I love the way the Japanese Maple looks in the rainstorm.  Hard to put it into words, but I like the effect where the background above the tree gets lighter because we are looking through more rain.  Kind of like looking at trees in fog.

The Lost Hard Drive

You know what?  I used to be a good photographer.  Wait!  Where did that come from?  Well, I stumbled across an old hard drive from 2006 while digging around in my stuff.  I put it in an external case and connected it to my computer and there were some wonderful photographs there, that I had completely forgotten about!  They started a project at the paper where a photographer would go to a particular Zip Code and do a photo essay.  I chose Montauk, NY 11954.  I drove to Montauk and spent the day and into the night doing photographs.  I think the paper decided to abandon this project, and I had forgotten about it.  I have some wonderful photographs from that shoot, and this is one of them.  It is a child looking through those binoculars where you have to put a quarter into it in order to look through them.  I thought that this was funny because the binoculars mimic the child's face!

Into the Woods

Back to the infrared camera, on one of my walks.  This looks like a lovely woods to walk in, but you can't.  This property is surrounded by a chain link fence and has been for years.  There are two sites next to each other and years ago, one of the sites was covered with a clay "cap" because long ago it had a coal gas plant on it, and that resulted in pollution of the ground, which is not good because these properties go right to the harbor.  So this property sits here looking mysterious, which I love, but no one goes there.  There must be something wrong with it, however, or it seems that it would have been sold before this, maybe even for condos on the water.  Rather than convert the original infrared image to black & white, I decided that I loved the light blue tint to it, so left it that way.

Hanging On For Dear Life

This is such a great, silly photograph of Sam!  I walked into the living room and saw him like this, and it cracked me up!  I have no idea why he had both front legs spread out with his paws and claws dug in to the chair!  I just have no idea.  But it is the funniest thing.  I was desperately hoping that he wouldn't move when I reached over to  get my camera on the shelf right by the chair.  "PLEASE don't move!"  And he didn't, he just looked at me!  My lucky day.  A laugh and a photograph all at the same time!

No Dunkin' Donuts, Week 12

I'll tell you, the pressure was on today!  I have shot every imaginable photograph from inside the car, and a couple from outside the car, and I had no idea what I was going to do today.  I was sweating it, big time!  Then I noticed this picnic table near where we parked, and decided to bring my coffee and donut over to the table.  The table was kind of scummy, so we didn't want to actually sit there and have our morning coffee.  Maybe on another day, we could use the nicer table that we saw some distance away.  I guess you will have to tune in next week...   :-)

Two Clouds

After a beautiful sunny morning it was overcast most of the afternoon.  But then just before sunset, the clouds started breaking up, and the orange light of the setting sun illuminated them against the blue sky.  It was such a beautiful sight.  With everything going on in the last few days, I found that seeing this was uplifting.