Halloween Drone Show

OK, what the heck is this?  Kathy saw an advertisement in Newsday for a "Halloween Drone Show."  I knew what it was instantly.  The show was put on by the town across the harbor and if you don't live there you couldn't attend.  But, we figured that if we were just across the harbor we would be able to see something.  So we ended up parking at the beach where we have our Tuesday coffee and donuts, and had a great view of the show.  There were between 75 and 100 drones, obviously computer controlled and flying in perfect formation, sometimes really close to each other.  It was astounding to see.  They all started out as a long line of lights on the far shore, and then suddenly they started flying up, one at a time like fireflies, until they were all in a giant diamond formation.

Then they started making shapes.  They formed this ghost, but what you can't see is that half of the drones don't have their light on.  Suddenly there were two ghosts overlapping and then flying away from each other!  Then there was the Halloween Pumpkin Face, below.

And then when it was time to land, the drones all turned red and returned to the diamond formation, and then one by one they began to descend like fireflies.  It was astounding to see!  The presentation lasted about 15 minutes, because most drones only have enough battery power to fly for 20 minutes.

 

Rush Hour Friday Night

I took the car and headed out to see if I could hunt down dinner for tonight.  As I drove south on Glen Cove Road, I saw this scene.  There was something about the colors of the sky, the few lingering clouds and the beauty of the red tail lights of the cars.  There was that special "something" that I recognized in a split second and so I snapped this picture.  Oh, dinner?  Kentucky Fried Chicken!   :-)

 

Moonset over Costco

We had to make a trip to Costco to buy their giant bags of cat litter, not the most fun exactly, because the bags weigh 40 pounds!  But the price is right.  As I was getting back into the car I noticed a crescent moon setting over the store.  Something incongruous about this I think - Moonrise and Moonset photos are best done,  I think, over beautiful landscapes, not big box stores.  Hey, I get my photos where I can.

 

A Haircut in a Time of Covid

                             

I was getting pretty raggedy so on Friday I made an appointment at the hairdressers.  In the old days, when I went there, the salon was full of women, many speaking Italian or Spanish, in addition to English.  I love the sounds of all the voices and the laughter.  Lucia owns the salon, and his is Janet from Columbia who washes my hair and it is always nice to talk to her.  But now the salon is mostly silent with usually just 3 people so there is plenty of distance between each of us.  It is still nice to go there, though.

No Dunkin' Donuts - Week 33

We were at the beach by ourselves again today.  Well, not exactly just by ourselves.  Now that we are showing up with donuts each Tuesday, we have the seagulls come visit us.  Some are more forward and come close as this young gull is doing.  Others keep their distance.  But actually this picture has nothing to do with gulls.  It is all about that magnificent sky!  When we arrived I wondered what I was going to shoot, then I realized that the cloud deck to the north was both beautiful and unusual.  And the foreground is illuminated by the sun and the background is not, giving an unusual feeling.  This is all about the light and the sky.

Deader than a Doornail!

So this is the last photograph that I will post of the life and death of our Sunflowers.  I promise.  I have left them on the back steps to watch them as they fade. Well, they are no longer fading - they are "deader than a doornail."  I think my mom used to say that.  Or someone said it when I was a kid, and I have always loved that expression.  But I do think that there is beauty in their form and in their colors as they deteriorate. 

 

Wilderness Sunset

I thought you would enjoy this photograph of a sunset, with a tree in it, taken in the wilderness.  Oh, the "wilderness" of the parking lot at a giant shopping center!  As long as you don't look closely, you don't see the reflections of the sky on the tops of the cars.  I almost had you fooled, right?  I think the top 2/3 of the photograph are pretty.  The bottom 1/3  not so much.

 

And Now For Something Completely Different

"And now for something completely different..." as Monty Python was fond of saying.  How many times have I photographed these Sycamore trees and posted the pictures on the blog?  A lot!  A couple of weeks ago I noticed some of these orange barrels alongside the sidewalk, and there were some men working with some machinery during the day.  Turns out they were welding sections of plastic pipe together.  I think it is new pipe for natural gas.  And I *think* that it will be installed under the road by this really cool process where they dig a hole in the street, and a machine drills down at a shallow angle, and then drills horizontally under the street for several hundred feet, and then the gas pipe, is pulled through this 300 foot hole, thus installing the new pipe without digging up the whole street!  What a cool thing that is!

Here is a view of two long sections of the welded pipe lying alongside the roadway.

 

Is This a Face, or WHAT!

Is this a FACE or what!  I was driving up Laurel Avenue, and this cat started to cross the street and then changed it's mind and went back to the curb.  I parked my car at home and walked back down to where the cat was.  This is a fancy cat and I can't believe that it is outside wandering around.  I hope it didn't escape from it's owner.  After I took this photograph with a long telephoto lens, I slowly tried to approach the cat gently, hoping I could see a tag, but the cat moved away.  I just hope this cat will be OK.

 

Wilderness Landscape

Since I was upstate as fall colors were coming on, I decided I needed a photograph taken in the wilderness showing the beauty of the land, the mountains, and the start of fall color in some areas.  What I particularly liked in this photograph are the dead trees standing among the living trees - I thought that made a nice contrast - the dead and the living.  I am not sure what kind of trees those dead ones are - they may be Birch trees.  I don't know why they died, except that there is a small stream running just in front of them.  I wonder if something was in the stream, and in a flood overflowed the banks and killed the trees.  Of course, this is not wilderness at all.  Note the planted field that is all green in the middle ground - it probably has a winter cover drop on it.  Oh, and I took this photograph from the window of my motel room!  Some wilderness, huh? It is pretty though - you might want to click on the photo to see how pretty it actually is.

The Cast of Characters

After our night of observing until 2 AM, and after a good night's sleep, we met in a diner for breakfast before heading home.  Stan is on the right, and on the left is another friend, Chirag.   We three have traveled together to Big Bend National Park, with other friends.  Chirag is a really passionate night sky photographer and is learning a lot quickly.  He really has a good eye.  He brought his wife and young son on the trip, and they had breakfast with us.  I took this because after a night of observing the stars, we were eating breakfast in the "Starway Diner!"  How appropriate.

 

No Dunkin' Donuts - Week 32

So we went to the beach for our coffee and donuts this morning and sat in our sand chairs in a misting drizzle.  It was warm enough and really nice sitting by the water.  At some point I noticed a man up the beach with just bathing trunks on, and then he put on a bright orange swimming cap.  Then he slowly walked into the water - I thought he might start swimming into the harbor.  Instead, he slowly walked out up to his shoulders, then put his hands to his face, and bent over and slowly immersed his head in the water.  After a while he stood up, and then he put his head in the water again.  It seemed more like a ritual.  After a while he slowly walked out of the water, dried himself off, and left.  It was nice to see his whole, calm process.  I love this picture because it is so unexpected, with a seemingly normal scene of the water, and then suddenly you see a head with an orange swimming cap.  Please click on this picture to see it in more detail.

I Love This Bridge

I love this bridge!  The old bridge that crossed the Hudson River was called the Tappan Zee Bridge.  It was built in 1955, and after the new bridge was built, the old bridge was demolished in 2017.  Both the old bridge, as well as its replacement, are the longest bridges in New York State.  The old bridge was of steel cantilever construction while this new bridge is a very sophisticated and very modern twin cable-stayed bridge.  It is also very beautiful!  I never tire of photographing this new bridge every time I cross it.  This new bridge was named by the current governor, Andrew Cuomo, for his father, a former governor, Mario Cuomo.  This naming of the new bridge is very controversial, and in spite of the new name, almost everyone still calls it the Tappan Zee Bridge.

 

The Brilliance of Fall Colors

Since you were robbed of a blot post last night, as promised, here is my second post tonight.  Driving from the Saugerties exit on the New York State Thruway, to Tannersville, the last road you drive on is Route 23A.  It is a relatively narrow road that twists and turns as it goes up the mountain.  fortunately it was lined with trees showing their brilliant fall colors.  So I took advantage of a straight part of the road to snap a quick picture of nature in all her glory.  Please click on the image to see it in more detail.

 

The Beauty of the Night Sky

So this is North South Lake at midnight, with the Milky Way in the western sky.  The  3 1/2 hour drive was worth it.  I don't remember the last time I was under such a dark sky here in the east.  Skies like this, so dark that the stars twinkle like they are illuminated diamonds, are so rare, and certainly never on Long Island.  Light pollution is ruining our skies everywhere, the glow of lights on the ground reflecting up into the sky, obscuring the stars.  I went to North South lake to observe the heavens with my telescopes, and to take a few pictures, but the sky was so amazing that sometimes during the evening, I would just stand in the middle of the observing field and look up in wonder. 

Off The Grid

Tomorrow afternoon I will be heading to upstate New York, to Tannersville, where I will be setting up my telescope to do some observing of the night skies, at North South Lake.  I will be meeting Stan and two other friends.  We will be social distancing and wearing masks.  I will be observing with my telescope and the others will be photographing the night sky.  We are staying overnight, because it is a three hour drive home.  After observing it will be so late that I will probably too tired to do a blog post.  So you will get two posts on Sunday.

 

Fading Sunflowers - Three

 

One more in a series of photographs of the sunflowers as they fade.  They began to have an unpleasant aroma so I took the flowers out of the back room and put them on the back porch.  And I continued to watch and photograph them as time went on.  I had done a similar photograph to this on an overcast day and it wasn't that interesting, but at the right time on a sunny day, these wonderful shadows made the photograph so much more interesting.

American Vernacular

We were on our way to Dunkin' for the coffee for the beach, and as we were driving down Sea Cliff avenue, I caught a quick flash of this scene as we drove past.  Funny what you can see in maybe 5 seconds!  So I waited until after we were done at the beach, and I dropped Kathy off and I drove back over here and took some photographs.  Vernacular architecture is described as a built environment that is based upon local needs; defined by the availability of particular materials indigenous to its particular region; and reflects local traditions and cultural practices.  So usually I think of it as some small building in a rural area out west.  But I thought of this building as being traditional for around the northeast.  Of course I love the picket fence and the American flag.

 

Out With The Trash

                                

I just realized I will be posting two photos of trash in a row!  Glad everyone knew yesterday's post was a joke, but today's post is not.  This is a 200mm f/4 Nikkor telephoto lens that I bought shortly after coming to Newsday back in November of 1966, and I used it for a number of years for sports and news assignments.  Then Nikon came out with the 180mm f/2.8 which was much better in low light, so I bought that lens and stopped using this one.  I do remember one photograph I did with this lens when I first got it - it was of an athlete throwing the shot put - I won second prize in sports photography from the Associated Press.  I couldn't bear to throw this out.  It is kind of beat up, but it works OK, but not on modern digital cameras.  I did go to ebay to check out the price and you can buy one in great condition for $49.  OK, so in to the trash for my wonderful lens.  Sad to see you go.  You were a faithful companion, my friend.

No Dunkin' Donuts - Week 31

Week 31 at the beach for coffee and donuts.  "What on earth am I going to take a photograph of for the blog?"  It was raining, and there is no one at the beach walking around, and I couldn't imagine what I could possibly shoot.  And then it occurred to me!  When we are done with our breakfast, we usually take our cups and covers and donut bag and put them back in the car.  But this morning, we notice that there were no garbage barrels anywhere on the beach.  So I just took the coffee cups and covers and donut bag and cardboard cup carrier and then just threw them on the beach.  They should have left the trash barrels on the beach!

 

Grace, Once Again, Under Something!

I know we haven't seen many photographs of Grace lately, so I was thrilled to go into the back room and find Grace under this down lap quilt!  She just loves being under things!  Cardboard boxes, blankets, crumpled paper, paper bags.  She will always find a way to get under things!  Endlessly fascinating, these cats!

 

A Strange Scene

I set my camera on a tripod to do pictures of Kathy and me at the beach for Dunkin' Donuts Day at the beach.  I showed you the photograph of us from behind, sitting in our sand chairs.  Then I set the camera here and did a snapshot of us from the front.  While I was taking those pictures I thought about seeing this - a camera on a tripod in the landscape, all by itself.  As many times as I have set up my camera on a tripod, I was always standing behind it.  So this was kind of a strange scene for me to see and that's why I took this photograph.

 

Fading Sunflowers - Two

Another in a series of photographs that started with a beautiful photograph of a vase of sunflowers that a client of Kathy's gave her.  Then I photographed the whole pitcher of flowers as the flowers faded a bit, and now we are seeing one sunflower which has dried and faded considerably.  But it is still quite beautiful to me as the colors fade and the pedals shrivel up.  Do you find these photographs as interesting as I do?

 

Oink, Mooo, Baaaa

I went to the recycling center in Sea Cliff on Saturday, and leaving there I drove down a street that I rarely drive on.  I spotted these three animals and stopped in my tracks!  I pulled over, grabbed my camera and walked over to take a photograph.  There was a woman outside with an electric sander working on an old table.  I said "Hi" and asked how long her store had been here.  She said "Oh, about two years..."  It is a short ways down a small residential street off a main street so it's a little bit out of the way.  The sign over the door says "Warehouse 44  Vintage*Antique*Salvage."  The woman asked if I wanted to look inside, and I said "I better not..."   :-)

 

The Doll Maker

I have posted two photographs of Kathy with two of the quilts she has made.  She made one more quilt as a gift for a good friend of Amy's and sent that off.  Then she said "I need a new project."  So she has started making dolls!  Dolls are something that little girls love, of course, and Kathy still has some time left before Vivian is old enough for dolls.  This is the fourth one she has made, but I love seeing her stated casually on our antique clock so I am showing her first.  Kathy figures what kind of doll she would like to make, and then watches YouTube videos to learn how to do certain parts of doll making.  It is really impressive seeing her at work, and then seeing the finished work!

Can't Read

I saw this man on the beach playing with his dog.  He had a ball which he threw and the dog chased it and brought it back to him.  It is enough to warm your heart to see a man and his dog together and  enjoying each other's company.  Except...

This is the sign, one of several at each entrance to the beach!  It is clear - "all seasons."  So you might say, so what harm is done, really.  Well, the dog did take a dump on the beach - I saved you by not showing you that photograph.  To the owner's credit, he did pick it up.  But it's not like the dump was on a sidewalk or street or in the grass.  It was on the beach, where people are still walking barefoot, because it is fun to walk in the sand with your shoes off.  End of my rant!

No Dunkin' Donuts - Week 30

Can it be 30 weeks since we began this time of sheltering ourselves?  It has been that long, indeed.  We had a completely different experience at the beach today.  Kathy thought of bringing some sand chairs and sitting down by the water which we had never thought of before.  It was about 60 degrees out and a beautiful day, and it was wonderful to sit in the sun.  I even brought a tiny white table that I had built for putting my binoculars on when observing at night.  It was a completely different experience, and we wondered why we say back by the parking lot on an iron picnic table.  Then we remembered - it was HOT this summer, that's why we didn't sit in the sun on the beach!  At the picnic table we were in the shade.  Maybe next year, a beach umbrella!  Do you like my little white table?

So this is really the best picture from our outing!  I have been using a tiny remote camera trigger that works wirelessly, so I don't have to jump up, set the self-timer and run back in the picture.  Here I was looking to see if the camera was being triggered when I pushed the button in my right hand.  I love this picture because it is so strange looking!  WHAT is that guy doing?

Fading Sunflowers

So a couple of weeks ago I posted a photograph of a vase of sunflowers on a glass tabletop in the back room, a gift from one of Kathy's clients.  Well, they have faded now and so I put the vase on the back steps, and I keep watching as they fade.  I love watching flowers fade - they are beautiful in a way as they change.  Stay tuned, because I will keep photographing these flowers.

 

Maintaining the Phonomena

I decided that I was unhappy with the photograph that I posted of the Moon and Mars.  It was a true photograph, unretouched.  But it really didn't show what the Moon and Mars looked like to me when I saw it with my eyes.  Mars was much brighter than it shows in the photograph.  So I decided to create a photograph that looked like what I saw.  So I made a brighter Mars in photoshop and pasted it on top of the real, faint, Mars.  The picture above is what resulted.  See how bright it is?

But then I realized that because I had cropped into the photograph so you could see it in more detail, we loose the sense of how close Mars is to the Moon.  And when I pasted in the Moon and Mars to this larger canvas, I pasted the shot with the "enhanced" Mars.  Mars is still in the night sky, by the way, and should be visible after 10 PM.  It will be in the southeast about 30 degrees up and it is really bright!

The Moon and Mars!

Yesterday evening a friend of mine from our astronomy club posted a photograph of the Moon and Mars rising at 8PM.  It was a beautiful photograph with a yellow Moon on one side of the photograph, and Mars on the other. At about 12:30 AM last night, I was just closing my computer and I thought I would go take a look at the full moon, knowing that the moon was moving closer to Mars since Steve’s photo from earlier in the evening. I was stunned when I went out the back door and saw the Moon with Mars just above it!  They were so close to each other!  It was spectacular just looking at it with the naked eye!  So I came in the house, grabbed a camera and a 400mm telephoto lens, put it on a tripod, and got this photograph!  If you enlarge the image by clicking on it, you will see that Mars has an orange color to it!  Looking at the pair directly with my eye, Mars was so much brighter than in the photograph.

 

A Pile of Fire Hydrants

I have never seen a pile of fire hydrants before!  But aren't these beautiful, all shiny and new?  I don't remember seeing brand new fire hydrant before.  There are several pallets of these down at the bottom of Laurel Avenue, along with several hundred feet of new black steel water pipe.  They are replacing a lot of aging water pipe in Sea Cliff, and some the fire hydrants as well.  If you are curious, the fire hydrants were manufactured in Albertville, Alabama.  These are so pretty!

 

Back to Zoom School

I signed up for a course in astrophotography from the Amateur Astronomer's Association in New York City, where I am a member, believe it or not.  How many astronomy clubs do I need to belong to?  Anyhow, the class lasts for six weeks and goes into the details of photographing the planets, and nebulae and galaxies.  It is a complex process and there is a lot to learn.  The class is held on Zoom.  I needed two laptops because I did the Zoom meeting on the Macintosh computer to the right, and I used the Thinkpad on the left, to work with the processing software which we use to work on the photo files.  Most of the astronomy software only runs on Windows.  Oh, and the umbrella?  I am a photographer, so I require flattering lighting for my appearance on Zoom!   :-)