Driving in the Deluge

The forecast was for rain tonight, maybe heavy at times, but I had an astronomy meeting to get to!  When I started out it was raining moderately.  But when I got on to Route 107 suddenly it was a deluge!  Heavy rain and strong winds and water all over the road.  I had no problem driving in it, I just needed to really pay attention.  What made it easier was the bright yellow line in the center, and the white line on the right hand side of the road.  After Route 107, I headed east on Route 25A, a four lane road.  I was driving in the right hand lane.  The speed limit there is 40 MPH, but because of the deluge and all the water on the road, I was doing 30 MPH to be safe, as were some other cars.  And then I was passed by a jeep with big fat tires on it, and it was doing at least 50 MPH! And a couple of minutes later, another similar Jeep passed me at high speed!  That was nuts.  I am guessing the drivers were kids, who have never heard of "hydroplaning" which is when the tires "climb up" on all the water in the road, like a water skier.  When that happens you have no control at all, with neither steering or braking control anymore.  I was glad to see them race into the distance, so that they couldn't cause an accident sliding into the other cars that were driving in a safe manner.

When I was editing the photographs for this post, I also chose this photograph.  Then I decided to post the one above.  Then I was looking at this again and decided I love how colorful it is and perhaps more interesting and more artistic.  So I decided to post it, and see what everyone thinks, which is always so much fun for me to see what others think!

 

Two Geese On The Pond

On a sunny afternoon two geese at Scudders Pond stand on the bottom of the pond.  The drought has lowered the water so  much that in some places the water is only a few inches deep.  I love the warm light of the late afternoon, and the fact that two geese are standing together, kind of like two bookends.

 

Remember Winter?

I know you remember winter, and I know that it's not over yet.  I do remember some years ago, a heavy wet snow on St. Patrick's Day!  When interesting things are going on with the weather, I take a ton of photographs and then I edit them quickly, and sometimes miss an interesting photo.  This is Kathy's herb garden right after a light snow of a couple of inches.  I love that in this color photograph we only see black & white.  And this almost looks like some kind of etching with the fine details in the garden being fine black lines against the white snow.  Come on Spring!

 

Gray and White on Gray

During the two different days of fog we had a week or so ago, I walked every day and did a lot of shooting.  Then other things came along and there were a lot of photographs that never got posted.   This is one of those.  When I saw the seagull sitting on the railing I was some distance away, so I zoomed in with my lens but it wasn't close enough so very S L O W L Y, I began to walk closer to the bird.  It eyed me suspiciously but stayed where it was, so I would take a step closer, take a shot, wait, then take another step.  So I got this.  I loved that this photograph is mainly only gray tones.  "Monochromatic" as they say in the business.  I love the drops of water underneath the top rail of the railing.

 

Pizza to Go

I decided to pick up a small pizza for dinner so after calling I went to pick it up.  I pulled into the parking lot, got out of the car, facing west, and was absolutely in awe of the beauty I saw when looking up, one of the thinnest crescent moons and the planet Venus blazing in the sky.  What a surprise!  What a joy!  I was there at the absolutely perfect time.  From our driveway, this scene would have been blocked by our house which blocks out most of the sky to the west.  I loved the delicacy of the trees which matched the delicacy of the thin crescent moon.  This is a wide view, rather than a closer view which I could have taken, but this is more like what I saw.

When I got home, it was a bit darker and so I could see the dark side of the moon illuminagted by "Earthshine" which is light from the Sun reflected off earth and toward the moon!  For this view, I composed the scene as a tighter view so you can see more detail.  I wondered about the old battered TV antenna, but thought that is had more interest than just the silhouette of trees.  Which one is your facorite?

The Garden Bridge

How cute is this tiny bridge in a small front yard garden!  I dropped my car off this morning and retraced the route that I took when dropping off Kathy's car.  This time it was a sunny day, instead of overcast, so I saw things I hadn't seen before.  I don't think I have ever seen a bridge in a garden.  I have seen small statues, and I bought a stone angel for our garden.  For some reason I found this lovely and worth a photograph.

 

The Antique Shop

 

OK so this is pretty bizarre.  It is a continuation of my walk home from dropping the car off.  This was the location of an antique shop that has been here since I can remember.  Then suddenly they were having an out of business sale, then it was closed.  I used to ride by it on my bike but the store is on a hill so I went by it at high speed and never took much notice of what was left inside.  But when I walked by the store on the way home I was stunned to see this mounted deer head in the chair!  I guess no one wanted to buy this at the final sale.

Beautiful Ironwork

This photograph goes back a couple of weeks.  I mentioned the day I dropped Kathy's car off at the mechanic, and then walked the two miles home.  Good exercise.  Also good for photographs!  I took a bunch.  This is one of the first, a beautiful piece of ironwork in front of Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Glen Head.  I have driven by this church a billion times, but you need to walk to really see things.  I just love the artistry and the beauty of this piece of ironwork on a pole by the front steps of the church.  It is just lovely.

 

The Oil Boom

I have been fascinated with this yellow rubber oil boom.  It has air in it so it floats on top of the water.  It sits unused most of the time, but when an oil barge comes in to unload, they surround the barge with this oil boom in case of an oil spill.  The oil, being lighter than water, would float on the top of the water and be contained by the boom.   This is located down by where the old power plant used to be.  Usually the boom is in a straight line and I am always trying to make an interesting picture of it.  So far, no luck.   But yesterday it was bunched up and then from the left, these four Mallard ducks swam toward it in a line!  Bingo!  Here was my photograph, finally.  It is about something to do with nature versus man made technology, if you came here for sone philosophy!   :-)

 

Numbers

 

Look at this!  I wish I had seen this odometer 5 miles ago.  It was a once in lifetime chance to see an incredible number for the mileage on my 2013 Chevrolet Impala. I think the last 5 miles were put on driving home from my astronomy meeting and I just didn't happen to notice.  I have to give thanks to my good friend Ken, who I address as "Primo" when he comments on the blog. that's because he was born before me.  So I am "Secondo!"  Years ago he told me about his fascination with numbers and it is fun to pay attention to things having repeating numbers, or a sequence of numbers.  Like a receipt that is for $123.45 for instance. He found pleasure in paying attention to these things, and because of him I do that as well.  So this is a good one, but all ones would have been better!

Light on the Water

I become more aware of the effect of light on the water when I am walking along the shore of Hempstead Harbor. When there is very little wind and the water is calm you can see the effect that the smooth water has on the sunlight.  Sometimes I just stop and lean on the railing and watch as the bright reflections move around on the surface.  I first photographed just the reflections today, but realized that by themselves it was not enough so I walked a little bit further and added the rock to the photograph. It is difficult for me to try and explain the beautiful liquid silver that I see when I am watching the water on days like this.

 

A Warm Glow

We still have our electric Christmas candles in each window.  In these cold gray nights, I love the warm glow in each window that they give.  I leave them on all night, they are LED bulbs and use so little power.  When going up to bed the other night, I turned around after turning off the lamps in the room and saw this scene.  I loved seeing the room illuminated with this warn glow.  The room was very dimly lit by the candles so I had to use a "film speed" of 12,800 to get this image.  Beautiful, isn't it?

 

Another Hearty Soul With a Camera

It was really cold today with winds gusting to 25 MPH, and I almost didn't go for my walk.  But I realized it has been a couple of days with no walking because of the weather, so off I went.  There was no one else out walking along the harbor which normally would be unusual.  But as I approached this part of Tappan Beach from a distance I saw a small figure.  Could I get closer in time?  I saw the figure leaning forward and guessed it was another photographer out shooting!  I did manage to get this photograph from a distance.  I was curious what his photographs might look like from where he was shooting.  I have learned that you can NEVER know what a photographer's photographs will look like, unless you go stand there.  I just kept walking.  Now I am thinking I should have gone around the fence.  Maybe he got a much better photograph than I did!

 

Is That Light Red?

Wait.  What happened to Fog Week?  This is just an interlude, I will get back to Fog Week tomorrow.  I had dinner with my friend Bob out in Melville, where we both used to work.  The forecast was for snow flurries, but the forecast said "no accumulation."  Wrong.  When we were finished with dinner there was an inch of snow all over everything.  So as I was driving down Route 110 to the expressway, I stopped at this red light.  Or should I have said "these red lights."  I have never seen so many red lights at one intersection before.  I just thought this was interesting because of five red lights in a row.  It is a really busy intersection where maybe 5 roads come together.  No wonder.

 

Fog Week 4

Day 4 of Fog Week.  Bored Yet?  The main reason for taking this photograph and then posting it has to do with the behavior of the fog.  Notice on the left hand side in the distance, the fog bank is moving from left to right as the wind switched to a southerly wind which started to blow the fog out of the harbor toward Long Island Sound.  In my hour and a half walk I saw the fog come and go in different spots along my route as the wind changed direction, which I have never seen before.

 

Fog Week 3

Look.  Another fog picture.  Just like I promised.  I love industrial scenes as you all know.  Something that makes fog photographs more interesting is to have things at different distances from the camera.  In this case the rocks are closest and they are darker.  As we get further in the distance things get lighter because there is more fog.  I like this effect and always look for things near and far in the fog to make things more interesting.  Please click on the photograph to see it larger and the effect is better.

 

Fog Week 2

It's official, this is now "Fog Week."  I have a whole pile of halfway decent photographs from just this one hour and a half walk and shooting session to put together "Fog Week" so get ready to be bored.  I was excited about seeing the fog so I hurried down my street to the water, but was surprised that as I headed south along the harbor, the fog was not anywhere near my favorite curving arrangement of Sycamore trees!  Bummer.  So I continued my walk and found fog further south.  Then when I turned around heading for home, I passed these trees again, and nothing.  But there was fog to the north, so I kept walking.  I took some photographs and looked back at these trees and there was fog!  It was appearing in different spots as the wind changed.  So I turned around and ran back to the perfect spot and started photographing.  This couple came along from behind me and I was ready to shoot the photo with them in it, but they stopped, not wanting to spoil my photograph.  I said if they walked into my photograph, that would MAKE the photo, and they did and here is the result!

 

As Thick as Pea Soup

The rain stopped late in the day so I decided to go for my walk.  I was thrilled when I stepped outside the door to see fog, as thick as pea soup! I love fog, the more dense it is, the better!  I had some fog last week but not all that thick.  Anyhow, you all know that in addition to my landscape photography, I love industrial landscapes. We are looking at the corner where the old power plant was before it was demolished, to the right of the traffic light in the distance.  What is crazy is all these power poles leaning every which way - some look as if they might fall over!  A couple of poles are sawn off part way up, I guess because new poles have been installed and properly anchored.  Anyhow I love this photo because of all the different kinds of power poles.  I got a lot of photographs this afternoon, so this may turn into "Fog Week."  We'll see...

 

Schizachyrium scoparium

The other day when I leaned out the side bedroom window to photograph the bare Japanese maple branches against the snow, when I was done I happened to look down and saw this!  I love this ornamental grass that grows in the garden next to our house. And with snow around it and some snow in it, I thought it really looked beautiful.  I think this is called Little Bluestem, and you will be interested to know that it is native to New York State.  Since it is snowing out tonight, I thought it would be OK to post it.  Oh, the scientific name for Little Bluestem is Schizachyrium scoparium and so I thought that would be a mysterious title for this post.  See how much you learn when you visit my blog?  I love that so many of you care what I photograph each day.  Thank you for being such a great audience!  Please click on this to see so much more detail.

 

One Down, Two to Go

I took another different way home yesterday.  That's two different ways home in two days.  I dropped Kathy's car off for an oil change and then walked the two and a half miles home a different way.  I saw a whole bunch of interesting things to photograph.  This was the first one.  I am not sure why this was interesting.  Usually you only see one snowman at a time.  But because three were built and only two were left standing, I guess I thought this was funny in some way.  A  dead snowman and I think that is funny?  What's wrong with me...   :-)

 

A Different Way Home

I went out to do some errands late in the day today.  I came back home by a different route than normal and ended up driving by this golf course which I have photographed before.  But I have never seen it like this!  The snow was one thing but the warm glow of the sunset was something else!  I actually drove by this, noticed the pink glow and at the corner turned for home!  What is wrong with me!  Well I only drove fifty feet before turning around and coming back, so there IS hope for me after all.  This shot looks easy but the problem is that the golf course has a 5 foot tall chain link fence around it, and there is a hedge growing on the other side of the fence.  So it is nearly impossible to get a clear shot here without branches in the way.  I held the camera way up over my head, and tilted the viewing screen so I could see my composition and managed to get a couple of shots without any branches in the photo, fortunately.

 

A Different Kind of Snow

We had a couple of inches of snow last night.  But this snow was a more wet snow than when I took the photo I did looking down on the branches of the Japanese maple a few days ago  So this snow was like frosting on everything and it is beautiful.  What's really nice is that when the snow is frosting, every branch has a white top and a dark bottom, so the branches stand out against each other in a very dramatic way.  Once again, I love the delicacy of the smallest branches in this tree.  Sometimes nature is breathtaking.

 

Zig Zag Two

What day is this?  Oh, it's Tuesday.  We must have been at the beach for coffee and donuts!  Indeed we were.  As we were about to leave, I noticed the snow fences against the snow from the other day.  The snow fences stand out much more against the white snow.  So I was looking for an interesting pattern, and this one stood out.  Just another photograph having to do with design.

 

The Moon in the Trees

When I was walking into the grocery store, I noticed the nearly full moon rising in the east. I didn't think twice about it, until I left the store and the sky was darker, and now the Moon was more dramatic.  So I walked over to the car and got my Canon T7i camera which has a zoom lens that goes out to 400 mm and when I use that lens the moon becomes much larger in the frame.  Not a bad shot, I think.

 

Delicate Branches

We got 3 to 4 inches of snow last night.  When I woke this morning I went to the window and looked down on this scene.  It is the Japanese maple tree, of course.  I am astounded at the delicacy of these bare branches, which only show up because they are seen against the new fallen snow.  Isn't this just beautiful and delicate beyond imagining! Please click on this to see it larger!  You will be stunned!

 

Arms Out

On my walk today, I stopped to do a quick shot of the harbor, to the right, and as I turned to continue, this woman passed me.  So I was walking behind her and what was funny was that one arm would shoot out to one side and then come back in and then the other arm would come out, and then both arms came out!  Oh man, I missed that.  So, I continued to follow after her, hoping her arms would come out again and wonder of wonders, they did!  And I was ready and got the shot.  I think she may have been talking to someone on the phone.  I pass a lot of people walking here, and have never seen anything like this before.

 

Fog

I am not sure if this is a real photograph or not.  I mean it is a photograph, but it is different from what I usually do.  I think this is an exercise in composition, or an experiment  in design.  It is a straightforward photograph with no manipulation.  I like that shows fog. And I am fascinated that I keep wanting to look at this whole scene.  I guess it's because it doesn't feel like the world looks like this.  Even though, as you can see, it does.

This is a closer version of the same photograph.  You can see some rocks in the water off of the tip of Sands Point and you can see a few trees in the fog, up on the cliff.  So this is more interesting and maybe has slightly more feeling in it.  But it is still minimalist.  Anyhow, I am experimenting which feels good to me.  Please click on each of these - they are more interesting when seen larger.

 

Fog Makes All the Difference

I went nuts today!  I was walking for my third day in a row and when I got to the harbor and saw some fog, I knew that there would be photographs everywhere.  I was not wrong.  I may have to have a "Fog Week" because there are so many photographs to show you.  I stopped so many times to photograph that my normall50 minute walk went on for an hour and 20 minutes.  And when I did stop to photograph I did not fool around.  I quickly composed and took a few frames, or maybe 15 with some variations, and then quickly moved on.  This was my first photograph at the bottom of our hill.  I love these barte trees which seem to be growing hair!  But the best part was that you can see Sands Point across the water, partially obscured by fog.  What a day! Please click on the photo - it looks great larger.

 

Puddle

I was walking the usual route the other day, on an afternoon when we had snow in the morning that quickly melted.  It was mainly gray clouds overhead and in the flat light of the overcast I didn't see anything to shoot.  I was almost back to Laurel Avenue when I saw this puddle in the middle of the sidewalk.  I thought "I wonder if I could get an interesting reflection if I put the camera down and held it just above the water?"  Whats really cool about my SONY a7 III is that the viewing screen on the back of the camera folds down at a right angle to the camera, and I can look down at the screen from above and see what my camera is seeing!  When the camera was only one inch from the water in the puddle, I saw this scene and  thought: "Well, here's my picture!"

 

Looking Down

By now you know that I am absolutely fascinated by the architecture of the Guggenheim Museum!  So one last post giving you a different view of the building.  This time, looking down from the top floor.  What an astounding concept for a museum!  I mean Frank Lloyd Wright was a genius, but still, how to you even conceive of something like this?

This is a fountain, and of course it doesn't look like any other fountain you have ever seen.  And, of course it matches the building, just as you would expect, of course.  So many interesting aspects of this building to see.  Every time you look around you see another amazing thing.

 

Talking about a Painting

I suppose I could call this post "How to take a photograph."  I thought I would show you the finished photograph first - you know, the one with more interest or impact.  Then I can show you how this finished photograph came about.

This is the scene I came upon, three women looking at one of the paintings.  So I did this quick shot.  Then I stood there waiting to see if the women would move around at all and separate a bit and make a  more interesting silhouette.  Well, they didn't move apart, so I moved closer to see what I could get.  Then while talking, I saw the woman on the left extend her arm and start gesturing while she was talking.  I missed that shot.  But then the woman on the right extend her arm and when she gestured for maybe fifteen seconds, I was shooting as fast as I could, and the first photo on this page is the result! It is worth clicking on each photo to see it larger.

 

Fun With Ramps

One of the fun things about being inside the Guggenheim with a camera, is to look across the atrium at people walking up and down the ramps, looking at the artworks on display.  I love to just hold the camera on a particular area and wait for people to walk in, and then when I like the arrangement, I clidk the shutter.

This photograph gives a better sense of the ramps and how the paintings are hung, as people walk by them.

I thought this photograph was cool, because I was looking down at the ranps, and so we only see the legs and feet of the visitors.  This may be my favorite.

 

The Guggenheim Ramps

So this is a view across the atrium of what the circular ramps look like that spiral up inside the Guggenheim museum.  It is amazing.  It is fun to stop and just watch the silhouettes of people walking up and down the ramp and looking at the artwork.  As I mentioned in yesterday's post the ramp goes up at an angle of three degrees.  

 I wondered, knowing that the ramps are tilted, whether or not the paintings are tilted to match the tilt of the ramps, or if they are hung level.  So I got out my iPhone which has a bubble level in it, to check the angle of the floor and then to see if the paintings were level.  The floor was tilted three degrees, and the paintings are tilted as well, but only one and one half degrees. So of course Stan took a picture of me testing all the angles!

 

The Guggenheim!

So this is what the inside of the Guggenheim museum looks like!  Astounding, right?  This is a six-story helical ramp that extends along the main gallery's walls.  It is one-quarter mile long and climbs steadily at a three degree incline.  Artworks are installed at an angle of one and one-half degrees which appears straight to the human eye.  The shape of the building is the inverse of a stepped pyramid, expanding up and out.  Wright described this form as an "optimistic ziggurat."  Obviously I am going to milk this visit and only show you one photograph a day...  :-)  Stay tuned.

 

FORTY YEARS!

Stan's wife Ann suggested that there was a really interesting show at the Guggenheim, so Stan and I decided to go see it today.  This is embarrassing beyone belief - I have not been to the Guggenheim in over forty years!  I am a member of the MET, and I go to the Museum of Modern Art a couple of times a year, and sometimes the Whitney in its new home downtown.  But I have not been here in ages!  Shame on me!

It is difficult to get just one photograph to stand for the whole building because it has so many parts.  This building is Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece!  It is a landmark work of 20th century architecture, and it drew controversy for the unusual shape of its display spaces and took 15 years to design and build.  It was completed in 1959.  Inside a six-story helical ramp extends along the main gallerery's perimeter, under a central ceiling skylight.

There is no other museum like this anywhere else.! I found that I enjoyed the exhibit, but I enjoyed even more getting reacquainted with the building itself. There are all kinds of amazing things to see, and I will be doing more posts after this one.  This photograph is taken from an upper floor and I thought it lent a slightly different sense of the building.

 

My Cosanti Bell

I think it was about 20 years ago I went to Arizona because Kathy was going to a week long seminar.  I wandered around photographing the landscape and Navajo ruins. One of the places I visited was Cosanti.  That is a gallery and studio of Italian-American architect Paolo Soleri where he lived and worked.  It is a foundry and studio and gallery.  They make and sell bronze and ceramic windbells and sculptures.  So I bought two different kinds of bells, and they both hang on the front porch to this day,  This is the bronze bell, and the triangle under it is thin metal, blown by the wind and that makes the bell ring.  I saw this from inside the living room today, and went outside and did this photograph. 

 

Phragmites

It feels like everything is a do-over these days!  Yesterday the wind was really howling - gusts to 40 MPH!  On my walk I stopped at Scudder's pond and saw these Phragmites blowing in the wind and took about 15 different photographs.  It was hard to get them just right because they were blowing back and forth in the wind.  So I went by the pond again today and they looked different - the difference was that their shape was more beautiful.  When the wind was howling, they were all clumped and distorted.  These are holding their natural shape in a gentle breeze.  They are beautiful in the late afternoon light, especially against the blue sky. Please click on this to see it larger, and to see to the delicate texture of the "feathered" parts.

 

A Solitary Figure

The other day I stopped to look at this scene with my camera because I love the perspective as the sidewalk and trees get smaller as they get closer to the vanishing point.  The person in the photograph on that day was smaller and walking away from me, and before I could get a shot they turned the corner and disappeared.  I took a picture after they were gone, and it wasn't interesting at all.  Then I realized that a small, solitary figure in a landscape can be so powerful and make such a huge difference.  Today this person was not as far away when I first saw them, and they were walking toward me.  Perfect!  So I took this shot and a few more as they got closer.  The first one when they were smaller was the best!

After I did that photograph I kept walking toward the person and realized that I wanted a comparison photograph, so I turned around and went back to near where I was, and did this photograph.  Look how empty the landscape seems without a small figure in it!  What a lesson all of this has been!  You can click on each one of these and see more detail, if you like.

 

Later Afternoon Sun

It started to warm up today and for the first time in about two weeks that it wasn't below freezing.  It was 37 degrees most of today.  So the snow was slowly melting.  So slowly melting that you couldn't tell that it was.  But the late afternoon sun was warm if you stood with it shining on you.  I love the low sun shining through all the trees, leaving shadows on the smooth snow.  Seems peaceful to me to look at.