Happy Halloween!

As Monty Python was fond of exclaming: "And now for something completely different!"  Every single year, I get a pumpkin and carve the same face and place it on a platform I made for the front porch railing, so that it has a flat place to sit.  And I photograph it.  And it usually looks the same.  So I did all that, this year.  I am a creature of habit.  BUT...  Near the end of my shooting, I crouched down and saw the first quarter moon pop out of the clouds.  And the Moon was in a perfec position!  I couldn't believe my eyes!  What a catch, my Jack-O-Lanter, and the moon!  If you click on this, it will open into a larger than normal size.  But just so you will feel "normal" here is my usual photograph the way I have always done it.  BUT...  There is something different this year!

Instead of making a large square candle out of parafin, I used a single night light bulb in a small socket laying in the bottom of the pumpkin!  It gave perfect illumination, AND...  On a night when the winds are 29 miles an hour with 42 mile an hour gusts, the light stayed on without flickering and gave the perfect glow.  My first Electric Jack-O-Lantern!

 

After the Deluge

We had 20 minutes of intense rain this afternoon.  They said that LaGuardia airport got 2 inches of rain.  I have talked about this before but the rivers that run down our street during a heavy rain, are caused by water from streets up above, running out of a 18" diameter pipe that comes out of the ground at the top of the hill, and all that water from those other streets comes down our street!  They should have burried the pipe years and years ago, but they took a shortcut and we pay as a result.  So I was stunned to see the water leaping up in the air at the bottom of our driveway!  After the storm was over I found a 2 foot square piece of blacktop, 2 1/2 inches thick, that had been blown out of the street by the water pressure.  And that came from the brand new street paving they did last year!  There's another repair for the village!

 

A New Crane in Town

On Tuesday, our Dunkin' day we noticed these two cranes across the harbor that have not been here before.  The yellow one is really tall but it kind of frail, compared to the pink and white crane down low.  That is a beefy crane.  Compare the size of the yellow cab, to the size of the pink cab. That crane is huge!  The boom of the pink crane is clearly lowered, probably for transport, either when it arrived or for when it leaves.  I will be keeping my eye on this for a while and see where it goes.

This is a little more of a close up of both cranes so you can see more detail.  Why am I so fascinated by giant mechanical things?

 

New Roses in the Garden

Our older roses had died so in May we decided to get two new plants.  I think they are Tea roses but I am not sure.  I did the digging and we mixed in I think fertilizer and maybe some peat moss or some potting soil.  We worked at getting them planted properly and then watered.  I kind of forgot about them after they were safetly planted.  But recently I began to notice how beautiful the roses were on both of the new bushes, and given that it was late October, and they were still looking gorgeous, I went out and photographed them two days ago.  What a joy to see how beautiful these blossoms are!  Be sure and click on the photograph to see it larger and in more detail.

 

In Memorium: Al Nagler 1935-2025

Al Nagler was a living legend to those of us in the field of astronomy. He was an optical engineer, born in the Bronx and at one point in his life he designed simulators used in the Apollo program.  Later in life he founded a company called "Tele Vue" which eventually designed and sold the best eyepieces in the business, back when I started in astronomy in 1988.  They also made small refracting telescopes which were absolutely superb instruments.  When you looked through "normal eyepieces" the field of view was about 50 degrees.  Not satisfied with that, in 1982 Al designed the "Nagler" series of eyepieces which had a field of view of 82 degrees!  He liked to call them "Spacewalk" eyepieces because you were no longer aware of the edge of the field - it was as if you were in outer space.  He was a philanthropist, and someone who devoted his time, resources and heart to amateur astronomy.  I would see him twice a year, first at the Northeast Astronomy Forum in April and then every year at Stellafane, in Vermont.  In 1993 at Stellafane, I won second prize for my design of a folding telescope that could be carried in the overhead on an airplane, when I went to Australia.  The next morning at breakfast, Al contgratulated me for my design and asked how many times I had entered a telescope in the competition.  I said it was my first time.  He said he was really impressed - he didn't win a prize in the competition until I think he said his fourth or fifth time entering!  He was such a generous man and a font of knowledge.  In  my photograph, above he is talking to two amateurs at NEAF last April, and one of his refractors is in the middle of the photograph.  What a wonderful human being!  It will not be the same to attend these events and no longer be able to stop by to chat with him.

The well dressed suburban man...

I am thrilled to report that I am done for the season with my painting!  The extension ladders and the safety ropes are all put away!  The big part of the project was the front dormer, which looks gorgeous.  Then I did the trim on three windows on the rear of the house. Then trim on two windows on the west side.  And finally, thanks to a spate of perfect weather, I did the eaves and fascia on the rear of the house!  And this is what gear I wore for all this work. I even got some white paint on the house. But this is misleading - you are looking at paint from my work on the house for the last 20 years on my red jacket.  Whew!, it was a lot of work, but now that it is done, it such a feeling of satisfaction!

 

Silliness, and Stupidity!

So I am being silly here.  Yesterday Kathy and I went over to CVS to get both our flu shot and our Covid shot for the season.  As you know I have been scraping and painting the house.  I hadn't realized that Kathy had booked us for BOTH shots.  I was worried that I might have a reaction and that I couldn't use my right arm for scraping and painting.  So I asked the tech if I could get the shot in my head so both arms would be fine.  He laughed, and said "Of course not!"  So I got one shot in one arm and the other shot in the second arm.  I took the CVS bandaids off my shoulders and put them on my head just for fun for my blog post.  I was up on the ladder scraping and painting again this afternoon and did have a bit of a reaction late today with my skin hurting and pain in my joints.  I kept on working, though.  Now it is midnight and suddenly I am fine.  A mild reaction is worth whatever it takes to be protected from the flu and Covid!  HERE IS THE STUPIDITY PART: We had a discussion with a dear friend who has NEVER had a Covid shot!  I cannot believe that, given their age - the same as ours.  So far they have been lucky with no Covid at all.  Others have not been so lucky.  You can DIE from this disease!  Kathy knows two couples and the husband of each couple absolutely refused to get the Covid shot, back in the middle of the pandemic.  No amount of reasoning could change their mind.  One husband ended up in the hospital and was pretty sick.  Then he said OK, OK, that when he got out and got home he would get the shot!  He ended up leaving the hospital in a body bag!  And the other husband died as well from Covid!  I mean, what the hell!  Where does this insanity come from?  We have been protected all our lives from vaccinations!  When I went to Africa in 2000 I had a series of seven vaccinations, including Cholera and Typhoid!   I would never go there without them!  And we have had every Covid shot we could get. And both of us have had Covid, and it felt more like a cold or flu and we both have survived, thanks to vaccines. 

 

"Would you like to stop by for a drink?"

I saw this tall building from a long way away.  As I walked to the High Line, I discovered that I was getting closer to the building, perfect for a photograph.  The first thing I noticed was the huge triangular patio cantilevered off the top of it!  I couldn't imagine people sitting up there!  I am sure it must have a glass wall around the top, but still!  Yikes!  I mean, they must limit people being out there when the winds are blowing!  I am not afraid of heights, but still!

This is a close up of the giant patio and if you click on it, it will open larger. I mean, this is an astounding addition to a skyscraper but I do wonder how practical it is!  Oh, and to answer the question in the title?  No Thank You!  No drinks up there for me!

 

The High Line 2025

When I was in the city to see the exhibit at a gallery last week, I decided to walk the High Line afterwards.  I haven't been there, I figured out, since the Covid 19 Pandemic!  That makes it about five years since my last visit.  First thing is, it is so busy.  At about 2 PM on one weekday afternoon there were two long lines of people 2 or 3 people wide, one group going north the other going south.  It was difficult to stop to take photographs because that would mean being in the way of traffic.  This is one of my favorite kind of photographs, above, where the plants still leave the original railroad tracks visible.  In many areas the grasses completely cover any views of the tracks.

The other thing that was amazing was the growth of the trees!  Yikes!  Some of them seem to be about 25 feet tall.  The trees have really grown to the point that you can feel as if you are in a forest. They are so thick and so large that there is a bit of a claustrophobic feeling.  I must confess that I liked the earlier version where the growth didn't feel as overwhelming.

 

Observing Night

We had an observing night tonight out at the planetarium.  Unfortunately the forecast was worse than predicted and there were a lot of clouds instead of clear skies.  However, after about an hour there were some openings in the clouds and we were able to see the planet Saturn, which is always stunning to see.  Bill, one of our members, is shown seated at his computer which is connected to a special planetary camera on his telescope, in the shadows in the lower right of the photo.  Other members are gathered around as he demonstrates how he captures more than one thousand images of the planet and then using software puts them all together and when he is done the image looks as if it was from the Hubble Space Telescope.  So it was a wonderful evening in the end, to see how Bill does his magic and produces beautiful photographs of the planets.

 

The "Tolerance" Mural

I mentioned last week that Stan and I met to see an exhibit in a gallery of the work of Don McCullin, a British photojournalist who was a war photographer, among other subjects he photographed.  We ate lunch in a nice little diner and when we came out found this painting on the side of a building across the street.  We spent some time looking at it but didn't know the significance of it.  Well tonight I found out the story.  It features a large, colorful, face-to-face portrait of Mother Teresa and Mahatma Gandhi by Brazilian artist Eduardo Kobra. The artwork, painted in Kobra's signature kaleidoscopic style, symbolizes the ideals of compassion, unity, and acceptance shared by the two humanitarians.  What a perfect thing to see in these terrible days of discord in our country! 

 

Painting the Back

So the weather is still good and after painting the whole front dormer and seeing how great it looks with fresh white paint, and then painting two of the window frames on the back of the house, I decided there is still enough time to paint the eaves, at least before winter comes.  If you click on this photograph it will open in a much larger size and you can see the peeling paint and also all the mildew under the eaves.  After first scraping all the loose paint, I have a garden sprayer with a mixture of Tri Sodium Phosphate and Clorox and water and when I spray everything the mold and mildew turn brown and when I then spray everything with a garden hose with water, all of the mold and mildew is GONE!

That's the way to properly prepare the surface for painting!

Believe it or not it is easier to paint the back because I don't have to deal with a porch roof.  I just use extension ladders or stepladders from the ground.  Looks more worrisome but you can see the orange climbing rope which is my safety line, which I use religiously while I am up on the ladders.  Wait until you see how beautiful this will look when I am all done!  Stay tuned.

Inside Outside

We had some errands to run late this afternoon.  By "errands" I mean, we had to go to Costco to get towel paper, tissues, sponges and butter, I think it was.  They did not have their delicious cranberry walnut bread, sad to say.  And then on to Trader Joes for chocolate bars, dark chocolate orange sticks, and frozen blueberries.  Then on to our reward, dinner at the Shake Shack!  Two hamburgers, an order of french fries, and a diet Coke.  As we were sitting at a table, I looked out the window and saw this scene.  "Inside and outside". The lights in the ceiling of the restaurant were reflected in the sky, and our table and hands inside the restaurant reflected in the glass window and you can't tell what is what.  A little something different for today.

 

Faulty Perception

I went to the city on Thursday to see a photographic exhibit with Stan.  Penn Station is on 32nd Street and the gallery is on 18th Street and a few blocks west.  So I decided to walk to the gallery instead of taking a subway.   I was walking down Eighth avenue, with my camera at the ready.  I saw this man on his phone and was taken with his dark clothing and all the storefronts were dark as well.  I walked past him, and then thought, "What are you, an idiot?  Go back and shoot that!"  So after I passed him I turned around and headed back up the avenue and when I got about 40 feet past him, I stopped, turned around and made about 5 or 6 shots of the scene.  I liked that the entire photograph would be dark because of the man's chothing and the storefronts.  They call this a "low key" photograph because it is mainly made up of just the darker tones.  So I think it is a bit interesting, but I don't know.  But, imagine my surprise when I came home and started editing this image...

I was stunned!  Yes, the storefront was dark but it was lit by bright sunlight!  And I never noticed that!  I was in shock that my photograph was not all "low key."  So there are ways to fix this.  In the days of film, when making a print you can "burn in" brighter areas to darken them down.  So that's what I did with this photograph, and I darkened all the sunlit areas.  And I like my final result but I am still in shock that I did not SEE this when I took the picture.  Thought you would find this explanation interesting.

 

"Jack-O- Moon?"

How cute is this!  This is an incredibly detailed 3-D model of the moon in the lobby of the planetarium.  I didn't notice this face at first because this moon model rotates. But when the grinning teeth came into view, I thought it was awesome that they thought to do this.  The face is made up of vinyl pieces delicately attached to the moon model.  Very clever I thought, and a new kind of Halloween decoration! I still haven't figured what it should be called.  "Jack-O-Moon?"  "Moon-O-Lantern?"  Any suggestions?

 

Stunning Architecture

This is a stunning building that I have photographed before, but this morning it had perfect light on it! This is the James A. Farley building, which once was the U.S. General Post Office Building, which had been designed by McKim, Meade & White in the Beaux-Arts style.  It was constructed between 1911 and 1914.  It was right across 8th Avenue from the original Pennsylvania Station, and now Madison Square Garden.  The main facade of this building features a Corinthian colonade finishing at a pavilion at each end designed to match the original Pennsylvania Station across the street, which was demolished in 1966.  That demolition was a terrible loss for the architecture of New York City.  Oh, and this is where the famous United States Postal Service creed is carved into the stone above the whole length of the columns: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."  How cool it was to notice that today!

 

A Planetarium Show!

We had a real treat tonight for our astronomy club meeting.  This is a photograph of the star projector in the planetarium in the foreground, with members and guests sitting in the background.  We had a huge turnout of members and visitors.  We listed the talk on our club website, and a number of visitors came to hear the talk, and it was free.

Dave Bush, the planetarium director, gave an informal talk, starting with a brief history of the planetarium.  Then he darkened the dome and the star projector, seen behind him in the photograph above, projected thousands of stars on the dome in a completely dark planetarium.  It looked like the night sky would look from a really dark part of the United States and he pointed out the Moon and the different constellatons and using the planetarium projector, he was able to take us anywhere in the world to see what the night sky would look like from there!

Here is a photograph of the night sky projected on  the dome with the round ball of the star projector shown in the bottom.  Even though these stars are artificially created with a projector, it feels so good to be under a black night sky and all the stars!

 

American Vernacular

This was a photograph I took a few days ago.  This horse has been here in this parking lot for a bunch of years now and was quite faded.  I have photographed this horse before.  But suddenly it has a brand new paint job and looks wonderful.  In fact with all this rain and overcast clouds, seeing this bright colorful horse and flowers brightens my day.  I call this "American Vernacular" because Stan and I are always looking for things that fit the profile.  "Vernacular" is a term that refers to architecture that is concerned with the domestic and functional, and usually distinctive to the area in which it is located.  So we apply the term to anything, not just architecture.  Well where else in the world would you find a brightly colored fiberglass horse! 

 

Doesn't Look Stormy

After yesterday's first photograph, I kept walking south to see what else I could find to photograph.  This is one of my classic views of the harbor.  It feels different today because of the rain and the leaves all over the sidewalk.  I like how Sands Point is fading into the mist in the background.  Today the wind was really howling and the rain was coming down during the middle of the day, but I was too busy to come down here to see what it looked like.  I waited until about 5:30 because it was high tide. By the time I got to the harbor the wind and rain had stopped and the water was calm.  Nothing to photograph, unfortunately. Please click on this it looks so much better when seen larger.

 

I Went Out Photographing!

I finally got off my duff and went out photographing today at about 4 PM.  With the overcast clouds it was getting a bit dark. There was only a light rain falling, but the winds were up.  Only thing is, the winds were from the east, so they weren't doing much except making the tide higher and making the waves a bit higher.  I loved the faint fog out on the water, making Sands Point seem more distant.  I did walk all the way to the old power plant and back, so I managed to walk 2.7 miles today.  It is now midnight, and the winds are howling and the rain is coming down harder.  Wish I could be out there photographing now, but it is too dark to photograph.

 

Dog Driving Car

This is not one of my better posts, sorry to say.  I'm sorry that this is the best I could do today!  I have been so busy working on a talk on astronomy that I will be giving this coming Tuesday, I have not been out shooting.  Saw this scene when I left the grocery store late this afternoon and I had even forgotton to bring my small point and shoot camera, so I shot this with my iPhone.  I will try and do better tomorrow!.

 

The Last Light of Day

I was on my way to get some dinner and bring it back to the house.  As I drove down shore road I glanced over to the harbor and saw that the sun had set, but there was light from the sun shining through an opening in the clouds.  The light illuminated the bottom of the clouds which was a nice touch.  When I first saw this scene, there were rays of light coming out of the opening !  By the time I turned the car around and came back, the rays were gone.  They would have made a better photograph.

 

Bikes and Teens Hanging Out

Seeing these teens on their bicycles, all with balloon tires, and hanging out with friends, really took me back to being a teen again!  Not that I would EVER want to go through that age again!  Once was enough, thank you very much.  But I just thought of those days and bicycles.  In the 1950's when I had a bicycle, it was a bicycle that I got from somone because it was broken and I learned to how to fix it - the coaster brake was a usual problem, or crank arm ball bearing problems or bent wheels.  And my bike always had balloon tires.  I thought those tires were long gone, but I guess not.  My bicycle was my magic carpet that took me everywhere.  A bicycle was freedom for me back then!

 

Haloween Fisherman

OK so Haloween decorations have now been appearing in the neighborhood.  But with a couple of weeks to go, I am awarding first prize to this decoration, just up the street and around a corner!  I mean, come on!  This is creative!  Although, seeing a skeleton of a fish, I am hoping that this is not being sold as a kit at Home Depot or something!  I just assumed a dyed in the woos fisherman bought a skeleton and added his fishing pole.  Anyhow, it really made me smile to see this, and it is so unusual.  I will accept any reports of other versions of this if you see such a thing.

 

Woman Walking in the Water

Tuesday. Dunkin. Beach.  We had such a nice time with our coffee and donuts at the beach today.  After we had been here for a while, a woman walking along the beach in the water was passing us. We both said "good morning" and started chatting about how beautiful the day was and how nice the beach is and why it is so nice to be outdoors.  She was standing in the water the whole time we were talking.  And suddenly I realized that I was looking at an interesting portrait, right in front of my eyes.  But I was reluctant to ask to take her portrait, and then she walked on.  She walked up the beach and I was kicking myself for not asking.  Then she turned around and walked back in the water the same way.  This time I had my small camera ready.  So this time I asked if I could photograph her and she said "sure."  What struck me about this scene was the blue sky, the blue water, the woman was wearing blue, and she had a nice tan.  There is a European photographer who does large format portraits, and his work looks a bit like this.

 

Decorative Grasses

It is that time of year when the decorative grasses that are alongside the front porch steps are at their most beautiful.  So I grabbed a close up lens for my camera and went out exploring the plant.  I lie this one because the delicacy of the fine hairs really show up against the dark green background.  These "things" - I should look them up - are so delicate and almost look like some kind of caterpillar.  OK, so I looked these things up and they are called "seedheads!"  That seems appropriate.

So here's the thing in photography.  You get a good shot. Great.  OK what else can you get with the same subject seen in a different way?  That is the test for a creative process like photography.  So I found one of these "caterpillars" and photographed it head on.  I could not believe the delicacy of the hairs sticking out from these.  And this bush must have perhaps 50 of 75 of these things.  Anyhow, fun to explore nature with my camera.

 

Not Swimming Anymore

I was waiting at the fish counter in our grocery store to buy a small slice of salmon to grill for dinner.  I do that once a week.  While waiting in line I was just looking around and saw these two fish.  They looked pretty much alive, but of course they are not, and they are on ice.  But they looked as if they might be swimming.  They are attractive and would look better swimming in an aquarium.  Funny thing, I buy a small slice of salmon cut from one side of a salmon.  It doesn't really look like a fish anymore.  So that's easy, but these are complete fish.  I am glad I am not buying one of these to eat.  Anyone know what kind of fish these are?

 

Our Yard in Fall

I was backing out of the driveway this afternoon, and I had to wait for a passing car.  Then it occurred to me, how beautiful this scene is!  I felt so lucky that we live in this house with large windows and wonderful light inside.  And then this spectacular Japanese maple in the side yard that is a joy to behold in every season.  There are two white Adirondack chairs in the top of the side yard were we can sit and read in nice weather.  Ultimately it was something about the light in this photograph that caused me to park the car and walk back to take this photograph.

 

Cat Hideout

This is Grace, in her cat hideout, on a chair under the dining room table.  Sam has his favorite chair as well under the table.  Fortunately the have chosen different chairs!  They have alternate sleeping places in addition to the chairs.  The couch, my easy chair, the top of the couch in the back room.  But during the day, they will spend time here. Many times we won't realize that one of them is on our chair until we go to pull the chair out to sit down for breakfast or supper.  It is such a surprise to go to move the chair and feel as if it is nailed to the floor!  A 45 degree tilt of the chair will persuade the sitter to abandon their comfortable resting spot.  Cats.  Endless fascination for us!

 

Clouds and Contrails

 

I drove over to The Farm, our grocery store to get a piece of salmon for grilling for dinner.  I saw noticed all these different clouds in the sky, and several contrails.  "Contrails" come from the exhaust of jet engines of airplanes flying overhead, at high altitudes.  I don't know the names of the different clouds at different levels.  The thin wispy ones at top center right are cirrus.  I didn't like that my first photogrph had too much dark foreground sticking up into the sky.  I had to come over to CVS to get some almonds, and when I looked up again, the horizon was so much lower and simpler, and that is this photograph. There is something uplifting, I think to see a blue sky with some thin white clouds in it, don't you think?

My Picasso Portrait

When someone is speaking at our astronomy club, and they step up to the projection screen to point out something, you see really strange effects from the projector illuminating them with the projected image.  Somes I can click just at the right time and get an interesting portrait of them speaking.  But usually it is just a strange looking thing.  As was the case tonight.  So I keep clicking hoping to get something interesting.  I thought this was not worth anything, until I looked at the face in this image and the thought occurred to me that maybe it was like a Picasso painting.  Not really but you get the idea.  We do see everything fractured, face arms hands screen image.  So I thought this would be interesting to show.  You would have no idea what was going on if I didn't explain the scene.

So I do feel that I should show a more traditional portrait of him speaking.  His name is Frank Melillo and I have known him for years.  He is really the only member of the club doing real science in terms of observing and photographing the planets.  He spoke tonight about how to photograph the planets in the daytime, believe it or not.  But right after sunrise or just before sunset can be a good time for some of the planets.  And Frank is the master of that.

OK GET THIS...  Someone commented on the first photograph and wondered how the photograph would look with the bright white lights eliminated fron the photo.  I couldn't crop the lights out, so I retouched them out.  I LIKE THIS PHOTO BETTER!  So thanks to my anonymous commenter!