Purple Flowers

The other day I spoke of dropping my car off for an inspection in Glen Head, and then walking home. When the car was done I walked the two miles back to the garage.  I photographed on both walks and this photograph of flowers is a favorite.  I love the purple flowers in this photograph and so spent some time trying to get a nice photograph of them and the other plants around them.  Fortunately, I have faithful readers who will know what flowers these are. Thank you in advance!

 

The Sublime Sycamore Trees

I never tire of looking at these beautiful trees - the Sycamore trees that line Shore Road in Sea Cliff!  Their tops and foliage have been pruned over the years to all be about the same size because they are so close to one another.  The patterns on their trunks are fascinating to see - some are sort of a Rorschach test to see if you can find faces or other figures in their bark. And to see these almost identical trees lined up like fence posts is just so beautiful.  I have never tired of looking for different views of them over the years.

 

The Rose

Last year Kathy bought two new Rose bushes by mail order.  For you gardeners, I am sorry that I don't know where she bought them.  I helped her plant them and they have done well.  What a difference in the blossoms last year and this year!  So we were sitting eating dinner and suddenly I jumped up from my place, grabbed my SONY a7 camera from the shelf and ran out to the garden!  I shot three different blossoms in about 30 seconds then ran back in the house, put the camera down and resumed eating my dinner!  I apologized for abandoning my dinner, but I think it was worth it!

 

Flowers Are Where You Find Them

I was making my two mile walk back from dropping my car off at the shop for a NYS Inspection, and as always, I carry my camera and look for photographs.  I saw these wild Roses, I think they are, on a fence surrounding a whole collection of marine equipment.  I composed carefully to leave out the chain link fence and I think I have a nice composition.  But then after getting that shot it occurred to me to back up just a bit and show you where the roses actually are!

They are less than a foot from the sign announcing the marine facility!  Then I thought it would interesting for you to see where they actually are.  In the first photograph, you might think they were in someone's garden!

 

A Maple Tree in the Ivy

I went out to get the paper this morning and happened to glance to the right going down the driveway and saw this tiny Maple tree growing out of the ivy.  It was the contrast of the small and the large and the bright green and the dark green that made the tree stand out for me.  As I look at this now, I realize that one mistake that I made was that I never backed away just a bit and got more ivy and a smaller tree.  That might have improved this photograph just a bit.  Or maybe this is just fine.  Actually I should be able to do it again tomorrow morning and see if it looks better with more ivy around the maple.

 

An Engagement?

We went down to the Dunkin' beach this afternoon, just to go for a walk.  I had my camera with me with a long telephoto lens on it.  We saw this couple walking by along the walk dressed formally, toward "The Tree" and when they got there they set up a phone on a stand, and started doing either still photographs or videos of themselves.  They didn't appear to be part of a wedding.

I became fascinated with what they were doing and of course snapped a few photographs when I thought they were doing something interesting.

We sat down on a bench off to the right of the tree, and that's when I got this photograph.  She is clearly showing him her ring, and I am guessing this is the day they got engaged!  What a nice thing to see them taking photographs of themselves to have memories of their engagement day.

 

Tire Tracks

When we were at the beach yesterday not only did I photograph the boys and their mother, but after that as we walked back to the car, I was still looking for other photographs.  As I passed this sunbather, I was taken by the tire tracks in the sand!  Clearly the tire tracks were from some beach equipment, but it almost looks as if he was either run over or is going to be run over!  Just a silly thought of trying to make sense of this scene.  Hey, when you are desperate...  One thing I noticed afterwards is that the towel and blanket by him are blue like the water in the distance.  I think that helps the photograph in some way.

 

How To Take a Picture

So I am showing these photographs in reverse order.  "How to take a picture" works like this, at least today.  I saw a mother and father sitting on the rocks above the harbor.  Way over to their left their three boys were wading in the water.  They were too far apart to get them in one photograph.  So, looking at the photograph below, I concentrated on the boys as they waded out further in the water.  I took about 6 photographs, and it was all about the relationship between the boys and which way they were facing and how far apart they were.  So the photo below was the best one, with what I thought was the best arrangement.  Sort of how did the shapes arranged make the best photo.

So now we can go back to the first photograph.  Eventually the boys waded in far enough so that they were now closer to their mom in the same frame.  So I started shooting as they moved around, and their mom had her hand in her hair.  I guess I did about 6 photographs because everyone was changing places quickly.  So the first photograph is my favorite from both sets of images.

 

Blue & Blue & White

Tuesday is Dunkin' at the beach, as usual.  After sitting in the car with our coffee, tea and our donuts, we got out and walked a little.  We went up to a tree that I have photographed so many times, and sat on a bench that looked north.  Here is Kathy sitting on the bench.  You do recognize this tree, right?

Anyhow on this clear morning we had no idea what a beautiful view it was to the north with blue water, blue sky and a deck of clouds cutting through the photograph!  So that view was so striking that we have decided from now on to have our coffee and donuts while sitting on this bench!  If it's not raining, of course!  Please be sure and click on the first photograph to see it larger.  It is a stunning photograph!

 

Memorial Day, 2026 - Flags but no Parade

Unfortunately, it was raining early this morning, and was still sprinkling when the Sea Cliff Memorial Day Parade would have started at 9:00 AM.  So, sadly, no parade this year.  But they did put out the American flags on all the lamp posts.  By the time I drove up to Sea Cliff avenue thinking I would take a photograph like this, it was closer to 10:00 AM and the streets were almost dry.  I have discussed an article written by a Newsday writer back in 1985 where he talked of the Memorial Day parades he used to watch in his small town in Maine and when he went back, they no longer had a parade.  It made me realize that there were parades every year here in Sea Cliff on Memorial Day, and so I started attending them each year because of the importance of honoring those who sacrificed their lives in war. So I am sorry that the weather didn't cooperate this year.  But I wanted to make note of Memorial Day, in some way, in the blog.

 

Strange Shapes in the Dark

I woke up one morning, sleeping the the guest bedroom and Liz and Sarah's.  There were these strange dark shaped in the early light before dawn.  I knew what they were but they seemed so strange to me.  So I got out of bed, got my camera and got back in bed and took this photograph.  What you are seeing is my towel, hung on one post of the four-poster bed. In the middle of the photograph, bottom is a "cat tree" I think they are called.  There is a central stalk and then three sort of "baskets" with soft material in them where cats can sleep.  You see one completely and then the other has some stuff in it.  I just thought that this was such a different picture because of the strange shapes.

Look at This Bread!

You all know that Kathy is a first rate bread baker, right?  Well, the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree.  Liz baked these loaves of bread when we were in Los Angeles!  These are beyond stunning and they were absolutely delicious.  What is amazing is that these loaves of bread look like they had come from a professional bakery!  Everything is perfect about them.  Bread baking is a mystery to me because of all the things involved that a baker has to know.  And then you have to know how to fix all the problems if a loaf doesn't come out perfectly, and both Kathy an Liz are experts at this as well.  Fresh, hot bread! Yummmmm.

 

Windows and Trees

                               

I often walk with Liz when she brings the dogs out walking in the neighborhood and I am always finding new photographs.  What's funny is that over the years she and Sarah have been in their house, we sort of take the same route over and over.  So I have passed many of the scenes many times.  And then one day, I suddenly see a photograph!  That is the case with this photograph.  It is the side of a really large church that I have passed so often.  It is Zion Hill Baptist Church, a huge and beautiful building.  But on this day, I saw the strange shapes of the trees against the pattern of the windows and there was my photograph. I like this a lot.

Doing Some Painting

We have had these four small pieces of wicker on the front porch for about 30 years or so, along with a large wicker chair and a larger table.  The wicker is old and eventually the white paint fades and the wicker gets dirty and looks awful.  So I paint it all maybe every 8 years or so.  But using an automobile spray gun and compressor, the paint has to be thinned and I would put three coats on the wicker and it would only look OK.  So I bought a new HPLV spray gun that you hold in your hand and it plugs into an extension cord.  No air compressor required!  And it sprays a much thicker latex paint.  This time the wicker almost looks brand new!  With only one coat of paint!  Wow, so much easier.

So here are five of the pieces back on the porch, looking almost brand new!  What a wonderful feeling of accomplishment to get all of these painted, over a two day period.  The porch now looks so much nicer!

 

The March 13, 1989 Aurora!

On March 13, 1989 I was out in the side yard using a new telescope and I was not paying attention to the time.  It was aboutr 2:00 AM and I had to get up for work in the morning.  I began to notice a greenish glow on the horizon and I thought it was light pollution from Glen Cove but I didn't recall the greenish tint.  Gradually the green went away and was replaced by a brighter reddish glow.  Finally it dawned on me - I was seeing an aurora!  And seeing an aurora so far south from the northern latitudes was very unusual.  So I ran in the house, grabbed film Nikon and a 20mm lens and some 3,200 speed Fuji color negative film and quickly set to work as one area of the sky would fade and another area would begin to show color!  It was just astounding to see!

Look how brilliant the red color was!  And you can see the Big Dipper hanging in the top of the photograph.  The reason you are seeing these photographs now, 37 years later is because I received a phone call from a company that sells college-level courses to the public, and a professor is making a new course and one episode will be about the 1989 eclipse!  The producer had looked everywhere and couldn't find any photographs of the event, until he found some of my photos online somewhere!  So how cool will that be for me to be part of the course.  I will get a copy of the course when it is done!  Oh, and by about 3:00AM the aurora had completely faded and I finally went to bed!

 

LA Freeways

I was glued to the window as we approached LAX and I had been taking photographs all the way.  When were about 6 miles from landing we flew over these two intersecting expressways.   I was stunned by the sight of this intersection!  You are looking south at the intersection of Interstate 110 running from bottom to top of the photo, and Interstate 105 running east and west.  I couldn't believe the complexity of all the ramps connecting the two expressways!  Years ago in Rochester, NY they rebuilt a smaller complex connection of two expressways and that was known as "The Can of Worms" which is funny but which seemed really appropriate.  Since everyone who has been to Los Angeles always talks about "the freeways out there!" I though this would be an interesting photograph for those who have driven the freeways.  Please click on this image because I posted a larger size showing more detail.

 

Venus and a Delicate Crescent Moon

After dinner tonight we needed to take a quick drive up to Stop and Shop for a few things that our local grocery store does not have.  What great luck. I happened to look out my drivers side window and saw a beautiful and delicate crescent moon in the sky, with the planet Venus very close to it.  It was not in a black sky but rather in a delicate pastel blue sky which made it even more beautiful.

I thought the best photograph would be this close-up so I did this first and then as an afterthought, decided to do a wider angle view with trees and the Moon and Venus so much smaller.  But now I think that wide-angle view was a far more interesting photograph.  Not sure what you all think. NOTE these are extra large images so please click on them to enlarge them and see more detail.

 

The Price of Gas!

Liz was driving us over to Amy's after picking us up at the airport and we were driving up Lincoln Avenue and that's when we went by the first gas station.  I couldn't believe my eyes - $6.49 per gallon!  Unbelievable!  A few days later Liz and I went to pick up some food for dinner and she stopped to get gas. It was a really busy station so I didn't get out of the car.  When we were driving back to the house I asked how much it cost to fill up and Liz said $80.00!  Yikes!  EIGHTY DOLLARS to fill the tank?  So I did the math and she only got 12 gallons of gas.  That's nuts!  I filled up my tank before we left for California and I paid $4.29 a gallon. here in NY.  Poor Californians, with the huge STATE taxes on gas, that is just killing them!  Here are some numbers in cents per gallon:  Connecticut $0.25,  New York $0.25, and California $0.71.  There ought to be a law!

 

A Neighbor's Cactus

The houses where Liz and Sarah live are pretty close together.  I am standing in their driveway, and looking at their neighbor's cactus which is just over the fence in their neighbor's yard.  Such beautiful cacti and beautiful flowers..  I don't know the kind of flowers these are, but they are on separate stalks just in front of the cacti.  I photographed this scene a couple of times before I got this photograph.

 

Such an Unusual Landscape From The Air

Sitting at the window watching the world go by, and then suddenly I saw this.  It looks like something with tentacles creeping out over the landscape!  So this is near Terre Haute, Indiana and this tan and green landscape design was visible for miles.  The dark green tentacles are forested land!  And in between the land with trees are farmers fields and if you look closely you can see their rectangular shape in many cases.  I wondered what crops the farmers grew here and Wikipedia told me: "The landscape around Terre Haute is mostly flat, fertile farmland along the Wabash River valley, which is especially suited for large-scale grain farming.  Historically, the area has long been associated with cornfields and hog farms." How cool is it to know this after seeing the landscape from 34,000 feet! I posted an extra large image so please click on this image to see more detail.

First Sight of Home

We left Los Angeles on an early flight this morning - 9:00 AM.  Whew, had to wake at 5:30 to get to the airport by 7:00 AM.  Beautiful flight home, clear skies for more than half the trip.  We approached New York from the west then at the Hudson River, we turned south and went over Manhattan and then Brooklyn and then 25 miles out into the Atlantis Ocean before turning and heading north.  We went half way to the north shore of Long Island before turning south toward JFK for our final approach.  When the plane banked to head south, there was Hempstead Harbor in the distance!  So it was our first view of home after having been away for the week.  A sight for sore eyes!

 

The Gymnast

Vivian has been doing gymnastic training for two years now, and man oh man, is she getting good at it.  She is now working on being able to do a hand stand, which she is doing here, and then to hold the hand stand for two entire seconds.  I snapped this photograph as she was going through the handstand, without stopping and holding the vertical position.  She is almost there it seems.  What is interesting is that the coach says the handstand is the foundation of all gymnastics!  I did not know that!

 

The Venice Sign

We had dinner in a really nice Chinese restaurant in Venice tonight.  As we left and turned the corner, there was the beautiful Venice sign against a twilight sky!  The perfect time to photograph it!   Venice, California was founded by Abbot Kinney in 1905, and this sign was illuminated for the first time on the Fourth of July.  The sign was restored in 2007 with a modern day replica, and it is beautiful to see.  It is a tribute to the celebrated Venice of years past and a modern day gateway to the world famous Venice Beach.

 

Randy's Donuts

If you have been to Los Angeles and have not had any Randy's Donuts, then you have not seen Los Angeles!  I had heard of Randy's Donuts of course, but had never seen it until Liz and Amy brought us there in December of 2017.  Here is the Building that I photographed back then.

After Sunday Mass yesterday, Liz said she knew of a Randy's Donuts location in Santa Monica so we walked over and bought almost a dozen donuts, including what is called "A Texas Glazed Donut." On the tag in the display case it said that donut alone was 1000 calories!  Yikes!  I will say this, they taste really good!  I know because I ate more than my share!

 

Going To Church For Mother's Day

Kathy had heard about St. Monica's Catholic Community, as it is called, from a priest in Boston, Mass, and she has wanted to come here.  Mother's day was the day, so she and Liz and Amy and Vivian and I all attended Mass today.  It it a beautiful church, completed in 1925, and a vibrant parish from what we experienced. They gave out carnations to each of the mothers in attendance.  It was a wonderful way to celebrate Mother's Day!

This is an interior of the church showing the altar.  Look at how beautiful it is.  In a way it is a shame to show all of this without the people in it - the church was packed, but it would seem inappropriate for me to photograph during Mass.

 

Our Amazing Land II

I took this photograph before I took yesterday's photo of the desert in Arizona.  We had been approaching the Rockies and then suddenly when the higher mountains appeared, their tops were frosted with snow!  What a beautiful sight!  I kept looking as we flew west and then I noticed something unusual in the loser right center of the photo - thin lines of white snow going down the mountain into the dark area below the snow caps.  So as we got closer, I zoomed in with my lens to see what it was.

My first guess was that this was most likely a ski area and these were the trails going down the mountain.  So I took several close up photographs as the airplane flew on.  After we were passed this area I looked at my iPad which has an aircraft navigation application on it and there on the map, right next to the little blue airplane icon was printed "Telluride Ski Resort!"  How cool is that to be able to figure out where I was exactly!  And what unusual "markings" on the side of the mountain.  Our amazing land, indeed!

 

Our Amazing Land

As you know when I fly on a commercial aircraft, I keep my nose pressed up against the window and with my camera in my hand, I watch the world go by us from above.  "Our Amazing Land" is all I can think of as I fly from New York to California. So many different landforms and so many different colors, and we go from flying over New York City to farmlands and the Mississippi River, and then the praries and the mountains of Colorado, and then the desert lands of the western states.  This desert area is in Arizona, and I took this photograph just east of Lake Powell, which is the Colorado River held back by the Glen Canyon Dam. And below the dam the Colorado River goes all the way to Grand Canyon.  What amazing and astounding landscapes I get to fly over.  What an amazing land we live in!

 

The Influencer

I am going to tell you a story of what I observed on the flight today.  I don't want this to feel like in any way involves any judgement at all, because that is not my intent.  I am always fascinated with the work that people do and how it works and what is involved. So here is my story.  I had the window seat, Kathy the middle seat and this woman the aisle seat.  As the airplane pushed back from the gate this woman plugged her phone into an auxiliary battery but I was not sure why.  Then holding the phone in two hands she started typing with both thumbs at a really fast pace.  Then after a while she began swiping her fingers across the phone, I am assuming she was visiting websites.  Then back to typing, and typing and typing.  The short version is that for the entire flight, from before takeoff until after landing in Los Angeles, a period of 5 hours and 30 minutes, she continued typing and swiping.  I was stunned at how hard she was working with her phone.  I have never seen anything like this in my life, the concentration and the intensity!  I guessed that perhaps she was in "influencer" who probably has a large audience and so keeps needing to feed her followers.  I asked Amy about this and she said that a really good influencer will take the time to personally answer some of her follower's questions, and who will also take the time to visit other influencer's sites and compliment them on something they posted, and usually that person will return the favor by visiting her site and leaving a compliment.  So clearly being an influencer is a LOT of work.  I mean, this young woman had to have been the hardest working person on this flight!  It was an amazing thing to see.  I was hoping that I would have time to talk to her for just a bit, but she was out of her seat and down the aisle to the exit before we got out of our seats.

Ted Turner Died Today

"Ted Turner, Creator of CNN and the 24-Hour News Cycle, Dies at 87. As one of the most important figures in media history, he oversaw a vast cable empire of news, sports and entertainment channels."

I got to meet him in 1974 when he was chosen to defend the America's Cup, as skipper of a radically new 12-meter design by Britton Chance.  He was an astounding sailor, one of his great passions in life.  The boat was sponsored by the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and we were doing a story about him and the defense of the cup.  So I went to the Merchant Academy and thought I would be riding along in one of the other boats so that I could get to photograph him, from a distance.  We were all standing around on the dock and he was figuring out who would crew which boat.  Mariner was going to be sailing alongside Valiant, a 12-meter from years before.  You always sail against another boat to see how good your new boat is.  So he needed a crew for Valiant as well as Mariner.  So he is counting crew members and I am standing there with cameras hanging off of me, and I hear him holler out at me: "Youngblood, can you grind a winch?"  I immediately replied "Yes Sir" and with that I was going to be on the crew of Valiant for the day!  I was only needed as a winch grinder when the boat was running before the wind, and I would go down below and man a two man winch with another of the crew!  The rest of the time I was up where I could photograph to my hearts content! What a thrill that was.  He was a funny guy and kept cracking everyone up while sailing.  "You two guys go back where you came from, the pointy end of the boat." which is hysterical for a sailor who had sailed through some terrifying storms and you would think would use the correct nautical terms!  It was one of those unexpected great moments in life.

 

Flying a 727 Airline Flight Simulator!

                             

This is an incredible story!  Years ago I got to fly a TWA flight simulator, and did takeoffs and landings for three hours!  Do I look happy?  The grin says it all!  The way it happened was that we had a new visitor at one of our astronomy meetings.  He was a friend of a member.  After the meetings we used to go to a diner for coffee and dessert.  I got talking with Lou and it turns out he was a "Check Airman" for TWA which meant he flew with pilots to evaluate them.  And he also did stints as a simulator instructor!  When he found out I was a pilot he asked if I would like to fly a simulator some time.  I immediately said "Yes!" but never dreaming it would happen.  He called and said to drive down to a hangar at JFK.  An instructor for flight engineers was working with two new flight engineers, but someone had to fly the plane so the engineers could work through emergencies.  So since he was not training pilots or first officers, he said that basically all he did was fly arountd while the instructor failed systems and the engineers had to run checklists. So after we "took off" he said "the airplane is yours. Go anywhere you want.  The really nice thing was that when the engineer training was over, we stayed in the simulator and he let me do takeoffs and landings at LaGuardia airport!  Simulated, of course! 

This is a photograph of the TWA full motion simulator.  What that means is that the cockpit is up in the air in the building and is supported by hydraulic activators, moves with the inputs that are put in by the flight controls.  If I pulled back on the wheel the whole sim pointed it's nose in the air.  If I pushed foraward on the wheel and turned left, the sim pointed down and tilted left!  It was so realistic that it was not funny!  And of course for this kid, fascinated my whole life by airplanes, it was the dream of a lifetime.  What an incredlbly generous gift Lou gave to me on that night!

From My Archive I

I have been digging around and finding old 35mm color negatives, which, when you look at them, is hard to know exactly how good the photo is.  So I have this system where I photograph those negatives with my SONY camera and macro lens, and then open the image in Photoshop, and then do an "Invert" which makes the whites black and the blacks white - so I am making a "postive" from a negative. So fortunately these negatives in an envelope mentioned where this was taken.  Mt. Ascutney in Vermont.  My friend Mike Terenzoni and I hiked up here on one of our visits to Stellafane in 2001.  I thought this would be more interesting than another photograph of the harbor down the street.

 

Ferns in the Ivy

We have ivy all around the property, and most obviously on the front bank from the lawn in front of the house, down to the street.  But those ferns are not up yet.  But some of them have migrated over underneath the Japanese maple tree.  They are pretty, rooted within the ivy because they sit isolated and surrounded by the ivy.  I tried this photograph in color but the green ivy blended into the green ferns.   So I got out my modified old SONYcamera that is sensitive to infrared light, and photographed them with that.  I love using this camera from time to time because it sees the world, and particularly plants that have clorophyl in them, in a completely different way.  Those plants reflect more infrared light and you can see the effect, above, that they appear brighter white in tone.

 

Judy's Dogwood

This is the Dogwood tree in Judy's yard, our next door neighbor.  It is such a joy and a beautiful thing to see in early spring each year.  There is a history of Dogwoods between three houses next to each other.  We had two Dogwoods in our yard when we first bought the house.  One was next to the garage, growing out of the ivy and it was gorgeous!  We had another one on the west side of our property right by the front porch.  Our neighbor for so many years, Larry, had one on the other side of our property line, near our back door.  In the spring it seemed that there were Dogwoods everywhere.  Well, there was some kind of disease going around.  We lost our largest and most beautiful tree by the garage first. Then Larry lost his by our back door, and finally we lost ours by the front porch.  It is amazing that Judy's tree survives and we are thankful for that.

 

Good as New

The Adirondack chairs are done!  I finished putting the last parts on the second chair today.  For the second chair, on the right I had to repair two of the vertical slats that make the back.  The bottoms of the slats had rotted and so I cut off the bad parts and glued in replacement wood.  For the seat, I had to make two new slats that had completely rotted. But now both chairs are as good as new.  I never realized how much work it would take to do the repairs!  That was a surprise to me. But there's a great deal of satisfaction in restoring something to make is look like new again.  By the way, there are some faint shadows on the chairs, so they don't look perfectly white in the photo.

This was what the second chair looked like before I began my restoration process.  As you can see it was in pretty bad shape, 

 

Personal History I

I have never been good at carefully keeping track of my photographs and negatives, until the digital age. Back in the age of film photography, in this case in the early 1990's  I attended three photographic workshops with a photographer from Arizona. He took us to really interesting areas.  One year part of our trip was to the Barry Goldwater Bombing Range.  There was an important archaeological area that was a buffer around the bombing range and so the US Air Force was required to allow visitors during certain periods.  There were a group of maybe 14 of us, many who were using 4x5 view cameras as I was.  We camped for a week in the desert areas, one of which was the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Area, which is right on the border with Mexico.  I am sure that now that would no longer be possible because soon after that trip, they shut down The Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument because of migrants using those areas to come across the border to the United States.  It was a great trip, though.  I found some negatives in my darkroom today and this was one of them.  Man, who is the cool dude with the aviator sunglasses?

 

Stan's Talk About Photographing the Space Shuttle

Stan came out from the city this afternoon and we got to hang out and talk and look at photographs and the try out the old Leica lens on my new Sony camera.  Then I fixed Mediterranean Salmon for dinner which is a favorite - he says its the only reason he comes out!  And then we were off to the Astronomy meeting where he gave a spectacular talk and slideshow of what it was like for him to photograph all the Space Shuttle launches and landings for the last 5 years of the program, for Agence France-Presse where he worked.  He had a lot of "behind the scenes" photographs which was wonderful - not the kinds of things we usually see having to do with the shuttle program.

This was one of the photographs in the presentation.  One time he got to go way up on the gantry that surrounds the shuttle until just before launch.  He said it was amazing to be so close to the shuttle and to be able to look down on it when it was on the pad where it was launched from.  It was an amazing talk which everyone loved! (Photograph Copyright © by Stan Honda)