Bleak House

"Bleak House." Is that the name of one of those PPS series? I digress. We were having coffee and a donut at a Dunkin' Donuts nearby and I happened to look out the window at this structure. It is a multi level parking garage. It works just fine, but man, it is ugly to look at, isn't it? I am not sure how they could make this structure look warm at all. I think it looks like an abandoned block house at a missile launch site. In my imagination, I guess. It's just that I wouldn't want to live here.

A Do-Over!

I want a "do-over." I photographed this plant a couple of weeks ago, and posted it. I only included about two or three buds or blossoms in that photo. This morning I happened to look down at the plant as I passed by the garden. It rained cats and dogs last night, and there were more blossoms showing than two weeks ago, and they all had water drops in them. So I grabbed the camera and did this photo. I like this version a whole lot more, because I like the pattern. You should see how nice it looks when blown up to fill the whole computer screen.

1495 - A Milestone!

I recently passed a landmark without realizing it. I went to check how many posts I have made since starting the blog. The number is 1495. When I divided that number by 365, the answer was 4.095 - the number of years I have been doing the blog! Wow! The reason I looked up the number of posts was because my friend Mike is teaching a course in digital photography at a college in Washington, DC, and wanted me to talk to his class about my blog. Of course I am still on Long Island, so we chatted with Skype on our computers. He used a projector in his classroom so everyone could watch my interview. This is a quick shot I did of my computer screen showing Mike at the start of the interview. Mike and I go way back - we first met while students at RIT back in 1960, and we were also on the varsity fencing team together. Oh, and he is a better fencer than I am!

The Crack of Dawn, Part Two

On Saturday morning I awoke to fog and posted a picture of that on the blog. What was really interesting is, by the end of the day, most all of the clouds had vanished and the sky was nearly clear at sunset. There were a few high clouds to the west and that added to a lovely sunset that ended the day. I love the contrast between the beginning of the day, and day's end.

Lunch On The Porch

Yesterday was warm enough so I decided to have lunch on the porch for the first time this year. Bundled up with a jacket on, of course. I made a sandwich and put it on a plate and poured a glass of soda and went out to the porch. I set the soda and plate on the floor while I went to get the small wicker table to put my lunch on. But then I looked down, and saw this spray of light, caused by the sunlight shining through the glass of soda. Wow, what a cool looking pattern of light! So I grabbed my camera, photographed this 4 different ways, and picked this one. I like that it is not obvious what this is at first. Oh, then I ate my lunch.

The Crack of Dawn

I actually got up at the crack of dawn today. That would be 6:30 AM, my version of "the crack of dawn." I was headed out to an FAA safety seminar at MacArthur Airport in Islip. I was really anxious to hear this presentation, because it was by a photographer who has done work for Flying Magazine for years, and I wanted to meet him. When I woke, it was foggy outside and overcast. As I headed down toward the Long Island Expressway, the clouds began to thin just a bit, and I was able to see the sun's disk through the clouds, and here it is. The lecture, by the way, was wonderful, and I got to talk to the photographer for quite a while, which was really nice.

Having Lunch

I had lunch with a friend last week. It's funny, we talked a hundred miles an hour - it has been a couple of years so we had a lot of catching up to do. Here is what is funny, though... I am never not looking around, even in a restaurant, to see if I can find some kind of blog photo. I look around while waiting outside, and while eating. Not in an intense way, mind you, but just kind of always being aware what is around me. I didn't find anything. But when we stood up to leave, I turned toward the window and saw all these chairs. Bingo! I liked the repetitive pattern and the different angles.