The Whale and the Waterfall

I spent some time photographing some of the old factories in Springfield.  Apparently water power was used in the old days for power, and in fact, there is apparently a small electric generating plant downriver that still operates.  I think that this waterfall is part of the water power arrangement.  Anyhow, I was prowling around at the end of the day, and saw this rock that appeared to be to be some kind of large fish swimming upstream.  OK, so I have a vivid imagination.  I mean, it does have two eyes...

Luey and Ann

I have been going to the Stellafane Convention for 25 years in a row.  Luey has been going there for 34 years!  He has had the food concession at the convention since before I first went there.  I happened to have a conversation with him on Friday night when it was quiet, and he said that this was going to be his last year.  This is a portrait of him and his wife Ann under their tent.  They have been married for 10 years now and she has been there helping him, side by side for the last ten years.  But he said the long days they have to put in are just too much at their age. Oh, and get this - in our conversation he mentioned that she is a cyclist, and rides 25 miles every day!  They are both such lovely people and I will really miss them in the years to come.

What's in the Garbage Can?

Why is everyone looking into and photographing the garbage can?  Clues can be found in the device on the stand to the left, and the bright thing on the stand in the far distance.  What we are looking at is a solar telescope.  The thing on the stand is a mirror which captures the sun, and reflects it onto another mirror way in the distance, and that mirror projects the image of the sun into a white card inside the garbage can.  You need the garbage can as a shield to keep stray sunlight off the sun,s image.  Everyone was amazed at the sun's image, including a sunspot or two, and everyone wanted to take a picture of the sun.

The Yankee Innkeeper

This is Chris, the innkeeper at the bed and breakfast where I was staying. What a great New England face he has, don't you think so?  So he and his wife were only temporary innkeepers while the owners were away, however.  The first morning, he served me breakfast, and we started talking.  He is an amazing guy, and was an audio engineer for years.  He was born and raised and lived in New Jersey  and worked in New York City until he retired.  He's not a Yankee at all.  We talked about all kinds of different interests we have, and then I realized I needed to take his portrait, and he agreed.

The Milky Way

 

What a spectacular evening observing!  The sky, black as coal, and the stars upon stars, like handfuls of diamonds thrown into the sky!  It was a magical evening, and I decided to photograph the Milky Way with a wide-angle lens.  Those of you who remember my post about the teapot from two weeks ago might be able to find the teapot at the bottom of this image.  These are the nights we live for!

After Edward Hopper

After dinner the other night, the sun was still up, so I drove to downtown Springfield, VT to look for photographs.  There are some old factories that are there - more on this another day - and then I saw the late afternoon sun on these two homes on Main Street.  They caught my eye right away because of the light on them, and it felt as if the lighting was similar to that in so many paintings by Edward Hopper.  It's funny, there was no question about composition with this image.  Sometimes I look around for 15 minutes and try different things, but not for this photo.  It felt right just like this.

The Nap, and The Rain

So I was in the Hartness House astronomy workshop all day today, and there were wonderful presenters from all over the United States, talking about solar astronomy.  But all day in a room listening to lectures does make one sleepy at the end of the day.  So I headed out to the car during the start of the cocktail hour, to grab 40 winks.  I woke up with the rain pouring down on the car - I could barely see 50 feet the rain was so heavy.  I thought, "Well, I guess I either will miss cocktails, or get soaked" so I stayed in the car and waited for the rain to stop.  Suddenly, as the rain was ending I saw this out my car window.  I quickly rolled down the window, and shot two frames, and then the rays of the sun were gone, as the last of the rain stopped.  I lucked out!