Mister Speed Graphic Head

I am a part of the "Project Astro" program, where amateur astronomers are paired up with a science teacher to help teach several classes during the year.  So today I made my second visit to two middle school science classes.  I brought three of my telescopes, and some lenses, and a couple of mirrors, and this old Speed Graphic.  The camera was to demonstrate the fact that the image formed by a lens is always upside down.  They loved looking through this great old camera.  And this student had it positioned perfectly for an interesting shot!

Emergence

I noticed that my favorite tree had some faint green color at the ends of its branches, so I went to investigate, with my macro lens.  There were the tiniest bits of leaves beginning to unfold from tiny red pods.  This photograph makes the leaves look much larger than they are.  This tree never fails to amaze me!  This is worth clicking on to see in more detail.

Father & Daughter

I saw that there was a car show down in the Tappan Beach parking lot today, so late this afternoon I decided to go down there and see if I could find a photo.  I was looking for interesting photographs of the old cars that have all been restored.  I got some things, but nothing that was exceptional.  Then I saw this.   Click, click, click, and it was over.  It was a father with a cell phone camera, and he was photographing his daughter's reflection in a chrome hubcap!  He was telling her to get closer or farther away for the best image, and they were both having so much fun.  It was a precious moment that made my day!

Over and Over and Over Again

Whenever I pull the car into the driveway at night, and there are no leaves on this tree, I see the branches in such strange light, illuminated by the reflection of the headlights from the ground.  Every time I saw this, I thought: "I really need to take a photograph of this."  But I didn't.  Not sure why - maybe it seemed like too much work at the end of the night.  Finally I realized that I really did need to take this photograph.  So I parked the car part way in the driveway, and part way in the street, got out a tripod, and finally took the photograph.  It is everything I expected.  Please click on this to see all the detail in the tree.

Ansel Adams, in a Parking Lot

We went to a conference center tonight, to watch a special movie, and when we arrived in the parking lot, I found there were these flowering trees everywhere.  It was a beautiful sight, and so I went looking for a photograph.  I worked really hard to make the picture look as if it was taken in the winderness.  Then it hit me - I was trying to do an Ansel Adams photograph in a parking lot!  So here it is, and in beautiful black and white!

Waiting for the ISS

Whenever the the International Space Station makes a pass overhead shortly after sunset, the predicted times and directions become available well in advance, and at the appointed time we go outside to see if we can see it.  It looks like a very bright star, moving from horizon to horizon in 3 or 4 minutes.  So it was a clear evening, but the sky was fairly bright which makes it harder to see.  I went down to the harbor with my 7x50 binoculars, and waited for it to appear.  But I never saw it.  Fortunately I had my toy camera with me, and so I realized I could end up with a blog shot, so I used the self timer, and balanced the camera on a bench, and this is the result, tilted horizon and all.

Magic

OK, truth telling here.  I was at my astronomy meeting and telling a fellow photographer that I did not yet have a photograph for the blog today!  Yikes!  So the pressure was on, on the way home.  I did remember an abandoned gas station that I did a quick snapshot of a month ago so I thought I would drive be and see what the possibilities were.  This is part of the gas station, but not what I was thinking of.  It was actually better because I didn't know the tree was there.  But the best part is the circle, which is caused by internal reflections in my zoom lens.  That was a gift - lucky me!