Our Movie Theater is Closed

When I moved to Sea Cliff in 1966 there were two movie theaters in Glen Cove, the next town over.  There were both in business for a number of years, then one closed.  Eventually the other closed, and so we had to drive to theaters in other towns.  Then about ten or fifteen years ago, a new theater was built when a redevelopment project took place.  We came here quite a bit because it was so close and had first run movies.  But in the last year or two, every time we saw a movie, there were very few people in the theater.  And a week or so ago, driving by the back of the theater, we realized that there were no movies listed.  It's gone.  The theater is closed.  I am not sure why it failed - are people only watching movies at home online, or on DVD?  The other theaters we go to seem pretty busy.  It is a mystery.

The Flowers by the Front Steps

I was backing down the driveway, to take stuff to the recycling center when I looked out the windshield and saw this. This is one of those cases where I walk by these flowers three times a day.  It was only at this particular time of day, and that I was looking at them from a different vantage point.  It was the brilliant pink flowers that first got my attention.  So I was in a hurry, and didn't stop to shoot the picture.  When I came back half an hour later, the sun had moved and the container of flowers in the back were in the shadows!  Oh no!  I quickly dragged it out of the shadows, and I had my shot.  NEVER wait to do a shot.  Never!  You could miss it entirely. 

Borrowing More Stuff

I took this photograph from a long way off.  You all know that Dean has loaned me his infrared camera, right?  Well, I borrowed something else to play with, from my friend John.  For the technically inclined, it is an 80mm refracting telescope, made by William Optics.  Its focal length is 555mm.  A common telephoto lens for a camera is 200mm, or maybe 300mm.  This telescope makes for a LONG telephoto lens.  I took it to Memorial Park in Sea Cliff which is about 200 feet above Hempstead Harbor, and was looking around for something interesting.  There was a sailing class going on, and they were doing some practice in rounding racing marks.  It's not a real race, because the boats are not of the same type.  It is kind of fun to put on a long lens like this, and then learn to look at the landscape,  squinting into the distance, to try and find a photograph from a long way away.

The Thunderstorm

We had a humdinger of a thunderstorm this afternoon!  Wow, did we get a lot of water in a short time.  So rather than go out IN the rain to shoot (am I getting lazy here, or do I just want to protect my new camera?  So I decided to stay dry and shoot from the porch.  What is happening to me?   :-)  I spent about 15 minutes during the heart of the storm looking for a decent shot.  I tried a close-up of the bell you see hanging there, but I think this is just more interesting.  More colorful, more beautiful "things" in the picture, and you can see the intensity of the rain. I think it has a lovely feel to it.

The Object

There is a division sometimes in photographs involving landscapes.  In my case, most of my landscapes are about the landscape itself.  But sometimes, what looks like a landscape is really more of a photograph of an object.  For me this particular photograph is about just the object - the tree in the center, and its shape.  It includes the surroundings, of course, but the center of the interest is just the tree. It is not easy to see, covered in leaves, but I kind of like that subtlety.

Day Lillies

I was on the way back from the grocery store with some stuff to cook for dinner.  This was before I was attacked at the beach by the killer gnats...   :-) I was coming down a street I drive on all the time.  Maybe it was because it was late in the day - later than I normally go to the store - but as I drove by I happened to notice these day lillies.  I think I noticed them because they were so brilliant, backlit by the sun.  It is as they were illuminated by little lights in each blossom.  And what made the shot even better was that the white fence is not brand new and perfectly painted.  That seems to add such richness to the photograph.

The Price I Paid

You will not believe the price I paid to take this picture!  At the end of my bike ride today, I saw a photograph that I thought might make a nice infrared shot.  But I didn't have that camera with me. So I went back down to the water after dinner, which was a couple of hours later.  Everything had changed of course.  So I decided to shoot this instead.  It was nice that the two kayaks were there.  But here is the bad part - at this time of year, and this time of day, the gnats were smothering!  Man, they were all over me - on my arms and my legs and in my hair!  I couldn't believe how many there were!  I was itching for an hour afterwards!  It was not fun.