Creepy Guy on Our Street

It had gotten dark, and I was walking up our hill after my 2 mile walk, when I noticed my shadow on the street as I walked under a street light.  I was all bundled up in a down jacket and wearing one of my ski caps.  I thought my shadow looked really creepy, so I decided to take a photograph, of course!  At least this not another shot of the sky and water down at the harbor!

The Tree That Keeps On Giving

The tree that just keeps on giving!  I took my walk today much later than I usually do.  The good news is that it stays light until much later.  But when I finished my walk and came up the driveway, it was almost dark.  But...   Because we have two pathway lights illuminating the driveway for Kathy's clients, they also shine on the Maple tree.  And this is the result.  When I took the first shot, I was so surprised that the longer exposure showed some light in the sky which made the photograph a whole lot more interesting.

Blue & Yellow

Look.  Another accidental photograph!  What?  How did that happen?  Well, I'll tell you.  I got off the train from the city, and walked down the platform to the street to cross the tracks.  My "toy" camera has auto-color balance and because I had been in a museum, it was set for tungsten light, which is the warm light from indoors.  While I was waiting to cross the street, I decided to look at a picture I had taken, and when I turned on the camera, this was what I saw on the LCD on the back of the camera.  I was outdoors at dusk when the light is very blue.  So this is what the camera saw.  I quickly snapped two pictures before the camera did the correct color balance and then these yellow poles and black pavement would look ordinary again.

The Strange Landscape

So this is an interesting story and a strange scene.  These are vines that have completely overgrown chain link fencing.  It turns out that about 10 years ago some builder bought about 5 lots that were along Shore road, and prepared to build houses on them.  Somehow there was some testing done after the lots were sold, and they discovered that the ground was polluted!  There had been a plant about half a mile down the road that produced gas from burning coal in the absence of air.  The remains of this process included nasty stuff like tar, clinkers from the coal, and ammonia.  So the  remains were apparently dumped where these 5 lots are located.  So everything came to a halt, and the area was fenced off, and the vines began to grow.  And this is the result.

The Birds!

I wasn't even chasing these birds!  I was walking by the parking lot at Tappan Beach when a car moving through the lot put up this group of birds. I promise I was not harassing them!  I had my camera ready, as I always do while I am taking my walk, so as they flew by, I managed to get this shot.  Reminded me of the Alfred Hitchcock movie!

You Don't See This Every Day...

I was on the way to the train station in the next town over, and I saw this as I went by.  They are demolishing this water tower so they can build a new one.  This one was built in the 1930's and sometimes in the winter it would leak, and then giant icicles would form, and then drop down with a sound like an explosion!  The new tank is going to cost $6.5 million dollars, and take 8 or 9 months to complete the project.

What is amazing is how quickly the demolition is going.  This is a photograph two days later, and a day after this there are only the legs of the tank sticking up into the sky.

Rain, and Some Rain, and Some More Rain...

Did I mention rain?  It rained today, not a heavy rain, but a steady rain for a good part of the day.  I decided I needed to record this in some way.  But instead of putting a closeup lens on the camera and going out under the tree to try and get a close view of some water drops, I dug out my 300mm f/2.8 telephoto lens and put it on my Nikon D300, which gave the equivalent of a 450mm lens.  So I stood on the porch out of the rain, and looked at the trees through the lens to try and find a nice composition.  I love this one because of the delicacy of the branches.  And if you enlarge the photo by clicking on it, you will see streaks of raindrops as well.