My Ice Obsession!

I am sorry for my obsession with ice on the harbor.  But I have just realized it is really the only visible sign of the many days of below freezing temperatures.  This may look similar to a post two days ago, but although it is subtle, the ice is extended further out into Long Island Sound.  Click on these first two photographs to try and see where the water is.  It is an extremely thin line of darker blue just before the shoreline where the buildings are.

And once again, Sands Point to the left and Execution Rocks in the distance.  If you compare this to the photograph from two days ago, you will see the ice is closer.  I think this is the largest ice cover that we will see.  It was not that cold last night or today, so I believe from this day on, the ice will be shrinking. But what an amazing thing we have seen.  1977 was the last time we had this much ice on the harbor.  I just did the math, and that was 49 years ago!  So these are relatively historical photographs, I believe.

And, closer to home, this is a view looking down over the railing along the sidewalk that runs along the edge of the harbor.  It is so interesting to me to see details in the ice which has broken apart and then re-frozen as the tide rises and falls.  I think this is abstract art.  Or not!

 

Theree Degrees!

Not a very interesting photograph today.  But what a story it tells!  Can you see the story?  The number 3 in the upper right had corner tells the story.  That 3 is the temperature this morning when I woke up!  Yikes!  I read in the paper the other day, that this is the second coldest winter since the winter of 1977- 1978 which was colder.  I have a 360 degree panorama that I took in 1977 when the harbor froze over.  In the panorama I was out on the ice, half way to Port Washington.  I was actually standing by a buoy! That was a cold winter and this one is too!  I want it to be warmer!

 

A Different View of The Harbor

This is the harbor looking out from Sea Cliff beach, which faces north.  A couple of days ago I did an aerial photograph of this part of the harbor with my drone.  So on this day, after I did the drone photographs I saw that there were some nice photographs to be had from the ground.  What is interesting here at Sea Cliff beach are the really thick ice blocks that we are not seeing on the beach at the foot of our hill.  The difference is that at our beach, there are sandbars that go out at least one hundred or more feet.  Here at this beach, the beach drops off quickly.  The light was perfect for this, illuminating the ends of the blocks making them look more three dimensional.

When I turned and looked to the west, the low afternoon sun showed the blocks of ice in different light and I loved the dark clouds on the horizon.

When I was done down on the beach I drove up to the park that overlooks the harbor and got a nice sense of how far out the ice is.  I love the bright light on part of the ice - that was formed by the clouds blocking the light from the dark areas.  The tall buildings you see on the skyline in the center are in New Rochelle.

Then I used a long telephoto lens and you can see Sands Point with all the trees, then the mansion on the tip of the land, and then in the distance, Execution Rocks and the lighthouse.  The ice from Hempstead Harbor at this point is way beyond the harbor itself now.

 

Same Scene, Different Weather, No.2

Well, here it is, the photograph I mentioned in my post yesterday.  How many times have you seen this scene at Tappan Beach photographed for the blog?  A lot, right?  This was the scene I saw driving by and made a note to come back and photograph this like I have never seen it before.  Ice on the harbor, ice on the rocks surrounding the point and beyond that, snow on everything else.  Such a dramatic change from all my other photographs!  The forecast is for really cold weather tomorrow night and Sunday, and then warming to 35 degrees on Tuesday and 42 degrees on Wednesday.  The snow will finally begin to melt!

 

Same Subject, Different Weather

I have been so interested in doing aerial photographs with my drone, that I haven't been paying attention to what's on the ground.  On the way to do some errands today, I drove by a familiar place that looked completely different because of the ice all over it.  It was not this place - I will show that shot tomorrow.  But on the way to that place I drove by this golf course that I pass all the time.  I did a beautiful photograph here some years ago, with fall color on the trees.  So I see this scene all the time, but there is never anything to get me to stop and photograph it. Until today.  The snow on the ground changed things and we can see the silhouettes of the tree trunks and the shadows of other trees on the snow, which adds more interest, I think.

 

The Ice Is Melting!

                                 

I was using the downstairs bathroom and I heard water dripping outside - I think the drips were hitting something when they fell, maybe one of my extension ladders.  So I looked up and saw these iccicles and then watched a drop fall.  Man oh man, you cannot believe how difficult it was to catch a drop of water coming off the iccicle.  I must have shot about 30 images and only got two drops!  This one was perfect.  So the temperature was maybe 30 today but the sun was shining on these iccicles which is why they were melting.  But it will be another whole week before the temps get to the high 30's.  I can't wait!

 

More Ice

I went out with the drone one last time today.  It was still cold last night so I expected more of the harbor to be frozen and I was not surprised.  I went to Sea Cliff Beach and so I was much further north in the harbor and hopefully I could see where the limit of the ice was in the water.  After doing several different views from maximum altitude, I found it difficult to see where the division of water and ice was.  It appears that the sound has frozen in places separate from the Hempstead Harbor Ice, seen in the far distance.  I really love all the different tones in this - the white ice which is probably thicker and then the thinner ice which is much darker, and then the shadow of the sun, blocked by a cloud in the foreground.  A lot going on in this photograph, which to me makes it more interesting.  I have posted an extra large size image so please click on this.