Sun, Clouds and a Bird

We decided to do our walk at the end of the day, earlier than usual.  You have seen so many sunsets while we were walking because we waited until after dinner.  For some reason we decided to walk before dinner.  So it was nice, and there were less biting bugs, which I recently read come out closer to when the sun is going down.  I happened to look up and see the sun being obscured by clouds and then showing through and then being obscured again.  I used my toy camera and took about half a dozen images where you could see the sun't entire disk.  And when I saw some gulls going through the picture near the sun I shot quickly trying to capture one.  I think I got it perfectly!  It was almost random, but it worked.  For some reason I really like this photograph.  Can't begin to tell you why, sorry to say.

 

Gloria Steinem 1934 – 2026

I was so lucky in my career to photograph so many famous people.  The truth is, I probably loved photographing "regular" people more because I could spend time talking to them after the shoot and I also could take more time with our photo session.  For famous people like Gloria Steinem it was more likely that I photographed her during an interview, or had 10 minutes to photograph her at the end of the interview.   I think I photographed her in about 1975.  Ms. magazine was founded in 1971 and I think I did these photographs in her office at Ms.  She was so nice and was an easy subject to photograph.

 What was interesting, that in addition to photographing her I photographed so many more women who were involved in the Women's Movement back then.  I was working for the magazine and they did a lot of interviews with those women.  I was just working at the right time to photograph them.  What is wonderful is to read the Wikipedia entry for her and read all the things she and of course the other women accomplished.  One thing I forgot about was "Take Your Daughter to Work Day." Gloria Steinem had an amazing life and did so much for other women, both young and old.  It was difficult to pick which photograph is my favorite.  The first image shows her face when she is more lively, but it kills me that she is holding a cigarette in her fingers!  So I included the second photograph.

"Man in Abstract Suit"

A week or so ago Kathy and I went down to Uniondale to visit our lawyer.  Her office is located in RXR Plaza which is a set of two giant 15-story shining glass towers of office space on Hempstead Turnpike. The lobby of the building is huge - 22,000 square feet!  When we walked in the front door the first thing I saw was this ceramic sculpture in brilliant colors.  I was really taken by it, and I can't tell you why, but I spent a bit of time looking at it closely before I photographed it.  I thought maybe it looked like Richard Nixon!  I asked the guard at the desk if there was a text block that told who the artist was and what this was called.  He said "No, there is not sign."  How weird is that, to have a serious work of art in a building like this, with no information about it.  Then I got a brilliant idea!  I would send this to Google Images because it is astounding what it can tell you about an item in a photo. And the answer is:  "This sculpture appears to be Man in Abstract Suit (1988) by the renowned American ceramic artist Viola Frey.  It features a larger-than-life, monumental figurative style crafted from ceramic and vivid, multi-layered glazes."  So there you go!  Thank you Google!  So do you like this sculpture? By the way, It was so frustrating that those three stanchions and black webbing were in front of the sculpture!

Fresh Tomatos

How do these look as fresh tomatos?  They are really delicious!  Last year our friend Larry gave us a tomato plant and we put it in the ground and got a few fresh tomatoes.  This year Kathy said "Don't pull that up it is not a weed" when the plant re-emerged from the ground.  We were not paying attention and It grew crazy fast and took over the entire herb garden and was growing out over the lawn.  I finally added a couple of stakes and tied the tomato plant up some.  These are unbelievably delicious.  They are only as large as a kid's glass marble but they taste like REAL tomatoes! And they smell wonderful as well.  How unusual given what store bought tomatoes tase like these days!

Maybe if you click on this you can begin to separate the tomato plant growing out over the lawn.  It is just growing gangbusters all over the place!

I was looking closely into the plant and found these green tomatoes down inside.  If you click on this photo you will see some astounding detail in the tomatoes, especially the green, star-shaped part at the top of a tomato which is called the calyx.  There are very tiny hairs on the calyx and on the stalk the tomatoes are growing on.  You will not believe the detail!

 

I'm Not Done With Stellafane

I had so many things going on when I got home that I didn't have much time to post any more Stellafane photographs after I posted that one of the memorial with all the lights.  So this is late in the day, before it gets dark enough to observe.  I love how strange this looks.  What are all those silver ghosts doing on the observing field?  These are all telescopes which need to cool down before observing.  They are covered with this aluminized mylar because the telescopes sit out in this field all day and the mylar keeps the sun from warming them up.

 

Wow! A Corvette!

I saw what looked like a brand new, bright blue Corvette, driving home from Stop & Shop in Glen Cove.  it was moving slower than the rest of the traffic so I had time to look at it as I slowly went by.  I was stunned to see the driver, and his pet dog!  If you've got it, flaunt it!

As we neared a red light, I got out my cellphone and did two quick shots without looking at what I was pointing at, and I was lucky and got these two photographs.  I was surprised at the age of the driver, for some reason, but to see him with his dog was so cute.  The whole thing was just so surprising and I thought it worth a photograph or two!

 

The Bright Star in the West after Sunset

Take a look outside just after sunset and you will see a bright "star" shining brilliantly, even when the sky is still light.  That "star" is not a star at all, but the planet Venus!  It is beautiful to see something this bright shining in a fairly bright sky.  I started photographing this scene when it was still light out but decided this photograph, taken long after sunset was more interesting and that Venus stood out better than in the bright sky.  It will be fun for you to keep an eye on it and see how its position changes each day at the same time.

So after posting the first photograph and writing about it and how pretty it was I realized that I should have posted this photograph, because it is brighter and has more color.  This photograph was taken before the first one, and I like it better.  Duh!