Dumb Me!

When I walked down the street to photograph the house under construction, I passed by this garden, two doors down.  The woman has all kinds of interesting things growing out front.  This is a variegated fern, which is green with a purple color running down the center of the length of the stem.  A week or two ago, I remember looking at it when I was on my walk, and thinking how beautiful it was.  I was carrying two cameras - the infrared one, and the normal, color camera.  I *thought* that I photographed this group of ferns with both cameras, but I can't find the color version, so I guess I only shot it in infrared.  Bummer!  I looked at it yesterday, and the plant was starting to fade - the leaves were a bit more beat up.  I will keep my eye on it, and photograph it in color when I get a chance, if it starts looking better.  Meanwhile, here is the IR version.

Fixer Upper

Last December I posted a black & white photograph of this house, just down the street from us. I took it at dusk, because I loved the spooky feeling of it.  It has been empty for months, after it was sold.  They started working on the inside first, and stripped out all the lathe and plaster in the rooms.  Then nothing for a while.  Recently they started some serious work, first starting to replace the windows, and then they demolished the front porch.  So I thought I would bring you an update of the work so far.  Stay tuned.

A Surprise View

This is a new flag that I bought to hang on the front porch for Memorial Day and Veteran's Day and Flag day.  The flag that I have displayed for every year since we bought the house in 1971 was smaller and hung on a short flagpole on the porch railing,  It was stained and faded, and should have been replaced years ago.  So on Memorial day I hung the new flag in the new place.  I was surprised later in the day to walk toward the front door and see the view out the door was all flag.

Antique Stuff

When I walked up into town to see the parade, I walked by this antique shop.  I have been by here before but this window had the perfect light on it - to accentuate the delicacy of the lace curtains and also to throw enough light inside so you can get a sense of what is inside.  This photograph is really about the curtain, though.

Memorial Day

I went to the Sea Cliff Memorial Day Parade today.  I have been going to this parade each year since 1985.  Before 1985 I knew about the parade but I never bothered to go to it.  Then a colleague of mine from work wrote a piece for the newspaper called "A Memorial for Memorial Days Past."  It was about how, growing up in Maine, Leslie would go to all the Memorial Day parades in his town.  Years later he went back, the the parade no longer existed, and he mourned that no one cared anymore.  That year I attended the parade in Sea Cliff for the first time, and I have never missed one since.  This is Scott, a Green Beret who served in Vietnam, and who has been at these Memorial Day remembrances much longer than I have been.

Here the parade, headed by two Boy Scouts carrying flags, and followed by the honor guard marches down Sea Cliff Avenue, the main street in town.

The wonderful thing about this parade is that various groups in town march in the parade - in this case, the Sea Cliff Civic Association, including a baby stroller and a tyke on a bike!

Here a young boy, on the shoulders of his dad, waves the small American flag given to him.

And this is a different view of the parade, where you can see the rest of the parade stretching out into the distance, behind the leaders.

After the parade, I went to a memorial in a park right next to where we first lived when we came to Sea Cliff.  Way back then, the flag was not painted, and this monument was known as "The Headless Statue," which is funny because it is a column, not a statue.  It was finally painted 30 years ago.  It is a monument to a young man of 21, from Sea Cliff,  who died in 1898 "in the war for the freedom of Cuba."

The Fern Bank

I have done some closeups of the ferns before, so I thought I would take a photograph of the whole fern bank.  When we bought our house, it was late September.  There was faded brown vegetation on the front bank but we didn't pay any attention to it.  But in the Spring we were thrilled when all these ferns emerged from the dead vegetation that we saw in the Fall. The ferns are just beautiful, and are my second most favorite thing in the yard after the Japanese maple tree.

The Astronomy Lecture

I have been so busy the last few days, I have taken more pictures than you can shake a stick at!  At last Wednesday's astronomy meeting we had a speaker who has been my friend for over 30 years.  He was also my mentor in astronomy.  He moved to Florida about 10 years ago, and I don't get to see him that often, although we talk by phone a fair amount.  He came to talk about the discovery of the planet Pluto.  Here he is with a photograph of Percival Lowell, who built the observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, sitting at the large telescope there.  This was not the telescope that discovered Pluto, however.  Lowell had died by the time Pluto was discovered.  Sam has a love for that observatory, and he had a chance to spend a night looking through this telescope at the planet Mars, and said that it was one of the most amazing experiences of his life.  He really wowed everyone, and his talk was so well received.  It was so great to see him again!

Night Into Day

After the performance, I was rushing to the subway in Times Square, to try and catch the next train back home.  But when I saw this scene, I had to stop and take a dozen or so pictures.  In the old days in Times Square, they had giant television screens, and I think they were powered with LED's (light emitting diodes), but they were not all that bright.  Now they have these screens powered with high-intensity LED's and it is astounding to see how bright it is!  Really, it is as if you are walking around in daylight.  Almost.

Selfie City

I went to Fun City today.  I had dinner with Stan, and then I headed off to the theater to see "Network" with Brian Cranston.  On the way to the theatre I walked through Times Square, which was full of people taking in the sights.  And taking selfies.  It was fun to watch these three ladies getting a portrait of themselves, with Times Square in the background. There are probably more selfies done here than anywhere in the universe, and thats not an exaggeration!  (Yes it is!)

An Explosion of Color

We have three Azalea bushes just outside our back door, along the foundation of the new addition.  They have gotten even more beautiful each year.  But this year they have gone from small buds to an explosion of blossoms and color!  The change has been so dramatic, just in the last two days.  What a great gift to see these come into bloom!

Mother Goose

Do Canada Geese say "Honk?"  I was thinking of hearing geese flying overhead.  I think that in fact, they do say "honk."  On a walk to the power plant I brought a long lens in my bag with me, and when I saw this goose sitting on her nest in the phragmites, I thought it might make an interesting photograph.  And I so rarely post wildlife photographs.  Note to Stan:  I shot this with my new 55 - 250mm lens on my Canon T7i.  So the equivalent focal lengths are 88 - 400mm.  So now I don't have to buy the 100 - 400mm full frame Canon zoom! 

The Ferns

I know you are all going to be relieved to see that I am shooting in color, rather than in infrared!  Whew!  What a relief!  It is interesting about the fern bank on our front lawn.  The bank is about 8 feet above the level of the street and slopes down at about a 45 degree angle.  During the winter all you see is some ivy and remnants of old ferns which are brown and dried out.  Everything looks dead.  Then in spring first the fiddleheads emerge and then in a really short time they seem to explode from the ground.  I will show you other pictures of the ferns - they are just beautiful now.  I loved this detail of a fern leaf coming out between the pickets of the white fence in front.

Grasses

Oh boy, it has only been two days since I posted an infrared photograph, and here I am again!  This is the front garden of a neighbor two houses down.  She always has nice plantings in a garden in front of her house.  I have no idea what grasses these are - they have fairly broad leaves.  I love this photograph because is looks to me more like water going over a waterfall.

Sculling

I just missed it.  What?  At the very top of the photograph notice that there are two rowing shells with crews, ALMOST in the picture!  Duh!  I was carefully paying attention to the to shells in the foreground and never noticed the boats in the top of the frame.  I am not sure, but maybe they are a distraction but I wished I had them in the frame, so that I could decide later whether or not to include them in the photo.  Anyhow, I like the design of this with strips of water and scullers and water and sandbar.

Previsualizing

The day before I took this photograph, I rode by this pond on my bicycle.  There was no wind, so the water's surface was like a mirror.  The trees had dark green leaves, and the tree trunks were black in color.  Suddenly I began to visualize what this scene would look like if I shot in infrared.  The trees would be a brilliant white, and then the black tree trunks would stand out.  And of course, the whole scene would be reflected in the water.  I could see this clearly in my mind's eye.  So I came back the next day, the wind was calm, the scene was the same, and I shot it in infrared.  It was a joy to see this on my computer and realize that the photograph was exactly as I had imagined it.  Please click on the image to see it in more detail - it is stunning!

Disorganization

I don't DARE post another infrared photograph for a while!   :-)  When I was on my walk the other day, I brought both cameras, and believe me, I have a ton of infrared photographs.  I just need to be judicious about posting them!  Anyhow, as I walked along the water, I saw a line of ducks paddling toward me.  So I started taking pictures.  At first I thought I would end up with a photograph of all the ducks in formation.  But I kept photographing, and eventually some of the ducks turned around and headed back the way they came.  So I think that this is a funnier photograph, with ducks facing in two different directions - disorganized.  Please click on the image so you can see the ducks in more detail.

Bleeding hearts

This was one of the first things I saw on my walk yesterday.  It is in a neighbor's garden two houses down.  The beautiful magenta color jumped out from all the shades of green everywhere.  When I looked closely, I saw the details of these Bleeding heart blossoms.  They are simply astounding if you look closely at an individual blossom.  Unfortunately, my Micro-Nikkor lens is off for repair at Nikon, and so I was unable to do an extreme close-up with the camera I was using.  Dean will not be happy with me...   :-)  Wait!  I just had an idea!  I went back to look at all the images I shot, and found this closer view which I cropped, which allows you to see the flower in greater detail.  Whew!  maybe Deal will be OK with this...   :-)

I Went for a Walk Today...

I decided that I needed to get out for some exercise, since it was no longer raining today.  Not only did I need the walk, but I also needed to come up with some new photographs that I haven't taken in the side yard!  So I walked a total of three miles, and it took me two hours, because I stopped every ten feet to take another photograph!  I brought two cameras with me - the regular one that takes color photographs, and the infrared one, that I used for this photo.  I just love the strange magical look that I get with infrared.  This could look like a photograph after a snowstorm at first glimpse.  It really is wondrous, isn't it?

Green as Green Can Be

We take back roads to get down to our church in Westbury.  The two lane roads that connect to one another go through a lot of very expensive real estate.  It is very pretty along most of our route.  This is one field that I have been watching for a while now.  Someone bought the house that is out of sight at the rear of this field.  Believe it or not, it was all lawn!  Then they planted it with different plants and ground covers and just let them grow!  It is so much more beautiful than a green lawn.  I have taken a few photographs right around this field before.

Happy Mother's Day!

This is Marie, and her two boys, Carl, at left and Daniel, at right.  They sit behind us in church each week and we get to talk for a few moments before the service begins.  You may remember we all went to the Cradle of Aviation Museum a few months ago - I posted a photograph of the two boys in the cockpit of an airplane on display there.  I thought that I would take a picture of them in church on Mother's Day - a mother and her two boys together, on her day.

Christmas, 2001

Continuing my digging through two cartons of photo CD's in the garage, I came up with this wonderful photograph of the George Washington Bridge on Christmas.  If I recall correctly, Liz lived near here, and we must have come here to visit.  I guess I walked over to the road overlooking the bridge and did a few pictures, because the scene was so spectacular.

The Photographers, 2004

I didn't find anything to photograph today.  I was out running errands and then doing some yardwork when I got home.  But I can't have a blank blog.  We have been cleaning out the garage, and I found two cartons of CD's that are copies of everything I shot back from 2001 to about 2007.  Some of the CD's are unreadable because of their age...   :-(  The majority of them can be read and I have copied some of the files on them to an external hard drive.  I have been going through them to see what I can find.  This is a shot I did back in 2004 when Liz and Amy were visiting for Thanksgiving.  It is down at the beach at sunset.  I am so thrilled that the both of them are such good photographers - that they love to record the world around them!

The Garden Angel

Ho hum.  Another infrared photograph.  But I like this one.  I have photographed this angel before, but when I saw it from the upstairs window with the shadows in front of it, I thought I should take a look at how it might appear in infrared, and I like this shot a lot.  It's pretty, huh?

The Test Pilot!

 

I had such an amazing evening tonight!  I played Hooky from my astronomy club, and went to a presentation at a meeting of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics at a university nearby.  The speaker this evening was a test pilot who was in the US Air Force, and then was a test pilot for Lockheed Aircraft!  He mainly flew two famous stealth aircraft, the F-117 Nighthawk, and the F-22 Raptor.  Wow!  Can you imagine.  He was a wonderful speaker and talked about all the technical details of both aircraft, and his experiences in flying them.  I got to talk to him before and after the meeting and ask him some questions about aerodynamics, and about some other aircraft he flies now.

This is a slide he showed of the F-117 Nighthawk, which he is flying in this photo.  This aircraft doesn't even look like it could fly.  It is designed to reflect radar sweeps and thus make the aircraft nearly invisible.  In fact, this aircraft is unstable in all three axes, and could not fly if it was not for the four computer systems in the aircraft that keep it stable!

He brought a number of items that he passed around the room for us to see and touch.  This is one of the data sensors on the aircraft, that sticks out in front if the airplane and the tubes coming out the back of it send various air pressures to the computer that controls the plane.  The airplane would be uncontrollable if not for this device and the computers.  You can see three of these devices on the pointy nose of the airplane in the picture of the aircraft above.

Judy's Dogwoods

This blog could probably be called "How many pictures can Ken take without leaving his house?"  I hadn't found a photo today and after dinner I went up to the bedroom for a second and happened to look out the window.  The setting sun was illuminating our neighbor's dogwood tree, and that caught my eye.  There are actually two Dogwoods in the picture, a pink one behind the white one.  It's nice to see the trees in blossom, a reminder of Spring.

The Old Dogwood

Well, I am kind of beating the magic camera to death, huh?  This is the last of the two dogwoods that were growing here when we first bought our house.  The one by the garage died and I cut it down.  This is the other one, just off the end of the porch.  Little by little it has been dying.  There are still a few branches that still bloom, but the tree is on its last legs.  The trunk and branches have become covered with Ivy.  I love the delicate tones and textures in this photograph.  Like so many of the other infrared photographs, this has a ethereal quality to it.

Fresh Bread

I am so spoiled!  I walked into the kitchen, as I did yesterday, and Kathy was working away with the KitchenAid mixer.  This happens all the time.  "What are you making?" I ask.  "Bread" was the answer yesterday.  And here it is!  A loaf of white bread.  Other days it might be cinnamon rolls, or, these days, hot cross buns.  Needless to say, this was delicious.  We had it for breakfast, toasted, and then for lunch, I had a slice, cut in small pieces, which I dipped into olive oil.  Yummm.  What a treat!

Ivy & Ferns

I am still investigating things that grow around here with my Magic Camera.  This is a photograph of the fern bank on the front hill.  What we have in the photograph are leaves of Ivy, and the fiddleheads of ferns, and underneath are old vines of Ivy, and a few examples of another kind of fern.  I love this photo because of the complexity of the textures and layers within the picture.  Please click on it to see it in more detail.

It's The Latest, It's the Greatest...

...it's the Library!  When I was walking around yesterday, looking for all the movie activities, I walked past the children's library and saw all the tulips.  I figured it was worth a shot.  It is such a beautiful, classic building, and the Tulips are such a beautiful touch.  Sea Cliff has one of the 11 oldest public libraries in Nassau County, having been founded by the Sea Cliff Improvement Association in 1894.  The library then offered books, German lessons, drawing classes, and for the men, dominoes and smoking.  Dominoes and smoking???  In a library?  In 1914, Mrs. Mary L. Stenson purchased land and built this building to honor her husband. On May 12, 1915, Stenson Memorial Library, now the Children’s Library, formerly opened to the public.

Hollywood Comes to Sea Cliff!

There has been a movie crew around town for the last several weeks.  There are all kinds of trailers where "the talent" gets dressed and has makeup put on, parked down at Tappan Beach.  There are signs that say "This way to Set."  When I got back to town from my astronomy meeting late last night, there were a number of the crew huddled under a pop-up tent in the center of town, in the rain.  Man, these people put in long hours! So here are these LGBTQ flags hanging over the main drag, and the truck is carrying lighting equipment.

So I walked up to town to see if I could find a photograph or two for the blog.  I stopped to talk to some of the crew and ask questions.  On Sea Cliff avenue, I saw this garbage can "Help Keep Provincetown Clean," so that was a clue!  The crew told me about the production.  It is a new series for TV about the opioid crisis, and it is based in Provincetown, MA.  One of the people I talked to said he had been to Provincetown recently, and that Sea Cliff didn't look a thing like it!  I would agree with that, and it has been years since we were in Provincetown.

This is a collection of "dollies" which are used with movie cameras for "tracking shots."

Here are two electricians I spoke with, and they are having coffee in their truck.

And here is a quick grab shot I did that I think has the director in it, and some of the other people leading the film.  They are watching computer screens which show the video from the camera as it films a scene.  It's kind of cool - the camera was perhaps 100 feet down a nearby street, and cables ran from the camera to where these people were, under a black pop-up tent.  Hollywood magic in Sea Cliff!

Blue Ferns

A good friend and faithful reader of the blog wrote me tonight and said that she loved the Cyanotype image that I posted four days ago, as the best of my "magic camera" shots.  So of course I have to post another Cyanotype!  There are two small groups of ferns under the Japanese Maple tree, and I spent some time trying to make an interesting composition of the group.  I think this does the job nicely.