Look What They Did!

I mentioned in the last two posts that we had driven down along the road that goes by Sea Cliff beach, late in the day.  This is where we first parked to have our coffee and donuts, and then one day there were orange cones, and we couldn't park there anymore.  So we found a new place to have coffee - the other beach.  Anyhow, two nights ago we drove down here just to see what was going on and we were surprised that the cones and yellow tape were missing, and all the parking places were taken.  So that's fine, it's nice that people can park here again, but what was disturbing was that lots of people were walking along the boardwalk really close to each other, and very few were wearing masks.  I mean, come ON!

What a Difference a Day Makes

We worked hard around here today so decided we were due a reward - another ice cream at McDonalds.  So off we went, and on our way back home, we decided to retrace our route down along the beach at Sea Cliff, where I took yesterday's photograph of a golden stripe of sky under dark clouds.  Well...  Look at this photograph!  Not only do I have a more brilliant stripe of golden sky, but it has crepuscular rays as well.  And there is more interest with he two moored boats in the foreground.   I like that the boats seem ghostly.

Storm Clouds on the Horizon

After dinner we decided to go to McDonalds for ice cream cones.  It's another ritual we do, beside donuts on Tuesday mornings.  So on the way back home, we decided to take a detour and go down by the beach where they had set up orange cones to prevent parking.  I saw this view, stopped the car for a moment, and quickly took a couple of frames.  There were rain showers around this afternoon, but apparently they all were to the north of us, and this is a view of storm clouds in the middle of the western end of Long Island Sound.  Quite beautiful, I thought. You might want to click on the image to see it in more detail.

The Fern Bank

I was in the car, backing out of the driveway late in the afternoon the other day, and this brilliant green caught my eye.  I had just mowed the lawn so it looked nice, and it was surrounded by the top of the fern bank.  These ferns look so beautiful, back lit in the afternoon sunlight.  These ferns have been a joy since we bought this house.  We bought it in September of 1971 and there seemed to be a lot of weeds and dead stuff on the front bank and we didn't pay much attention to what was there.  But when Spring came, these beautiful ferns came out of the ground and we were stunned!  We have had so many people over the years, walking up the street, stop and tell us how much they loved these beautiful ferns.

A Billion Little Spiders

Yesterday as I walked past the side of Kathy's car, just behind the wheel I saw something sticking to the car.  I couldn't imagine what it was, so I bent down and moved closer, and got the surprise of my life!

There seemed to be hundreds of tiny yellow spiders, all together.  Notice the white "scratches" on the paint?  I wondered how the paint had gotten that scratched.  It's not scratched - those are really thin strings of spider silk.  Each spider seemed to be attached to one, and if one spider fell out of the group, it would pull itself back up on the silk!  So, off to Google.  I discovered that these are baby Garden Spiders maybe 2 days old, and their eggs were laid last fall, according to the article.  These babies are not harmful to humans.  They grow up to be large brown Garden Spiders which we have all seen hanging upside down in the middle of their nearly circular webs, waiting to catch insects.  These are really good to have around!  Better than insect sprays! 

So this morning, they had all moved around to the back of the car and were gathered on the red tail light.  It was fascinating to watch them with my close-up lens.  Now that they are hatched, they'll stay together until they mature enough to crawl off independently.  We'll see.  What an astounding thing to witness.  This happens every year, and yet I have never seen anything like this!

No Dunkin' Donuts, Week 11

Wow, week 11 of the stay at home order.  That's a long time!  Sorry to bore you with this project, with me looking out the car window each week.  I do consider it a creative challenge, though.  So today, when I looked out the windshield, I saw this tree, and a favorite Robert Frost poem came to mind: 

TREE AT MY WINDOW

Tree at my window, window tree,

My sash is lowered when night come on;

But let there never be curtain drawn

Between you and me.

Vague dream-head lifted out of the ground,

And the thing next most diffuse to cloud,

Not all your light tongues talking aloud

Could be profound

But tree, I have seen you taken and tossed,

And if you have seen me when I slept,

You have seen me when I was taken and swept

And all but lost.

That day she put our heads together,

Fate had her imagination about her,

Your head so much concerned with outer,

Mine with inner, weather.

A Silent Memorial Day

When I first came to Sea Cliff in 1966, I soon learned that they had a Memorial Day Parade, with bands and fire trucks and marchers including veterans, children, adults and everyone in between.  But I never went to the parade.  Until, in 1985, a wonderful writer at Newsday, Leslie Hanscom, wrote a piece called "A Memorial Day for Memorial Days Past."  He described growing up in Maine where they had memorial day parades each year, which he attended as a child.  He had recently gone back to Maine and was disheartened that the parade in his town was no longer held.  That year, I went to the Sea Cliff Memorial Day Parade, and every year since.  Well this year there was no parade, of course.  But that didn't stop me.  I walked the parade route all alone, and photographed each of the memorials in Sea Cliff, where the parade stops each year.  So this flag draped statue is dedicated to John Henry Geohegan, who went to fight the war in Cuba and died at 21, in 1898.

This rock with two bronze plaques, at the edge of a park with baseball fields,  is a memorial to all who served in the Army and the Navy in WW I.  There are 164 names on this plaque.

The parade always stops at this memorial at the firehouse, for the departed members of the Sea Cliff Volunteer Fire Department.

And this monument, overlooking Long Island Sound, is where the parade starts off each year.  The three plaques honor the veterans who lost their lives in WW II in the center, the Korean War on the left, and the Vietnam War on the right.  At this memorial I saw another older man enter the park and come over to this memorial, and spend time reading names.  So there were at least two of us who set about remembering those lost in all the wars.

Alien Abduction

One of the comments from yesterday's post was that the photograph was surreal looking.  I am using the same technique in this photograph - the infrared image without converting it to straight black & white.  The infrared sensor is very susceptable to any kind of lens flare - more so than a full color image. I was just doing snapshots of people walking by the harbor to see if I could get an interesting composition.  I was unaware of the lens flare.  I love this crazy photograph!  It looks like an alien spaceship hovering over people about to abduct them, right?  OK, so I have an overactive imagination.   :-)  Be sure to click on it to enlarge the image, it is better with more detail.

Running By The Shore

Another of my infrared images from the other day.  With most of my infrared postings, I convert the image to black and white.  In this image, I kept it as it comes from the camera.  Notice that the runner has a faint blue cast, and the sidewalk and sky have a brown cast.  I though that was a bit more interesting than straight black and white.  I love the bright white leaves against the really dark sky. One more magic picture!

The Baby Quilt

Kathy was really excited, as I was, at the announcement of Amy expecting.  So she couldn't wait to make something for the baby.  She decided on a quilt and got right to work.  She had some problems getting the materials because of Corona Virus, but she was able to find fabrics online with no problem.  She was really enjoying working on this, day after day, on the dining room table.  It was amazing for me to watch the progress.  She finished it a while ago, but I couldn't show it until she had sent it to Amy and Amy had seen it for the first time.  Isn't it beautiful!  I think it is stunning!

Unearthly

Another photograph from a long way away, using my 400mm lens.  I saw this woman walking her dog down at the water's edge - here they are both standing in the water - and because the dog was jumping around, I kept my camera trained on her.  I was interested in the what they were both doing.  For some reason, several of my images were really overexposed.  Not sure why - the camera determines the exposure automatically.  In any case, the ethereal feeling to this, with the overexposure, and the woman looking up at the sky, makes for an interesting photograph.

This Isn't Social Distancing...

But..  they are young and won't die from the Corona virus like old people might.  I thought they looked so cute, the three of them sitting on the rock.  I took this photograph with a long telephoto lens - 400 mm, so I was a long way away at first.  Then I did this shot as I got closer.  One of the girls spotted me and called up to me and said "Please don't take our picture."  So I stopped, but I had already taken this picture.  Then she said "What is this picture for?"  I said "I just thought that the three of you looked cute on the rock."  Then she said "Oh, that's OK then, just as long as it is not for the Internet or something."  I didn't bother to explain that if someone is out in public, it is perfectly legal to photograph them, as long as they are not doing something that would be demeaning or embarrassing.  I do think this is a REALLY cute shot of them!

No Dunkin' Donuts, Week 10

The title of this blog should be "Brilliant Engineering."  When we first started going to the beach for donuts, we had our two cups in one of those cardboard carrying things they give you.  So we tried balancing it on the center console of the car, but it was really tippy and in danger of falling over.  The cups were so large that if we put them in the cup holders in the console, it was really difficult to get them back out.  I needed a better solution.  So I made a small plywood platform.  It was tippy as well, until I glued little wood blocks under under it.  It worked perfectly, so of course it needed two coats of varnish, because I am an old sailboat guy, and that's how wood is finished on sailboats.  What a relief that we have a secure way to hold our hot drinks!  I am brilliant!   :-)

This is what we saw outside the window today - a family with two young children relaxing on the sand, and the father was flying a kite.  It brought back memories.  When Liz was under a year old, we came down to the beach often to hang out - probably this exact spot -  and I would fly my kite! 

Look.at.the.Hair!

You HAVE to click on this photograph, so you can see my hair in all its glory! Yikes!  This was in 1981.  I used to go to work like this with this mop of hair!  Wow.  I remember when we went to visit my mom and dad in Connecticut, I would walk in the back door, my father would take one look at me and say "Get a haircut!"   I still laugh when I think of that.  I found a bunch of color slides and black & white negatives in the garage, so I brought them in and looked through them.  They were all from back when I was flying a seaplane over in Port Washington.  I flew with an instructor for maybe 20 hours and then took a checkride and got my seaplane rating!  What was really cool was, they would rent me the plane whenever I wanted.  So instead of going to some airport to fly, I would just go over to Port, and go flying.  It was absolutely thrilling, flying the seaplane.  It is a speedboat, and an airplane, all in one!  One day I wanted to get photographs of me flying, so I set Kathy up with a camera and telephoto lens, down on the beach at the end of our street, then I went and flew the seaplane over from Port Washington, and did takeoffs and landings while she took photos.  I love having these photos.  The company sold this seaplane, and eventually sold their property, and got out of the seaplane business, sad to say.  About 8 years ago I accompanied Kathy to Seattle for a conference she was attending.  I found a seaplane base, and with an instructor,  flew a seaplane again for an hour or so.  It was magical.

The Virtual Baby Shower!

Amy is expecting and so today some friends of hers had a virtual baby shower for her, using Zoom!  It was an absolutely amazing event and for some reasons, surpassed what would have been, when not in a time of Covid, a physical gathering.  There will be two virtual baby showers - this one was made up of "work" people.  There were about 35 people present, from New York and California and Maine and Paris, France! Most everyone who attended had worked with Amy at Glamour magazine twenty years ago, and most had not seen each other since then!  The host was amazing and she had prepared some questions for everyone to answer - the first one was "What is the one word you would use to describe Amy?"  The second topic involved telling stories about Amy, and the last question was about advice for a new mother.  What was beautiful and overwhelming, and wonderful was the love for Amy that everyone expressed, and the stories of support they received from Amy when her friends were going through difficult times.  It was such a beautiful moment and so powerful, that not only was Amy moved to tears, but I was choked up hearing these tributes as well.  It was an amazing afternoon, and I will be forever thankful that Kathy and I were there for all of this.

Back Down to Earth

About four houses down the street, on the opposite side of the street, there is a house with a large side yard and there are all kinds of trees surrounding it.  I love this photograph because of its subtlety - I don't think it is dramatic at all, just a few delicate colors added to the green everywhere.  Maybe you could even call this impressionistic.  It's a nice change of pace for me and how I see, I think.

Oh No! Here He Goes Again!

Oh right, so he get's out his infrared camera and now we have to look at all his black and white in infrared pictures!  How long is he going to keep this up?  Probably not too long - I don't want you to get bored.  This is Scudders Pond which I have photographed a billion times in different seasons and at different times of day.  This is probably one of the more dramatic scenes in terms of infrared, because the sky gets black, and the water is black (it doesn't reflect any infrared light) and in contrast, all the plants and trees glow a brilliant white.  I will try and be good and not post too many more of these - for a while!

White Chair, White Lawn

It is Spring and the plants are producing chlorophyl again!  Why does this matter?  Because when I photograph plants with chlorophyl in them, with my specially modified camera that shows everything in infrared light, the grass and foliage appear bright, because chlorophyl reflects a LOT of infrared light!  So this is a magical thing in terms of photography.  When Fall arrives and the leaves turn brown because the chlorophyl goes away, I put away my IR camera because there is nothing in the landscape to transform in this magical way.  But when Spring arrives, it is time to get the camera out of hibernation and go look for photographs in a different world!  This is kind of a cool photograph, right?

A Visit to the Nursery

Kathy wanted to get some flowers to plant in her gardens.  Not a lot, but just a couple of flats to add some color.  So we went out to Schmitts Nursery about 20 miles away.  I get bored shopping at a place like this - we have been here before because their plants are beautiful and their prices are great - so I always bring my camera and walk around looking for pictures while Kathy shops.  I saw this scene and it stopped me in my tracks!  In the foreground are Coleus, then the brilliant Celosia, and in the background are Ageratum.  Seeing this made my day, and being around flowers lifted my spirits.  There were a fair number of people here but it is a huge place, and everyone was wearing their masks and keeping 6 feet away, which made the visit feel safer.

No Dunkin' Donuts, Week 9

You are probably bored seeing photographs at the beach where we have our coffee, tea, and donuts each week since the stay-at-home order, nine weeks ago.  So I thought I would take you to the source.  This is Jose and Karina at "our" Dunkin Donuts where we used to sit and have our breakfast.  We have been coming here maybe 9 years, usually on a Tuesday.  It is one of our small rituals.  So we have been friendly with Jose and Karina for a long time.  They are both such lovely people. Here they are seen behind a Plexiglass panel for protection during the outbreak, and wearing their masks for safety.  It is always so good to see them!

The End of the World at Costco

We went to Costco today, for the first time since lockdown...   They were metering people entering, but the wait was only 10 minutes or so, and it was not that busy inside.  Kathy needed to pick up some meds and we got a few other things.  Interesting that today, Monday, there was no fresh meat or chicken or fish.  They did have frozen meat, just not fresh.  Anyhow, we got all our stuff, and the checkout was really quick because of so few people in the store.  We came out into the parking lot, and I couldn't believe the sky!  There had been a few flashes of lighting and it was clear that a front was coming through.  When I saw this sky I thought it was beautiful.  This would have been better if I was at the beach, or something, but I made the best of the tree and the bright red handles of shopping carts.  It's not an Ansel Adams photograph, however.

Mother's Day Zoom

On Mother's Days in the past we have often driven to Connecticut to have a family dinner at Betsey's.  But not this year, of course.  On Easter Sunday we had our first Zoom family gathering and it was wonderful, talking with everyone, almost as if we were gathered around the dining table.  So Jen decided that we should do this for Mother's Day, and it was just delightful!  So good to see and hear everyone and share laughter and stories.  We get so used to the magic of technology - this conversation connected California and Maine and Connecticut, and New York.  Yeah, magic.

Happy Mother's Day!

This is the bouquet that arrived today, from Liz and Amy!  What a beautiful surprise!  Kathy was thrilled!  As young children, we depend on our moms for everything. As teenagers, we start to retaliate when things do not go our way. And, as we finally get older, we start to realize the significance of a mother. Sometimes, we forget how much our moms have done for us. We grow up thinking our moms will never understand our struggles, but the truth is they invest time making sure we never understand theirs.  It's important to give all moms out there recognition and appreciation for all they have done for us.  I was thinking of qualities that come to mind for all our mothers out there and I came up with these:  selflessness, generosity, empathy, dedication to our family, unwavering love, encouraging words, capacity for forgiveness, her calming presence, and her comforting hugs.  Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!

Drops of Rain

I did my normal two and one-half mile walk and then coming up Laurel Avenue, I got to the front fern bank and my eyes caught the glint of water drops on these leaves.  So I took a look with my 100-400mm Macro lens, and when I zoomed in, I saw this scene.  The water drops were just beautiful, acting as lenses to reflect the overcast sky.  I love that this looks as if it was photographed deep in some forest.

The Too Cute Kitty!

This cat is way too cute!  Grace loves to be in things, and under things all the time.  She is so curious and is always poking around new boxes that have arrived and are now open.  But this is a new one.  Kathy was stripping the bed to wash the sheets, and this white comforter was flipped over the foot of the bed and ended up on the floor.  I nearly fell over when I walked in the room and there was Grace surrounded by this!  I have no idea how she managed to wrap herself up in the comforter!

The Magnificent Dandelion!

So I am doing my walk, in an on and off drizzle, looking for something to photograph, and I happen to notice a single Dandelion all in white, in the grass next to the sidewalk.  I kept walking.  A Dandelion.  Who cares.  About 30 feet later, I turned around, walked back, and used my telephoto lens to zoom in for a close-up of the top of it.  I could not believe my eyes!  What was I thinking, walking by this magnificent miracle of nature?  Look at the delicate structure.  It is an engineering marvel the way it is constructed, and so delicate and light, that when a wind comes along, all of these little white broom-like structures, because they are so light, will take flight and another Dandelion will take root somewhere.  You MUST click on the image to see it in more detail!

No Dunkin' Donuts, Week 8

I was wracking my brain to come up with something different for my Tuesday Dunkin' Donuts post.  I needed something other than looking out the windshield of our car at the beach.  I was desperate for a different type of photograph.  About two or three days ago I thought of the shot!  The only thing I needed was a day with blue sky and sunshine, and today I had it!  So this is cool, right?  And it makes the point of coffee and a donut at the beach in the most direct way.  What is fun to think about is, if someone saw me on the beach, holding a donut up with one hand and a camera in the other, what would they have thought!  Boggles my mind!

Downside Up

Here's the thing about reading this blog - you never know what you will find when you come here!  So welcome to an upside down duck!  I happened to see two Mallards feeding at the same time, next to each other, so I had more than one chance to get a picture like this.  This was the best photo in the two minutes I had before the ducks moved on.  They are feeding off something that looks like seaweed clinging to rocks underwater - this is how ducks feed, and what they eat, if they are not eating pieces of bread that people toss to them.  Feeding ducks bread is really harmful because it has no food value, so please don't do that.  End of my public service announcement!

Afternoon in a Kayak

Now that the weather is warmer, I am seeing more people out on the water, which is nice.  Saw a sailboat out on the harbor the other day, but it was too far away to get a good photograph.  So I was thrilled to see this kayaker making his way up the harbor toward Long Island Sound.  So I started photographing him with a telephoto lens as he moved closer to me.  It was not that much of a photograph, until he got to a spot where the sun was behind him, and then there was a small white wake trailing him, and that made the shot a bit more interesting.  So here's something that I should NOT have done...

I opened the all-gray photograph that you saw at the top of this post in Photoshop, and then I cranked up the saturation.  I cranked it WAY up.  This is not a good thing.  There is this thing that a lot of inexperienced photographers do, because books and articles tell them to do, which is to crank up the colors to make boring photographs more interesting.  It doesn't work, and it makes the photographs unbelievable.  I like my photographs to look like the real world.  Having said that, this IS kind of interesting, isn't it?

After Abbey Road

                           

Do you remember the Abbey Road Beatles album?  On the cover, the four Beatles are crossing the road, in a crosswalk, marching in perfect step.  I was reminded of that while on my walk when I saw four women on the opposite side of the road in a line.  So I quickly zoomed in on them to get a shot.  Unfortunately, one of the women was hanging back talking on her phone, so this didn't work.  So I continued to walk opposite them hoping they would get in synch once more, but it wasn't looking good.  Then they crossed the street and were walking on the sidewalk side, so I switched to the opposite side of the road and looked for an opportunity to get a good shot of them together.  They were back together as a group, and what I needed was a light background, because they were all wearing black.  I spied this fence which I walk by every day and aimed the camera at the spot where water was the background, and as they walked through this spot quickly shot two frames!  Well, it's not perfect, because they are not in single file, but it is as close as I could get, and they are in step with each other!  Just a fun project on my daily walk!

And in case you are not familiar with the original shot, here is what it looks like.

It's All About the Grays

When I was walking the other day it was overcast, and I happened, while looking at the sky and the water, to notice everything was gray.  Beautiful shades of gray - light grays, dark grays, in many subtle shades.  I tried several different photographs of the sky and water and they were boring.  But I kept trying, and then after a while this single white cloud drifted into the scene and I realized that was my shot!