The Japanese Maple as You Have Not Seen it Before

As I was going down the driveway for a walk the other day, it was rather late in the afternoon.  I saw the Japanese maple from this angle, and was taken by the light on the trunk and branches.  I had never quite seen the tree from this direction before.  I mean, I have, I guess but I never NOTICED it.  It's always about the light!  The original photograph is in color and there were what I thought were distracting off color tints on the branches so I thought I would convert the photo to black & white. (Sound of gears in Ken's head grinding...)  Then I thought again about it, and thought that perhaps the color photograph was better.  So here is the color version as well, and you get to pick your favorite!

Practice

Kathy has been doing a lot of sewing lately, making beautiful small cloth purses for Liz and Amy and some friends.  They are really small, beautiful works of art.  Now she wants to add some quilting to some new projects.  There is the regular pattern of quilting that we are all familiar with, then there is this style which is called "free motion quilting."  So Kathy is practicing on some scrap material and learning how to do these patterns, pretty much without stopping.  There are two styles here that she is trying.  I can't wait to see how much better she gets at this.

Eastern Cicada Killers

Every summer, about this time, little piles of dirt appear in the lawn along one side of the driveway.  The other morning when I went out to get the newspaper, I saw what must have been 50 really large insects chasing each other around in circles, about one foot above the lawn.  They are large brown insects, with black and yellow abdomens and they are killer wasps.  I looked them up.  They are called Eastern Cicada Killers, and they go around and sting Cicadas, which paralyzes them. After paralyzing a cicada, the female wasp holds it upside down beneath her and takes off toward her burrow; this return flight to the burrow is difficult for the wasp because the cicada is often more than twice her weight. A wasp will often lug its prey up into the nearest tree, to gain altitude for the flight to the burrow. After putting one or more cicadas in her nest cell, the female deposits an egg on a cicada and closes the cell with dirt.  Whew!

I have no idea of the population that lives under our lawn.  The good thing is, that the Cicada Killers will not sting humans, unless the insect is handled roughly.  I am sorry I was unable to get a photograph of one of the wasps.  They never stopped and rested anywhere.

No Dunkin' Donuts - Week 20

So I thought I would show you something completely different for my No Dunkin' Donuts Day.  I was standing in line at our Dunkin, and I happened to look down and saw this orange circle which shows the proper distance to keep between customers.  I had seen these circles for weeks, but today I really "saw" it,  and I thought it would make a different kind of picture for our donut day.

What is WRONG with Me?

Sometimes I think I need to have my head examined!  We didn't get ice cream last night, so we got it tonight.  On the way home, we came by the harbor and I saw these fishermen.  I thought "I probably should stop and take a shot" but we were headed home, and I thought "Well, I could come back tomorrow and get the same shot if the fishermen were there."  Then I remembered the cloud in the distance and just knew it wouldn't be there.  So I turned around, parked the car and shot this.  When will I learn that when you see the shot, stop and take it?  It will not be there "on the way back" if I am on a bagel run or something.  "The shot needs to be taken NOW!!  The First Rule!

Ordering at MacDonalds

One of our little rituals is, on a Sunday night, after pasta for dinner, we go to MacDonalds for an ice cream cone.  Sorta' like a donut for breakfast on Tuesday mornings.  I was sitting in the line waiting to order and happened to notice the occupants of the car ahead were placing their orders, one by one.  What caught my eye was the overlapping faces of two of the people in the car.  Not sure why, but I thought it would make an interesting shot.  So here it is!

Great Egret

Usually when I see Egrets, they are a short distance out in the water away from the shoreline.  I was on a walk down near the old power plant, and there is a little inlet that is surrounded by old wood bulkheading.  The tide was out and this egret was walking in shallow water.  But instead of the usual sky and sunshine reflecting off the water, as a background the reflection was the dark bulkhead, and it made a dramatic background for the white Egret.

A Different Graduation

I don't know how graduations work this year, in a time of Coronavirus.  But I ride by so many houses on my 10 mile bike ride where I see signs like this, for high school students,  as well as grammar school students.  But I feel badly that students miss not only their Senior Proms, but their walk across the stage to receive their diplomas in front of friends and family.  So I celebrate any form of acknowledgement of their accomplishments like this!

I Made it Myself!

I was flying my drone in the side yard and when I do fly it, I have to use the iPhone as the screen to see the drone speed and altitude and to see where the camera is pointing. When the drone landed, I got out my home made iPhone case to put the phone away.  You probably can't tell, but I made this case myself!  When I first got an iPhone 12 years ago, I looked at the rubber surround cases but they made the phone thicker and harder to put in my pocket.  And when I asked some iPhone owners if I could look at their cases, I noticed that all the openings in the phone and the switches were full of pocket lint.  So I decided I needed to make a complete cover for the phone.  You are seeing it here.  And this is probably the fourth case I have made.  One reason I like having a complete cover, made with waterproof fabric, is that if it was in my pocket and I was splashed with water while washing the car or working in the yard, the phone would be protected.  I have made a few changes in the stitching since I made the first of these cases.  But you can see that this isn't quite the result of professional sewing!  But it does work really well.  All my iPhones were in mint condition when I finished using them.

Gray Cat, Gray Couch

I was stunned when I walked into the new back room and saw Sam asleep on the couch.  His color was so close to that of the couch.  You could sit on him if you were not paying attention.  He would not be happy if you did that, though!  There is something that I just love about this photograph.  Not sure what it is.  Maybe simplicity?  Maybe because it is monochromatic?  I have no idea, but since I am the photographer I don't have to figure out why a photo works, I just have to take it!

No Dunkin' Donuts - Week 19

I owe the idea for these photographs to Ann Levin, Stan's wife.  She said "Have you ever thought of taking a photograph THROUGH a donut?"  And I had to admit that I had never thought of that!  The problem is, a donut hole is relatively small.  So I got my wide-angle zoom and when I got really close to the donut hole, I could see a bit of a landscape on the other side.  I was thrilled.  The funny thing with this photo, is it looks winter-like and tropical at the same time!

I tried another shot with the donut backlit, so the snowy look is gone.  It's funny, but I have seen so many photographs from Antartica, where there are photographs taken through holes in icebergs.  Of course the iceberg photos don't have a tropical scene on the other side.

Birdie at the Window

Kathy put this decorative birdhouse out on the front porch this spring.  It was just something pretty to look at.  About a month ago I was having my sandwich on the front porch and a bunch of birds started chirping furiously.  I guess after a few days of that, I happened to look out the front window at the birdhouse and saw a bird fly in!  Whoa!  So I no longer eat lunch on the front porch.  Two birds come and go at times during the day.  They are Wrens, we have discovered from our trusted bird books.  What we don't know is if there are eggs in there or not.  I didn't want to disturb them, so I removed the storm windows, but still had to shoot through one pane of glass, but I did get this.

Dining Al Fresco in the Middle of the Street

Sea Cliff is doing a wonderful thing.  At the main intersection in town, on Friday and Saturday nights, they block off the main street, and the three restaurants at that intersection, put tables out in the middle of the street, with appropriate spacing, and people can dine outdoors.  I hope it makes a difference for the owners of the restaurants.  This is Tony and Pino and they own the best pizza shop around and we buy a pizza from them once a week.  Best pizza we have ever had!  They also own a nice bar and restaurant next door, and these tables are for that restaurant.  They are the nicest people and it is always nice to chat with them when I go into their shop.

Another View of the Comet

I thought I would try for another view of the comet, this time after sunset, as opposed to sunrise when I last saw Comet NEOWISE.  I went to the park in Sea Cliff that overlooks the water, and this time I was successful in seeing it.  The comet is further away now and fainter, and of course it is still in the light polluted skies of the New York Metropolitan Area.  It was not visible at all with the naked eye.  There must have been 15 people in the park and almost everyone was wearing masks which was great!   I found the comet by scanning the sky with my 10x50 binoculars, and then it took me a while to get the comet in the camera.  I would shoot a picture of the sky, look at it on the back of the camera, then move the camera, shoot again, and so on.  Really tedious.  But I did find it.  There were a number of younger people and I thought that with their younger eyes they might see it, but they couldn't see it either.  So what I did was get a good photo then display it on the back of the camera, then enlarge the displayed image, and I called people over to look at the back of the camera so they could say they saw the comet.  They were so appreciative.  But here's the cool thing...

When I first walked into the park, just carrying my binoculars, I saw this fellow with his beautiful home made Dobsonian telescope!  His name is Scott and it is his first ever telescope and he did a beautiful job building it!  So we had fun talking for a bit while waiting for the sky to get dark before looking for the comet.  A father and son showed up, and the father has on his shoulder, something that looks like a baseball bat.  It's not, it's a telescope that I think he said his father used in WWII to look for ships.  So they were fascinated with Scott's telescope.  It was a pretty rich evening with all the talk and telescopes and cameras, and of course, the comet.

Bill Doyle, Photographer

Kathy and I went to Ireland in 1997.  One day we went to Cobe to stay in a bed & breakfast.  When we arrived the hostess asked if we would like tea in the afternoon, and we said "yes."  When we came downstairs to the living room, there was an Irish couple waiting.  He was about 80 and had a great head of white hair, an an Irish smile and a twinkle in his eyes.  His name was Bill Doyle and as we talked we found out we were both photographers!  He asked about my education and when I said that I studied with Minor White, while at RIT, he was really impressed!  The short version is that the four of us had dinner together that night.  He asked about us seeing Dublin, and Kathy and I had decided to skip Dublin because we had all our possessions in our rental car and were worried about theft.  He said:  "Oh Ken, you've GOT to see Dublin!  Come meet me in the morning at a coffee shop in the hotel, and I will give you a tour of Dublin!"  When we met him at the hotel, he had brought with him two 8x10 photographic prints!  One for Kathy, and this one for me.  It turns out that Bill Doyle was famous in Dublin and knows everyone!  Everyone we passed on the street would say "Good morning Bill!"  That morning over coffee Bill told the story of this photograph.  He loved going to the Aran Islands, off the northwest coast of Ireland.  Bill loved those rocky islands because the people there lived as they did one hundred years ago.  It is a tough life for the inhabitants there.  He loved to go there to photograph to relax and photograph and get away from the world.  He said that on one visit, he heard that a fisherman had drowned at one end of the island.  He happened to be visiting some carpenters, and they began making a coffin for the fisherman.  Bill watched and photographed as the coffin was built, and then he asked the men how they were going to get the coffin to the other end of the island, where the body was.  They said: "On a bicycle."  So here is the photograph that Bill took and gave to me!  And the tour of Dublin was icing on the cake!  What a day!  We kept in touch will Bill for a number of years, exchanging Christmas cards.

Comets I Have Known...

Seeing our current comet brought back memories of the first comet I ever saw, Comet Bennett, which I photographed in March of 1970.  Kathy and I and our daughter Liz, who was two years old,  drove up to my family home in Milford, Connecticut for a visit.  I was not yet an amateur astronomer, but I had always be interested in astronomy.  Whenever there was a lunar eclipse, I would photograph it for the home town paper, The Milford Citizen.  Somewhere I had read there was going to be a comet, so of course I brought my camera equipment.  The article said I needed to get up at something like three in the morning to see it. I had never seen a comet before and so when I stepped into the back yard at 3 AM, I expected to see something go Woooosh overhead and disappear! Instead I saw this magnificent thing, hanging in the sky!  I could not believe how beautiful it was!  I shot this with a Nikon film camera using Tri-X film and a 35mm lens.

No Comet Tonight

I spoke of photographing the comet on Sunday morning.  Well, the comet is no longer visible in the morning, but you can see it after sunset.  Well, if there are no clouds.  For the next 5 days or so, the comet should be visible about an hour or so after sunset.  I went to the park in Sea Cliff after my astronomy meeting tonight to look for the comet.  Some others from the club went to the beach in Bayville, where I photographed the comet on Sunday morning.  Guess what?  They saw the comet for maybe a couple of minutes before the clouds moved in.  But no comet for me.

No Dunkin' Donuts - Week 18

Can you believe this, it has been 18 weeks since the coronavirus lockdown began.  That just seems unimaginable.  I started doing these Tuesday posts because we could no longer sit in Dunkin' Donuts and have our breakfast.  I really didn't think about how long this might go on - I was mainly worried watching the graph that Governor Cuomo posted each day, headed up hill, and I wondered how long before the graph flattened, and then how long before it headed downhill.  That was my focus. So we are enjoying our Tuesday breakfasts out at the beach, instead of inside the Dunkin' Donuts, and that's a good thing.  We will not be sitting here in the winter, however.  I took this shot today because the beach is starting to get more populated with people as July progresses.  It's hotter and for so many people, the beach is the place to be.

The Layered Garden

I call this photograph "The Layered Garden."  We were sitting in chairs up on the raised part of our side yard, and I noticed these purple flowers leaning out toward the lawn, across the red and yellow flowers in the background.  I have done a lot of garden photography in my career, but I have never taken a photograph like this.  I like to think of this photograph as "layered" with the purple flowers in the foreground, and then other flowers behind.  Normally I would take photographs where all the flowers in the frame would be sharp.  I just think that this is interesting because is is more complex.

The Comet!

A newly discovered comet is racing through space, from far out beyond the solar system.  It seemingly came from nowhere and raced toward the sun, around the sun and is now on its way back out to the far reaches.  It takes 6,800 years to complete its orbit!  In contrast, Halley's comet is a short period comet that reappears every 76 years. But for about two weeks NEOWISE is visible to those of us on Earth as it races by us.  It is officially called C/2020 F3 NEOWISE, and it was discovered by a space telescope.  Amateur astronomers have been waiting for clear weather to get a chance to see it.  Early Sunday morning it was forecast to be clear, so I set my alarm for 2:45 AM, got up and headed to Stehli Beach in Bayville which is north of us.   The comet is very faint - it took me about 5 minutes to see it even though I know where it was in the sky.  So I used my 300mm lens for the photograph above.  As you can see, it is a beautiful comet with a long tail.  The comet rises about two and one-half hours before the sun, and then after about 45 minutes or so, the first light of dawn obscures the tail and we can no longer see it.  Below is a wide-angle photograph of the comet at seen above the horizon of Long Island Sound, taken about 40 minutes after the above photo.  Seeing a comet like this is just magical!

The Maple Tree in Different Light

I was backing out of the driveway, late in the afternoon when I saw this light on the Japanese Maple tree.  So I used my iPhone to take this photograph.  I thought the spotty light on the tree was interesting and something I hadn't seen before.  Just something different.

Finally! Rain Today!

It has been dry here for so long.  We have had lines of thunderstorms come through from time to time, and I would watch their approach on radar, and time after time the cells would go west of us or north of us and we would only get some sprinkles.  But today there were bands of rain from a big system coming up the east coast, and we had several hours of moderate rain, which was wonderful.  Finally some water for the gardens and the lawn!  I tried photographs of branches with water drops on them, but this view of water running out of the end of the gutter on the front porch was a better sense of all the water that came down.

Sailing Class

I was down by the water when I saw a whole bunch of these sailing dinghy's go by, each one skippered by a youngster.  I am assuming this is a sailing class from the yacht club.  There was an instructor in an outboard boat shepherding them.  These are Optimist Prams, one of the most popular boats used to train young sailors.  And as you can see from this picture, one of the skippers is better than a bunch of the others, well ahead of the group.

A Change in the Landscape

I was on my way over to get some KFC for dinner.  OK, OK, so we don't do that very often, but once in a while for a change of pace!   :-)   I drove by where the old power plant was and saw this site at the bend in the road.  I am sure I have driven by this place going in this direction, but tonight the change in the landscape jumped out at me for some reason.  Oh, it's BRIGHT YELLOW!  So I stopped and took this photograph.  They are building 48 luxury condos here.  I saw the construction work when they first started, and got my drone and went and photographed the site, which was cool.  I kept meaning to go back there and photograph the site as it progressed.  But I never got around to it.  But you can see what a huge project this is.  I will try and get back with my drone to photograph the construction as it looks now.

No Dunkin' Donuts - Week 17

A quiet day at the beach.  For most of our time there having coffee, tea, and donuts, it was overcast, and cool, which was really nice.  No hot sun.  The beach was deserted, I assume because of no sun and the cool temperatures.  The lifeguard was at his place sitting under his umbrella on the lifeguard tower.  Just before we left the sun came out and I shot this.  Love the dark gray sky.

Taking A Chance

I really wanted to do my bike ride today because I didn't ride yesterday with rain in the late afternoon.  Sometimes when I don't ride, I feel like a lump.  How silly is that?  It's just that when I do ride, I feel really great.  Exhausted, but great.  So today I checked radar before setting out, and saw a single thunderstorm cell that was heading south, down the Hudson river, headed in this direction, but I thought maybe it would pass to the west of Sea Cliff .  So I took a chance...  As I was part way through my ride, I did hear some thunder in the distance, but I kept riding.  As I got to the harbor I saw this scene, and there was my thunderstorm, well to the west.  Lucky me!

Fierce or Fatigue?

Sam does this cute thing a lot of times.  If he is looking at you, the tip of his tongue sticks out of what appears to be his closed mouth.  It is the cutest thing.  So he was lying on his back in my chair, and I was trying to get a photograph of his tongue. I was taking pictures and watching him move his head just a bit, when suddenly he did this huge yawn!  Click!  Got it!  Lucky me!  Here is the photograph I was trying to take of Sam's tongue. I told you it was cute.

"independence Day?" Poppycock!

"Independence Day?"  Poppycock!  I am British and the Queen and I want our colonies back!  Your mister Trump has made quite a mess of them, and they should be sent back to England, where they belong!  OK, OK, I am NOT British, I am a Connecticut Yankee, who happens to be born on the Fourth of July!  So today I did my 10 mile bike ride up and down the hills of Sea Cliff, wearing this Union Jack bike jersey.  I do have an American flag version bike jersey but I didn't want anyone to think that I support the "Bigly Orange" man!  I will confess, that we do have an American Flag hanging on the front porch, to celebrate the Fourth!

Did Someone Have a Birthday? Who?

I pass this house every day that I ride.  I think a couple of weeks ago there were signs on the lawn having to do with a graduation.  Today when I went by the house I found all of this.  I first passed it by, for some reason, with me thinking: "should I stop and shoot that...  nahhh."  Well it took about twelve seconds for me to jamb on the brakes and turn the bike around and take this photograph!  What a dolt!  What strikes me about this is that it is a sign of the pandemic - signs for graduations and birthdays in a time when we can no longer gather together for these important events in our lives.

It's All About The Sky

I mentioned Tuesday that the first thing I saw when we got to the beach was the sky.  After we had our coffee, tea and donuts we were just sitting there enjoying the scenery, and I decided to photograph the clouds again with a telephoto lens.  I included the trees on the tip of Sands Point, and the clouds, but it wasn't a picture yet.  Then from the right hand side, a powerboat came in to the picture, and that was my picture.

Shiny New Shoes!

These are my shiny new shoes!  Don't you love them?  They are my new bike shoes.  When I retired from Newsday, there was a small retirement party and my colleagues at work took up a collection, and it was just enough to buy a really nice pair of silver cycling shoes.  I have been using those shoes for 12 years now, and I have put 9,000 miles on them!  That seems like a worthwhile accomplishment.  You will think this is funny, but I am going to make a nice varnished wood plaque and mount my old shoes on it.  I will take a photograph of all that when it was done.  You will not believe how battered the old silver shoes are.  Meanwhile I am back on the road with these shiny new shoes.