Catching Up

There has been so much going on, like exploring some nature areas with Liz, and field trips and going to Rochester, that I have a real backlog of photographs that I have taken and not even edited yet!  This is one of those photographs - a field with native grasses lit by two shafts of sunlight late in the day at Caumsett State Park.  I love the subtlety of this scene and the photograph of it.  It was shot in color, but after quite a bit of thought, I think it is best seen in black & white.  Please click on the image to see it larger.

 

Expectations II

This is actually the first photograph I did when the Sun came out from under the clouds yesterday.  After walking for an hour under overcast skies, the beautiful light was just stunning.  These sycamore trees are the gift that keeps on giving.  As many times as I have photographed them, I never tire of trying to find new views.  And because of yesterday's late afternoon light, this is one of my better photographs of these trees.

 

Expectations

I learned another lesson in photography today.  Or, rather, learned all over, once again, not to have expectations on what you might find when you go out photographing.  I needed some good exercise after sitting in the car for 8 hours driving down from Rochester yesterday.  It was overcast today and no sun,  so I didn't expect much in terms of photographs, but I needed the exercise so off I went.  Turns out the overcast sky was a beautiful silver gray in color and I got a couple of nice shots, but near the end of my walk, after an hour and a half, the clouds moved south, the sun came out and everything changed!  I got two really nice photographs, and this is one of them.  The other I will post tomorrow.  So take your camera, go for a walk, and have no expectations.  You just never know what will be revealed to you on any given day.  This particular photograph is all about the horizontal "V" in the sky and the water!

 

Two FBI Agents

This is Cormac and I after Thanksgiving dinner.  We both showed up wearing the same outfits!  So his dad suggested we do a photograph of us together!  He went out to his car and found two pairs of Raybans, which completed our outfits!  Here's the funny part - About 40 years ago an identical photograph was taken of Pat and I when he was the age of his son!  Now if only I can find that photograph!  If I can, you will get to see it!

 

Fun in the Cemetery

I went out to buy some coffee beans at Starbucks.  On the way I drove by this cemetery and it really grabbed my attention.  I was on a road that was a bit higher, and I was able to look down on to all the gravestones.  The cemetery is called Webster Rural Cemetery.  I have always loved spending time in and photographing cemeteries.  They are peaceful places.  In the Victorian era, cemeteries were designed so that families could come out to them to have picnics and spend time with their departed relatives.

I took a lot of photographs, and both of these are OK, but not great photographs.  I could not decide which of these photographs I liked better, so I decided to show you both of them and see what you think.

 

Thanksgiving Day

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our gathering today!  It was good to have a gathering of so many people - people from Massachusetts, and from Long Island, and from Rochester.  For the first time in about 50 years, Jo Anne and Kathy did not have to do the Thanksgiving dinner.  The torch has been passed and this year Becky and Liz did the dinner.  And what a Thanksgiving dinner it was!

Here Liz and Becky and Chris are dealing with the hot turkey straight out of the oven.  They are pouring the juices out of the roasting bag, for making gravy.

While waiting for dinner, Pat is looking at some electronic artwork that Findley did on her tablet and Cormac.

Kathy, Jo Anne, Pat and Vince are talking with Liz and Amy in California, bringing so much of the family together on this day.

The Death of a Farmhouse

The death of this old farmhouse is not a pleasant thing to see.  I have been photographing it for at least 15 years, because I am fascinated by architecture, and also by its ruin.  Over the years I have gradually seen more about this house as I keep looking and photographing it.  I hope that I can somehow find out more about it, and how wonderful would it be if some historical society had a photograph of it when it was inhabited.  Each time I see it, I see more architectural details.  This house was really well built, and I keep finding quality architectural details that surprise me.  It had a front porch, now gone, and a side porch that is now a pile of rotting lumber.

I think the main house was built, and then other parts were added on the back.  Houses and barns were done that way all over the northeast, with new sections added on later and connected together.  This back section was probably the last room added on.  I looked inside and it appears to have been a storage room.  I walked up to the large window to the left in the corner, and this is what I saw:

In this photograph you can see how far gone this structure is.  The second floor and roof have collapsed, and you can see the sky as a result.  It has snowed and covered all the wood with snowflakes.

What is amazing is that with all the structure collapsed in the back, this view through the window into the downstairs left front room, everything is still intact.  The ceiling is still intact, showing the lathe and plaster, and there is original wallpaper on one of the walls.  I wonder if this room is still whole because it was in the original house and that perhaps it was more solidly built.  So many mysteries here.

Driving Upstate for Thanksgiving

 Today we drove up to Rochester to see Vince and Jo Anne.  We are staying with them for a few days and having Thanksgiving dinner with their two sons and their wives.  The torch has been passed - the "old" people don't have to do the Thanksgiving dinner any more!   :-).  We had blue sky and sunshine, and a few clouds and no traffic to speak of, which was wonderful.  The skies were nearly clear after sunset and what was wonderful was that we were in an area that was flat and you could see the horizon in all directions, something rare for us at home.  A perfect day!

Fall Color Close to Home

When I woke up this morning, I looked out the bedroom window and saw this Japanese maple tree that is behind our garage, in perfect fall color!  The tree is just over the property line in the neighbor's yard.  I hadn't noticed that the tree was changing, for some reason.  So to see it like this was stunning.

Then, as is our custom, we got coffee and two donuts and drove to the beach for breakfast.  I know, it's only Monday, but we are headed up to Rochester tomorrow morning, so we had to do donuts on a Monday.  We drove along our regular route and were stunned to see these two beautiful Japanese Maple trees!  Wow! Yellow and orange and red.  So beautiful.  And what small delicate trees.  Quite the day for fall color!

 

Handcrafts

Kathy and Liz decided to experiment with making things from "Sculpy."  It is like a modeling clay that you heat in the oven at low temperature to harden when you are finished.  Liz made a really tiny unicorn, which she is holding with her fingers on the table, and Kathy made a tiny blue elephant.  They had so much fun making these tiny animals, and worked so hard at it.  It was fun watching them working together and enjoying each other's company.

 

A Tree in the Woods

This is another photograph from the Louis C. Clark Sanctuary.  When I walk in the forest I need to remember to look down, which seems counter intuitive.  I will show you a couple of photographs that I did at Caumsett State Park that involve looking down.  I tend to look forward at the landscape and up at the trees.  But I was paying attention here.  I love the rich dark coloration of the old decomposing tree in contrast to the bright leaves of fall.

 

Saving the House

The road that runs along Sea Cliff Beach is really out of the way, so I rarely go there unless it is to take a special picture.  We drove along the Boulevard because I wanted Liz to see the washout from the giant storm.  I showed you photographs of the house which lost a lot of its back yard, back in September.  You can see that photograph here: Washout.  I wondered at the time how they would ever stabilize the hill.  I was stunned to see all the operations going on when we drove by the other day!  They have piled up some giant concrete blocks in the street then put a giant pile of dirt behind it, probably more than ten feet tall, and now there is this pile driver on tracks up on the pile, and I think it is driving these I-beams into the ground as part of the stabilizing process.  It has been a week now, and I need to drive down there again and see what progress has taken place.

I do wonder what will go between the I-beams after they are driven into the ground.  Probably something to do with concrete.

What is shocking in this photograph is to see how close to the edge of the washed out area the house it.  Compare how it looks with the first photograph I took on October 8th.  I will go check this out tomorrow and report back

 

Treefall

We went with Liz to the Louis C. Clark Sanctuary in Glen Head a few days back.  It is an 8 acre nature preserve that I have been driving by for years and years!  I just never got around to going there.  A large part of it is wetlands, so it's great for birdwatching, but not hiking.  In my explorations, I came across this incredible scene.  What you are looking at are two tree blowdowns that apparently happened years apart.  As the trees fell their roots pulled up the earth that was supporting them.  You can see the group of trees that are silvery on the left.  The tree that fell on the right is not visible.  There must have been a couple of really strong wind events that took these trees down.  The scene is a bit surrealistic, and beautiful in a strange way as well.  This is a large panorama, so please click on it to see a much larger image.  You will be stunned when the image opens!

 

Fall Color

I have a lot of catching up to do.  This is one of my photographs of Fall color from Caumsett that I haven't posted before.  I have some other photographs from there as well that you haven't seen.  And then I have a ton of photographs of the places we went with Liz, and to talk about her project which is like a treasure hunt that is called "Letterboxing."  So more photos to come.  Stay tuned.  This is a pretty photograph by the way, so please click on it to see it larger.

Yet Another Moonrise

I

I know, I know, another Moonrise photograph.  I was really happy with the photograph that I did back on October 20 October Moonrise but I wanted to try the scene with sunlight on the trees.  On this day the Moon rose while the Sun was still above the horizon, which was great for the foreground, but the sun kept the sky light and the moon was ghostly, barely visible.  So I waited for time to pass and the sky to darken which helped, but that meant the Moon was higher in the sky.  So the photograph is not as dramatic as it was in the October photograph.

Hiking Around Sea Cliff

Liz and I had some fun today!  She wanted to walk down Sea Cliff Avenue, the main street, just to see the place and the changes in town.  When we got to the park at the end, we looked out over the water, then picked the nearest street that goes down the cliff.  It was unbelievable!  I have never been down that street and you wouldn't believe it either how steeply it descends.  And there are houses at the bottom!  We hiked back up the hill and then went down and up another street.  Then we went to the famous Tilly Steps that go down the face of the cliff.  We went to the bottom which ends on the boardwalk along the harbor.  Then Liz got a great idea.  We went to the end of the boardwalk and climbed over the railing on to a bulkhead and then down to a rock, and finally to the tidal flats.  The tide was out, fortunately.  Then we walked along the shoreline until we got to the beach at the end of our street.  I saw so many homes and streets and views of the cliff that I have never seen,  and I have lived here since 1966!

 

Visiting Friends

Liz is here with us, but only for 5 days.  She arrived Thursday night, really late, and we take her back to JFK on Tuesday.  The time is flying by so fast!  We were driving around Sea Cliff and Glen Cove yesterday working on a project of Liz' (more on that later) and we were also just showing her all the changes around here.  We drove by the luxury condo complex in Glenwood Landing and the monster condo complex in Glen Cove.  She hasn't been here in more than two years so those changes were a shock.  As we drove down Sea Cliff Avenue, Liz happened to spot Nancy standing at her front door so we screeched to a halt and ran over to chat for a few minutes.  Nancy was so surprised, and so pleased to see Liz (and us!) if only for a few minutes.

 

The Storm, Before and After

                             

We stopped by the Gordon's this afternoon so Liz could say "hello."  There were thunderstorms forecast and the sky was darkening, so I went out on their back deck, where we watch fireworks from each July.  This was the scene!  These clouds were moving fast, and we could see over the water to the north, rain was coming down.  So we decided to leave and head home.  And then it poured.  And the winds started to blow.  There were tornado warnings in the center of the island as well.

After the storm cleared, I headed over to the grocery store to get fixings for dinner.  When I got out of the car, this was the scene - blue sky and sunshine!  The difference between night and day.  There is an old saying in New England: "If you don't like the weather, just wait 5 minutes!"

The Caumsett Barns - Again

The last time I went to Caumsett, I started by photographing some of the barns, which are just beautiful.  So I started this most recent trip by photographing them again.  It was later in the day this time, so the shadows were stronger which made for a more interesting scene, I thought.  After I shot this, I thought of the work of the artist Charles Sheeler, who also did some photography.  I think that it was the paintings that this reminded me of.  I just love all the angles and shadows and the vents on the roofs scattered here and there.

 

I Lied

I did a post two days ago titled "Last Moon."  I said I would not be posting any more Moon photographs: "This is my last Moon post, at least for a while!  I promise."  Well, I lied!  After spending the day photographing Fall color, it started to get dark.  And there was the Moon.  And three planets!  So I have gone back on my word.  I photographed the four objects over trees, and kept walking to the parking lot, and then saw them over the barns.  There's the shot!  From left to right: Jupiter, the Moon, and up and to the right a short distance is a very faint Saturn, and then on the far right is Venus.  What a spectacular thing to see in a deep blue sky long after sunset!  For the curious, way down in the lower left is the start Fomalhaut.  Please click on this image and it makes it easier to see the fainter stars.

 

In Search of Fall Color

                            

Today I went in search of Fall color.  I went to Caumsett State Park, which I visited about a month ago.  So I spent 5 hours, and walked about 4 miles and took a ton of photographs.  I have a nice collection of photographs for the afternoon, and of course I will show you more, but this may the most interesting image because of the color contrast between the bright colors of Fall and the two different blue colors of the sky and its reflection in the water.  What a great way to spend a perfect, beautiful day!

My Last Moon

This is my last Moon post, at least for a while!  I promise.  After I photographed the Moon at the church, I headed down the hill heading back towards home, and suddenly caught a glance of the Moon and Venus as seen through poles, insulators and wires at the power company substation, across the street from the generating plant that was demolished.  So instead of looking for another shot somewhere along the water, I parked the car and tried to get a decent shot of the scene.  There was a chain link fence and trees and bushes in the way, to this was the only viewpoint, unfortunately.  But it is certainly a different view, seeing the beautiful scene in the sky, through this industrial foreground.  As Monty Python was fond of saying: "And now for something completely different!"

 

The Steeple and the Crescent Moon

This was the third and last night of the conjunction of the Moon and Venus.  I say "it's over" because the Moon was 9 degrees from Venus tonight, and will be an additional 15 degrees away tomorrow.  I have wanted to photograph the moon and this church steeple in Glenwood Landing.  But the time has to be just right, and it still hasn't been.  But I liked this shot of just part of the steeple and the photograph has what I think is an eerie feel to it.  It is a bright white church, by the way, even though the paint is a bit dirty so by exposing for the Moon, the white goes into shadow and I am left with this very dark gray.

Venus & the Moon, Even Closer

So I went back down to the harbor this evening, after sunset, in hopes I could photograph Venus and the Moon again.  There were thin high clouds, so I didn't have much hope that I would see the two objects.   I started by photographing a brilliant red sunset and the sandbars as it got darker.  When it got too dark I started to leave and then I noticed that the clouds had thinned enough that I could see both the Moon and Venus!  And the icing on the cake was the fading light from the Sun illuminated the clouds, giving a lovely pastel sky.  So I quickly found something interesting to put in the foreground - this battered tree was perfect, and put on a 200mm lens and made this photograph.  Here, the separation of the Moon and Venus was only 5 degrees.  Tomorrow, the two will have switched positions, and the Moon will be on the left, Venus on the right, and the separation will be 9 degrees, so you have a good chance to see this magnificent conjunction!

Venus, and the Crescent Moon

I went out just after sunset tonight to do a class assignment for Stan's Night Sky Photography class.  I had done some planning on the computer using a planetarium program where I can change the day and time to see where the Moon and Venus will be at a particular time.  Today was a bit frustrating because the two of them were 18 degrees apart.  I did get them both in this photograph, fortunately.  Tomorrow night they will be only 5 degrees apart, but the forecast is for thin clouds.  I will try again and see if the weather allows a chance to photograph.  I had composed this photograph, and while I was shooting over about 15 minutes of time, waiting for the sky to get darker, a couple walked through the photograph, and one sat on the bench and the other person stood up next to them!  PERFECT!  I could not have asked for a more perfect arrangement.

 

The Unusual Shape of Clouds

I showed you a tree against a cloudy sky the other day from some photographs I took because the clouds cancelled our observing session.  So no observing?  Try shooting the sky with clouds.  I realized that I took this photograph before I did the one I posted the other day.  It was kind of a quick snap, without spending much time on the photograph.  I just thought that the clouds were interesting because of the straight line on the right hand edge.  It made the cloud look as if it were a flying wing aircraft.  Jupiter is still high in the sky on the left and more stars are visible, which is nice.

 

The Neighbor's Garden

A month or so ago I took a photograph of what the new neighbors are doing with the front bank of their property.  Originally the whole front bank was just ferns and weeds and has been that way for years.  So I showed you the magical fences that the husband has been building.  He has patience beyond belief, and these fences look as if they came from a fairytale!  So I promised to show you the garden after it was planted and here it is around Halloween, with the pumpkins they added to the steps.  How creative they are, and how beautiful this all is!

 

Virga Over The Sound

I walked down to the water the other day just after sunset to see what the clouds would look like.  I was taking a picture here and there, and then I noticed this scene!  Clouds were moving in from the northwest with virga underneath them.  What a beautiful and amazing sight!  What is virga?  Virga are trails of precipitation that fall from the underside of a cloud but evaporate or sublime before it can reach the earth's surface. This happens when falling rain or ice passes through an area of dry or warm air.  So I took a ton of photographs as it got darker and darker and then started up the hill toward home.  I was half way up the hill when I realized that it was sprinkling. Duh!  Well, virga are rain showers that don't reach the ground, until they do!  I hid my camera under my jacket and managed to get home with only raindrops on me.  Is this a stunning scene or what!

 

It's Done!

So I have finished painting the bedroom!  You probably saw the earlier post looking at this corner under where the roof cuts through the room because it is under a dormer.  Now it has all been plastered up, sanded, primed and painted.  I love the contrast of the grayish walls and the white ceiling, all of which have been painted.  And then to see the old iron bed against the gray adds frosting to the cake!  One thing left to do - the dark semi-circle within the white frame is actually brass, and needs to be removed and polished and then sprayed with a protective lacquer to keep it shiny for another 50 years.

 

A Tree, Some Clouds, and Jupiter!

Six of us from my astronomy club saw the weather was going to be clear and decided to go observing at the Vanderbilt Planetarium.  It was a bit cold and windy, but clear, so we got to do some observing which was nice.  But then we noticed some clouds coming in, first cirrus, then altocumulus.  So we were disappointed, but then two of us realized that they made a nice background for this tree.  The clouds are visible, even though it was 9:30 at night, because of light pollution from the village of Huntington, just a few miles to the west.  The reason I chose this view of the tree and sky, is that in the upper left of the photo is the planet Jupiter!  What a great combination!  Jupiter will be easier to see if you click on the photograph and it will open a larger image.