Happy New Year!

I went for a walk late this afternoon.  Really late, in fact.  It was long after sunset, and in fact it was really dark when I started my walk.  It was drizzling and the fog was really thick!  The fog made everything magical!  I took more photographs on my harbor walk today, than I have ever taken on this walk!  I may have to create "Fog Week" in order to show you all of the different things I photographed.  These trees are in a town park and a marina called Tappan Beach.  The other thing that was really cool, believe it or not, was the experience of walking in the dark, in the fog!  I have never done that before.  It was a really interesting and different feeling.  What a way to end the year!

 

Venice Artwork

I love walking around Venice in the commercial areas, where the stores are.  Many buildings have paintings on their sides to make the buildings more interesting.  Usually cars park here in these spaces, with their cars facing the wall and the paintings.  This is an astounding painting I think.  I am showing just a detail in this photograph, so that you can see the detail in the hands.

And this is the whole painting, so you can see where the hands come from.  Such an interesting thing to see.  I am so impressed with the quality of the painting.  So much more interesting than a blank wall.

 

In California Even Dogs Drive Cars!

I took a walk from Amy & Gus' house over to Ralph's grocery store to get a couple of items that were needed for dinner.  I brought my camera with me, of course.  I took a number of photos along the way, some others of which you will see later.  But then I spied this dog sitting in the driver's seat of a parked car.  I moved closer to the car very slowly in hopes he wouldn't move.  Originally he was looking straight forward which I thought was a better shot but I never got that picture.  But I thought that this was not too bad, with him looking at me!  He was gentle, and my moving slowly helped I think because he never barked once.  Good doggie!

 

Los Angeles Leftovers

There is so much to photograph in Los Angeles, and I always come home with so many photographs that I didn't have time to post on the blog, so I will be posting them now for a few days.  For exercise I would go with Liz and Sarah on their dog walks, and sometimes I would go out earlier by myself and walk two miles.  We would always walk by this house and the house next door to it.  Their gardens are absolutely stunning with the cacti and the succulents.  The house next door to this one has a same kind of garden, so perhaps the people are related. To see  this in person is simply astounding!

 

The Beauty of Flight

After taking off from Los Angeles, we were in clouds for a bit but eventually the skies cleared and we could see the ground perfectly.  What was unusual was that we flew southeast from LAX and got very close to the border with Mexico.  The landscape was bleak and appeared to be desert.  The skies were clear for the whole rest of the way.  I was reading and happened to glance up and see the light of the setting sun illuminating the wing, and clouds in the distance and I was immediately taken by the pastel colors.

It wasn't soon after that that lights on the ground began to appear from out of the darkness below.  These are the lights of  the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex shining up from below, and I love the subtlety of the colors in this photograph as well.  I never get tired of watching the world go by beneath us as we fly.  The beauty of flight, indeed!

 

Bedtime for Miss Vivian

When it is bedtime for Miss Vivian, Amy sits with her on a bed in Viv's room, and tonight, she read two books to her.  Vivian was transfixed, listening to Amy read and she watched the illustrations as Amy turned the pages.  I remember reading some years ago that reading to children at night is what makes children fall in love with reading.  And we always read to Liz and Amy.  After the readings, then Viv climbed into her crib and was soon fast asleep.

 

Christmas!

Christmas Day, 2022 finds Miss Vivian and her Nana making dinner rolls in the kitchen together, for our Christmas dinner!  Wow, was Vivian having fun, and Kathy was too!

And here is the cast of characters after the delicious dinner was over.  Everyone looks great in the photo I think.  We had a wonderful day together, and after dinner played games for a couple of hours.  Our favorite game is Catchphrase, where you pass around a plastic device that displays a phrase on an LCD screen and then you have to have your partners guess the phrase, all the while a clock is ticking.  Then when you guess it correctly, you have to pass it quickly because the ticking speeds up and then an alarm goes off and if you are holding the device, you lose!

 

"Twas the Night Before Christmas"

Vivian is now old enough and understands enough so that Amy decided to buy the classic edition, with illustrations of "The Night Before Christmas" by Clement Clarke Moore, with illustrations by Charles Santore.  It is a beautiful book with gorgeous old-fashioned illustrations!  And Vivian sat transfixed as Amy read the story to her for the first time.  Wait until she wakes up tomorrow and finds all the presents!  So clearly this reading will be an annual event every Christmas eve from now on!  It is a joy to be here in Los Angeles with Liz and Sarah and Amy and Gus and Miss Vivian!  Merry Christmas to One and All!

 

Walking the Dogs

Late each day Liz and Sarah walk their dogs.  It is a lovely time of day, just as the sun is setting. The sky is beginning to have pastel colors from overhead down to the horizon.  It is a lovely time of day to take a walk.  I followed along on the walk today, taking photographs along the way.  I love Liz' hat and was photographing her as she walked, and then she turned around and I got this!

 

The Salon

This was the night of the famous Salon which Liz and Amy and Sarah have put on for 6 years now!  It is a gathering of friends and family and children.  There is food and wonderful conversations and some of the people attending perform with singing, and Kathy and I did a funny skit based on something we saw on television back in the 1970's.  What is astounding is the music that Liz and Amy and Sarah do!  They work on their songs and practice until their harmonies are perfect and their performances are beautiful, and fun as well.

And this is Korina who is an amazing performer.  She sits down and begins singing a story of trying to find out how Santa can visit so many houses and leave so many gifts in one night.  It is in kind of a folk music story that is sung - I think they called it "talking blues" or something like that with a dry kind of humor and her number never fails to elicit laughter.

This is an overview of the scene of most of the people in the living room, but there is a room behind me - I am standing in the doorway, where other people sit and watch.  It is such a fun gathering and so nice for us to see all of their friends and renew acquaintances each year 

Alan Awaits

This is Alan, one of Liz and Sarah's three dogs.  He sits at the door awaiting the return of his owners.  All three dogs are advanced in age, so he is wearing a home made diaper just in case. Alan is a rescue dog and is about 14 years old.  He is such a loving dog and loves to come nuzzle anyone who is nearby.  And if you pet him once you are his friend forever!  

Miss Vivian and the Sweater Nana Made

 

When we arrived in Los Angeles yesterday, Miss Vivian was very shy.  She had not seen us since July at the lake which was five months ago.  So she seemed very quiet and a bit wary, which is understandable. So I followed her around trying not to be too in-your-face.  My main purpose, in addition to getting a portrait of Vivian, was to show her wearing the sweater that Kathy knitted for her.  Amy said that Vivian loves this sweater and wears it around all the time! 

 

Four Friends, a Bike and Roller Blades!

OK, this is just plain dumb luck on my part!  We were all down at the beach in Santa Monica because there is a child's playground that Vivian loves.  There is a combination bike path and running path that curves around the edge of the fenced in playground.  I was in the playground and wandered over to where the bike path was right near the fence.  I saw these four people coming, with two people on the bicycle built for two, and two on roller blades hanging on to the bike handlebars such that the cyclists were pulling the skaters along with them!  So I lifted my camera and managed to fire off one shot!  So to get them in focus, and all three smiling like this was just luck.  But I love this photograph of friends having fun, They are all so exuberant, it brightens my day!

 

Westbound Again - JFK to LAX

Headed to California for Christmas today.  And it was a perfect day for photographing out of the airplane window!  I will be showing you some more photographs from the flight later on.  But this is a favorite.  I call it "inhospitable territory."  It was taken as the airplane was passing over the Rocky Mountains.  The mountains in this photograph are from 13,000 to 14,000 feet high.  And there are clouds over the mountains from a recent snowstorm.  I will tell you this I would not want to be anywhere down there in the mountains under these conditions.  I do think this is a beautiful photograph though, showing how impressive the natural world can be.

And I did get a brief view of part of the Grand Canyon further along the route.  It is so impressive to see what the Colorado river has carved out of the landscape over eons!  If you enlarge this you can catch a glimpse the delicate looking river at the bottom of the chasm.

 

Happy Christmas, In Lights!

I first saw this scene at night, on the way to my astronomy club meeting on Wednesday night.  I made a note to come back and photograph this scene in the dark.  Then I kind of forgot.  But when I was walking in the rain just the other day, I remembered this house - it is not far from the old power plant, so it was a short additional walk from my normal trip.  What was fantastic, of course, was that I never considered the rain!  The reflections in the wet street only added to the scene!

 

Nobody Ever Sits Here

It was raining again today, so I thought it would be another good day for a walk, late in the day.  When I saw this familiar scene, I was surprised to see a woman sitting on one of the benches!  In the rain.  But what was unusual is that as many times as I have photographed this scene, I cannot remember anyone ever sitting here in any of my pictures.  But I do like the addition of a figure.  I also love the beautiful steel-gray color everywhere in this shot.  A rainy December day.

 

I Guess I Should Be Careful Here?

I had fun on my "winter walk" today!  It was raining and I went out anyway, with my umbrella, which is the only way to photograph without getting my camera wet.  And it was late in the day, so not only did I get some rain shots with wet roads, but as it got dark the lights were coming on or showing, like this arrow, and automobile lights which made for photographs with acompletely different feel.  I think this photograph is really all about just the lights.  Car lights, construction arrow and it's reflection in the street, and the faint light in the sky reflecting off the road making it blue.

 

Rocks, Water and the Sun

I posted a photograph two days ago titled "The Cold Sea."  It was an OK photograph but not great.  It did set a mood I thought.  But, when I posted it, I knew I had this as another choice and I knew this was a much better photograph!  And I am not sure why. One of the two great photographers I studied with was Ralph Hattersley.  He knew all about photographers and photography and what photographers are up to.  One day he told us: "Never ask a photographer what they are up to, they are the last to know!"  So there you go.  I can take photographs but have no idea why...   :-)

 

Attacked by a Drone!

Oh No!  They came back!  Stan and Preston came out to Sea Cliff again so Stan could have more practice flying his drone.  He is really getting the hang of it, and ready to head to the west coast to work on his project.  So we were also clowning around with the drone near the end of his flying.  There is this thing called "tracking" where the drone will follow one subject and Stan figured how to do that today.  He told the drone to follow me, and I have a video of me running all around the ball field while the drone followed me!  It was amazing how well it worked.  So this is a clowning shot of me appearing to be attacked by a drone.  I was never at risk!   It was just boys and their toy.  :-)

 

The Cold Sea

It's getting colder and I am not ready!  It was warmer yesterday when I started my Winter Walks.  And yesterday was also overcast. Sometimes when it is overcast it is harder for me to find photographs.  Today was sunny so my walk took so much longer because of all the times I stopped to take photographs.  So this is a view of the harbor as the sun was setting under the cumulus clouds and reflecting on the water.  Does it look cold?  I forgot to mention that the wind was blowing at about 15 miles an hour, out of the northwest.  I walk south to get to the old power plant, so the wind was not a problem, but, oh man, when I turned around to walk home, I was walking into the teeth of the gale!  But it was worth it.  Wait until I show you some of my other photographs from today.  And please, click on this to see it in more detail.

 

Just Hanging Out

Winter officially arrives in 10 days.  But it has already become cold enough that I haven't ridden on a lot of days recently.  Today it was both cold and misting, so with the roads wet, there was no way I was going to go out on the bike.  So I officially began my winter walking.  I do a 2.6 mile walk down to where the old power plant was and back to home.   Today it took me 53 minutes, and that included a few stops to take photographs.  This is my favorite photograph for today.  It is some kind of child's toy that someone has fastened to a fence.  The fence surrounds a marine and construction equipment junk yard.  So the fence has been filled with green plastic pieces that look like they came from a Christmas tree - it makes it hard to see through the fence, keeping passersby from seeing most of the junk on the other side.  I love this little guy who has a smile on his face and funny feet, and a mirror in his belly.  He made me smile!

 

The Last Plants

These are the last stalks standing in the garden.  Kathy says they are wild onions as in weeds.  I wouldn't have a clue, of course, but I find these stalks with their blossoms on the top so interesting as they fade.  They seem striking because everything is flat on the ground except these plants.  All a part of Fall and the cycle of life.

 

All Gone

I looked out our bedroom window and down at the Japanese maple.  What I noticed first was the black craggy branch in the left center seen against the fallen leaves.  I hadn't noticed that before.  Then  I noticed all the silvery branches that we can see because all the leaves are all gone.  I love the contrast with the silvery branches and the black craggy branch.

 

The Carrington Event

This is Dr. Fred Walter, a professor at Stony Brook University. He studies star birth, stellar weather, and star death.  He came to our meeting and talked about The Carrington Event.  The Carrington Event was the most intense geomagnetic storm in recorded history, peaking from 1 to 2 September 1859 during solar cycle 10. It created strong auroral displays that were reported globally and caused sparking and even fires in multiple telegraph stations. The geomagnetic storm was most likely the result of a coronal mass ejection (CME) from the Sun colliding with Earth's magnetosphere.  The geomagnetic storm was associated with a very bright solar flare on 1 September 1859. It was observed and recorded independently by British astronomers Richard Christopher Carrington and Richard Hodgson—the first records of a solar flare. A geomagnetic storm of this magnitude occurring today would cause widespread electrical disruptions, blackouts, and damage due to extended outages of the electrical power grid.  It was an amazing presentation!

 

The Moon and Mars!

What an astounding evening I had!  Tonight the Moon passed REALLY close to the planet Mars at about 11:30 PM on the east coast.  It was an absolutely spectacular sight!  I have never seen anything like this in my life, to have these two magnificent objects so close to each other.  The moon is only 1/2 a degree in diameter.  Not even a full degree.  So it is about 30 minutes in angular diameter.  A degree is 60 minutes in angular diameter.  The Moon passed by Mars within about 4 minutes of angle!  Mars appears as a speck in this photograph, so click on the photo and you will see it in more detail.

This is a cropped version of the photograph above, and you can almost see some detail on the surface of Mars, and you can see for sure that Mars is orange in color.  A group of my friends were also out photographing this "conjunction" tonight, some in NYC and some on Long Island.  We were texting each other so that gave us a connection as we photographed this scene together.

 

The Last Colors of Fall

This drone photograph was taken late in the day.  Most of the leaves are gone from the Japanese maple tree and are on the ground.  Because it was late in the day, the daylight is bluish in color as you can see from the color of the street.  We can also see the bluish green lichen on some of the branches.  But even in blue light, the brilliance of the yellow leaves still shows through.  I am constantly amazed at how beautiful nature is in its cycle of life.

 

Three Men and a Drone!

Stan bought a new drone!  He will be using it for a project about the internment camps in California, where both his mom and dad were imprisoned at the start of WWII.  So, since it is illegal to fly a drone anywhere in Manhattan, he came out here with the drone for the day.  And our friend Preston came along with him - Preston is thinking he might need one too!  Here I am flying it just for a bit in the beginning, and using the drone to take a photograph of the three of us, in our side yard.

Here is a closeup of Stan's drone, with him in the background.  This machine is simply astounding.  It is about 1/4 the size of my drone, because all the arms fold in when you are done flying and the drone and controller fit in what amounts to a woman's pocket book!  And the quality of the images from this drone is simply amazing.  For the geeks out there, Stan's drone has a 4K camera.

After some preliminary flying in our side yard, we went up to the huge park in town with two baseball fields, as the sun was low in the western sky.  How cool is this shot, with the three of us, and the long shadows!

When the drone gets several hundred feet up in the sky, believe it or not, it is not easy to see!  Here Stan is flying it and Preston is trying to see if he can still see it.  It was about 300 feet above the ground at this point.  The law limits the altitude of drones to 400 feet.  We had such a great afternoon, the three of us, playing with one of the best toys ever!

 

Leaves and leaves

It was raining very lightly the other day, and I went down the front steps with my camera to take a look at the Japanese maple to see what I could see.  But I happened to look down at the driveway and saw all these tiny leaves!  I have done closeup photographs of these leaves in past years, but this wide angle photo of so many of them has a completely different feel to it and I really like how this feels.  It's beautiful!

A Man and His Drone

My friend Stan bought a drone for a project he has been working on for a long time, about the horror of internment camps for U.S. Citizens of Japanese descent that was done during WWII.  He and an author friend of his have done two books and now they are working on a website.  So he will be taking his drone and going out to some smaller cities in California to document the remains of various detention centers.  So he and our friend Preston will be coming out here on Monday so we can fly his drone and he can have a chance to get familiar with it.  You can't fly drones in Manhattan at all.  Here we will go to a ball field in town with all kinds of room.  So with all this talk of drones, I got mine out today and did this photograph in our side year of the Japanese maple and all the leaves on the ground.  Kind of a cool shot I think.  I posted a larger image so when you click on it you will see a lot more detail.

 

Fall Color

A friend from upstate sent me an email and was curious how much fall color there was still around here.  In Rochester, for instance there isn't a leaf on a tree up there.  I took this photograph about 2 days ago, before the rain and the wind.  Our Japanese maple was at its peak about 5 days ago, and the Japanese maple behind the garage on a neighbor's property was at peak also.  I will show you a photograph of that tree in a couple of days.  This Japanese maple is in another neighbor's yard and I shot this with a 300mm lens from our yard.  What spectacular color!

 

Holiday Lights

When I arrived at the Vanderbilt Museum last night for our astronomy meeting I was surprised to see all these white lights strung along the fences and wrapped around the lamp posts!  It was such a cheery scene, especially with the cobblestone driveway,  and wet sidewalk with leaves on it.  They have not, in my memory, done this before and it is such a bright and cheerful way to decorate for the holidays!