Stratocumulus asperitas

I saw these unusual clouds when I got down to the harbor one day last week.  I don't remember seeing clouds like this before.  So I photographed them and then sent a copy of the photo to a friend of mine in the astronomy club.  He was trained as a meteorologist in his native Romania when he was younger.  George knows about weather, and he loves clouds!  He is a member of, I am not kidding,  "The Cloud Appreciation Society."  If you have any curiosity or love of the beauty of clouds, you should check this website out!  So he replied: "You were lucky to spot some stratocumulus asperitas,  a new type recognized only since 2017.  The founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society, Gavin Pretor-Pinney, convinced the World Meteorological Organization to add this type to the International Cloud Atlas.  The scientists said that it is gravity waves that produce them. These are pressure waves in the atmosphere."  Wow, I love having such smart friends who I can turn to to learn new things!

 

Have a Seat...

Scudder's pond is apparently fed by a small stream, and a large amount of water comes down a street to the north, and then apparently in the old days, they put in a drain pipe and routed the water from the street into Scudder's Pond!  Wow, that was stupid!  The water washing down the street picks up oil and all kinds of junk from the street, including dog and animal waste and dumps it into the pond?  About 10 years ago they had to do a giant project and clean out all the sand and silt that had filled up the pond.  That project took months to accomplish.  That sand came from the streets as well.  Then they put in some kind of device that was supposed to swirl the water entering the pond and then the sand would drop out as the speed of the water slowed.  So the pond looked so much better after that.  But lately with all the rain, the pond has been really full.  There is an overflow right by the street where the water leaves the pond and goes into a pipe that empties out in the harbor.  So I don't know why the level of the water in the pond is so high.  But these chairs are usually on the land, and people use them to watch hockey in the winter.

 

How Do I Photograph Thee...

                                                                How do I photograph thee, let me count the ways...  This Amaryllis was a Christmas gift from one of Kathy's "Lunch Ladies."  There are five women who get together maybe once a month for lunch, and this year, one of them gave each of the other four, as well as one for herself,  one of these Amaryllis bulbs coated in wax.  This is unbelievable, but all the water and nutrients for the growth of the stem and the flowers that bloom from the bulb are all contained inside the wax covering of the bulb.  It arrives as just the ball with a bit of green sticking up, and after a few weeks it grew to look like this. 

                                   

Because it is such an amazing looking flower, I decided to make a backdrop of two pieces of gray colored matte board on the dining table and I set up a studio flash unit and tried to see how many different ways I could light the plant, because in photography, the lighting can make such a difference.  So here are four of the most interesting lighting setups.  Notice how different the plant looks in each of the lighting styles.  To see the differences more clearly, click on one of the photographs, and then use the left/right arrow keys to switch between the images.

Rocks, Beach and Water

OK, so you are saying "What's with all the rocks and sand and water?"  Well, because I live just up the street from the harbor?  Is that a good answer?  I know I just posted a similar photograph a day or two ago, but when I am walking and see things, that's what I shoot, and I try and pick the most interesting photographs from my walk and so you get two similar photographs from different days.  I do alike all the different things going on in this photograph - the rocks and sand, of course, but then the rivulets of water which comes from a pipe under the road.  This was all marshland before they built shore road, so there is fresh water underground which drains into the harbor.  I think this photograph is interesting because of the different things going on.

 

The Old Water Company

I went for another of my walks late in the day on an overcast day.  I think it was the foggy day I took my walk.  This is the old Sea Cliff Water Company building which was apparently not used for quite a while.  You have seen a photo or too that I took through the window showing the interior.  Water Company InteriorThere is a concrete hole in the floor and I think it contained some machinery which was removed.  I wish I saw it when the machinery was in place.  Sea Cliff Water Company was sold to some large company and they decided to sell this building and property back to the village. So the village is going to fix the building up and figure out what to use it for.  So it looks a bit tired under these conditions, and I actually liked the feeling of this old building this way.  But it will look better eventually.

 

The Placement of Rocks

I looked over the railing that is a couple of feet from the sidewalk when I saw this boulder in the water.  then I saw all the smaller rocks, and then even smaller ones.  I liked the spots of blackness in the water and on the beach.  So the trick was, to see where I wanted to place the rocks within the frame of the viewfinder!  Clearly I was not going to move any rocks for this photograph, except by deciding where the edges of the photograph should be for the most interesting image.  I think this composition works pretty well.  I have passed this spot a billion times but have never, for some reason, looked at all the different sizes of rocks there.  That's what made me stop this time, for this photograph.

 

The Trees Across the Pond

You have seen these trees so many times before, in all seasons.  But I have never seen them this color!  I couldn't believe what a beautiful color they were yesterday when I saw them.  These are the trees I wanted to photograph with the Phragmites in the foreground somehow, but I couldn't get high enough to shoot over the reeds.  So I took two photographs - the one you saw yesterday and then this one because I wanted you to see what stunning colors I saw.  It was 4:40 in the afternoon, so maybe that had something to do with the color of the light, and it was overcast.  I am not sure, but wow, what colors!

 

A Different View

I have photographed Scudder's Pond about a billion times since I came to Sea Cliff in November of 1966.  It is pretty scenic and with wildlife like birds, ducks, and geese the things to photograph are endless.  So as I passed by on my walk yesterday, the Phragmites caught my eye and I saw the orange trees in the distance, here out of focus, and there were some Phragmites in the foreground.  I tried climbing the fence made from steel pipe but I couldn't get myself high enough.  So then I started shooting through the plants in the foreground.  Sometimes I focused on the trees in the background and sometimes, as here, I focused on the Phragmites.  I think this is interesting because we can examine the reed and see straight ones, and curved ones and diagonal ones.  It is a more subtle photograph, but to me, quite interesting.  It is better if you click on it to enlarge the photograph and so can see more details.

 

The Sycamore Before

Today I went looking through my files to see if I could find a photograph where we could see what the broken Sycamore looked like before the top of it broke off.    It's funny that although I have walked by this tree for a couple of years now, I didn't remember it at all.  So it has been dead for quite some time.  Makes it a little less tragic to see that there wasn't much to this tree to begin with.  The only photograph I could find was not a color photograph but an infrared photograph.  But the old tree does show up clearly.

 

Another Sycamore Tree Dies

On my walk today, I noticed this Sycamore tree with most of the top broken off and the trunk split.  I think it has been this way for a while.  Then I had to stop and try and remember what that tree looked like.   I have photographed the whole length of this sidewalk and trees over time - I will have to take a look and see what this tree looked like before it broke.  When it did break they obviously came by and cleaned up the fallen parts.  This is one of those trees that at one time lined both sides of the sidewalk along the harbor.  But they have been here for years and years, and some of them have died.  So they do replace the trees that have died.

This is a view of the half of the tree trunk that is still standing and you can see that it is completely rotted inside.  I guess they will plant a new one in the spring.  It seems that recently a number of these trees have died and been removed.

A Sweater for Vivian!

It's done!  A new sweater for Miss Vivian!  It will be mailed on Monday!  This has been a huge project for Kathy!  She started working on it before Thanksgiving.  She had to learn yet another way of knitting, and follow a really detailed pattern.  You can see all the different stitches and the incredible detail that this sweater has.   Kathy probably made at least 1 1/2 sweaters to get this.  She would work on a section and then realize that she missed some stitches, and have to pull a whole section out and start that part over again!  I am in awe of her focus and determination and her craftsmanship on this beautiful sweater!

 

Fueling Dock

This fueling dock where barges are brought nearly every day by tugboats is the way gasoline and home heating oil and diesel arrive on Long Island.  It is a huge company that deals in fuel.  If you look carefully there is a huge barge tied up to the dock and on the far side facing to the left is a tugboat which brought the barge into Hempstead Harbor.  But I don't know where the barges come from.  As the fuel is unloaded, there are large pipes which run under the road to a huge tank farm across the street, where the fuels are stored, and then tanker trucks fill up and take the fuel to gasoline stations.  This was the perfect time for this shot, like the peaking turbines,  because there was still some light in the sky which gives us a blue background instead of black.  I love the reflections of the lights on the water which is one reason I took this photograph.  Please click on the image to see in in more detail and you can begin to see the barge and tugboat better.

 

The Lady in Gold

This is probably a strange photograph.  I was walking my usual route yesterday and stopped to take a photograph of the harbor.  This woman who I hadn't noticed passed me.  So I started walking again and passed her.  Then I stopped for another photograph and she passed me.  I became fascinated that she was wearing this gold down jacket.  Something about the gold seemed strange, since most walkers are not wearing fashionable jackets.  So at some point I decided to try and catch up to her and do some kind of photograph showing the jacket.  She was a really strong walker - I had to work hard to catch up and stay with her.  When she walked by this fence that has the plastic grassy-looking stuff woven into the fence for privacy I thought this was the best background and took a few photos.  She continued on and turned left down at the mile-long uphill road and I turned around and headed home.  I have no idea what this shot means, but I was drawn to this subject, I guess because the scene seemed incongruous.

 

The Peaking Turbines, Again...

I am fascinated with these gas turbine generators that are used for "peaking" - they start up late in the day when the demand for electricity starts going up as people turn on their lights and begin making dinner.  As an aside, it turns out that only 40% of customers use natural gas stoves.  60% use electric stoves, so that's why the increase in demand at suppertime.  I have photographed these machines SO many times, never being quite happy with the results.  So I was thrilled when I got a photo I was really happy with a couple of weeks ago when I photographed them in the fog.  And this is a photograph that I think is really beautiful in an industrial way.  The turbines are yellow because of the lights on them and it was still light enough that the sky was a deep blue in contrast.  A wonderful contrast in colors.

 

Birds, Birds, and Birds

I am enjoying doing my walks really late in the day.  Today I left at 5 PM to do my walk, and I was surprised that it was still light out at that time which is exciting.  The beginning of more hours of daylight!   I was surprised to see so many birds resting on the water like this, that seems fairly unusual.  In terms of composition and interest it is nice that there are three groups of birds sitting on the water.  And I love the blue gray overcast sky.  When I start my walk late like this, I end up walking home in the dark which is nice.  It is peaceful walking along the harbor in the dark as the lights come on across the water.

 

Stan's Drone, Ken's Photo!

So this is a bit confusing I am thinking, which is fun!  Stan came out here today with his drone, so that he could get one more practice in before he heads out to California with his drone at the end of the month.  He will be doing drone photographs of some of the sites where Japanese Americans were imprisoned because of "race panic" at the start of WWII.  He got really comfortable flying his new drone in record time, in my estimation!  He is really good at it!  So I was flying it for just a bit at the end of his session, and I saw these shadows of the trees surrounding Memorial Park in Sea Cliff.  Then I made sure to include just the shadows of Stan and I as well.  So the blue "H" - what is that?  The drone that Stan hass SO unbelievably smart, that it can use its camera to spot that blue circle with white "H" which is where it took off from.  If you click on "Return to Home" it will automatically find that blue circle and land itself there!  Unreal!  We had so much fun playing with the drone again today!

 

I'm Seeing Spots

A friend of mine posted a note on the email list of our astronomy club saying that we all should look at the Sun today, it was covered with spots!  So I got out one of my telescopes, one that I can use to photograph the Sun, in addition to just viewing it, and I took a look.  There were more sunspots on the face of the Sun than I have ever seen!  Many of them were tiny spots called "pores" but there were plenty of larger ones all over the surface.  The black ones with a gray area surrounding it include the "umbra" or the black part and the gray area is called the "penumbra."

Sunspots are caused by powerful magnetic flux that break through the surface of the Sun, and because they are so powerful, they slow down the convection on the surface of the Sun, and thus sunspots are cooler areas on the surface.  Cooler is a relative term -  the black center of a sunspot runs from 5000 to 7500 degrees F.  The surrounding lighter surface is closer to 10,000 degrees F.   What an amazing thing to see this unusual display on the Sun's surface.  Don't forget to click on each photo to see more detail.

 

Little Island

I was early getting over to where the Whitney Museum is, and when I got off the subway and walked to the Hudson river on14th street I was too far north because the Whitney is 3 streets south of 14th.  Lo and behold there was the "Little Island" which I had heard about.  It is a new man-made island in the Hudson river.  It is made up of 132 concrete pylons which are called "tulips."  On top of the pylons which vary a great deal in height, there is a whole landscaped park.

This is a closeup of the tops of the tulips.  The pilings that they are mounted on go almost 200 feet into the riverbed of the Hudson River.  The hight of the tulips ranges from 15 feet to 62 feet above the river level.

You can get to the island on two different footbridges, one of which is in the foreground of this photograph, and you can also see a bit of the plantings on the tulips on the other side of the bridge.  Little Island was designed by Heatherwick Studio of London and largely funded by Barry Diller and Diane von Fürstenberg, who committed to donate $260 million, with some funding from the New York City and state governments. It is stated to be the largest donation to a public park in city history.  I can't wait to come back and actually set foot on the island.

 

Edward Hopper at the Whitney

I went to "fun city" today to meet Stan at the Whitney Museum of American Art, to see an exhibit of the paintings of  Edward Hopper called "Edward Hopper's New York."  It was a stunning exhibit, showing so many of his New York paintings, but also a lot of his etchings and sketches, and photographs of him and his wife.  There was a lot of his really early work and paintings borrowed from other museums.  I spent most of my time photographing individual paintings and the text explaining the painting, so that I could share some of the paintings with friends.  I am not sure if I am allowed to show individual paintings here on my blog  I did see these people looking at some of his work, and I liked the different ways they are standing or sitting within the image.

 

"The Great Air Race"

Tonight, Kathy and I went down to the Cradle of Aviation to hear the author John Lancaster talk about his book "The Great Air Race" an event that took place in 1919.  The subtitle of the book is "Glory, Tragedy and the Dawn of American Aviation."  It is a great book, so well researched and written, and he was a terrific speaker, telling tales from the book.  It was such an enjoyable evening.  We got there early and when we went into the auditorium, I recognized him standing by the podium with no one around, so I went over and started talking to him, telling him how much I loved the book and then we talked about flying.  He bought an small airplane and flew across the country retracing the route of the race.  He worked for the Washington Post for 20 years, and I mentioned I worked for Newsday, and that was a nice connection that we had.  It was really cool that I could get to meet him and chat for a while before his talk.  Oh the photo of the airplane on the screen behind him, is a DH-4 biplane from the period, one of the aircraft that were in the race.

 

Have a Nice Sunset, on Me!

I was finishing up one of my 10 mile bike rides when I saw this sunset, under an overcast cloud deck.  I actually hesitated stopping, but then I did.  It was just too pretty to pass up.  Besides, I was tired of photos of night and fog and overcast.  I needed a little brightening up.  So here it is, to brighten up your day!

 

Fake!

I went for a late walk again yesterday.  At the foot of our street I saw the clear sky, and a faint orange glow from where the sun had set.  So I took a photograph of just the water and the sky  which wasn't much of a picture, but I loved the colors.  So I kept walking and one minute later I see a Gull flying right toward me, just out over the water, against the sky.  I managed to take one very quick shot as the gull flew by!   So now I have an empty sky and a small bird against the sky.  Now what?  Well...  If I enlarged the Gull a LOT, and then pasted it into the empty sky, I would have a really interesting looking photograph!  So that's what I did.  So this is a FAKE!  But it is an interesting looking photo, right?

Well, the Gulls Were Not Flying Today

It was too cold to ride my bike today - late in the afternoon it was 38 degrees and there was a bit of wind, so I decided to do a walk to the power plant that is not there.  First thing I saw at the foot of our street were the sand bars covered in birds.  They were not flying today!  I think it is hard to tell from this angle, but in another shot I did from the side, all the gulls were facing in the same direction, and I think they are doing that here as well.  So my thought was, if they are not flying, how do they eat?  Perhaps they all got to eat earlier in the day, so it is OK if they save their energy at the end of the day.  I hope that's the case.

 

The End of Fog Week

So this is my last post for Fog Week.  It has come to an end.  It is always good to quit while I still have really good photographs, rather than keep posting with photographs that are starting to get boring.  Actually this was one of my first fog photos, as I began my walk.  After I get to the bottom of my street and turn left to head south, it is only a short walk to these trees.  It was lighter in the day when I took this, and I love the rich, deep blue color as a result.  By the time I returned to this spot there was no color left - it was night and only the street lights, car lights  and other random lights would silhouette the trees in the fog.  The hour and a half I photographed in the night and in the fog was one of the most rewarding photographic experiences I have had in years.  There were photographs everywhere they were all so different.  What a gift that experience was!

 

Fog Week VII

I hope you are not getting too bored with this fog obsession I have been having.  I am near the end of my selected photographs from my walk in the dark in the fog series.  This was one of the last photographs I took.  What caught my eye was the light on the narrow sidewalk between the trees.  I thought it felt a little ominous because of the dark trees and the narrow walk.  I don't know, what do you think?  Does it have a scary feel at all, compared to the others?

 

Fog Week VI

I have taken a number of photographs of this tree at Tappan Beach Park.  The tree is so interesting because of its shape.  Is looks stunted.  I am thinking that perhaps at some point it was damaged.  Perhaps a large limb was broken off.  In any case, its shape is why I am attracted to it.  But I have never been able to get a good photograph of it, because there was no way to separate it from the background.  But the fog has done that!  So here is the tree in all its strangeness.

 

Fog Week V

Another "Fog Week" photo.  I think this is, as they say in New England, "A Good 'un."  I was photographing these thin trees, while including the railing along the harbor, and the fog, of course.  And then some cars were approaching from the distance, coming towards me.  And then I couldn't believe my eyes, I saw this silhouette of a man walking towards me.  And not on the sidewalk where he would be not very obvious, but along the railing where he stands out clearly!  I couldn't believe my eyes!  And then another car or two approached and that giant white glow made everything perfect!  Lucky circumstances for me, but of course I really was paying attention!  So here is an interesting question:  When I showed you the peaking gas turbines, I had chosen to convert that photograph to black & white because I found the orange color in the original really distracting.  So thinking of that photograph I converted this photograph to black & white as well.  Then I had to decide which version was my favorite.  I chose the color version this time.  But here is the black & white version below, and now you all get to vote on which one you like best!  I can't wait to see which photograph is your favorite!

 

Fog Week IV

As I continued my walk in the fog, I stopped to look at Scudder's pond which you have seen in my photographs so many times before.  What caught my eye was the silhouettes of the phragmites against the fog.  As I moved around, I managed to get them against the lights and houses in the distance.  Normally I try to photograph the pond in such a way that the houses are not in the photographs.  But on this night they added a lot more interest because of the lights shining out of the house windows.  Please be sure to click on the photo to see everything in more detail.

 

Fog Week III

These are gas fired"peaking turbines" behind the brick wall that are started up usually at around 4 or 5 PM  late in the day. As night approaches, people come home from work and turn on the lights and start cooking dinner and use more electricity. They are interesting looking pieces of equipment and I have photographed them a number of times, but never quite got "the" photograph.  But I think I finally have a photograph that I love.  The fog makes these generators look mysterious and maybe a bit ominous, I think.  I shot this in color and the picture was all orange from the mercury vapor lights.  So I converted it to black & white to remove the distraction of color.

 

Fog Week II

So "Fog Week" actually started the other day with the photograph of the trees in the park at night.  So I have a number of other photographs from that hour and a half of intensive photography.  This one is a favorite.  I love how abstract it is - 13 dots on a blue field.  While I was leaning on the railing staring out into the fog, these two lines of ducks came into view from the left, swimming to the right.  I couldn't believe my eyes, and I love that they were in two groups with a space between.  How lucky I was!  It was really dark when I photographed this.  It is blue in color because the sun had set more than an hour before and so the warm light of the sun had gone from the sky.

 

First Pie for 2023!

The oven was on when I went to heat up water for pasta for dinner tonight.  I asked Kathy if she knew the oven was on, and she said yes.  I asked what was in the oven and she said "You'll see..."   So this was the surprise.  A small apple and blueberry pie for dessert!  And, the pie was decorated with strips of pie dough with the Roman Numerals "23."  How cool is that!  What a fun reminder that it is indeed 2023!  And, yes, the pie was absolutely delicious!