New Yorkers 3

When I am done at the Met, I always walk the 20 blocks from the museum down Fifth Avenue to the Subway at 59th street.  I always see so many interesting things on my walk.  At some point the other day, I noticed this woman's hair.  If I recall correctly, I noticed her ahead of me, and so speeded up my walk. When I got to about ten feet behind her, I set my lens at its max focal length of 70mm which starts to be a telephoto.  I stayed ten feet behind her for perhaps one block or two.  When the scene in front of her wasn't busy with too many people, I would lift my camera up, snap one shot and then put the camera down.  I think I did about a dozen photographs.  I just love how pretty her hair is in the late afternoon light.  That's the only reason I shot this.  Admiring things of beauty around me, I guess.  Please be sure and click on the image to see a more detailed version.  The colors of light and dark in her hair are really quite beautiful.  "MOM that creepy guy with the camera is following me again!"  :-)

 

New Yorkers 2

I took the Lexington Avenue subway up from Grand Central Station - more on that later.  I got off at 86th street and walked west, toward Central Park because I was headed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  I think it was at a street corner that I ended up following this young woman and the three dogs she was walking.  There are lots of dog walkers in New York and sometimes I have seen seven or eight dogs being walked by one person!  So I followed her discretely, taking photographs all the way.  What attracted me to this scene were the dogs.  This is not the perfect arrangement of the three, but there were so many other things in the background which could be distracting, so that's why I picked this photograph.

 

New Yorkers 1

I went to the city today to see a couple of things, which I will eventually tell you about.  I took a lot of photographs. Maybe some of them just might be worth looking at.  But...  Before we get to that, I will say that walking to some of the locations, I found interesting photographs of some New Yorkers going about their day.  These two scaffold workers were the first ones I photographed.  And that was because of the message on the back of the sweatshirt of the worker in orange!  I thought that was worth sharing.  So there will be a couple of more New Yorkers, so stay tuned.  Then you get to see the good stuff!

 

Hieroglyphics

I thought that the title "Hieroglyphics" would be appropriate for this street marking.  But I thought I would check, because I know you are all watching me and pity poor me if I make a mistake!   :-)

Anyhow I looked it up and this is a short definition: "enigmatic or incomprehensible symbols or writing" and that sounds perfect. I do happen to know that this symbol means there is a gas main running right under this symbol, and they mark the street when there is going to be someone excavating the street, so no one will break a gas main with a back hoe!  Anyhow, I love this image as something artistic, even though it is technical.   Something about the bright yellow paint on the black macadam and the gentle sunlight raking across the surface.  what I don't know is what the smaller text means.  If I ever find out, I will be sure and let you know.

 

Rain and Drizzle

I have stayed indoors now for, what is it, 5 days of drizzle and rain.  Well, it was time I grabbed a camera and went out in the drizzle to look for a photograph.  OK, so I lied a little bit.  It is Tuesday and so we were at the beach with coffee and donuts, sitting in the car having breakfast when this man cast his line into the harbor from the beach in front of us.  No sooner had he reeled his line in, that he moved up the beach to the right maybe 75 feet, and cast again. I thought, "I better get out there and get a shot quick!"  No sooner had he cast then he reeled it in again and moved another 75 feet up the beach, where I couldn't see him.  Oh well, there went my shot.  Then I saw him walk out on the tip of the park to the north, and I ran to where I could get a good angle with my 400mm lens.  I did two slightly different compositions in less than a minute.  In he other view, the fisherman is to the right of the foggy tip of land in the distance.  This view is better.  And after a minute of shooting, he reeled his line in again, and was gone!

 

The New Ceiling at Penn

I have had this picture in my collection to post since I shot this on September 7, the last time I was in New York.  After they demolished much of the Long Island Railroad concourse to rebuild the station, gradually they started putting things back together. What was cool was to see the new ceiling which consisted of white panels of plastic which diffused the light and it was pretty cool.  Well, recently when I arrived at Penn I was stunned to notice that now the white panels have color in them, and it is beautiful!  What a surprise.  So I took the time to photograph the ceiling on this trip.

 

Fortunately I have a post on the blog showing the white ceiling, and it does not look bad at all, but how much nicer to have all the color!

 

A Fast Mover!

I was surprised to find this aircraft parked right outside the building I go to for my flying, at Brookhaven Airport.  I am guessing that the pilot was just visiting.  I haven't seen it before.  Strange looking airplane, don't you think?  It is the brilliant work of an incredible aircraft designer Burt Rutan.  It would take my whole blog to list all the famous aircraft he has designed!  Two of the aircraft are Space Ship One, and the aircraft that carries it from the ground up to where it is launched, called White Knight One.  Please look them up in Wikipedia.  This aircraft is homebuilt and was first made in 1975.  They stopped selling plans for it in 1985.  What is astounding about this airplane is that its cruise speed is 165 MPH and it has a 100 Horsepower engine.  The Cessna 172 I fly has a 160 horsepower engine and only flies at 140 MPH!  Oh, I forgot to tell you what it is called - this is the Rutan Vari-Eze.  It is of composite construction and is a high performance aircraft.  I believe the Eze "easy" refers to the ease of construction. 

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The Last Cornstalks

I was coming back from Home Depot on the back road, and as I passed by Rottkamp Brothers Farm, where you can go buy vegetables and corn, in season, I saw this.   By the large empty field by the side of the road, there were these last stalks of corn.  I realized right away there was a picture there!  So I turned around and went back.  This is pretty much how I visualized the photograph, even as I was driving by.  The last corn stalks in the field.

So I thought I would try a different view and underexpose it so the stalks would be silhouetted against the sky.  It is also an interesting photograph I think.  So I am curious which one of the two photographs you like best.   

M8

I stopped at the Apple store today to pick up a couple of cables.  This car was not parked here when I went in, but as I came out I couldn't miss it.  It was a really fancy, somewhat exotic looking car.  It is called an "M8 Competition" which I found out looking at a metal plate mounted on the trunk.  So I did a search, and found out that this type of car costs a few bucks, as you might imagine.  To quote from a dealer: "Prices for a new BMW M8 Competition currently range from $139,245 to $176,535."  Yikes!  So I guess at that price, you have to park it in a special place so no one would damage it trying to park near you.  Looks like no one could park near this car now, huh?

 

Moonwatch

A day after I posted the photograph of the tree at Old Westbury Gardens, I was back there tonight for a moonwatch event.  Unfortunately there were thin cirrus clouds overhead, so the view of the first quarter moon was not perfect, but it was good enough to amaze our visitors.  Here the moon is seen in the sky over some trees at the edge of the field.

I photographed a couple of women who were looking through my home made telescope at the moon.  The photographs themselves are unremarkable, although they do give a sense of our observing session.  What is amazing, however, is the circumstances under which the photographs were taken.  It was completely dark out when I took both of these photographs!  And yet the camera recorded these images.  I was using my SONY a7 III with a 50mm f/2.8 lens.  What is astounding is the ISO (or film speed) that I used.  It was 6400.  To give a sense of how sensitive that is, I used to shoot 400 speed film, both black and white and color and under dim light there was a 1600 speed film.  So in comparison the 6400 is just an unimaginable film speed.  And my exposures were amazing as well f/2.8 on the lens and the shutter speeds were 1/3 of a second and 1/2 a second.  And I was hand holding the camera as well!  The reason I could get away with that is the camera's "Image Stabilization" function.  I don't know how it works, but it does as you can see in both of these photographs of the women, taken in the dark!  These modern cameras have such astounding capabilities!

 

The Tree

When we were visiting Old Westbury Gardens, I saw this tree in the middle of the large field.  I see this tree every time I go there with the astronomy club to do moon observing.  It is a striking tree, and even more so because it is all alone in this field.  So I photographed it in the bright sunlight, as you can see from the shadow on the lawn that goes to the right.  Normally it is too contrasty in bright sunlight - I prefer to photograph in overcast skies.  But I liked the shape of the tree, so I tried converting the color photograph to black and white and it looked somewhat better.  Then I started working with the contrast and softened the image and then I liked it a lot more, so here it is.

 

"For Pasta..."

Tuesday finds us, where else, but at the beach.  Near the end of our breakfast we saw this man coming down the beach with the bright pink wash basin.  He would bend down, and pick something up and put it in the basin.  We had no idea.  After I took this photograph he started back up the beach and when he looked up he may have seen me taking a photograph of him.  He was done with his searching and he walked directly toward us.  When he got close, he lowered his pink basin and there were snails in it!  Then he said: "For pasta..."  in a thick Italian accent!  Then he told us the name of what he was collecting in Italian and we smiled at each other and off he went!  What a wonderful chance meeting, and so nice of him to come over and tell us what he was doing!

I continued photographing as he walked back down by the water's edge, and when the gulls got up and were flying around him I realized that was a photo too.  But the first photo, was the one which explained  more what of what he was about.

 

Old Westbury Gardens

I was so intent on goofing around telling you about our "vacation home" the other day I forgot to post the next day, what the actual gardens look like at Old Westbury Gardens.  They are just stunning!  This is the Walled Garden and it is probably the most spectacular of all the gardens here.  Looking down the path you can see where the pond is and part of a green pergola.

       

And here is a lovely view of the pond and all the lily pads.  The pergola curves to the left and right of the center section with the statue in it.  What a spectacular sight!

I think this might be called the Great Lawn which stretches south from the mansion, which I showed you the other day.  It seems to go on forever. I just measured the distance, and the lawn stretches 2,500 feet from the mansion to the far distance!

 

The Swimmer

Last Tuesday we were at the beach having coffee and a donut, and near the end of our stay I caught something out of the corner of my eye.  It was an arm that appeared by itself, it seemed over the water then it was gone!  So I watched and it appeared again.  This swimmer was amazing to watch.  So little of him appeared above the water and his form just seemed perfect.  Look at the curve of the arm and hand above the water here.

In between strokes, he almost seemed to disappear!

And here he is taking a breath so we can see a bit more of him.  But he seemed to be moving effortlessly and barely disturbed the water.  I am so envious of his ability to swim like that.  I never learned to do what was called back then "the Australian crawl."  I swim by using the breast stroke, the sidestroke and the back stroke, which would keep me afloat, but this swimmer could get somewhere in a hurry.  About 100 feet after he passed us, he stood up in the water, walked to his towel on the beach, dried himself off and then walked to his car.  I am in awe of him!

 

Very Tiny Flowers

As you know by now, we have a white picket fence in front of the fern bank down at the street in front of our house.  I should have photographed it today before I started my work.  Gradually the ferns and weeds and vines grow through the openings in the fence and need to be trimmed back.  So I just set about my work.  About half way through my trimming with an electric hedge trimmer I came across these incredibly small and delicate flowers growing in among the ferns.  They were not sticking through the fence but were growing on long stalks which stuck up through the ferns that were already there.  So I got my camera and photographed them, and then left them alone.  You know I know nothing about flowers, so I tried to look them up using Google Image Search.  So these *may* be Paleyellow Ragwort.  But of course these are not pale yellow.  But I had no luck inserting "white" into the search.  So what they are is still a mystery, but in my search I did get the sense that these are not desirable flowers, pretty though they might be!

This is an older photograph that I did after I trimmed the ferns and weeds a couple of years ago.  When I finished weeding and trimming the ferns, our fence now looks a lot like this, except the paint is newer and the fence is brighter.

 

Thinking About a Vacation House

We decided to see what we could find in terms of a nice little vacation house that we could afford.  We found this one.  It is small, yes, but it is not very expensive.  Unfortunately it does not have utilities, like electricity, water and a toilet or a shower.  And there are fairly large gaps between the logs that make up the walls, so it will be cold during winter winds.  It will be quiet here, because the nearest other home is some distance away, in terms of a normal suburban setting.

This is a view from inside the vacation cottage and you can see the openings between the logs that make up the walls.  It is bright inside because of the window, which is nice.

This is the house of the nearest neighbor.  Some house, huh?  OK, OK, the truth comes out!  This is the mansion at Old Westbury Gardens which is a beautiful place to visit and just see the grounds and gardens.  We have never been in the mansion.  Oh, and our "vacation house?"  Yeah, well that is a small child's playhouse on the grounds - there are three of them.  So, no we can't actually buy that place, although it would have been perfect for us!   :-)

Poor Blue Jay

I went for my bike ride today and as I was climbing a hill slowly, I happened to see this Blue Jay lying by the side of the road.  I thought "what a beautiful bird" and kept riding.  Then I stopped and went back to where the bird was lying.  I decided to photograph it because I have not been this close to a Blue Jay before.  I am amazed at what beautiful coloring this Jay has.  I am guessing it was hit by a car because the bird had no injuries that I could see. 

This is a cropped image so you can see more detail in the different kinds of feathers covering the Jay. There is so much incredible detail in the Jay's covering!  Be sure to click on the picture to enlarge it and see more detail.

 

Please Put Some Clothes on this Mannequin!

I had 15 seconds to make this picture!  I was sitting at a red light when I noticed this strange mannequin in an antique shop window.   I grabbed my toy camera and got off two shots before the light changed and the car behind me honked!  What got my attention was what a strange mannequin this was.  I can't figure out what kind of clothes this mannequin would be modeling?  I wonder if this is for clothes for a much older woman?  In any case, I would feel better if this particular mannequin had some clothes on!

 

Pond Scum

This time of year this pond us oftentimes covered with this green "pond scum."  I was taken by the pattern of the different green things growing on the surface, and the shapes they make as whatever grows on the water is moved around by the wind.  I like the differing colors and the patterns.

So I also did a close up photographs to show what the surface looks like and discovered that the green was made up of tiny bits of green stuff.  I wondered what that could be, so I did a Google search.  Some of the searches came up with long green stringy stuff that looked like long green human hair, and that wasn't what I saw.  Further searching came up with the fact that there was probably algae, AND two other things:  Duckweed and Watermeal.  The photographs showed what looked exactly like what you see in the photograph above!

 

Sing to the Stars

                                        

I went to a concert the other night that was very different.  It was called "Sing to the Stars, Ave Maris Stella: Hail Star of the Sea"  And this is how it was described:  "Come celebrate the divine feminine, the night sky, the earth, and the sea. Under the stars and by Long Island Sound, we will sing together and listen to Chora, a new women's choir, sing medieval, contemporary, and new music. You can look at the sky through telescopes or with your naked eyes.."  I was there with a telescope, but unfortunately it was a cloudy night.  But the concert was really interesting.  It began with a musician using bronze, bowl shaped bells, called "Standing Bells"  which originated in China. They can be struck with a soft mallet or may also be played by rotating a suede covered mallet around the outside rim to produce a sustained musical note.  These are called "Singing Bowls."  They make such beautiful and calming notes.

                   

Here is the choral group singing medieval works which was just lovely.

                                        

In another part of the evening there was music with a violin and guitar together.  I told you it was a different kind of concert!

                      

The small choral group played in a Congregational church, and the lights were quite dim.  Most of the illumination was from perhaps 50 candles in glasses placed on the altar.  My camera makes the scene look brighter, but in actuality it was very warm light and very dim and a wonderful to hear this music in what felt like mostly darkness.  A great evening and it was a shame that I couldn't show the stars to those attending.

More Space at the Javits Center

Back in 2021 the Javits Center added on a whole new section in an expansion project that has added 1.2 million square feet of event space. There is a new exhibit hall, 200,000 square feet of new meeting space, and beautiful views from a new rooftop pavilion.  So this was the first time I have seen it and it is impressive.  The view from this area on the upper floor was spectacular!

Look at the size of these escalators!  I think they are three stories tall.  That's because the exhibit halls are two stories high.  The number of events going on when I was at Javits was amazing.  A huge art show was in the largest part of Javits Center, and then the Photo Expo in the new section, and a bunch of smaller events in between.

 

Gutting the Place

A month ago I went to the nearby famous coffee place to buy some coffee beans.  The door was locked!  There was a sign that the store was undergoing renovations.  OK, no big deal, I'll come back in a week.  How long can it take to put a couple of coats of paint on the walls?  Well the place has been closed for weeks now and I wondered what they were up to.  The other night I saw a bright light through the front window so I parked my car and grabbed a camera with a wide angle lens, and went to the window.  The entire store had been gutted!  Down to the bare walls!  And the ceiling has been torn out.  I guess that means they can change all the electric and heat.  Then the question is, how much different is the store REALLY going to look when they are done?  I can't wait to see!

 

The Scrum of Photographers

 

Some more photographs from the "Bild Expo."  What are all these photographers looking at and photographing?  This is at one of the camera manufacturer's booth where some of their cameras were on display and could be used to shoot photographs.  Notice the thin wires on the table - you can't take the cameras with you!  But look at the intensity of the concentration and all the different  positions the photographers are in. What are they shooting?

They are photographing this very beautiful model, wearing such an interesting top.  It looks like leaves of a plant or something.  And then the designers of the booth included mirrors in the background to make the photographs more interesting.

Here is another group of photographers in the next booth over - a different camera manufacturer.  It is so interesting to see all the different styles of shooting.  Look how only one photographer, at the left, has the camera up to her eye!  That is my way of shooting, but many younger photographers prefer to back away and just look at the illuminated screen on the back of the camera.  So what is this group photographing?

They were photographing this ballerina.  This dancer was working hard!  She was on point the whole time and had these cloth wings with wooden sticks in the leading edge of her wings so her movements resulted in really beautiful poses.

A different view of the ballerina at work.  The wings are just beautiful!

Fun at the Photo Expo

A couple of weeks ago Stan wrote me and said we should go to this new Photo Expo event at the Javits Center that would have all the manufacturers of cameras, lenses, lighting equipment, and accessories like tripods and camera bags and backpacks and so on, on display. So he invited Grace as well, and the three of us had a nice time walking around ogling all the gear!  Just what we all need, is more gear!  Here Stan and Grace were discussing the merits of some different geared tripod heads.

One manufacturer had this "tunnel" of light which people attending could walk into after handing your phone to one of the representatives and they would take your photo.  So we figured we really needed a photo of us in a light tunnel.  I forget why we thought that...   :-)   So, here, for posterity, we all are!  There were also photographers giving talks about their work and we attended a couple of those talks as well.  It was a great day just hanging out with friends together.

 

Tiny Girl on Beach

 

On our visit to the beach with our Dunkin' stuff on Tuesday I saw this tiny young girl on the beach, with her grandfather, I think.  She was really enjoying being at the beach and would pick up a handful of sand and throw it in the water.  She was really enjoying her time, running up and down the beach under the watchful eye of her minder.  I only photographed her for a short time when she was down by the water and honestly, I never did get any kind of great shot.  But I thought she was so cute that I decided to post a photograph of her, even though its not the greatest. 

The Ham Radio Antenna Comes Down!

I received my Novice Class Amateur Radio License on June 3, 1978 and began contacting other amateur radio operators using Morse code that evening with the call sign KA2AOL.  I put up a long wire antenna, about 125 feet long, between two trees, one in the front yard and one in the back, and used that for a couple of years.  But I longed for a rotating directional antenna, a "yagi" and two years later installed one.   Larry, our neighbor at the time, had a fence business and at my request brought home some heavy steel pipes which were welded together which gave me a mast about 50 feet tall for my new antenna.  It was a Cushcraft ATB-34 for the curious among you and it would transmit and receive on the 20, 15, and 10 meter bands.  It would rotate 360 degrees so I could aim it at Texas or Australia or England to make contacts.  By that time my license was General class and my new call sign was N2AQQ.  The antenna has been there ever since.  I haven't used my amateur radio equipment in probably 30 years, but the antenna and mast have remained.  Larry asked me recently if I wanted to have all of that removed and I said "Yes!"  So he had a crew come by and they got it down.

Here one of the workers is removing the collar that fastened the antenna to the facia of the garage.   It was also anchored to a pipe I installed in the ground that was buried about 4 feet down.

Then the bolt was removed which now allowed the whole mast and antenna to rotate at the base and come down.  Here three workers are stabilizing the mast with a rope.

One of the workers started the descent of the mast and antenna with a healthy push and you can see that it has moved to the right from where it was anchored.

And down it did come!  All over the yard and driveway.  It is much bigger on the ground than it seemed when it was in the air!  They had gasoline powered cut off saws which made quick work of cutting up the mast so it could be carried away, and the aluminum antenna was worth something for scrap I am guessing.

And here it all is, loaded on the truck which took it all away.  I must confess that the garage (and yard) looks so much nicer without the antenna!