Beach Scene, Low Tide, with Gulls

Some days it's hard to find yet another brilliant photograph.  So I keep posting photographs from my walk along the harbor.  It was the seagulls that caught my eye, but I didn't have a lens longer than 70mm.  If I had my 200mm telephoto, I would have a different shot. But I took advantage of the dark rocks in the foreground because they were interesting, and then you have the seagulls in the background.  Great shot?  Not really, but an interesting experiment in composition.  Please try clicking on the photograph because I think it gets more interesting when you can see a larger image.

 

Nightscape in the Garden

I have photographed The Rose Garden at night at the Vanderbilt Museum before, but from down in the garden.  So when I saw this tonight I thought it looked quite different, because of the smokestacks of the giant Long Island Lighting Company power plant in the distance.  The urn in the foreground is made from concrete, but the figure in the fountain in the distance, I think is marble.  I did the first photograph on January 17, 2024.  I think this photograph is more interesting because of the large and small sizes of some of the elements in the photograph.  If you are curious what the rose garden really looks like when it's in bloom, click here: Rose Garden

 

Something or Someone Sitting

Yesterday afternoon I went out to the garage and in the last light of the setting sun, saw the shadow of this patio chair on the wall of the garage.  I thought it was an interesting design so I got my camera and crouched down and made a few exposures.  As I was shooting, I knew it was a chair, but I was also left with some sense that it was a person, although it's not, of course.  So I offer it up as a curiosity that might interest you.

 

Man, Bench, Tree

It was 51 degrees here today with not much wind.  What a nice change.  Everyone and their uncle was out walking which was nice.  I almost thought of doing a bike ride today, but because it was so nice I decided to walk and bring my camera, a good choice.  It was so unusual to see someone seated on this bench, I don't think I have ever seen someone sitting here.  It makes a perfect composition, and it is more interesting that other shots I have done with the tree and just an empty bench.

 

Our Sun Today

There was a giant sunspot on the Sun today.  Larger than the earth.  So I looked at the sun with my special filter and it looked like this.  But I have a special telescope for looking at the Sun called a hydrogen alpha telescope.  It has a very complex, very sophisticated filter built into it, and it shows amazing details on the surface.  Here is the view with that telescope, in the red color that it shows.

It is easier to see the detail if I convert this image to black and white.

And then if I make the photograph lighter when I photograph through the Hydrogen alpha filter I can see the prominences on the edge of the Sun.  I have filled in the center of the Sun's disk with a gray color so that the prominences will be more obvious all around the outer edge of the Sun's disk.  What amazing things to see!

 

Me and my Shadow

It was a beautiful day for a walk today.  The temperature this afternoon was about 41 degrees and it was blue sky and sunshine so it was very pleasant. I was looking for photographs along a route I walk often and so much is familiar to me, every step of the way.  But I happened to look toward the street and saw my shadow and realized that was something different that I had not photographed.  So I kept walking while turning to face the street, and I had the camera up to my eyes and kept shooting.  I like this the best because it shows me walking and I really like the two black shadows of the sycamore tree trunks.  Something different, for a change.

 

Windows Need Replacing

They have been working on the old water company pump house down at the foot of our street.  They work for a while and then they don't.  Looks like these windows will be replaced eventually.  Before they started working on it from the outside, all the panes of glass in the windows were intact.  For some reason, a number of panes are missing from some of the windows.  I took a few photographs of each window, moving a bit from side to side, because what makes the picture, in my mind, are the reflections in the window panes - clouds and trees and the late afternoon sun.  I wonder what this building will turn out to be?

 

Sleepy Sam

This cat is so beautiful!  We love looking at him.  His fur is so fine and smooth.  And he does the silliest thing I have ever seen.  Many times, when he sleeps, he puts his face all the way down on whatever he is sleeping on so that his nose and eyes and ears are flat on the radiator cover!  He did that the other day, while sleeping here, but as I was carefully sneaking up on him to get a shot, just before I pressed the shutter release he suddenly woke up.  Bummer.  Anyhow, I love to photograph him close up because you see so many more details in his fur and whiskers.  He, like Grace, is endlessly fascinating!  Please be sure and click on this photograph to see him in so much more detail.

 

Sourdough!

This is one of the last loaves of sourdough bread that Kathy has been baking in the last few weeks.  She started out with some sourdough starter from the daughter of a friend and was excited about making bread.  The first loaf was delicious, but I think it was not very tall.  So Kathy changed a thing or two and made another.  Not much taller.  Then there was an issue with the air pockets in the bread, I think.  There were not enough of those.  So the short version is, that this might be loaf number 8 and it is out of this world!  She was letting the dough rise too much, and I think it also involved letting it rise in the refrigerator, which was quite different.  Anyhow, we have had more sourdough in the last couple of weeks than we have had in our lives!  What you are looking at is the loaf just after it came out of the oven.  It is sitting in a cast iron pot, surrounded by a piece of parchment paper.  The circles on the loaf come from a wicker Banneton bread proofing basket.  This loaf looks like it came from a bakery, doesn't it?

 

Snow Fence

I showed you my photograph of our picket fence and the snow a few days ago.  Now I have to confess I did yet another photograph only about 100 feet from our house.  There is a neighbor two houses down from us who I know and she is a gardener.  So this is a delicate little iron fence, which, believe it or not I have never noticed before, probably because it is dark in color and is usually seen against the dark green of ivy leaves.  But in this snow, it jumped out at me because of its delicacy.  And having a few weeds behind it doesn't hurt.  And being photographed after the sun set makes the snow a beautiful blue in color which completes the photograph.

 

A Blaze of Sunlight

You all know that my favorite subject may be the Japanese Maple in the side yard, but in a really close second place is Scudder's Pond.  I walk by this place every time I take a walk and I see it in the rain and on overcast days, and in Spring and Fall and Summer, and now Winter.  And on some days, I get to see this beautiful pond in brilliant golden sunlight!  After a spate of overcast skies for a couple of weeks, what a joy to have brilliant clear skies, which gives you sunlight just like this, late in the afternoon.

 

The Last Light of Day

Almost every day when it is cold and clear, I look out the window in the back room late in the afternoon, and I see the setting sun through all the trees to the west.  I like seeing that because is is part of my everyday.  Finally today, it occurred to me that I should take a photograph of this scene.  Because it is beautiful in its way and it is also kind of ordinary.  Interesting thing about those who do documentary photography.  You have to learn how to photograph the ordinary and the commonplace, which is really difficult.  Because it is difficult to see the things we see every day, and realize that some of what we see is important and should be photographed, so that in 20 years, we can look back and remember what is important in history. What I have photographed today will not matter in 20 years, but I wanted to explain about photographing "the ordinary."  Don't feel badly if you are completely confused by all I have written. I guess I should say that as I drive around Long Island and see the changes, I think to myself, "Oh man, why didn't I photograph that house or building or empty field 20 years ago.  Everything has changed and I have no record of what was once there."

 

The Last Light of Day

I went for my walk today and took a few photographs along the way, as I do on most of my walks.  One the way home, as I walked up our street I saw this in front of our house.  It is our white picket fence with snow around it, and places in the street where the snow had melted.  I was taken by the scene, but I was really taken by the blue color which happens some time after sunset.  I just loved the blue on white color so I took the shot.

 

Sunshine and Shadows

I took this maybe a week ago.  It had been cloudy for so long that it was a joy just to have brilliant sunshine.  I walk by this building at the foot of our street every time I go for my walk.  It is the old water company pumping station which the village bought when it was no longer needed and they are fixing up to use for a gathering place in the village.  I saw these shadows on the building and knew it was a photograph!  Maybe just a bit creepy with these dark shadows of the trees, but it certainly is dramatic.

 

The Moon and Jupiter

Last night just after sunset I saw this spectacular pairing of the planet Jupiter in the upper left of this photo, and the 5-day old moon.  It was just beautiful to see them both in the night sky, and this photograph is only a weak translation of what I saw, because Jupiter was so brilliant in the sky.  Here it is a dot so faint that  you can barely see it.  The Moon and Jupiter were unusually close, only about 5 degrees apart.  So I used a 200mm lens to capture them both.  The Moon was so much brighter than Jupiter that it is hard to show them both at their best.  About 15 minutes after going back into the house, because it was bitter cold on this clear night, I thought I needed to do a closer photograph of just the moon so you could see details of its surface.  That way I could expose just for the moon which is brilliant white and way overexposed in this photograph.

So I got my long zoom lens, which goes from 200mm to 600mm and used it at its longest focal length.  And this is the result!  The surface of the Moon is spectacular when I can get the exposure just right, and you can see all the incredible detail.  Endlessly fascinating, and these beautiful things in a clear night sky.  Please be sure and click on each of these to see them in more detail.

 

The Beauty of a Snowstorm

When I woke up and saw snow everywhere, I first photographed from out of the windows of the house.  When I got all that I could I looked outdoors, and spotted this tree down the hill just a bit and thought it would be worth walking down there.  This tree is beautiful and what I love about the photograph is that it could almost be in the middle of a national park.  There are no clues that it is in a residential area.

I love this photograph because although it is just one photograph, it looks a bit like a panorama, showing all the trees in part of the back yard and part of the side yard.  All covered in "frosting."

And no snowstorm would be complete without a photograph of my favorite tree in the whole world!  This is not the classic view I have photographed so many times, but is it more from the side of the tree.  I did the classic view of course, but I am posting this to show another way of seeing this tree.

 

Snowstorm!

We have been expecting a snowstorm the last couple of days but the question was, "How much snow will we get?"  At first the forecast was for "a dusting."  Then it changed a couple of times and the final forecast was from 4 to 8 inches.  FOUR TO EIGHT INCHES?  Look how much snow we got!  Yikes!

Well, actually, not exactly.  As a joke I am standing in the side yard on my knees and I had Kathy take this shot as a joke.  It almost looks real, right?  I fooled you!  I'm such a joker!  We got about 5 inches.

Here is a wide angle shot looking down the driveway after a couple of passes with the monster snow blower, you can see how little snow we actually got.  I did need the snow blower, because the snow was on the wet side and it would have been a lot for me to shovel.  Notice how the branches of the Japanese maple in the distance are so loaded with the wet snow that they are actually touching the ground.  I started by taking a garden rake and pushing up on each of the branches until the snow fell off and the branches sprung up to where they belong.

 

Fog Week X

We are ALMOST near the end of Fog Week.  Just a few more to go.  This is the breakwater into Hempstead Harbor.  It is a really long breakwater.  I think I remember when I was much younger I walked out on the rocks all the way to the end.  Now they have a sign not to do that.  I am sure that in the old days there used to be fishermen out on the breakwater.  But not anymore.  I love how the breakwater disappears into the fog, which is why I took this photograph

 

Fog Week IX

Oh Boy!  Back to Fog Week!  Remember that I told you that I was not done with Fog Week?  Well, I was telling the truth!  Now Fog Week is back!  Here is another really nice photograph in the fog at Morgan Park, in Glen Cove.  I have shown you a number of photographs there, but this is one of the better ones, I think.  When I got further out of the park and down to the water, there was a lot going on and so many birds flying around.  I liked this scene but it seemed empty.  While I was standing there looking at it, I saw a group of ducks begin to move into the scene from the right.  I started photographing immediately and watched. When the lead ducks got just beyond the pilings, I felt I had THE shot!

 

Aftermath

I told you yesterday that I set up a portrait studio in the dining room to do a portrait of my friend Bob. I went to the basement and got my cases of studio electronic flash units.  I had a bunch of these for my Newsday work and for my freelance work with Parents' Magazine.  The funny thing is that most of these units haven't been used for perhaps 15 years.  So I got them all out to test them to make sure I knew which ones worked.  They all worked!  These are all Dynalite strobes and they have served me well throughout my career with never a failure.  So now I have to put them all away...

 

A Photo Shoot!

I had a photo shoot today!  That's pretty unusual these days.  My friend Bob Keeler is about to have his new book published after years of work on it, and the publicist at his publisher wanted two things.  He wanted a current portrait of Bob, AND he wanted two short videos of Bob talking about his new book.  The first video was Bob talking about his history and his work, and the second was where he described what his book is about.  I don't have a studio, so Kathy and I removed the dining room table and all the chairs, and I set up my lights in the dining room.  You can see that table through the door in the living room!  It has been quite a while since I have set up my electronic flash units in the house and it took a couple of hours to bring stuff up from the basement, and then light stands and umbrellas and soft boxes and seamless background paper and light stands for that from out in the garage.  I also needed high intensity quartz lights for the videos.  Then once everything was set up, I had to do some test shots of Kathy to have the lighting ready when Bob arrived.  It was a lot of work but really rewarding.  Good to be shooting in the studio again!

When switching from the still photographs to the videos I had to go to the car to get a tripod, and when I glanced into the dining room, I saw this.  All the illuminated umbrellas seemed so strange, so I came back in the house, grabbed a camera and went outside and took this shot.  Bob an Kathy wondered where I had gone to!

 

A Time of Reflection

This is one of my favorite photographs, taken in Canyon de Chelly on Navajo land in Arizona.  I made a print of this and added some lyrics from the tone poem Finlandia, for orchestra, by Jean Sibelius.  I stumbled across the photo and lyrics the other day, and suddenly realized how important the lyrics are in the present day, with wars and strife all over the globe..  It is heartbreaking to think of all the present conflicts of country against country.  We might even have a tendency to take sides in the different wars, but I think these words add perspective.  Reading these words again just choked me up, given what is going on.  I hope you will find that they show us how all of us as humans are connected together in much deeper ways.

Fun City Week V

I wonder what the number of this building is?  I love walking around the city just looking for photographs.  I was walking over to the subway from the last gallery we visited, and walked by this scene.  I have known about this building and walked past it and the "9" on the sidewalk, since the building was built in 1974.  It is a very cool thing to see that giant "9" in the middle of the sidewalk.  The building is, strangely enough, "9 West 57th Street."  The number is fabricated out of half-inch steel plate and weighs three tons.

"

 

Fun City Week IV

I came to a crosswalk to cross Madison avenue, walking back to Penn Station for the train home.  This sight stopped me in my tracks!  What a brilliant thing.  It is a facade which is hiding construction of, apparently, a new Dior store.  This is all I know.  But I have never seen anything like this.  So, of course, I had to take a photograph.  Wish I could tell you more.

 

Diamonds on the Water

Yesterday I mentioned that "There were bright diamonds of light shining off of the little waves."  It was beautiful to see, so today I went back at the same time to try and capture that effect of light on the water.  I brought three lenses with me with focal lengths from 24mm which is wide-angle to 200mm which is a moderate telephoto lens.  It turns out that the telephoto was the best choice.  This is the result of that lens.  I spent about half an hour just photographing the  bright lights on the waves, like this, with the different lenses to see what would work best. You must click on this to see the starbursts on some of the bright spots

 

SUNSHINE! BLUE SKY!

We have had what seems like two weeks of nothing but overcast clouds and rain and it was beginning to get to me.  So I was just overjoyed to finally have blue sky and sunshine, at last!  I went for my walk along the harbor today in the afternoon, and the light and color was just stunning.  Look at this blue sky!  The air was clear so the afternoon sunlight was sharp edged as it illuminated these sycamore trees.  This scene stopped me in my tracks, literally.  I was standing in the street when I shot these.

With the sun low in the west as I walked, the sunlight was brilliant as it reflected off the water in the harbor.  There were bright diamonds of light shining off of the little waves.  It was a magical walk on a gorgeous day!  And I got two really nice photographs as well!  OH...  And don't think for a moment that  I forgot about both "Fog Week", and "Fun City Week."  Nosireee.  But it was such a beautiful day to day, I wanted to post this before getting back to my other two series!

 

Fun City Week III

Ann said I should photograph my burger, so I did!  After our first gallery visit she said knew of a great restaurant for lunch not too far from where the gallery was.  Would I like to go there?  She said it has been around forever.  So I said "Yes!"  The restaurant is called "Fanelli Cafe."  "Around forever?"  Yeah I guess so. "Fanelli Cafe is a historic New York City restaurant and bar considered the city's second-oldest food-and-drink establishment in the same locale, having operated under various owners at 94 Prince Street since 1847."

Here is a view from outside.  The orange things in the street are barriers to protect people dining in the outside structures that have been here since COVID.  Makes it difficult to take a really nice photograph of the building and the facade of the restaurant, unfortunately.

And inside?  WOW!  Check this bar out!  When you are there in person and can examine the architectural details and the bar itself and the carved dark wood behind the bar, it is clear that this has been here forever.

This is a detail of a dining room off the main bar room.  I love the light pouring in through the large glass windows and the checkered tablecloths.  The food was wonderful and the atmosphere just magical.  I had to shoot all these photographs to show you this great restaurant!  Oh, and Ann said that everyone's favorite photograph will be the burger!  Do you agree?

Fun City Week II

At the first gallery we went to, there was an exhibition of Cindy Sherman's new work.  I have been a huge fan of her work over the years.  She is the photographer and the subject in all her work.  She dresses up as other people and she always looks so different and her photographs are amazing.  But this show is different.  I think is has to do with her dealing with age. So you can see one image on the wall in the background.  It is so bizarre!  This is Stan and Ann figuring out what subway o take to the next gallery.  I really like how I eventually "saw" this image, where Stan and Ann are out of focus, and the background is the only thing that is in focus in the image.  I really like this image as a different way of seeing for me.

Here are three more photographs from the exhibit.  Please click on the image to enlarge it and see the three portraits more clearly.  It was actually not a pleasant experience viewing these photographs, I am sad to say.  But i'm not all that smart about some things, so maybe I just don't get this exhibit.

 

Fun City Week I

OK, relief for those of you tired of "Fog Week."  Today we begin "Fun City Week."  I went to the city to meet Stan and Ann and we visited three galleries to see three different photo exhibits.  More on that later.  I took the train to Penn Station then a subway down to Spring Street.  Then I walked over to the first gallery.  I was in SoHo and when I passed these two residences, on the corner of MacDougal and Prince Street I was taken by how beautiful they both were, and the crooked tree between them just added to the beauty of the photograph.  The street sign said this was part of the Sullivan Thompson Historic District, and I can see why.

A bit further on, I was crossing the street and saw this very fashionable woman coming in the opposite direction I wanted to photograph her, but didn't want to embarrass her by lifting my camera to my eye, so I "shot from the hip" as they say, just pointing the camera by instinct.  I almost got it right.  But I thought I would post the photograph anyway.  I will try harder next time to get it right. If you click on this photograph to view a larger image, you can get a sense of how nicely this woman was dressed.