Up There, Down Here...

Today we drove back from Rochester to home.  We were a bit concerned about the weather forecast upstate.  Buffalo was forecast to get a fair amount of snow, and Syracuse was as well.  So we were driving south with the possibility of snow west of us and east of us.  Binghampton was forecast for show showers.  So we left early this morning and the most snow we saw was snow showers south of Binghamton, and we were thankful for that.

Clouds continued to be overcast along our route, and fortunately the traffic was not that bad for our whole trip!  As we drove the final mile on Shore Road in Sea Cliff, this was what the sunset looked like!  So there's a treat.  I stopped the car and jumped out and shot this before it changed. Quite a difference between up there and down here!

 

Happy... Ahhhh... Uhhhh...

I have a two mile walk I do when visiting Vince and Jo Anne and it goes through a different neighborhood than theirs. As I rounded a corner I heard a whirring sound and as I wondered what it was, discovered this on the front lawn on a house!  Wow!  I took a couple of photographs, and a woman appeared from behind all of these inflatables, and I said "This is amazing!"  She said "Thank you" and I asked her how long it took to put up. She said her husband had been working on this for 5 1/2 hours.  The whirring sound was the noise that the air pumps make while pumping air into the plastic figures to keep them inflated.  I asked if each inflatable had its own air fan, and she said "yes."  Wow, that's a lot of electricity.  I guess Christmas is coming...

 

Inside the George Eastman Museum

I have shown you the outside of the George Eastman Museum for years now, and it is time to show you a couple of photographs of the inside. After opening its doors to the public in 1949, the George Eastman Museum quickly became known as one of the most important venues dedicated to the collection and care of photographs. At the time of its opening, it was one of only two American museums to establish a photography department, and this early commitment to the medium has inextricably bound the institution to the history of photography itself. This is a photograph in the exhibit "Life with Photographs: 75 Years of the Eastman Museum" which explores the many ways in which photographic objects have come to shape our everyday lives. The exhibition encompasses broad cultural histories and image-making practices, from pre- photographic experimentation to critical advances that challenge our conceptions of the medium.  This exhibit is astounding and I was introduced to so many photographers around the world that I had not heard of before.

This is the gallery for an exhibit called "Scene at Eastman."  I don't have enough time to explain what the exhibit is about, but I found that this is such an unusual gallery.  It is all white, with a white rug on the floor!  I can't imagine how they keep that rug clean!  After you walk in the door, which I am facing, when it closes and you look around, you find the door and wall at that end are mirrors!

This space is unlike any other gallery space I can think of in recent memory.  It is so interesting to be in and to experience the space.  The objects on the walls, in this part of the gallery are tiny, for the most part, which is surprising and unexpected.  Then you approach. what appears to be a window on one wall, and discover that it is a mirror and there is my image facing me!   That's a surprise!

So I photographed myself, just because.  It would take a lot more space to explain what's going on here and in addition to this white room, there is a black room as well.  Part of this exhibit is about seeing, and being seen.  So I will leave it at that, and hope you find this gallery interesting to look at. This exhibit also shows that the museum is always experimenting with what photography is about and how it can be practiced and exhibited in new ways.

 

The George Eastman Museum

I love going to the George Eastman Museum every time we are in Rochester.  I first came here in 1960 as a freshman student at RIT, where I graduated with a BFA degree in photography four years later.  I have come to realize that Eastman House is kind of a spiritual home for me.  It is such a joy to spend time here, both in the galleries with the photographic exhibits, and in the mansion, seeing where George Eastman lived.  It has become such a familiar place to me.

I have photographed the house under different weather conditions and at different times of day.  And I have photographed the three different gardens around the property, and I have photographed this loggia in the west garden, from the outside, but I have never shown you this view.  This is such a beautiful structure, both inside and out.

 

Rochester Skies

Rochester skies!  How well I remember them!  These clouds are the result of all the moisture that is picked up by the air as it comes over the warm waters of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, and when it gets over the land, it is cooled, and that's how the clouds form at this time of year.  I do enjoy clouds, but when I was in school here, it became oppressive to have clouds day after day after day.  But for us, now, it is something we see for just a few days and then we will be back home, thanfully.

 

Driving Upstate

This may be my least "photographic' photograph.  The reason I give you is no excuse, I think.  We headed up to Rochester this morning and I always have my toy camera with me to do some kind of photograph along the way, like my favorite abandoned farmhouse in Ovid.  But I wanted to get to Rochester before it was too late in the day, so I did a few photographs at the start of the trip, and then stopped shooting.  This is a photograph from the Long Mountain Parkway which runs between the Taconic State Parkway and the New York State Thruway.  Parts of this route are cut from the side of a mountain because the route goes up over the top of a ridge and down the back side.  So I wanted to show you this rock wall because it is a different kind of scenery than my usual landscape photographs, and shows the incredible amount of excavation required to make parts of this route. My landscape photographs are real photographs, and this is just a snapshot.  But the good news is, that after shooting this, I put the camera down and paid attention to my driving.  No doubt you are relieved!

 

Industrial Long Island II

I took this photograph about 100 feet from yesterday's photograph.  But about a month later. There are the same kind of metal power poles in the foreground with hight tension power lines on the top of them.  In the background are two natural gas-fired turbines that start up when it gets dark, to add more electricity to the grid when people get home from work and start cooking dinner.  It's called a "peaking plant."  I love to photograph industrial scenes for some reason.  Industrial scenes, and beautiful landscapes, go figure.  I love to photograph sites like this at dusk because they have their own external lights that come on and add a nice quality to the image and make the image more complex.

 

Industrial Long Island

I saw the moon in the sky as I walked along Shore Road, and down by the old power plant, the Moon was very close to these giant power poles.  The power plant is no longer there, but high voltage cables cross the harbor, bringing power to Long Island from an underwater cable from Rye, NY.  So that's what you are seeing here.  Seeing the Moon, which is natural, behind the high tension power cables, made my man, made me think of the contrast of the two.  So I have no idea if "Industrial Long Island" makes any sense, but that thought came to me, and I am sticking with it!

 

Phragmites

"Phragmites is a genus of four species of large perennial reed grasses found in wetlands throughout temperate and tropical regions of the world.  Phragmites stands can provide food and shelter resources for a number of birds, insects, and other animals.  The leaves, roots, seeds and stems of phragmites are edible. Young shoots can be cooked or eaten raw just like bamboo shoots. The young stems, "while still green and fleshy, can be dried and pounded into a fine powder, which when moistened is roasted like marshmallows."  Thank you Wikipedia!  So there is all the official information about these plants which I have seen all my life, living near Long Island Sound, both in Connecticut and in New York.  I never knew any of this more technical information.  I photographed this group on one of my walks, when I stopped at Scudders Pond, when it was overcast late in the day.  I love this photograph because it is "monochromatic" - almost all the things in the photograph are nearly the same color.  And I love the softness of everything as well.

 

What a Difference a Window Makes

I know I just posted a close up of the large tree so it seems strange to photograph a less interesting photograph of the whole scene.  I mean, why do that?  I will tell you why.  I saw this wide angle scene out our south bedroom window this morning, and took a shot just for the record.  Then I happened to glance our of our east bedroom window, and THIS was the scene from that window!

What a difference!  Hard to imagine that 50 feet in the other direction, the colors are so completely different.  OK, no more Fall color!   :-)

 

Two Days Later

I woke up this morning and while brushing my teeth in the bathroom, looked out the window and saw this!  Two days ago, when I did my "Fall Color" post, this tree was still filled with green leaves.  One day later and it is magnificent in its peak fall color!  How beautiful this is with slightly different color leaves, depending on which part of the tree the leaves are in.  This scene and this photograph made my day!

 

Fun With A Drone

 

Stan come out today because he wanted to fly his drone,  He hasn't flown it in a while, and, by law, he can't fly it in New York City.  And also I needed help with a new version of Photoshop that I bought, and it is quite different from my current version which I bought in 2012!  So we had fun flying the drone, and here is a photograph that the drone took of the two of us.  Then I cooked his favorite meal that he loves to eat when he is at our house, Mediterranean Salmon.  After dinner we did some more Photoshop work.  What a great day!  Oh, the white "H" on the blue circle?  Stan's drone is SO smart that it is unbelievable...  It remembers by GPS where it started hot and it flies to that spot, then its camera sees the "H" and the drone lands automatically!  That is beyond astounding!

Fall Comes to our Back Yard!

I was changing into my riding gear to do a ride today, and when I looked out of our bedroom window,  there was this magnificent yellow tree, ablaze with color!  I have been watching this tree, but I had not seen it backlit by the sun, as it was today at 3 PM!  So I grabbed my camera, and then had to open the inner window sash, and then lift up the lower storm window, so that there were no windows between my lens and this scene.  I have been looking for any kind of fall color close by, and finally found it!  Oh happy day, and I had a great bike ride because it was 57 degrees out, and that means I don't have to bundle up that much to ride in these temps.

 

A Little Bit of My History

I was in the attic looking for a book.  I saw a plastic sheet with a number 35mm color transparencies in it.  I was absolutely stunned when I held up the sheet to the light and saw about a dozen portraits of Gloria Steinem!  I nearly fell down!  I remember this portrait session with her,  back in 1974.  It was so cool to be photographing her because she was one of the more famous leaders in the Women's Movement at the time!  There was a little bit of "I can't believe I am here photographing her" the day I was there!  She was really nice and generous with her time while I was photographing her.  Wow, what an amazing job I had!

American Vernacular

I was on my bike ride today, and every day I ride, I climb a short, steep hill and pass this house, and a couple others that seem quite old, based on their architectural style.  I am guessing that these were the first houses in the neighborhood.  I was amazed to see this motorcycle parked right in front as I went by!  So I stopped immediately and got out my iPhone, the only camera I carry with me on my bike rides. The quality is OK, but I wish I had my SONY a7 with me instead. But I love the shot!

 

Ferns & Vines in Fall

I took one of my walks down to where the old power plant was.  It is almost a three mile walk, so when I was walking back up Laurel avenue,  I was not looking as carefully for photographs as I am when I start my walks.  But as I was just about to walk up my driveway, I looked down at the fern bank and saw this scene.  It is interesting how many different colors there are here, with green vines. and ferns of many colors.  Beauty as Fall fades into Winter.

 

The Last Roses

I looked across the side yard and was surprised to see four roses still on the rose bushes.  The roses have done well this year, there have been so many blossoms on these bushes all season long.  So when I saw them, I wanted to show that the whole bush was almost empty.  So I tried different compositions, and I liked this one best, with the whole right side of the image just an empty rose bush.  Which makes the bright red roses more obvious on the other side of the image.

 

Caumsett X

 

OK, so this is my last post from my hiking trip at Caumsett State Park.  And once again I am fascinated by the beautiful grasses there.  These grasses appear different in that the golden ones seem to be emerging from another type of grass that is lower, and which is green.  I have no idea what these all are.  But in this photograph I like that these are tufts of one kind of grass are interspersed with the other, lower kind of grass.   To me this scene is just beautiful.  And I promise not to post any more photographs from this trip!  As they say on Monty Python "And now for something completely different."

Caumsett IX

I was walking along a paved path out in the open when I saw this hawk in grass that was perhaps 8" tall.  It was hopping around just a bit, and then I realized that it probably was holding something he had caught, down on the ground.  I stayed at some distance, not to spook him.  After a minute or so he flapped his wings and lifted off, carrying a small mouse!  He flew into this tree, which fortunately I could still see with my 200mm telephoto lens.  I watched him pull off pieces of the mouse and eat them, while keeping the mouse firmly in place with his claws.  Wow, what an awful way to die if you are a mouse.  The laws of nature at work I guess.  I think this is a Red Tail hawk, and I love how beautiful they are in their fierceness.  I love to watch raptors as they glide along looking for their prey on the ground.  But I have never seen this before.

 

The Ghost of Ken

The other day, I was reading about Andrew Wyeth, and I looked at some of his paintings, which are all about light.  After I took a shower I walked into Liz' bedroom to hang my damp towel on this hanger attached to the door.  I stopped in my tracks, looking at my lightly used, ironed white shirt, and seeing the white on white and the white doorknob, knew I had to photograph this, which of course I did.  I thought about how it was kind of a ghost of myself, hanging there on the door.

 

Setting up a Telescope

This is Tony, one of the members of our club setting up one of his telescopes for the observing session for the Long Island Cares benefit.  Believe it or not, it was completely dark out and I was walking around with my camera set on 12,800 for the digital sensitivity and my 50mm f/1.4 lens.  I was stunned to discover, as you saw the other day, my photo of a mother and daughter looking through my telescope, that I can actually take photos in the dark with my SONY camera!  Tony was easy to see and photograph because he left his car running so he could make use of his red running lights to give him enough light to see by to set up his telescope.  I love that the all red scene makes the photo jump out!

Another photograph in the dark, seriously, of three Long Island Cares people who were at the event.  This is near the end of our observing because the clouds had moved in. We got a really good turnout and because of that, everyone looks really happy.  Fortunately they all got to see the moon before it clouded over.  I know this photograph looks like daylight, but I promise you it was completely dark out!

 

Another Tree

A different tree not too far from the first tree, but a whole different feel to the photograph.  And that is the planet Venus to the left of the tree.  I love how the sky still has a glow at the horizon, and then gradually fades up in to darkness as we look higher.  This is such a familiar scene to me as over the years, I sit with my telescope set up, waiting for night to arrive, so that I can begin observing.

So we started observing at 6 PM last night, showing visitors the Moon through our telescopes.  We had perfectly clear skies until 8:30 and then clouds moved in and covered the moon.  There were openings in the clouds from times to time, and looking through the telescope as the thinner clouds raced across the face of the Moon was a special treat.

 

A Tree Full of Stars

A Tree Full of Stars!  We had another outreach event tonight at Sunken Meadow State Park.  It was an event to raise money and get food donations for Long Island Cares, The Harry Chapin Food Bank.  There were something like 20 astronomers with telescopes from two different astronomy clubs here.  And the public turnout looked pretty good which was great because this is the first time we did this.  When I arrived it was dark and I took a walk over to the administration building, and as I was leaving, here was this tree right in front of me, illuminated by a spotlight on the building.  It stopped me in my tracks.  My camera was in the car, so I took about a dozen images with my iPhone 12.  The exposure for this was at least two seconds, but the phone is amazing and this image seems as sharp as a tack.  What I love is that it appears that the tree is full of stars.  Actually, those are the few last leaves still clinging to the branches after all the others have fallen.  And the brightest spot near the center of the tree is the planet Venus!  Wow, how cool is this shot!

 

Mother, Daughter and a Telescope

Our astronomy club had an outreach event tonight for students and parents at an elementary school.  We had been there last year and had gotten a good turnout - 100 people.  This year we had 250 people!  It was a big hit.  I wanted to do some photographs, but there were so many people in line that I didn't have much time to photograph.  I finally grabbed a few shots near the end, and this was one of them.  I love how the mom looks like a madonna and the way she has her hand on her daughter's back, steadying her daughter as she looks in my telescope to see the planet Jupiter, and four of it's moons.  It was a wonderful evening.

 

Caumsett VIII

"When is he going to stop this thing with the grasses?" you might be asking.  Well, not for a while yet.  I think these grasses are just stunning and I have never seen anything like this before. What is strange is that I have been going to Caumsett in the fall for a few years now and I just don't remember seeing grasses like these.  They are all so delicate I could look at them for an hour, and the colors are so subtle.  "Make him stop!"  Well, I am almost done with my Caumsett collection, you will be glad to know.

 

Caumsett VII

 

Phragmites!  I have always loved these.  This patch of them was down by the pond.  They are really spectacular when the sun is shining on them from behind, as it is here.  They are not as interesting when the sun shines directly on them from the front.

Caumsett VI

Caumsett is such a beautiful place with all kinds of different areas, from open fields, to ponds, forests, and the shoreline of Long Island Sound.  This is one of the main roads that goes by fields and then into the forest.  It is paved for cyclists, and walkers.  There are other trails through the woods that are just dirt tracks and that's fine, but at least everyone can see part of Caumsett because of roads like this.  I was hoping for really bright Fall colors, but the different trees change color at different times, so there was not one particular area where everything had fall color.  I shot several photos of this scene without moving and as the pedestrian walked by me, I photographed him as he walked away, getting smaller and smaller.  I think this size is just right - to be an object of interest, but also, to not be too much of a distraction.

 

Caumsett V

 

There is something about the delicacy and beauty and subtlety of these grasses.  Caumsett has huge areas where they grow and they are magnificent in the long view, as you saw in my first post, and they are also so beautiful seen up close, as in this photograph.  The differences in color don't jump out at you.  So this may not be a "complete" photograph, but I also wonder what it would look like printed large, like a 20" by 30" and framed.  It makes me feel so good just looking at this scene, both in person when I was there, and in this image seen on the computer.

Caumsett IV

OK, so here's what you have been looking for!  Beautiful Fall color!  Finally.  What's interesting is that I did not see a lot of scenes like this that would make an interesting photograph.  So may of the trees were either bare, or had not changed color yet, so after a couple of hours hiking, I was thrilled to find this.  I spent some time composing and then shooting this and was happy with the composition and the photograph.  But then...

I was carefully looking at what I was photographing and realized that maybe I should shoot a horizontal photograph.  It seemed to me that the essence of this scene was the black trunks and the beautifully back lit yellow leaves.  This may be the important part of the photograph above.  I don't know, though.  Which one do you like better?

 

Caumsett III

OK, so back to my fall color posts from my trip to Caumsett State Historical Park.  So you probably expected an explosion of brilliant colors, since I said that's why I was out there hiking with my camera.  I was finding that I was not seeing any great fall color long views, although the first photograph of the hill and the pond certainly felt like Fall.  I began to feel that I was doing better at closeups than I was in long views.  (The photo of the pond and Long Island Sound was one of my last photographs.)  This is one of my earlier photographs and I really love the subtlety of this!  There is Fall color here, but only in two red leaves!  But I really like this image because it is interesting and not what you expect.  I hope you all find this interesting, at least.