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.