A Night to Remember!

The first night we arrived at Big Bend National Park, the skies were as clear as could be, so we found a great place to set up our cameras after it got dark.  We went to bed at 11 PM and set the clock for 2:30 AM wakeup.  We dressed and headed to our spot, and started taking photographs as the Milky Way rose in the east.  We continued to photograph all night until dawn at 6:30AM!  I have never stayed up that long, but this seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime chance.  This is a 10 second exposure of the Milky Way.  It is a "straight" photograph and has not been enhanced at all.  THIS is what the Milky Way looks like from a really dark sky site.  The tones are pearly and there are faint colorations and it is subtle but the Milky Way does not require Photoshop work to add contrast and color.  Subtlety and accuracy of what we see is paramount.  To have a clear night in a dark sky and to stay up until dawn was certainly a night to remember for me!

And as a bonus today, for all of you who stuck with my story this far, here is a photograph of Venus rising in the east, near Casa Grande, the large black shape to the right.  You can still see stars in the ski as the dawn breaks!

 

The Sun, the Moon, the Photographers

After dinner we went back to "The Window" where we watched the sun the other night but never saw it set.  We tried again tonight along with 20 other people hoping to see the orange ball descend below the horizon.  Success!  It was fun to be with 20 other people and all of us doing something together.  There were small conversations that could be heard among some others.  So nice to have people making small connections with each other.  It was spectacular to see the sun emerge from the bottom of a cloud and then sink behind the horizon. What a joy!

As we were leaving the overlook, I saw Stan turn around and look up.  There were some trees, but they were not very attractive really.  Then I looked again, and he was looking above the trees at a very thin crescent moon!  It was in and out of the clouds but several of us managed to get a photograph, incuding one young woman who was using her mom's borrowed camera.

While we were waiting for the sun to appear from the clouds, I was looking around and saw Stan with his camera, and then in almost the same pose, saw this gentleman shooting the scene with his cellphone!  Almost a perfect match!

 

Arts and Crafts

Today we drove 40 miles from Chisos Basin, where we are staying, over to the Boquillas Canyon Trail at the east end of the park.  At this point in the park, the Rio Grande river separates the U.S From Mexico and it is pretty shallow at many points here.  We climbed up the trail about one hundred feet to the top.  This is what I saw.  People from Mexico cross the river in the morning, by canoe or boat and climb the trail and put their arts and crafts items for sale to visitors in the park.  It is on the honor system.

Here is a note from one of the people who left their wares for sale.  When I was here in March of 2018, there were only a few vendors who left their things for sale.  One man was with his crafts at the end of the trail and he said that if a Park Ranger came along, which he could see from a distance with his binoculars, he would quickly gather up everything, and toss it in his boat, and row back across the river.  The items that others had left on the honor system, would be confiscated along with any money left for the purchaces.  I did buy a walking stick from him, and then he asked if I had anything to eat that I could give him.  That's how much the sales of these small items means to them.  But on this trip there were displays everywhere, so I am guessing that these displays are now allowed, which is a wonderful thing.

This photo is taken about 20 feet from the display shown in the first photo.  This is the Rio Grande river and the land in the center of the photo is Mexico.  All the land in the foreground, and that on the right of the river in the photo, is in the United States.  Just in case you were curious, since you could wade across the river here, and there are no fences, when you arrived on the U.S. side, you would be facing a walk of 90 miles across a desert with temperatures, like today, of just over 100 degrees, and directly north to the nearest town.  Certainly not much chance people would try to enter the U.S. this way.

 

The Rays of a Setting Sun

 

We didn't actually see the Sun set this evening, but we did get to experience these beautiful "Crepuscular Rays" which are caused by shafts of sunlight shining between gaps in the clouds and as they emerge as beams of light, they strike dust particles in the air, and we get to see these beautiful rays of light.  A beautiful ending to a really nice day in Big Bend National Park.  There were about a dozen or more people gathered at the end of a walkway at a viewing site to see the famous "Window" between these massive rock formations, and there were nice conversations among the viewers as we watched this beautiful event.

Approaching Big Bend National Park

Stan and I left El Paso at about 10 AM this morning on our way to Big Bend National Park.  It was about a 7 hour drive, if you include stopping for lunch in Marfa, Texas.  This view is from quite a distance away from the park itself, but man, oh man, what a stunning landscape.  In this case, mountains on mountains.

This is a view of two mountains and some cacti shortly after we entered the park itself.  You can see how rugged these mountains are if you look closely. I wonder it these are not volcanic plugs, as Shiprock is, but I can't be sure.  I will ask a ranger tomorrow.  It can be seen as a desolate landscaper at times but it is really beautiful in so many ways.  Just a different beauty than you would expect, but it grows on you.

 

A Wonderful Flight

What a wonderful flight I had today.  I left New York on an American Airlines flight to Dallas, then on to El Paso.  On the flight from New York, these two women were seated next to me.  I don't usually say anything to people sitting next to me on the plane but I did say "Good Morning" and then the conversation started.  They wondered what I was doing with my iPad, which was tracking our flight and they were fascinated with that. They were also curious about me shooting out the window with my toy camera.  We all talked about where we were going.  They are students training to be Optometrists, and were headed to a conference in Dallas.  So I had a lot of questions about their studies and what Optometrists do.  I think we talked for two hours straight, on the three hour flight and had such a nice time.  It is so unusual that I talk to people sitting next to me - the conversations never get started, but talking to both of these young women was so interesting and made an ordinary flight something really special!

 

The Magnolia Tree

I was sitting at the dinner table when I looked out the dining room windows and saw our neighbor's Magnolia tree in the late afternoon sunlight.  I gobbled the last bits of dinner, and grabbed my camera and went out to investigate.  I don't thnk the tree was at it's peak yet, but it sure is beautiful.

The brilliant blooms were even more spectacular when seen against the blue sky - the contrast only heightened the brilliance of each color.

I kept photographing the tree after the sunlight was off of the blossoms.  Notice how the color of the blossoms seems to change.  Without the sunlight, the light from the sky is more blue and so the blossom are more purple.  So many different ways to see this beautiful tree.

 

Neil Hogan, May 20, 1936 - April 10, 2025

 

We lost our wonderful brother-in-law, Neil Hogan.  He was the husband of Kathy’s sister Elaine.  He has been a writer all his life, and an editor and then columnist at the New Haven Register.  Neil researched and wrote many books, articles, newsletters and editorials about local history, and especially Irish Connecticut history. Neil was Irish to the core, with a sparkle in his eye and an easy smile on his face.  I took this photograph at a hospital where one of his grandchildren had been for treatment and someone sent this dog as a gift.  Neil was carrying it out of the hospital to take it home.  He was always fun to be around because he was so passionate and curious about history,  He traveled to Ireland for some of his research.  In an effort to preserve Irish culture and heritage, he also wrote an Irish newsletter, The “Shanachie,” for many years. The volumes are currently housed at the UCONN Library and the library of Sacred Heart University. He did books on the history of the Irish in Connecticut, where he lived in Wallingford, near his two daughters and his seven grand children.  Neil loved to dance, especially Irish set dancing. The energy required for set dancing would prepare you for running a marathon!  He was a set dancer in New Haven and Glastonbury for many years. He loved Genealogy, biking, golfing, tennis, softball, singing, traveling to Ireland many times and spending time with his grandchildren.
We will all will miss his kind and gentle soul, his humor, sweet demeanor and thoughtfulness. He was a quiet man, who spoke eloquently and passionately through his writing.

Hostas!

It has been fun to watch the Hostas come out of the ground this year.  It happens every year, of course, it's just that I haven really noticed all that has happened.  Thesa are such astounding leaves as they come out of the ground as small tubular shapes and then as the plant grows, they unroll.  Look at all these beautiful shapes all within the frame.  Please be sure and click on this, because it is stunning when seen with more detail.

It was interesting to see this pointed little purple spikes emerging.  Interesting, but not beautiful, I thought.

Looking for something beautiful I moved in with my closeup lens and the detail is interesting but not beautiful, really.

So the two previous photographs were taken on March 29.  And then today we have this! These Hosta leaves are quite different and simply beautiful!  This is the wide-angle photograph of the whole plant, and then the lead-off photograph was a close-up from directly overhead.

 

 

Symmetry

Guess what we had for dinner tonight.  Right!  Pizza.  I drove in to the Pizza Parlor lot, facing this way and turned left to park.  It was only when I got out of my car that I saw this.  Stopped me in my tracks!  Because of the repettive shapes which jumped out at me.  I had my "toy" camera on my belt and there was only one viewpoint so I only shot 5 frames.  Unheard of for me.  I have never noticed this fence and trees, and I am guessing they are new.  I didn't think to ask when I got inside, but I will on my next trip.  Yeah, I think the fence is new as well.  There is something simple about this photograph that I really like.

 

An Easter Sunday Walk

It was a nice Easter Sunday afternoon with sunshine and moderate temperatures.  Everyone was out walking along the harbor which was nice to see.  We decided to take a short walk as well.  About 20 feet from where our street meets Shore Road, we saw this beautiful cross made of palms.  So I crouched down to get a good angle and took a few photographs as people walked by.  So we did our walk, headed to the beach pavillion, and sat for a while then walked back.  The cross was gone!  What?  It was so nice to see that someone had posted this beautiful cross by the bench, but who would come along and take that away?  

 

The Moss Killer!

Look out moss!  Here I come!  Because our house faces North, the roof over the front porch is both in shade all day long, and it is under the cover of the giant Hickory tree.  So moss has grown there forever.  When I tore off all the roofing in 2007 and 2008 I put a brand new roof on the house, it looked so beautiful.  But slowly the moss began to accumulate again.  In the fall sometimes I climb up on the roof with a ladder and wearing work gloves, I rub the moss by hand gently and it rolls up into balls sort of and then rolls off the roof.  But that doesnt remove it enough.  So I did some research and found a commercial chemical  that will kill the moss.  I got the material last Fall but the weather was not good.  So I started reading the instructions and discovered that I need to be really protected when using this material.  It can damage my eyes!  And you can't allow it to touch your skin!  Yikes!  The material is in small granules and you can either sprinkle that on the moss, or you can mix it with water in a sprayer, and spray it on.  I elected to do that, and I had the sprayer set, not to spray a mist, but a steady stream so that there were no fine mist particles in the air while I was working.   That was a good choice and I could carefully control the stream and soak all of the moss on the roof.  I just needed to be careful and I was.  I had another idea - instead of being out on the roof, I sprayed the front roof from the windows in Liz and Amy's bedrooms.  It worked perfectly, and no risk of sliding off the roof!

This photograph shows how much moss there is and how thick it is.  It is kind of beautiful in a way with the deep green colors.  By the way, you can't use a hose with a spray nozzle, or a power washer, because that high pressure stream will start to remove the protective granules that are embedded in the asphalt  of the roofing.  You muse be gentle with these asphalt roofs to keep them in good condition.  I am glad to be done with this project

 

That Was Fast!

On March 31st I stopped and photographed this house which I have been riding by for 20 years.  I know the signs now when a temporary chain link fence goes up.

I rode by the site three days ago, and there was a giant trailer truck pulling out of the property with much of the wreckage in the truck.  Man, that was fast! I can't believe how quickly the house was demolished.  They have a big excavator in the background, and that made short work of the house.  To suddenly see this house gone, I stop to wonder who all the people who lived here were.  I guess that there were families and children who lived their lives here.  I am guessing this house was built in the 1950's so that could be three families at least who lives were lived here. So it seems a shame that all evidence of their lives are now gone.

 

The Secret Life of Pinecones

Pinecones on trees are the things that shelter the seeds.  These are the feminine cones, with tiny seeds  inside, the male cones are much smaller and short lived and soft.  This is astounding - the male cones are lower on the tree, so when they release pollen, they cannot pollinate the seeds on their tree - the wind will carry the pollen to a nearby tree!  Pinecones can stay on the tree for many years - when they fall to the ground, most all their seeds are gone.  I do remember learning when I was doing a story on Yellowstone National Park aftrer the fires of 1988, that the trees depend on fire - the heat opens the pine cones and the seeds drop down.  Perhaps those were a different type of connifer.

I have never looked closely at a pine cone, really, which is a shame.  They are so interesting to study up close.  This is a close-up of the top of the cone on the right-hand side in the photo above.

 

I Didn't See This...

After I took the close up of the bench yesterday, I walked back to where Kathy was standing, looking at something.  I asked her what she was looking at, and she said "the bud."  So this bud was in the middle of a long empty branch and I was thinking there wasn't much to see, but I did take time to shoot about 10 frames.  The wind was blowing so I wanted to make sure I would have one image in focus.  When I looked at this photograph tonight and enlarged the image I saw a face in profile, in the bud.  Do you see that?  The mouth looks like a cat mouth, but the top of the head looks like a native american warrior with a band of feathers around his head.  What do you see?  Just a bud?

 

The Bench

                             

Today was Tuesday, Dunkin' day at Tappan Beach.  We just sit and have coffee and a donut and talk about random things and just enjoy the view.  This bench caught my eye as it often does.  I have photographed it many times but from two hundred feet away as a small part of an interesting landscape.  Today I decided I wanted to go photograph it from up close and see what that would look like.  It certainly looks monumental seen up close with a wide-angle lens.  A completely different way to see this object and this scene.  The photograph below, is the scene you have seen me photograph with a longer focal length lens so many times.  Quite a difference in perspective.  The photograph, below, somehow seems more complete than just the photo of the bench.

 

Fading Light of Day

Last night after the performance in the planetarium we were walking up the hill to the parking lot and I wa surprised that the sky was still a bit light.  So I, of course had my Sony a7 on my shoulder and immediately set the ISO to 6400 and stood still like a human tripod and shot about a dozen images.  Not many of them were sharp because of the slow shutter speed which was 1/15th of a second. But I did get a few sharp images, and I picked this one because of some people in the frame. There is a nice quality to the light in this photograph, which is why I took the photo.

 

Arrizza Under The Stars

We drove out to the Vanderbilt Planetarium after an early dinner to see a live performance in the planetarium of a friend of mine from the astronomy club.  Yannaki Arrizza is a musician and a composer. There was a live musical performance and an amazing visual show on in the planetarium dome.  This is a formal portrait I did last year for his first show, shot on a rehearsal day.  I was able to light him and move around to get the best composition, which I would not have been able to do tonight during the show.

 I was expecting just a laser light show, but that was only part of it. The projector capabilities of this planetarium are astounding!  This is an image of a Saturn rocket which nearly fills the dome! Look how small he is at the bottom of the picture where you can see him at his electronic keyboards.  Yannaki's  music includes brilliant electronic soundscapes that combine digital and analog synthesizer sounds along with modern textures provided by the latest digital-audio technologies.

In this image we are seeing a video of an aurora on the dome.  The music and the video projections were just astounding!

I do have to say this - the music was loud!  After a short while I had to put my fingers in my ears for parts of the program.  Imagine my surprise when I suddenly noticed the man in front of me was doing the same thing!

 

Trees and Clouds

When I do my bike rides, I have checkpoints along the way to see how I am performing.  These rides are workouts, not scenic trips!  I am hammering it all the way!  This is my second checkpoint, at the top of a small hill, just before I start down.  So I stop my ride at this spot and look at my watch to see my time.  I have memorized the time from my first checkpoint, and I carry some 3x5 cards to write down my times.  I happened to look up the other day, after noting my time and was taken with the branches of these bare trees.  For some reason there is something human about them, I think.  It feels as if the trees are reaching out.  And with these gray cumulus clouds as a background I think I have an interesting shot.

 

Cherry Blossom Time

The second I leave my driveway I am looking for photographs.  I don't wait until I get to the harbor.  So on the streetside lawn of a house about 7 houses down I saw this!  The whole Cherry tree was just starting to bloom so only some of the branches had the blossoms on them.  So i decided to pick one branch and try and make a photo of just that.mm I backed up and used a moderate telephoto lens and then used the widest aperture so that the background would be blurred to bring the attention just to the branch.  I like the feeling that this gives a feeling that Spring is close at hand.  I love how beautiful this single branch is when separated from everything else.

 

Cat Coffin

Our cats are getting older, but they are not all that old yet.  But I decided to make two coffins, just so I would have them already made when the time comes.  Right?  Just kidding!

I am actually building a carrying case for a new, old telescope.  A person who was in the astronomy club long before I joined in 1988, had bought the parts to build this 5" refractor back in the 1970's.  The parts came from a company in Lynbrook, Long Island called Jaegers.  They were a parts company that sold by mail order, but if you lived on Long Island you could drive down there and buy the parts in person.  So many amateur astronomers built their own refracting telescopes from their parts, because back then, commercially made refractors were way beyond the ability of amateurs to buy.   The builder of this scope is no longer active in astronomy, so he gave this telescope and two others to members of the club who wanted them! So this scope is battered and scratched and has been well used.  The lens is in great shape, however and I cleaned it and the scope gives nice images.  I love that although this scope does not have the value of an antique telescope, it is still a part of amateur astronomy's history, and I am thrilled to own it for the time being.  And I treasure that this scope is well used and shows it!

If you click on this photograph, you can see the scratches and scrapes on the orange tube that make this telescope beautiful to me.  I can't wait to take this to Vermont this summer and use it under dark skies to scan the Milky Way.  That will be a sight to see with this instrument.

 

 

The Boys in the Boat

"The Boys in the Boat" is the name of an astounding book about the University of Washington rowing crew that represented the United States in rowing at the 1936 Summer Olympics – Men's eight in Berlin, and narrowly beat out Italy and Germany to win the gold medal.  It was also made into a wonderful movie.  What made the story so moving was that the crew was made up of men from the lower middle class.  These two shells out practicing on Hempstead Harbor, with Sands Point in the background are in eight oared boats.  I really had to reach out with a long lens to get this photo. And, honestly, it is not a great photo but perhaps an interesting one.  That's the coach, by the way in the outboard boat behind the shells.

 

Abstract Expressionism?

I am so sorry that somehow I forgot to post this photograph last night!  Too many things to do.  Sorry for those of you who worried.  I am fine, it is my brain that needs fixing!   :-).   So on my walk yesterday I crossed the road to look at Scudder's Pond to see what the water level was.  I was stunned to see this!  After thinking about it for a bit, I am thinking that this is pollen which landed on the water, and then the breeze blew it over to the west side of the pond by the road.  What a beautiful design and so many interesting things to look at!  It can look like a microscope slide of a section of tissue showing cells.  Or you could think I have gone "arty" and am trying to photograph something that would look like an abstract expressionist painting.  Sorry to say it is just "pond scum."  But it is beautiful.

I thought I would include a wide angle photograph of the scene so you can see how much material collected on this side of the pond.

 

Getting Home

Well, I had to cross the Hudson River on the way up, and of course I had to cross it again on the way home.  I chose, of course, the Tappan Zee Bridge!  It was raining on the way home and the windshield wipers were going.  It was tough to time my shutter releases so the wipers didn't end up in the picture.  The wipers were in maybe 3/4 of the photographs, but I did get this photograph which I love, because of the rain and mist and cloudy gray sky.

 

Getting There

Because the North East Astronomy Forum is on the west side of the Hudson, I need to cross the river somewhere to get to the event.  I always choose the Tappan Zee Bridge.  Oh wait, that changed!  This new cable-stayed bridge was built and then the old truss bridge was demolished.  I know it is now called the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, BUT, I was surprised to learn that it is still called the Tappan Zee Bridge!  That's a relief!  The old truss type bridge was the Tappan Zee Bridge and also called the Gov. Malcolm Wilson Bridge. This is an absolutely stunning work of engineering and it is absolutely beautiful in it's design.  And it looks different every time the weather changes, which is why I try and photograph it each time I cross it.  I am VERY careful and you will notice there are no cars near me.  I do NOT look at the camera, I look at the road and point the camera with some sixth sense and sometimes I get a good composition.

 

Wall to Wall Telescopes!

Today was the first day of two days of NEAF, the North East Astronomy Forum, which I have been going to for years.  It bagan back in 1991 and has morphed into the largest astronomy show on the east coast.  If there is a telescope that you are interested in, or eyepieces for filters or books or telescope mounts or binoculars and every other thing you can imagine, this is the place to come to see the actual item before you decide to buy it.  This is a panorama from the balcony of the Field House at Rockland Community College where the exhibits are.  There are also presentations by speakers - this year a lot of astronauts from the US Space program as well as managers and journalists talking.  CLICK ON THIS PANORAMA TO SEE IT MUCH LARGER.

I love this photograph of two guys, and telescopes in the background pointing in every direction!  These are mostly Unitron telesopes which were really popular back in the 1950's to about 1975, and they were known for their high quality and beautiful construction,.  They were manufactured in Japan for the American company.

Here is a portrait of me with Russell Porter, of Vermont who was the father of the Amateur Telescope Makers movement that started with a class of 14 men and one woman in Springfield, Vermont, in 1920.  Oh, that's just a cardboard cutout of Mr. Porter.  He was not at the event.

Here are seven pair of giant binoculars on tripods lined up for all to see.  It must be magnificent to study the night sky with binoculars this large when you are in an area that is away from all the light pollution.