Learning To Play

 

Vivian became fascinated with Sarah's guitar which was on a stand by the fireplace.  Sarah helped her put it on her lap and gave her a pick and showed her how to use it.  So then Vivian  just experimented with using the pick and sometimes her fingers to make the guitar give her sounds.  Vivian is taking piano lessons, so maybe the guitar will be her next instrument after the piano.

 

More from LA 3

                                                                                  

We had a lot of heavy wind and rain for a few days while in California.  There were some really bad instances of flooding and mudslides in southern California and up near San Francisco they had even worse flooding.  When Liz and I were out walking the dogs we came across this scene!  These are palm fronds from some really tall, really old palm trees.  If you look closely you can see that the bases of these palm fronds are really thick and solid.  Being hit with one of these from a height of 50 feet could do some serious damage to a person!  I assume it was the city that came out here and moved all these fallen fronds to the center area of the highway, to keep the street clear, until they can be taken away.  We saw instances of these fronds littering other streets as well in certain areas.

               

Here is an overall photograph of the scene. You can see the height of these trees, and notice that underneath the tops of the green palm fronds, are the older, dead fronds which are susceptible to high winds which will break them off!  Wow, who knew this?  You learn something new every day!

More From LA 2

I went to the Getty Center as I always do when I am in Los Angeles.  It was raining on this day, and I wondered if I should bring an umbrella.  There are a number of pavilions that make up the Getty Center and they are arranged around a large plaza.  So I would have to be out in the rain to get from one building to another.  I borrowed a small folding umbrella from Liz.  I needn't have done that.  This is absolutely brilliant - the Getty Center provides containers with tan umbrellas outside the door of each pavilion!  You take one with you as you walk to the next building and put it in the container while you are inside!  How cool is that!  They say on them that they are sun umbrellas, and that would make sense since the museum is built from a light tan marble, both underfoot, and for the exteriors of all the structures.  So it is pretty bright in the summertime!  What a great museum, to think of everyone's comfort while visiting in all kinds of weather.

 

More From LA

I always shoot more photographs than I can possibly post in the short time we are in Los Angeles.  So for the next few days, I will post some of my "leftovers" here on the blog.  I went with Liz on many days she walked a dog or two and always brought my camera along and I always ended up with a couple of photographs from along our route.  I am always looking and there are a lot of gardens, both large and small on different homeowners properties.  This scene was in a narrow garden next to a house.  What caught my eye was the brilliant greens in the plants.  When I stopped to shoot, I could not believe that none of the plants were damaged!  Each plant is perfect!  So many times in a grouping like this, there will be a couple damaged plants that make the photograph not worth taking.  But not here!  Lucky me.

 

From There to Here

Today was our trip home.  So wonderful to be here, but looking forward to being home.  So this is titled "From There to Here" and in three photographs I show us crossing the entire United States!  This is climbing out from Los Angeles International Airport, headed west over the Pacific ocean.  Shortly after this photograph was taken the plane did a 180 degree turn and headed east toward home.

Forty five minutes later we are at cruising altitude heading east over these beautiful cumulus clouds!  Later the puffy cumulus would turn into an overcast layer below and we couldn't see the ground.

It boggles my mind, but 4 hours and 20 minutes later we are over New Jersey, looking south and to the left is the tip of Manhattan! 2,100 miles in four hours and twenty minutes!  We take it for granted but what a technical marvel traveling by air has become.  And what a difference in place and time this second photograph is.  The difference is, as they say, "like night and day!"  What a wonderful trip home!

 

LA Landscape

There has been a lot of rain in California, with flooding in other parts of Los Angeles, which is west of where we are.  The rain is causing mudslides in the burn areas after the fires.  Liz and Amy are fine where they live.  But the clouds have been overcast, and actually quite pretty when it is not raining and we are out walking the dogs.  So the clouds and the Palm trees are the subject of this photograph, and I converted the color photograph to black & white to remove the distractions of color.  It also looks more like a documentary photo than a regular landscape photo this way.

 

Walking the Dogs

 

This morning, on Christmas morning, Liz and I went out walking the dogs, so I thought I would take a photo just for the record.  Petey, the little black and white dog in the foreground is a dog that Liz and Sarah are fostering.  He is cuter than a button!  So we had a nice walk, and here is a record of that.  At the end of the day I realized that because our Christmas dinner was buffet style, I had neglected to do the traditional group shot, which I always do after everyone sits down at the table!  Duh!  So we had two new guests, friends of Sarah and we had an absolutely wonderful dinner together and even played the game Celebrity together after dinner.

Merry Christmas to All!

This is the last photo I took at the beach the other day.  The contrails from the jets flying west over the Pacific Ocean toward Hawaii were illuminated by the light from the sun which already set and which was below the horizon.  I was doing just a couple of snaps of the scene when I noticed someone with both arms in the air and I clicked!  Believe it or not, it was Amy just raising her arms in joy, because she loved being on the beach for an hour or two with all of us!  So being here in California with my travel computer, meant that I have none of the snow photographs from two weeks ago.  But there is a feeling of joy and beauty in this photograph I think, and that seems an appropriate feeling for a post used to wish everyone a happy, and merry and joyful Christmas!  I hope you can all be with friends or family during the next few days.  I am so grateful for all of you who are faithful readers of the blog, and who support my efforts to find beautiful things in the universe, or just in our neighborhoods, to share with you.  Thank you for always being here.  It means the world to me.  Please click on the photograph because I posted a larger image and you will see so much more detail in the photograph if you do.

 

Liz & Vivian on the Beach

After we arrived at the water after walking across the beach, Vivian rushed right toward the surf, just to have her feet in the water.  Liz was with her, and then they came back away from the surf so they could build something in the wet sand.  I was crouching down, and shooting frame after frame as they moved around the beach together, and then both of them crouched down and here is the perfect shot, I think.  This was a magical day for me and I saw photograph after photograph, which is such a joy.

 

Mother, Daughters, Granddaughter, & the Sky

At the end of the day yesterday we went to the beach in Santa Monica just before sunset.  The sky, filled with cirrus clouds made a spectacular backdrop to this photograph of, from left, our granddaughter Vivian, Amy, Kathy, and Liz.  Where's the dad?  Taking photograph, of course!  It was so nice being at the beach with the wide open sky and beach, the salt air breeze coming in off the water, and then the sky.  The Sky!  Magnificent cirrus clouds see out over the Pacific ocean.  What an amazing sight.  What a calming effect on us all. What a great day to be together as a family!

 

The Salon

So this year the Salon was made simpler by not having guests attending do any performing like singing or reciting poetry or telling stories for the holiday.  So this year there were just two performances.  One of the friends is a professional pianist and he played a keyboard and everyone sang Christmas carols and songs, and the other performance was the Christmas Tree-o which is Amy, Liz and Sarah.  Here they are singing and they were fantastic with their a cappella performance and beautiful harmony.

The house was jam packed for the Salon - I think there were 32 guests including 4 children.  It was a wonderful evening of friends and some really nice conversations and all kinds of interesting food and desserts!  What a way to celebrate the holidays!

 

The Rehearsal

Tonight was the night of the Salon, which Liz and Sarah have been doing for years now.  In the past many of the people attending would do some kind of performance, but this year the salon was simplified and the only performers were a pianist friend who led the group of about 30 in some Christmas music, and then  Liz and Amy and Sarah doing a couple of Christmas songs in three-part harmony.  So this is the three of them along with Kathy, during a rehearsal at the dining room table this afternoon.  Their music was absolutely beautiful at the Salon this year!

 

The Fabric Shop

We went to a fabric store today down in Hawthorne.  What an incredible place - it was huge.  Liz was looking for some heavy canvas fabric to replace some old material in an awning that she will be rebuilding.  All the materials behind her are the choices for fabric that she will need.  Looking at all the colors, I suddenly thought it would make a good background for a portrait of Liz!  Here she is!

 

A Holiday Recital

Vivian is now attending an elementary school nearby, and she is in Pre K.  The school is called the Winchester Avenue Elementary school and it is an absolutely amazing school with a dedicated principal and really dedicated teachers and assistants.  The recital was called "Shades of Winter" and was standing room only!  We got there early so we could be at the beginning of the line.  And look at this line!

Here is the auditorium and it is already packed. Eventually parents lined the walls of the room!

Here is one of the grades preparing to sing and the music director is at the left, standing.  These children were all so cute and a joy to her them sing.

And talk about dedicated - parents and relatives would move down the center aisle, closer to the stage and with their phones, take videos and movies as their child performed, absolutely focused on getting great movies and still photographs.

And here is part of Vivian's class, during their performance. She is just left of center in the back with the pigtails.  Look at how cute all these children are.

And here is Amy with her camera photographing while Vivian performed.  Another couple that she is friends with is just on the other side of her, watching their child.

And i loved these three children playing their recorders.  I just thought they were so cute, all wearing their winter kinit hats.  It was such a moving experience, seeing all these children performing together.

 

From Sea to Shining Sea

So I did one of my favorite things again, flying from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, while looking out the airplane window with my toy camera, and looking for photographs.  I did take careful records of where each of these photographs were taken, but I realized the "where" is not important.  So I will make brief comments on each photo.  I did take some photographs on takeoff and climb out from New York but they are not included here.  This is a photo of a small town in Indiana.  I found that the snow we have had on the East Coast went all the way to St. Louis, Missouri.

This is mid-continent, and it is a area where the snow has fallen, but the darker areas are areas of forested lands in between farmer's fields and the dark trees obscure the fallen snow. From the patterns you can see that the trees grow where there is water - rivers and streams.

This is an area with a winding river running through an area of farmer's fields, and forested areas and roads, but the curving river stands out because it is not a straight line.

This is Mount Dora in New Mexico, and it is a dormant volcano.  I think it would not be obvious if it had not been covered in snow.

This is a wonderful geology lesson, showing the different layers of deposits over geologic time.  The dark layer on the top would be the last layer deposited, with a white colored layer underneath, deposited earlier in time, and then the red layers underneath deposited earliest of all.

Snow capped mountains.  As we flew further west we entered a mountainous area, and when the snow storms come through, the highest mountains skim the snow out of the storm, and the rest of the mountains are untouched.

This is one of the more barren areas which appear uninhabited.  But you can see higher areas which are now mesas, and the lower areas washed out by the water that used to flow here so long ago.

 

"Intersection"

What day was this?  Right! Tuesday.  Donuts and coffee at the beach!  I was eyeing the drift fences that they recently put up, and decided it was worth trying to get a decent photo.  As I approached them I thought of the word "intersection."  So I held that word as I photographed.  This first picture takes all the surroundings out of the photo just leaving the fence.  This might have worked if the drift fence was brand new and installed in a straight line.  But I think this version does not work because the fence is not perfect.  I thought originally it might work better as an abstract image. But it doesn't

I took this photograph before first one I posted, above.  I start shooting usually with a wider angle lens or from a a distance when I see something.  Then as I study the composition I may zoom in with my lens, or just walk closer. Today I walked closer.  My feeling now is that the first photograph is not "pretty."  So I am choosing this photo as my favorite.  What do you all think?

NOTE:  So when I viewed the two photographs on the blog, and clicked on each of them to make them larger, suddenly the first photograph seems much better than I thought!  I have changed my vote.  But it is all up to you!

Golden Sunlight on the Trees

At the end of the day I photographed all the snow, I needed to get something from one of the upstairs bedrooms.  I just happened to see THIS when I glanced out the window!  I cokuldn't believe my eyes.  I have never seen anything like this before around here.  The sky was overcast, and just before the sun set there was a break in the clouds and the orange sunlight lit up these few trees which were tall enough.  My main camera now, the SONY a7 was downstairs and I knew I didn't have much time.  So my Canon 6D was in a bag in the bedroom and I quickly grabbed it, turned it on and shot through both the window glass and the storm window!  I got about eight frames and then the light faded!  Man oh man!  I think the total time this phenomenon lasted was less than 4 minutes. Whew!  Well, at least I got it!

 

A Winter Wonderland!

I woke up early this morning for some reason.  I looked out the bedroom window and saw all the trees covered with snow! It was a perfect snow - the flakes were light and the temp was not too cold so the flakes would stick to the tiniest branches in the tree.  It was like frosting covering everything.  I went for my usual walk down by the harbor, and everywhere I looked I saw photographs. All my usual views looked so much different because of the snow changing everything.  It was non-stop shooting and I have to do a lot more editing.  It was such a great time of shooting because it was a time of heightened awareness and I couldn't shoot fast enough!  What a way to start the day!

 

The Cemetary

Today we went to a burial at the Cemetery of the Holy Rood which is behind St. Brigid's church in Westbury, which you can see in the distance.  I have never seen the church from this view and I have never been in this cemetery before.

What was so surprising were all the mausoleums that lined the road we were on.  Some were really large and some were quite small, and I couldn't believe how many there were here.

Some were simple and some were more elaborate.

I noticed that this one had a complete glass door that you could look through, which was a surprise.

This was so interesting to see the inside  of one of these structures.  This one was quite beautiful.

And this one was so small.  I would love to know more about these and why some people prefer them to a burial in the ground.  The Cemetery of the Holy Rood is the oldest of Catholic Cemeteries of Long Island’s four locations. Sitting at 67 acres in Westbury NY. Holy Rood serves the Catholic faithful in Nassau County. The oldest part of Holy Rood was originally the burial grounds of Saint Brigid’s Cemetery, which was founded in 1856.  I need to do some more reading to understand all this better.

 

The Tiny Leaves

Every year I photograph the Japanese maple leaves, both from our tree and a couple of other Japanese maples down the street.  When I have photographed them before they are on my driveway.  But this is so much better to have them on top of ivy.  It is just much prettier.  These leaves are wonderful because they are so delicate and I never tire of looking at them.  I did this photograph a week or so ago, and now they are either all gone, or all shriveled up.  They are the last leaves to fall - at least 2 weeks or more after all the other leaves are gone.  Fall is over, and Winter is 10 days away.

 

A Sucker for a Sunset

I am almost embarrassed to be showing you this photograph.  I went for my walk today.  It was 35 degrees out and there was a 15 MPH wind blowing in from over the water.  So when I stopped to take a picture, I sure didn't stop for long.  So there is nothing subtle about a sunset.  I tend to appreciate more subtle qualities in a landscape.  But, what the heck, here is a beautiful photograph of a golden sun going down surrounded by these cumulus clouds.  OK, you got me, I'll shoot it!

 

Reindeer at the Vanderbilt

I was walking to the Planetarium after parking my car and the driveway goes past these ancient Corinthian columns.  There are six columns in total and are about a thousand years old.  Each column is 14 feet high and weighs 4,000 pounds.  Of course what jumped out for me were the illuminated reindeer.  The "V" is made from planted hedges.  I just thought it was such an unusual scene, ancient and modern.

 

Tiny Japanese Maple

This caught my eye when I woke up one morning and looked out the bedroom window, across the lawn.  This is the concrete block wall that seperates our property from our neighbor Judy's property.  The wall is covered in ivy.  These slim branches are from our Japanese maple tree which has seeded itself from the wind blowing whatever is on the tree that propagates itself, across the lawn.  There are two slim branches that come out of the ground.  What grabbed my attention, of course, are the brilliant yellow and orange and red leaves on the same small branches.  They are more dramatic, of course, seen against the dark green background of the ivy.  The last gasp of fall in our yard.

 

The Japanese maple, Seen a Different Way

Here it is once again, my famous Japanese maple on the front lawn.  But for a change, seen from above looking down, instead from below looking up.  I was taken by the sense that the leaves looked like a wavy line of something going across the picture.  It is a completely different way of seeing this tree, for me! It is worth mentioning that the Japanese maple is the last tree in the neighborhood to loose it's leaves as Fall progresses which is always nice.

 

The Gift That Keeps on Giving

In the colder months, instead of riding my bike, I have taken to walking down to where the old power plant used to be.  The round trip is 2.6 miles and it takes me about 45 minutes to walk it, or much longer when I stop along the way and take photographs.  Some days I can't find a single thing to photograph, and then a day later I can find half a dozen worthwhile things to shoot.  It depends on the weather and the light.  Talk about light, look at this!  It was overcast for most of my walk and just as I approached these trees, the sun broke through!  A gift.  Luck favores the prepared, and I got this.  Please click on it to see it much larger.

 

The Shadows of Trees

This is so funny.  I prepared this photograph for the blog, and when I logged in, realized that this photograph has a lot to do with shadows.  And yesterday's photo is also about shadows as well!  I did the usual walk down to where the old power plant was and I pass this every day but on this day the clouds were in the sky and the shadows on the grass were distance.  I love this shot because it feels bright and sunny and that's no surprise because it was bright and sunny!  Duh!

 

City Sidewalk Shadows

After the concert and lunch with Stan I headed for Penn Station.  As I came up out of the subway, I had a short walk heading south directly into the sun.The light was blinding at 3:30 in the afternoon.  Then I noticed all the shadows of everyone walking ahead of me, some going away and some approaching me.  So I immediately got out my camera, of course, and started shooting.  I think this was the best image.

 

The Rehearsal

Wow, an amazing thing happened yesterday!  Stan had called me a couple of weeks ago and said he had an extra ticket for a morning rehearsal of the New York Philharmonic and would I like to attend!  Man oh man, a rehearsal of the New York Philharmonic!  Are you kidding me!  So I got up at 6 AM and took a train to Penn station and then the No. 1 subway up to Lincoln Center by 9 AM.  What the orchestra does is to run through their performance for the concert the next night.  It is like attending the real performance except...  The orchestra is dressed in street clothes, and the house lights are on the whole time.  It is strange not to see the orchestra dressed in black.  But the performance was astounding.  Three dance pieces by Leonard Bernstein, and then George Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F, and finally one of my all time favorites, Symphony No. 9, "From the New World" by Antonin Dvorak!  What an astounding program!

You can only take photographs when the musicians are not playing so I waited until the end of the Dvorak piece and quickly snapped this shot when the conductor turned around for a brief moment.  I did bring some small binoculars with me so I could watch different members of the orchestra as they played and that was so illuminating, to see them make music.  What an amazing experience!