Photo Shoot

Stan and I were sort of heading for the door to leave the event yesterday.  We stopped to look at something and I happened to glance over and saw this!  Not sure exactly what grabbed me first - perhaps the stance of the photographer and his model with their hands touching, but the shiny steel door with subtle reflections was clearly part of the attraction.   So I took perhaps 4 or 5 exposures.  I WISH that I had then waited until the photographer was done shooting and gone over to them, and asked the photographer if I could see one of his shots, and shown him my shot!  I have learned that  as a photographer I absolutely cannot judge whether or not a photographer is taking a great shot or not, by watching them work.  I can try to imagine what he is getting, but I don't know for sure.  He may be getting a really interesting photograph.  Actually it is unlike me not to go talk to them, but I guess because we were leaving, for some reason at the time, I never thought to show him my shot and ask to see his.

 

The Buildings are Disappearing in New York City!

I went to the city today to meet some friends and to visit the BILD Expo put on by B&H Photo.   It is a giant extravaganza having to do with cameras, lenses, lighting, sound, video and everything else having to do with photography and video.  As I walked out of Penn Station I was stopped in my tracks by the sight of these two skyscrapers enveloped in fog!  The ceiling, or cloud base, was about 500 feet.  It was so cool to see this!

I always walk over to the Javits Center, just short of a mile one way, so I got a lot more views of other disappearing skyscrapers.  I just love these atmospheric effects!

I particularly love this dark black building, in contrast to the lighter, glass surfaced buildings.  One other thing I just realized is that these photographs look they were shot in black & white, but they were not - each of these images is in color!  This was such a cool thing to see!

 

A Community Information Meeting

There was a community information meeting tonight at the village hall.  There is a building at the bottom of our street that I have photographed before that is left over from the old water company.  The village bought it and are now trying to figure out what to use it for for the good of the village.  The room was packed - standing room only.  Many of our neighbors were there, because it is on our street and any traffic and parking issues will directly affect us.

A number of people wished to speak, including me.  We had not heard anything about this building in two years, except that we could see it was being refurbished and the big question on everyone's mind was, "what will this building be used for?"  The answer is its use has not been determined yet.

I like this photograph because you can see varying expressions on the faces of the people present.  We have almost never been to a village board meeting, so this was really interesting, particularly because it may affect us and our neighbors.  When there is anymore news about the building, I will be sure and let you know.

I thought I might as well look up one of the photographs I did of the old building and post it, so you can get an idea of what the inside of the building looked like in 2022.  I have not looked inside recently.

 

Texas Leftovers

I still have some unedited folders of photographs from the Big Bend trip.  I took this because it gives a better sense of the nature of the Chinati Foundation being located on an old U.S.Army base.  I had not seen a good view that shows the number of Army barracks that are located here.  This view shows that nicely, I thought and the really interesting Yucca in the center of the photograph adds a lot of interest.

 

A Rose, A Challenge

When Kathy watched me photograph the candle in the little glass box with all the reflections, and I said I was making a blog photograph, she asked if I could make a blog photograph of this rose from the new bush she just bought and planted.  I accepted gthe challenge and here is my photograph.  Kathy "styled" the photo, finding this beautiful little blue vase, and arranged the leaves on the rose stem.  So, not the greatest photograph in the world, but a decent close up of a single rose blossom, I think.

 

Get off that roof! What's wrong with you?

                               

There is nothing wrong with me!  Well mostly...   :-). We have had moss growing on this roof over the front porch for a number of years now. It made the roof look terrible.  This is a north facing roof, and there is a really tall Hickory tree that overhangs the roof, so that makes it worse.   You can see the thick brown covering on the roof behind me.  I bought some liquid moss killer and carefully sprayed it on, and within a month the moss turned brown but it was sticking to the shingles as well as it was when it was green.  I tried a brush with no luck.  One time I put my gloved hands on the roof and rolled them around on the moss and it rolled up in balls and came off the roof, but that would be really difficult on the whole front roof.  So I decided to use my little power washer which is electric and maybe 20" long and 10" in diameter so I could put that on the roof and tie it to a rope that was in the front bedroom.  The power washer, used carefully worked like a charm.  The roof finally looks brand new almost.  In addition to the moss the shingles had a dark color to them, and that came off easily.  You can see I am being very safe with an orange safety line which is tied to a rock climbing harness I have had for years for just such things.  Safety at all times.  It took me two days of this work to get the roof cleaned and it looks beautiful!

 

Ten Candles

We always light a candle in a candlestick in the center of the dining table while having dinner.  Just a thing we do.  Tonight it was warm so we had all the dining room windows open and the front living room windows as well.  There was a gentle breeze drifting through the windows and it would blow the candle flame sideways and wax would be running down the side of the candle.  So rather than close the windows, Kathy said we could use this glass holder for the little candles in cups.  It is a glass box with an open top so the flame is not blown around.  So we were eating dinner and Kathy mentioned seeing a lot of candle flames in the reflections.  I guess I had not noticed that before and when I did I thought it worthy of a photograph.  And here it is!

 

Comets and Meteors and Asteroids and Junk

We had a terrific program at my astronomy club tonight.  This is Charlie who is the Astronomy Outreach Coordinator for the Vanderbilt Planetarium, and he gave a talk on a lot of the "stuff" up there in space, like Comets and Meteors and Asteroids.  He also talked about all the space "junk" that we have put into orbit around Earth and about how hazardous it can be to satellites and manned space missions. Here he shows what the head of a comet looks like seen up close by a space mission.  We all know what a comet looks like from a distance with its long tail or tails, but this is a closeup.  He covered so much material and it was wonderful!

 

Faded Flowers

I was sitting in a chair in the back room when I looked closely at this vase of flowers.  It has b een sitting on this table for 4 or 5 days I think.  It was so nice when Kathy brought in some fresh flowers from the garden and put them in this vase.  I hadn't been paying much attention to them but I knew there were there and that they looked nice.  Until I looked the other day.  They have been fading for a couyple of days, I think and I noticed that.  But then I thought how beautiful these flowers are, even in decline.  I still think they are beautiful in this condition so I photographed them.  For you to see.

 

The Car Crash

I went over to Starbucks and CVS this afternoon.  This road was blocked because of these two bucket trucks at work reinstalling a huge power pole.  I stopped and asked one fo the flagmen if the pole had been hit by something.  And, wow, did he have a story!  He said that late last night a probably stolen Mercedes SUV came toward where I am standing through the intersection I am looking at.  There is a little jog in this street, and the car was moving at over 70 MPH!  Thank heavens there was no other car going through the intersection!  When the car missed the jog in the road and hit this giant power pole, the impact broke the pole in half!  Then the car continued toward me and hit yet another, smaller power pole!

This is the second pole the car hit.  Notice the splintered wood from one of the power poles in the foreground!  I cannot imagine the power of the impact.

The splintered wood from one of the power poles, and in the dark area in the background, pieces of the car.

Look at all these pieces from what was once a car!  I would love to see what the car looks like!  The flagman said that the driver got out of the wreckage and ran away!  I guess that says a lot about Mercedes construction and air bags!  Wow!  I keep thinking that if another car had been in the intersection and had been hit by this car, everyone in that car would have died.  That is beyond imagining.

 

O.K. Have it Your Way!

OK, so this is a first!  My long time friend Primo said that he loved this photograph, and the light, but then he said he was surprised that I left the car in the photograph which he thought was distracting.  He said I should have moved the car! Honestly, it never occurred to me because I thought that it was not very prominent in the picture.  So here's what I did with that photograph...  Welcome to AI in Photoshop!  There is a relatively new function in Photoshop called "Generative Fill" and the first time I saw a demonstration I nearly fell over!  Here's how it works:  I used a selection called the "lasso tool" and then in this case I circled the car.  Then I chose "Generative Fill" and watch the progress bar and when it is done,  the car was GONE!  I kid you not!  And the light from the garage was extended to where the car was.  Look at this!  Unbelievable that the AI had the light narrow and fade as it got to the left side of the image!  I mean, come ON!  So I hope Primo is pleased with this rendition, with no car!

 

The Glowing Garage

                                          

I don't remember what I was doing before I took this photograph.  Maybe I had been observing, which would explain why the garage lights were on, as they would be when I was done, and putting things away and bringing the telescope in the house.  Then I would be going back out to the garage for more stuff.  In any case, I just love the look of the garage glowing in the dark, so to speak.  What a nice sense of light in this photograph!

 

Light Trespass

"Light Trespass" is actually a legal term.  It occurs when someone has "security lights" or some other kind of outdoor lighting on their house, and the light shines away from their property and onto someone else's property.  Fortunately the village does have a light trespass ordinance, and it is not allowed.  So the people who live up behind us put in a swimming pool and then put four bright lights on their house to illuminate the pool and patio area.  Not a problem, of course if they are out enjoying their pool and patio.  But every once in a while the lights get left on all night, and usually all day before someone notices, or in this case, when they are away.  These lights have been on both night and day for the last 5 days or so.  You can see how they light up part of the back of our house.  More importantly, notice that the light is going through our bedroom window on the second floor and it lights up our whole bedroom! 

Our neighbors are very nice and I am sure it happened by accident but no one seemed to be at home.  The good news is that last night the lights were off.  But then today they came back on!  But after about 9 PM they were turned off and the whole house is dark.  Go figure.  For all you photographers out there, I will tell you a crazy story.  I didn't want to get a tripod to put the camera on to take these photographs at midnight.  So I just cranked the ISO (which is like the "film speed") to - hold on to your hats - ISO 204,800.  That is not a misprint.  But that is a CRAZY number, given most of my life I shot color and black and white film with an ISO of about 400!  And my exposure at that ISO was 1/30 second at f/4, handheld.  These digital cameras, like my SONY a7 III are simply amazing.

 

A Doorway

I had lunch with two new friends from the astronomy club.  The husband is an architect and has an office in Oyster Bay.  We had a nice lunch together with great conversations about architecture, astronomy, night sky photography, and life.  On the way back to the office, we passed some older homes in the village that have been beautifully restored. When I saw this doorway with the black door and the white wreath I stopped in mhy tracks.  Photography time!  I just thought that this was so beautiful.

 

GAS

I still have a couple of posts from the Big Bend trip but they require a lot of editing.  So here is something I shot tonight on the way to my astronomy meeting.  I have been waiting to photograph this sign for several months now.  I needed the sun to bew higher in the sky to illuminate the scene.  I thought that tonight the sun might be on the sign, but it was not.  But I think this light is fine for this subject.  This is a type of subject matter that Stan and I call "American Vernacular" which is usually used to describe a particularly American type of architecture.  Home grown, particularly American and likely to be designed and built by one person with no formal training.  So you get the idea.  This sign has been here as long as I have been on Long Island, and clearly long before that.  It is next to a farm stand, and there are actually three gas pumps near where I am standing but I have never seen anyone buy gas here.  No matter, it is a wonderful, classic gasoline station sign, don't you think?

 

An Art Piece

In Marfa there is a seemingly empty lot where it looks as if a bunch of plants have been stored.  And coming up out of all that is the giant stalk of a Sotol plant in amongst the buildings.  It is such an unusual scene to see this giant plant in this place.  We found out later on that it was an art installation, and part of the Chinati Foundation.

 

Intermission - The Sun

I have another post or two from the Chinati Foundation, but the sun had a magnificent complex grouping of sunspots today and so I set up my telescope and photographed the sun.

The main thing of interest to me is these three large spots in a row.  If you click on this image it will be larger and you can see how many smaller spots there are in this grouping, and then even tinier ones. Far too many to count.  A really exciting thing to see.  The sun goes through 11 year cycles that begin with no spots on the sun at all, to a sun that looks like this, and then at the end of the cycle it goes back to having no spots at all.  Just another fascinating part of this universe we live in

15 Untitled Works in Concrete

So this is another astounding artwork!  It is called "15 untitled works in concrete" but that title is misleading because one of these works may consist of from 2 boxes up to 6 boxes or more.  I counted from a satellite photograph about 60 concrete boxes in groups.  They are installed out in a line and the length of the exhibit is about half a mile.  All the boxes are the same size, 2.5 x 2.5 x 5 meters and the concrete is about 10" thick.  Please click on each photo to see much more detail.  Thanks.

What is fascinating is the arrangement.  Some boxes are open on the sides, some only on the ends, and some are only open on one side.  I am showing you some overall shots so you get a sense of the exhibit.  But the fun for Stan and I was to examine, one by one, each group of boxes and then try to find interesting compositions in each group.  It was so much fun because it was really intense just looking and looking for the best arrangement.  More on that tomorrow, when I will show you some of the close ups of the arrangements.

Here is Stan in the center, and a guy we met who was viewing the exhibit.  He was from Texas and had just retired from work the day before and was enjoying the exhibit as much as we were, without taking photographs.  Tomorrow's photographs will be really interesting, I promise!

 

100 Untitled Works

Two days ago I showed you some large buildings with quonset-like roofs.  These buildings were called "artillery sheds" where the big guns were stored and maintained.  They are now both filled with aluminum boxes created by the artist Donald Judd, who bought the old military base and turned it into a contemporary art museum.  In the foreground of this photo is one of the 100 aluminum boxes that the artist designed.  All of the boxes have the same exterior size, but some are open on top or on the sides or on the ends.  Many have other pieces of aluminum inside them, some at an angle.  The aluminum is 1/2" thick and comes from the factory with a shiny "mill finish."  You cannot touch the pieces because they would then have finger prints etched on them from the acid in the perspiration from our fingers.   You can't photograph them during the tour, for two reasons, I am guessing.  One is that it would be a distraction to have everyone photographing, instead of looking and experiencing the works.  The second reason is probably because when photographing, people might be bumping into the boxes.

What is astounding about this exhibit for me is the unimaginable variations between each box.  No two are alike and I was stunned at how many things could be different in each box, and yet there are 100 of them.  It is a mind boggling exhibit, and it is impossible to imagine the feeling of wandering through the two buildings and carefully looking at each individual box.  It is so much more interesting than a description would make it sound,  Oh, I took the photographs long after the inside tour was done.  I came up to the doors at the end, and wiped the dust off the window and photographed through the glass.  Same thing for photographing through the large windows on the side,  The photos are fairly clear, but I wished I had a bottle of Windex and some paper towels!

 

Yankee Craftsmanship - The Telescope Case

So the mystery is solved!  But this is funny - I gave away what this box was for, without realizing it.  So this was what I posted, asking you to guess what the finished project was.  Yankee Craftsmanship. Anyhow, this is a photograph of my finished project, a telescope carrying case for my "new-old telescope." A former ASLI member offered three of his old telescopes to club members and I ended up with a 5" f/5 refractor which he built using a lens and materials from Jaegers, back in the 1970's.  Please click on this to see a much larger version.

But I had forgotten that I made another post called: Cat Coffin, which showed the other part of the telescope case with cats playing in it!  Duh!

Well, anyhow, now the finished project can be revealed.  I promised I would show you the finished project three days after I posted "Yankee Craftsmanship" but I ran into a serious problem.  I had bought a brand new quart of marine varnish and there was something wrong with it.  It would not dry to a hard finish and I had to return it and wait for a new can to arrive which really set me back a couple of weeks.

But here it is, all finished, and with the telescope inside the box!  With three coats of varnish on top of birch plywood, it actually is a stunning thing to see in person.  It is simply beautiful!  Sorry to make you wait so long for the results.

 

The Chinati Foundation

The Chinati Foundation is a contemporary art museum located in Marfa, Texas, and based upon the ideas of its founder, artist Donald Judd.  We visited here after spending four days at Big Bend National park.  The specific intention of Chinati is to preserve and present to the public permanent large-scale installations by a limited number of artists. The emphasis is on works in which art and the surrounding landscape are inextricably linked.  More on that later. This facility is on 340 acres and was was, for many years, a U.S Army base that was active from 1911 to 1946. At one time it was an artillery unit and this is one of two large buildings where the big guns were stored and maintained.   They have since been rebuilt with new roofs and large glass windows and there is an art installation by Donald Judd inside.

This is a view inside and through the large building in the photo above.  More on the inside later on.

This gives you a sense from this architecture that it was a military facility.

These buildings in a U-shape still look like the barracks they once were.

In some photographs on the Chinati website the ground is covered with beautiful light colored grasses that appear to be about a foot tall.  But now, probably because of drought all you see as far as you look is sand and dirt.

This is an art installation inside one of the old barracks.  Interestingly, there are no windows in the buildings - the wind and the sand blow right through this building.  I was in this building when I heard the wind start to howl, really, and realy strong winds blew right through the building and they were full of sand!  I tucked the camera into my waist and bent over to shield the camera from the blowing dust as best as I could. It was a dust devil!  Within a minute the dust devil had passed on and the winds disappeared.

This is what that barracks building with the art installation inside looks like from the outside.  More tomorrow on the installations in some of the buildings, and outside!

 

A Mystery Photo

OK so here is a mystery photo and I am not going to tell you where it is.  Yet.  After Stan and I left Big Bend, we went to Marfa, Texas for two days on our way back to El Paso.  There is a is contemporary art museum there that we wanted to visit.  I will tell you more about it.  The good news is that my photographs will not be about the landscape of Big Bend, but about this museum.  This is Stan, of course, standing between two concrete structures.  Cool photograph, right?  Stay tuned!

 

Peregrine Falcon

There is a visitor's center in the Chisos Basin where the lodge we stayed in is located.  This sculpture is installed near the entrance and it is a stunning.  Turns out it is a Peregrine Falcon.  It is life-sized, and bronze and donated by the Friends of Big Bend National Park.  The sculpture commemorates the success of efforts to protect peregrine falcons, once an endangered species in Big Bend National Park. The sculpture was created by Bob Coffee, renowned Texas artist and member of Big Bend Friends’ Board of Directors. The Friends of Big Bend National Park have assisted in the funding of years of research and monitoring of the peregrine within the park.

 

Boquillas Canyon and the Rio Grande

I spoke of going to Boquillas Canyon which you get to by parking the car in a lot, then climbing up about 100 feet and then hiking back down to river level where there was a trail.  There were trees all around, so I was mainly hiking in the shade - a good thing because the trail is about 1.5 miles long to the end, where I could see the canyon in the rocks.  The temperature was over one hundred degrees, so I walked slowly and it was not a problem. This panorama gives an overall view of the scenery from a distance and was taken from the top of the 100 foot rise above the parking lot.  You can see the Rio Grande river at the lower right.  The canyon itself starts at the high rock wall straight ahead in the distance.  This is a large file, so please click on it to see more detail.

The Subtlety of the Desert

I suppose by now you are getting bored with my landscapes of Big Bend.  The landscape is so subtle out here.  This photograph, except for the blue sky, s monochromatic brown.  There is a green cactus on the right but everything  else is the same color.  And yet, to me, this is really beautiful. So different from where the rest of us all live.  I think that is why is is such a refreshing thing to spend time out here for a week photographing.  It is such a different experience.

 

Casa Grande

When a group of us camped here in Big Bend about 8 years ago, and when Stan and I stayed in the lodge here, this mountain, Casa Grande, towered over us.  It is the foreground silhouette for some of my Milky Way images.  This view is taken 30 feet from our front door this year, at the lodge.  This feature is not unlike Shiprock in that it is a "volcanic plug" made up of lava that hardened in the "conduit" of the volcano which is the open tube from the magma resevoir underground and the vent at the top. Casa Grande is Spanish for "Big House" and it is 2000 feet higher than where we are.  It is 7,325 feet above sea level.  An impressive sight!

 

Approaching Big Bend

I haven't yet sat down and did a careful edit of all my camera cards from this trip!  So I started going back over each card and looking for some interesting photographs.  I found this one, when we were driving into Big Bend National Park and I like it a lot.  It is subtle but I like the simplicity of it and the subtle colors.  I am sorry I haven't had time to research this mesa or mountain, but I will, eventually...   :-(.  I was thinking of the subtle colors and I began to wonder if this photograph would be good in black & white.  So here is that version, below.  Please be sure to click on each one because they are more interesting seen larger.

So there may be something to this even more subtle version.  I think I will need to think about it, so I am presenting both of these to see what you all think.  Color or Black & White?