Catching Up

Two long-time friends, "foodies" both, a party, and a time for catching up. What's could be better than that! I actually think I have nothing more to say about this photograph. Oh... One thing. I didn't see this photo first. Dora came to me and said: "Have you seen Sylvia and Clarke sitting and talking in the hall? I hadn't so grabbed my camera, and there they were, and here they are for you.

Winter Marsh

When I went flying the other day with friends, I spent a lot of time looking down at the winter landscape, hoping to find something interesting. Finally, up near Sunken Meadow State Park, I spotted this frozen marsh. I love the interesting shapes of the straw-colored marsh grasses surrounded by the ice. The earth is such a beautiful sight from the air. Please click on the image to see a larger picture with better color.

The Gathering

An email arrived last week from Pat, and she said that we should all get together, those of us in our Newsday "family," to celebrate our friend Tony. So we came from all the corners of Long Island to talk of how we missed him and what a wonderful person he was. It was a time for me to be reminded, more than ever now, how much I miss my friends and colleagues. It's funny, but I think we all go to work, and see our friends and colleagues every day, and probably take it all for granted. Then many of us leave, and we loose these connections. Pat is wonderful, because she is the one who feels this loss first, I think and she says: "It is time for all of us to get together again." It was a lovely evening, and the connections are still deep and rewarding.

Building Bridges

This is an update of the construction of the new Roslyn Viaduct. I have shown you some photographs of this before. The new bridge is 2000 feet in length, and is made up of two separate spans which will be joined side to side when it is finished. The first span is completed, and they are assembling the second span. Each span is made up of "concrete box sections" which are prefabricated and shipped to the site by barge. I am guessing that there are almost one hundred sections connected together to make one span! And these things are HUGE! I kid you not. This photograph shows one assembly in the foreground which is made up of 4 segments. They are held together with steel cables running through them, that are stretched hydraulically. It is a huge project, and fun to walk around a look at it and photograph it. Click on this for a larger size, so you can see the other sections in the background.

Cute as a Button!

My first sight of this little toddler was looking down the street at her tipping back and forth as she walked up the street toward her house. She lives in the house next door and so I headed toward her and her mom just to say hello. As we talked I kept looking at how cute she was in her outfit, with a snow hat with ears and tassels, and bright blue gloves, and layers of sweaters under her coat, and her scarf. The longer I looked at her, the more I realized that I NEEDED to take a picture of her. I asked her mom and she said "sure" so I ran in the house to grab my camera. Fortunately she hadn't moved and my picture was still there when I came back out. Whew!

Climbing Away from Our Shadow

I had so much fun flying, that I need to subject you all to some flying photographs for the next couple of days. I love the design of this, with all the diagonals. I am bummed that I didn't get the photograph quicker. When I first saw the shadow of our airplane on the ground, we were much closer to the ground and the shadow was larger and more obvious. I shot it anyhow. Maybe you can think of this as a puzzle - where IS the shadow? Click on the image to see it in a larger size.

Gone Flying

I went flying today, for the first time in a couple of years. Of course, I was only the co-pilot. A friend from my astronomy club invited me along on a ride, and we cruised around Long Island for an hour or so. It was nice to be back in a Cessna 172. I tried to do a photo of me in the airplane by holding the camera out at arm's length, and aiming it at myself. Well, this is the first shot and it is obvious that I missed! I did some more photos, and got it right. I was going to discard this, but then realized that because it cropped a lot of me out, that it was the more interesting photograph. I am wearing a noise-canceling headset with a microphone, by the way.