Astro-Fest 2012

My friends Adam and Jess invited me out to Stonybrook University for Astro-Fest 2012 put on by the Stonybrook Astronomy Club. I brought one of my home-made telescopes so they could use it as part of their display about telescope making. They also had another friend come from a different astronomy club, and she brought her telescope so that people could view the planet Venus. Here she is setting up her scope with another member of the astronomy club. I got to talk with a lot of the students who had displays set up for the public and had some really nice conversations about astronomy which made for a great evening.

Pretending to Grow a Lawn

Our lawn has always looked less than picture perfect. No matter what I do, it looks great in the spring, but by the heat of summer so much of it dies off. I am not a big believer in wasting water just to have a green lawn. But this year, with no winter snows to speak of, and no rain at all so far, the lawn is a mess before the season even begins. Even so, I soldier on. I have planted two areas with grass seed and fertilizer, and I am very conscientious about watering these areas twice a day. It is a bit boring, so I decided to take a photo of my watering chores. I love that this photo is kind of mysterious - at first you are not sure what you are looking at.

Purple Buds, II

Last Saturday I posted the photo of the light green leaves, with the purple buds or whatever they were called, underneath the leaves. I think that photo was the best shot, but this is my second favorite. When I saw the purple "haze" near the leaves, I started photographing from a whole bunch of different angles. This was the last shot I did, before the one I posted before. I was right under the tree looking straight up. You can see those purple "things" sticking up. An interesting note is that now the driveway under the tree is covered with the purple things which have now fallen off. I love the "layered" quality to this image - the sharp leaves in the foreground, and the out-of-focus leaves in the background.

Country Bumpkins in the Big City

In the office building we were in yesterday, there was this view out the window, of Central Park and all the buildings surrounding it. Wow, there sure are a lot of buildings in Manhattan! Yup! Golly Gee. Lookit all them buildings... I didn't want to seem like a country bumpkin, so I waited until we were alone by the window, and then I quickly got out my toy camera and grabbed a few shots of the scene before anyone could discover me. It really is a stunning view.

iPhones!

I was in the city today and took the subway to get around, of course. While riding along as a "straphanger," meaning that I was standing up hanging on to the poles in the car - there are no longer any "straps" in subway cars - I looked down and saw these two people completely oblivious to their surroundings, doing stuff on their iPhones. They were transfixed by what they were doing, and I thought it made an interesting photo so - get this - I got out MY iPhone and took this picture!

Orange and Blue

We are taking a class down at church on Monday nights, and there is always a break where I get up and walk around. And I am always looking for blog photos. The class is held in the gymnasium and tonight when I was walking around, I looked back into the gym and was taken by the dramatic color differences - the blue walls lit by the blue light from outside at the end of the day, and the warm yellow light inside from the incandescent lighting. Then I just had to try and make an interesting composition out of it by balancing the different shapes and areas of color.

A Fine Day for Motorcycles

On the way to church today we were passed by about a dozen motorcycles riding in a group as we entered Westbury. Then a hundred feel later, another dozen, and then another dozen, and finally, since I was stopped at a light I got out my toy camera and grabbed one frame of the last dozen. I have no idea where they were going, but they were organized - there were guys in orange vests at both the beginning and end of each group. End of my story. Sometimes I am not a great reporter... :-)