Grounded

When I was down at the beach photographing the iced over harbor, I saw sea gulls both flying around and also just standing in the road or in the snow.  When I saw all these gulls standing in formation, I knew I had a good shot, IF I could get it before any of them flew away!   Fortunately, I discovered that because of the cold, if  I could walk slowly, the gulls were less likely to take flight, and I was surprised that I could move around slowly making the best composition without them flying away.  Lucky me.

 

Lucky Me, Another Rehearsal

I am so lucky, Stan had an extra ticket for another New York Philharmonic rehearsal on Thursday.  That's why I was on that early train and met the conductor that I posted about yesterday.  So it was wonderful to be back in the concert hall again.  People are not allowed to take photographs during the rehearsal, but before it starts is OK.  The different musicians come on the stage gradually and then they practice just a bit together as these five violinists are doing.  It was fun to see the intereaction between them as some of them spoke to each other after pausing their playing.

This was a performance of Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D Major, and the soloist standing in the center of the photo is the Spanish violinist Maria Duenas who was making her first New York Philharmonic appearances this month.  She is only 23 years old and has established herself as one of today's most outstanding artists.  Her performance was just amazing!

Here she is talking with the conductor Manfred Honeck, who is also a longtime mentor to her, after the performance was over.  During the concert, every once in a while he would briefly look over at her and she would smile back at him, and continue playing.  What a wonderful thing that was to see!  A reminder, please, don't forget to click on each of these images to see them larger!

 

He Made My Day!

I have an amazing story to tell.  Back on December 4,  I wrote about going to the NY Philharmonic rehearsal.  To do that I took a 7:36 AM train to the city.  There was a conductor on that train who was so friendly, and had such a sunny disposition and talked to each of the people as he checked their tickets, like he knew them personally, which of course he did.  When he came to me he asked how I was doing and said he hoped I had a nice day.  I was amazed to see how great he was in the way he did his job! Above and beyond!  Well this morning I went to the city again for another NY Philharmonic rehearsal, and guess who the conductor was!  So I listened to him as he greeted everyone with a smile and asked people how their kids were, or inquiring why he hadn't seen a customer in a while,  and I just felt the happiness and the connection he had as he went through his work day. What a wonderful way to go to work!  I was sorry later that I didn't ask to take his picture.  Well, don't you know that after I exited the train in Penn station, as I walked by the end of the car, there he was in the window, and he greeted me again and wished me a good day.  So I kind of explained what a saw and how it made me feel so good, to watch him with his passengers, and I said that he made my day!  And then I asked him if I could take his photograph, and he said "Yes,"  What a wonderful start to my day!

 

The Harbor is Freezing!

While we were having coffee and donuts I could see that the harbor is freezing over!  I don't remember the last time I saw ice on the harbor.  I can 't tell how far across the ice goes, but it looks like it is half way!  The forecast is for temperatures to stay low until next Wednesday, so the freezing will continue.

You can see that the ice does not go that far north.  I guess because the harbor is so much wider there.  I made those footprints so that the photograph would be more interesting.

With the sun to the south,  the backlighting brings out the texture of the ice which makes it more interesting.

This is a closer image of some of the raised up parts of the ice.  What I need to do when I have a chance, is to bring my drone down here and then the view from altitude will let us see how far across the harbor the ice goes.  I will try and do that the day after tomorrow.

 

They Didn't Plow Our Parking Space!

We went to the beach today with our coffee and donuts. We were surprised that they hadn't plowed the whole parking lot, like they used to do. They had run a plow twice down the length of the lot, but there was no room to park!  Our parking spot was not plowed!  So I backed our car into the snow from the plowed road and that's where we sat to have our coffee and donuts.  Looking out the window I realized that I liked the tree seen against the clear blue sky, with the snow in the foreground.  I will, of course, be writing an angry letter to the town, complaining about the failure to plow our spot!

 

Snowstorm, More Photos

 

This first photograph is from this morning, when I woke and saw how much snow we had gotten overnight.  All I could think of is "There's a car under there!"  The next few photographs are from yesterday.

This is the old Sea Cliff Water Company building that was a pump house at one time.  It had not been used in years and then the Village bought it from the water company and it is being refurbished to be used for village activities.  It is a classic building and looks so nice in the snow here along with the large tree in the foreground.

I think that this is kind of an exercise in composition.  The fence and the bench look like they are made of similar pieces of wood, and when I saw the crossed rails I realize that was what made this photograph interesting.  Without the crossed rails it would have been just a bench and a fence.

After walking along the shore I started up the long hill to the center of town.  Halfway up I saw this house and loved the monochrome color scheme - white and gray, and the American Flag made it all more interesting.

This house is the iconic Victorian home in Sea Cliff.  It is called "The Woodshed" and I have photographed it over the years, but always from the other side so that you can see all of the building in its stunning architectural beauty.  So I thought this was an interesting way to look at it in a snowstorm, with the tree in front of it.

And so back to today.  After breakfast I got out the monster snow blower that I love dearly!  It makes short work of what used to be a couple of hours of shoveling snow by hand.  I was done clearing the driveway and around the cars and the walk to the back door and a path to the BBQ.  Then I used a shovel and broom on the front porch and the steps, and then the back porch and steps.  An hour and a half and I was done.! Then I headed over to our neighbor's house.  Her neighbor across the street is really good with doing her driveway with his snow blower, which I used to do.  He cleaned her driveway yesterday afternoon, and so this morning I cleaned off the snow that had fallen after that.  What do they say?  "Many hands make light work!"

Today's Snow Storm

A lot of photographs from today!  I won't say too much about each.  We woke with about 4 inches of snow on the ground.  At about 1 PM I ventured out while it was snowing moderately.  When the snow is falling, there are wonderful "atmospheric effects" that are kind of like fog, where distant objects begin to fade into the distance.  Anyhow this is a way to see how deep the snow was in the driveway, with the car as a good "measuring stick" where you can get a sense of the snow's depth.  Today I am going to post the more practical photos of the storm.  Tomorrow the more artistic images.

First order of business was to find the buried newspaper in the driveway.  I finally figured out how to do that with this four-tined garden tool, dragged gently through the snow at the bottom of the driveway.  I was about to give up since I was about 25 feet up the driveway from the street, but then I found it!  In the past I have given up looking and then completely shredded the paper with the snow blower!

I love the foggy look of the trees in the snow.  The further they are from me, the fainter they are.

I call this photograph "One Rock, Nine Geese."  And that's what you are looking at!

I loved this pairing of one bench and one small tree with the rest of the harbor completely obscured.

And of course, any photographs of Shore Road needs to include one photograph of the line of sycamore trees, either from this direction, or from the other direction.

I was pretty bundled up with my LL Bean "mad bomber hat" which is the warmest hat I own for this kind of weather.  I wanted a shot of myself in the storm but I hadn't brought a tripod, of course so there was nowhere to put my camera to use a self timer.  But at the top of the street after turning the corner there is one of these convex mirrors that a neighbor uses to check traffic.  Perfect!

The snow stopped about suppertime, and then a very light, almost misty rain began and continued until about 11 PM.  This is a quick shot with my cellphone of Kathy's car with snow up to the centers of the wheels.  Today was a wonderful day for walking in the snow for my photographs.  I did about 2 1/2 miles and spent an hour and a half out walking around.  Felt wonderful to be out in the snowstorm, which I carefully dressed for, of course.