Happy Halloween

My sister-in-law, wife and son all carved their jack-o-lanterns last night. It was my job to make a photograph and make the pumpkin seeds. I love pumpkin seeds and pumpkin bread, but I'm don't like pumpkin pie... Mostly it's the texture I guess.

Evan kept saying he's too old to go trick-or-treating but changed his mind in the middle of the week. Maybe pressure from his friends in school, or the thought that we don't get any trick-or-treaters at our house, so we don't buy candy, so there'd be no candy, had something to do with it. Anyway, our town as an Elm Street and it's an annual ritual as you can imagine. I think I should donate treats to some poor soul that lives there.

My best friend Louie and I used to go to the condo's to trick-or-treat. We would cut through the woods behind the houses across our street and climb the fence. When I was fifteen, I dressed as a woman and tore my stocking on that darn fence. Since then, I've always known how it felt for you ladies to have a run in your stockings.

Today's post is a happy accident and the jack-o-lanterns. I was fooling around with Evan and made a very slow exposure. It looked creepy so I kept it for my Halloween post.

Have a safe and happy Halloween.

Looking down

Here' another image looking down at the kaleidoscope of colorful leaves at the public parking lot in Deer Park.I get sent there to record freight trains parked on the rail overpass in the middle of town. The town supervisor made it a priority to get these trains not to lay-up on the downtown overpass.

This was made with the Canon 5d and processed with ACR.

Mattituck Barn

I made this image last Monday in Mattatuck at the train station. This is an HDR composite from six frames of different exposure.

I'm still not happy with how hot the sunlit white door is but it will do. I made this image with the Canon 5d and processed it in Photoshop.

Birch

Kids, they can drive a sane person crazy. Sometimes I wonder when mine were mentally high-jacked by aliens without my knowledge. I need to calm down. After a busy day anything could be stressful.

Today's photo was made on Monday in Mattatuck. I made a few images that day with the Canon G10, this is one of them. I processed this with Photomatix Tonal Mapping.

Coffee and a photo to go.

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Well, the nice weather ended today. It’s cold and wet and gray outside. But that didn’t stop me from finding autumn colors to photograph. I made this image today at a 7-11 convenience store in Commack were I sometimes stop for coffee. It was raining at that point in the day and I didn’t want to get too wet. I exposed two frames and both had my shoes in them.

Today’s image was made with the Canon G10, and processed in ACR and is cropped.

Fun with red.

What a great day I had today. I covered a press conference on the east end of the north fork of Long Island, Cutchogue. I made a point of heading out early so I'd have some tome to do some personal photos. The weather was perfect and so was the colors. I felt like a sugar addict loose in candy store.

I've come to the conclusion that when we have a wet summer, fall colors are better. I'm gonna have to look this up to see if it is fact or something I'm imagining.

These two images came from Mattatuck, the sign was at the train station. The leaves were a few blocks away. Both were made with the Canon 5d and processed with ACR.

49

Here's another number for my number series. I found this house marker up in Rocky Point on Wednesday while waiting for a press conference to start. I found it kind of quant snuggled among all the ivy.

I made this image with the Canon G10 and processed it with ACR.

Yellow Pine Needles

This is a close-up of yellow pine needles I made with the Canon G10 in macro mode. I processed the photo with ACR. This is another image made last Tuesday. It is also the last.

I stopped at the ocean this morning after dropping Evan off at football. The beach lost four feet of sand. Where we used to be able to walk straight out to the water now is a four foot drop. The Indians say that what sand the ocean takes, the ocean will return. We’ll see what happens in the winter.

Stain glass leaves III

This is the last of the series of stain glass leaves. This was also made on Tuesday wit the Canon G10.

I just returned home from along day, the end of which I spent outside for three hours under-dress for the temperature. It feels good to be under a warm blanket.

Tomorrow we are expecting rain and Evan has a football game in the morning. So I’d better warm-up tonight.

Stain Glass Leaves II

Here's another photo of back-lit leaves. On the original post, georgia b commented on photosynthesis ans almost seeing the science inside a leaf. It got me thinking about how the leaf veins how they look like little roadways. If I could get close enough, would I see tiny workers carrying out the process of collecting sunlight and turning it into sugar? What do they put the sunlight into once they collet it? Could make a Disney movie.

This image was made on Tuesday with the Canon G10. Post processing included iphoto and Photomatix tone mapping.

Stain glass leaves.

I love backlighting and rim-lighting, so give me colorful leaves and a bright sun and I just go crazy. I as at the doctor's office Monday and I couldn't wait to get out of there. All these green and yellow leaves and blue sky were calling me. The office building she's in also had these beautiful planters by the entry and I made a few images there.

This was made with the Canon 5d and processed in ACR.

Lawn signs don't vote!

This past week someone took two political lawn signs I posted at the end of my driveway and tossed them in the woods. It annoyed me, no it really pissed me off. Whether or not you agree or disagree with my candidate, I have the right to show my support by displaying a lawn sign on my property.

By removing my lawn sign did you think I'll change my opinion? Oh, look my lawn signs are gone I'll have to vote the other way.

Do you think that by removing lawn signs other voters are swayed? You must believe that people vote based on the number of lawn signs they see. What, if they don't see my lawn signs maybe your candidate wins another vote.

Or is it that you just don't believe your candidate is strong enough on the issues and people shouldn't be aware there's another person running for their seat.

The truth of the matter is I too hate lawn signs. Mostly because people put them along highways and roadsides, nowhere near their homes.

I think lawn signs should be restricted to individual lawns and any found on any municipal property should be discarded as soon as it is seen. After all, aren't they for supporters to show their support.

When you see a lawn sign in the middle of a divided highway what's that say? It tells me that a particular candidate doesn't have a lot of supporters or they aren't very good money managers and purchased too many signs. Not too good either way.

Sorry for venting about my lawn signs. But is my right to show my support if I desire.

Back to the blog, today's photo is of the ornamental grass by my back door, made with the Canon 5d and processed with ACR. I love making images of this plant.

A Beautiful Day

It warmed up nicely today. I had two outdoor photo-ops and a bit of computer work to get done today. It all went well.

I made this photo Saturday on my walk with my wife and dog. It's the Peconic Bay, the body of water between the fish tails of Long Island's east end.

Made with the Canon G10 and processed with ACR.

Apple Crisp

How do you make a horrible day look good? Photoshop it! It's cold, windy and rainy, a good day to catch-up on things around the house. I made an Apple Crisp that just came out of the oven and it smells great. The fall and winter are the seasons for baking, something I love to do. I just wish Adam was home, he loves Apple Crisp.

Today's photo is of the screen in the front window. I processed it with ACR and pushed up the fill light, black and clarity sliders all the way.

Red Oak Leaf

It was a nice day today, a bit cold but sunny. They predicted rain for today, and a ribbon-cutting that was scheduled for this morning was canceled. I got the second coat of spackle done in Adam'd room, sized the photos I made yesterday and sent them off to get printed. I even had time to take Isabel for a walk with my wife. Now, after a nice Saturday and a good diner, we're watching Independence Day. All in all it was a nice day.

Today's photo of a Red Oak Leaf was made earlier with the Canon G10 and processed with Photoshop.

Wall of Textures

I worked in Howard Beach, Queens at a luncheon today. Federation of Organizations hires me for their three major luncheon, this one being the final one of the year. Today's keynote speaker was Joe Pantoliano an actor who played Ralph Cifaretto on The Sopranos HBO show. He was the guest speaker at their first luncheon here on Long Island, they liked him so much, they had him back. I was not impressed.

Howard Beach is about two hours away from me so I left early because of the lousy weather. Traffic was not as bad as I figured and I had time to make a few images, today's post being one of them.

This was the side of a restaurant down the block from the catering hall. The shapes and colors were intriguing. Made with the Canon G10 and processed with Photomatix Tonal Mapping program.

A keeper on a bad day.

It was not a nice day today, windy, cold and rainy. I'm sure days like today was made for big bowls of soup. Soup wasn't on the menu today, but my better half did make a great diner that hit the spot.

Today's photo was made in Quogue. I was driving to the photo lab in Westhampton when I saw this field of wind blown grass. I set the camera on the tripod and made a bunch of long exposures. This is the image I like the best.

Made with the Canon 5d and processed it with Photoshop and ACR.

The Bee

I'm using OpenOffice.org Writer program to write today's post. My son Adam introduced me to it a while ago, and like many old dogs.... I've learned a new trick.

The look and feel of it is much the same as the big MS version, it has spell check, and a grammar feature. I like the big tool bar at the top, much easier to read that MS. I guess the best feature is it's free and it works on a Mac. That's big, at least to me. I've used Mac's for years and you hardly ever find a good freeware.

Today's photo is a bee on the Butterfly Bush, a dead bee I afraid. Sunday, on our way to church, I saw this little fellow on one of the last flowers. He was still there when we returned. So I made a picture of him. Later in the day, he was gone. Anyway, I used the Canon G10 in the macro mode and processed it with Canon's Digital Photo Professional and Photoshop.

Just the smile I needed.

My son Brian was home from college for the weekend. He needed a ride to East Islip to meet his ride back to Potsdam at 7:30. That meant we needed to leave at 6:30. I didn’t need to be at my first assignment till 9:00 so I took the long way and found this smiley in Central Islip.

I made this image with the Canon G10 and processed it with Canon’s Photo Digital Professional. And Photoshop.

Red Reed

What a day. I did manage to get a coat of spackle on Adam’s wall, but that’s about it. I couldn’t sand the spackle because it didn’t dry. Sometimes I just don’t know where the time goes. Tomorrow, I have the October General meeting of the Legislature in the morning and a press conference following that.

I made today’s photo yesterday. My eye was drawn to the red reed surrounded by the green leaves of the ornamental grass. This was made with the Canon 5D and processed with ACR.

Sky and Puddle

What a gorgeous day today was. Mums, and Montauk Daises all in bloom as well as those Garzania’s I found at Lynch’s Garden Cent in town. I finally started to patch the hole in the sheetrock in Adam’s bedroom. I just hate working with sheetrock, but it doesn’t look bad. I thought I had some spackle so I could get the first coat done, but I can’t find any in the basement.

I have a job tonight for a legislator so I need to get cleaned up and on the road. I have the day off tomorrow so I’ll be able to get back to the tape and spackle then.

Today’s photo was made on Friday of a couple of leaves floating in a mud puddle. I was drawn to the blue sky reflecting in the puddle. I made this with the Canon G10 and processed with Photoshop and Photomatix tone mapping programs.

Red Maple Leaves

The little Red Maple tree in the yard has started to change color. I’m surprised that it still has any leaves after the two days of heavy winds.

This photograph was made with the Cano 5d and processed in Photoshop.

Thursday

This picture is from my Vermont visit with Adam. I have a problem with the Canon G10 and can’t seem to download anything any longer. I’ll call support tomorrow.

This was made with the Canon 5d and processed with ACR.

Self Portrait

Yesterday I worked a golf outing here in Southampton. It’s very nice to work right here in my hometown. Sebonic Golf Club is a private club that hosts outings for not-for-profits. It’s nice to get a peek at how the other half lives.

My self-portrait was made in the serving dish cover before they put out lunch. My reflection is also in the glass door in the background. I made a few frames, but I liked this one the best. The awning and the second reflection helped me choose this one.

Fashion photographer great, Irving Penn passed away today at 92 years old. Penn never cared about the separation of commercial photography and art photography. He just always stayed true to his style. He died in his apartment in New York City.

Checkers

I made this photo two weeks ago and never had a chance to post it. I started to edit photos last night after a political fundraiser, but I feel asleep at the computer.

This is the side of a Checkers Drive-thru. I was attracted to the red on black and white. It reminded me of the joke that the boys used to ask me when they were small. What’s black and white and red all over? A newspaper. I made this photo with the Canon G10 and processed it with Canon’s Digital Photo Professional and resized it with Photoshop

Rugby Helmet

This photo is from last Saturday's Rugby match up in Northfield Vermont. Some of the players wore these helmets. They don't look like like they offer much protection, I guess it protects you from getting your hair pulled.
I made this with the
canon 5d and processed it with ACR.

Sayville Diner

I had an assignment in Sayville tonight and to save on the mileage, I decided to eat at the Sayville Diner. What’s so special about this place is that I used to frequent this place about thirty years ago. This was the small village diner that we went to after a night on the town. I’m sure we were thrown out once or twice for being too loud.

They redid the place with a retro look, which I found a bit funny. It didn’t look like this thirty years ago.

The Greek Salad I ordered was very good, and too large for me to finish.

Today’s picture is of the diner rendered in grey scale. The image was made with the Canon G10 and processed with both Canon Digital Photo Professional and Photoshop.

October 1, 2009

I can’t believe how fast this year is going. Another month, gone, and before I know it I’ll be writing 2010. When I was a kid, I use to think about what things would be like in the yea 2000. It’s not like the Jetsons that’s for sure.

Some of the new autos look futuristic but still no hover cars. I didn’t give much thought to communication technology back then, but I think I would have thought that cell phones would be fairly futuristic; especially the Bluetooth devices people walk around with in their ears today. I most definitely didn’t give any thought to the future of photography. Digital capture, the Internet, blogging, it all would have seemed unbelievable back than. No more mini labs on every corner. Well when I first started making photos, you sent film away to get processed. What will the next ten or twenty years bring?

Not so long ago I went to a 100-year birthday party with the Town of Babylon Supervisor. It was in the basement of a church, he had a proclamation he gave her and he talked about the things a person would have seen being alive for 100 years. The first flight and all the advancements in air travel, men in space and on the moon. How about the atom bomb, the end of the cold war and Sept. 11, 2001 for change? I made a photo and showed her the back of the camera. Another technological advancement.

Technology happens so slow and nonchalant in some ways. Computers evolve, from desktops to laptops to web books. Where will it all end?

Today’s picture I made this morning while waiting to make foursome photos at a golf outing. This golf outing was from hell, a very disorganized event. These backlit leaves were about fourteen inches long. I couldn’t pass them up.