The Congregational Church of Patchogue

 

There's a stretch of highway here on Long Island that runs nearly the whole length of the island. It is known by many different names, officially it is NY27A, but in every village it passes through it becomes Main Street, and for a good length of Suffolk County; Montauk Highway. When you cross the county line into Nassau, it becomes Merrick Road.

I've always been fascinated by the amount of churches along 27A, so much that I thought one day I'd make a photo essay on all the places of worship along the road.

Maybe today's could be the start of the project. This is the interior of the Congregational Church on Main Street in Patchogue. This photo doesn't do it any justice, the church is awesome.

This was made with the Canon 5d mkII from two exposures. The first exposure was for the room and the second was for the stain glass. I used ACR and Photoshop.

Winter Wonderland

 

I had a bit of time between jobs today and had to pull over and photograph this winter wonderland. This little stream is in Blue Point near the Patchogue border. Blue Point is a great little place on the south shore of Long Island and just might have one of the best micro breweries on Long Island. Not that I'm an expert on beer, but I do enjoy an ice cold brew every now and then.

This scene was originally recorded in color as an HDR image and then desaturated all the color.

I used the Canon 5d mkII, Photomatix Pro and Photoshop for this photo.

One Red Cardinal

 

 

No surprises it snowed today, and snowed and snowed. And it's supposed to snow tomorrow. Shoveling wasn't too bad the snow was light and airy.

I'm not sure if it was the grayness of the day or all the white snow, but the Cardinals at the feeder looked incredibly red. More red that usual. Even the females looked more vivid that usual.

I tried to get a photograph of one and this was the best of the lot. He was in the front yard in a Cedar tree, I was inside.

I am posting a photo of Isabel running around in the snow. She doesn't look like she's hates snow here. She also hates her rain coat.

  I used the Canon 20d and processed both with ACR.

Rain Rain go away

 

It has been raining here for two days. Tonight the rain is suppose to change to snow. Right now it seems too warm for it to happen. They're saying only an inch or two...three at the most.

I can't get motivated to do any personal photography. Yesterday I made a photo of my feet and a puddle, today I stood in the rain looking at park benches surrounded by a lake.

The weather has everyone talking, pro global warmers and anti global warmers. I don't know what to think other than to say I need some sunshine and I need it soon.

The feet photo was processed with Photomatix Tone Mapping program and the bench I used ACR. Both were made with the Canon G10.

 

Candy Coated Building

Tired, that sums it up. I'm tired. I spent the better part of the day filing photographs, checking descriptions and ids and archiving the disks. Tonight I was the photographer for a political fundraiser for a candidate. I'd love to have a beer right about now, but I'm just too tired to get up and open one.

Today's photo was made Thursday in Hempstead, NY. I wasn't happy with the photo at all. When I first saw this colorful building, it was from the other side of a busy street and it looked good. When I went back to photograph it later in the morning the light wasn't the same. I keep telling myself now is the time, if you see something stop and photograph it now. Everything will be different later. I've been burned before, and I should have learned.

      This is the door and part of the wall, after processing it with Photomatix Tone Mapping program. I used the Canon G10. It's like a candy coating.

Drapes

I saw these drapes and the tie back and thought of the Harry Potter movies.Maybe it's all the movies we watched last weekend. The light, tone and color just screamed for me to make a photograph.

Click

I used the Canon 5d mkII for the clicking part. I processed it in Photomatix Tone Mapping Program, but was unhappy with it. I reprocessed the original RAW file using ARC and Photoshop and like it much better now. I should have saved the first so I could have posted both, it just looked too artificial.

Morning sun through the pillions

What a beautiful day today. The sun was shinning and it was beautiful out. My wife, son and I took a short walk in the village and then went to see the movie Shutter Island. I won't spoil it, it was a good movie.

Today's post is also from the Wharf. I used Photomatix Tone mapping to process this photo.

 

The Old Stomping Ground

 

I had an assignment today to cover someone I really don't care for. But, A job is a job. The best part was that I was in a neighborhood that I spent much of my time as a young adult. So, after the job I drove around the old stomping ground.

Today's photo was made in the parking lot of Vanderbilts Wharf. We knew it as The Wharf back then. It was the starting point and sometimes the finishing point for many a Friday and Saturday night.

I cant believe the sky in this photo, it looks surreal.

I used the Canon 5d mkII and processed it with ACR.

 

Are they dolls?

I came across this tree carving and so I made a couple photos and walked on. It wasn't till I started to work on the image that it dawned on me Ken and Barbara, Ken & Barbie the dolls... Whoever they are,

I bet they get teased all the time.

Made with the Canon 5d mkII and processed with Photoshop.

Driving Through The Pine Barrens

 

Driving home today I realized I didn't have anything to post today. So I thought I'd make a photo of the pine barrens. I know I've mentioned this part of my journey in other blog posts. This is the water shed area for Long Island. Rain water is filtered through the hundreds of acres of undeveloped pine barrens and becomes our drinking water. This is the reason it stays undeveloped.

A few years ago, while taking Brian up to Potsdam for school, we passed the building of a wind farm in Clinton County New York. The windmills were build on farm lands. To me, they looked awesome.

I often wonder why they can't build windmills in the pine barrens. I can't believe it would effect the ground water.

I used the Canon G10 and processed it with Photoshop.

 

Sneaky Sasha

 

Today was gray and it snowed all day. It's still snowing. I'm tired of snow.

Today's photos of Sasha were made Sunday. She likes to watch the birds from the bathroom window. It's the closest window to the bird feeder. She's never been outdoors, but I think she has an idea of where she'd head off to the moment she gets out. She's a sneak, like most cats I guess. I didn't know which photo I liked more, so I posted both. Made with the Canon G10 and processed with photoshop.

A Potter Weekend

I had a four day weekend, not good for the family finances but it sure felt good. We spent Saturday and Sunday catching up on the last four Harry Potter movies. Half-Blood Prince, we rented, Goblet of Fire and The Order of the Phoenix we watched on-line, and we own The Prisoner of Azkaban. I'm all Harryed-out for a while, even thou I'm glad I'm all up-to-date.

Really it's a well needed, once-in-a-while thing. This coming week is pretty chock-full of action, just would have been nice to have the work before the rest. Well, as a freelancer, you take what ya get!

Here's the other lone grass I promised to post.

 

Lone Grass 1

Today ends our high school wrestling season, today being the second day of the county finals. Poor Evan didn't do well and as any parent would, I felt for him. Hey, better luck next year buddy. Only a coach can put a athlete's loss in perspective for them. As a parent, all I can do is be as supportive as possible and not be an embarrassment in front of the team. Last night, a parent from another team was kicked out after his son lost. He thought the ref should have called something. Our coach used that incident to bring a smile to Evan's face. “So you lost, at least you dad didn't make a scene in front of the whole gym and get escorted out by security”.

Evan is stronger mentally than he is physically and he'll recover. It's still hard to watch them lose.

After eight and a half hours sitting on high school bleachers yesterday, my back and neck were killing me. I have upper back and neck pain from years of carrying my gear. The winter is hard enough on my back with snow shoveling, the bleachers just did it in.

Today's photo came from a walk a week ago Friday. I made a couple of lone grass images that day, I post the second one tomorrow. I used the Canon 5d mkII and photoshop for this image.

 

Ice Thursday

Yesterday's snow had a coat of ice over it that lasted all day. It made shoveling easier. Every thing was iced over. I made a few photos before I shoveled the driveway. These were made with the Canon G10 and processed in Photoshop.

 

Snowy Handrail

We had a snow day today and it's still coming down. I think Evan will have another day off tomorrow or at least a delayed opening. Evan and my wife both helped with the shoveling so it wasn't as bad as the last storm that came through. I'll have to shovel again in the morning.

Today's photo is of the handrail at the side door. The wind didn't kick-up till the evening, so everything looked pretty.

I used the Canon G10 and Photoshop for processing.

 

Sign on the X

When I was a youngster we used to sit around looking at slides and of course we would see things that weren't there. Ok, so we were under the influence which may have helped a little. That was over thirty years ago. Today, when I saw this frozen X, I thought about those times. Life was sure different then.

Made with the Canon 5d mkII and processed in ACR.

 

36

I made this photo for my number series. This is the second time this parking meter had appeared in one of my photos. In 2000, the Town of Babylon buried a time capsule and in that time capsule they put some photographs. One of them was this parking meter in the Village of Babylon with a car parked at it. I thought that maybe, in time parking meters would be done away with. In a way, the village has changed some of the parking meters with metered lots. There's one meter for a lot, you pay for parking, key in your spot number and you receive a receipt that you place on your dashboard. Collection takes place at one meter instead of dozens, and most of the machines take plastic. 
They don't have the the panache of the old meters, that's for sure.

Make with the Canon 5d mkII and processed as an HDR image in Photomatix Pro and Photoshop.

Discarded Newspaper

 

I found this in an open field and liked the way the two textures played against each other.

We just finished watching the Super Bowl, I'm happy New Orleans won even though I'm a Colts fan. Strange, I wouldn't been happy if it were anyone else. New Orleans could use a little boost in spirit after Katrina.

I made this with the Canon 5d mkII and processed it with photoshop.

 

The Pine Barrens

The east end of Long Island is separated from the west by a large swath of land known as the pine barrens. This land was set aside so no development would ever take place on it. The thought was that being an island we needed to protect our ground water. The pine barrens serve as a filter, if you will, for our drinking water, keeping it pure. Sometimes I wonder why they don't build windmills on the land. I can't imagine that windmills would have a negative effect on the groundwater.

Called the pine barrens because the only trees are scrub pines, none of which are very tall. So, on a clear day you get a good long view of, well, nothing but pine trees and sky. Kinda boring.

My walk yesterday was through a portion of the pine barrens and this is where today's photo comes from. This was made with the Canon 5d mkII and processed with Photoshop.

 

A walk in the woods.

 

I took a long walk in the woods this morning. It felt good, not too cold, no wind and as of February first

hunting season was over.

I was inspired by a black and white photo I saw earlier today, so I headed out looking for monochromatic subject matter. All I kept seeing were rabbits. At first I thought it was the same one running back and forth on the trail I was following. But there were more than just a couple of them. I couldn't get a good photograph of any of them. Way too fast for me.

I love isolating things in nature. This weed and the light were my favorite find today.

Made with the Canon 5d mkII and processed in photoshop.

 

Share and Share Alike

 

My next door neighbor had a visitor to her bird bath on Monday. I had to hustle to get this photo and I wound up spooking this deer and two others that were elsewhere in Sally's yard.

There's a tree at the shared corner of our properties. As a youngster, my son Evan loved squirrels. So we built a platform, attached it to the tree. In winter, we put bird seed that the squirrels and the birds ate. Actually, the blue jays and squirrels or the cardinals and the squirrels or the big black birds and squirrels always fight. This is the first time I've seen anything at Sally's bird bath.

Not a great photo, but the best I could get before it ran off.

More Snow

 

 

We woke up to a couple of inches of snow this morning and for the most part it was all gone by three this afternoon. There was no wind, so whatever fell stayed on branches. I had a little time before my first assignment to make a few photos. It was the best part of my day, too bad I couldn't have spent more time while the snow was here.

The forecast is calling for a possible snow storm this Friday evening into Saturday. So, I might get another opportunity and if I don't … no disappointment. I'm ready for spring.

Pussy Willow Buds in Snow

 

Nice Tie

 

I spent the better part of the day covering the Suffolk County Legislature's February General Meeting and then I made a team photo for Evan's wrestling team. Today was a exhausting day.

One of the aides for a legislator is a really sharp dresser, and today was no exception. His pocket square and tie are the cats meow! I just had to photograph them.

I used the Canon 5d mkII and ACR.

Bananas in the Window

Having a camera with live-view is very cool. It's one of those features that grew on me, I had no idea how I was going to use it.

Back in the days of film, I'd look at a subject, determine how it was lit, back-lighting, side-lighting etc., and set my exposure accordingly. Many times I would bracket my exposure, that's when a photographer makes a few frames of a scene using different exposures. Maybe one the camera meter recommended, one over-exposing the scene and one underexposing the scene or a half stop over and a full stop over. So a roll of 36 exposure film could of have varying exposures of 12 photos on it.Live view show you exposure before and sometimes it's just great.

This photo of bananas on the window sill is a perfect example. I was sitting on the couch reading and glanced up into the kitchen. I noticed the bananas on the sill and how they were back-lite. The lines of light were very intriguing even sensuous.

I picked up the Canon G10 and looked at the screen in live-view. The exposure was set for the shadows and the hi-lights were blown out, rendered white. It's so much easier now to get what your looking for. Sometimes the right exposure is not the metered exposure.