four more

How 'bout those blue hats!

Four more from the Polish festival in Riverhead.

The Polish Festival

Riverhead has a large Polish population and every year they hold a three day street fair complete with the crowning of a queen and a traditional Polish Wedding. We went today to walk the streets and see the sights.

It was all the colors that caught my eye.

Four today and four more tomorrow.

 

Bedell Main Road Red

My favorite white wine along the tour was at Bedell Cellars, Gallery. As I said before, I'm really a red wine person, but this was something special. It is part of the artist series which features a commissioned art piece on their labels. Artists included Chuck Close, Barbara Kruger, April Gornik and Ross Bleckner to name a few. The wine was flavorful and refreshing. If I had to pick something to relate it to it would be spring. It has a taste of spring.

This is the first time my wife and I visited more that one winery. We would suggest, not hopping from one winery to another, but picking one or two and enjoying what they have to offer. By the end of our tour, Cel and I weren't enjoying the wine as much.

Today's post are some photos from Bedell Cellars.

Two more from the tour...

 

 

Our first stop along our self-made North Fork Winery Tour was Vineyard 48 located on Route 48 in Cutchogue. We sampled both whites and reds here and my favorite was their Peach Wine, a sweet white sweet with a hint of peach.

Both of these images were made at Vineyard 48.

 

Winery Hopping

My wife, her sister and I took the cousins winery hopping on the north fork of Long Island yesterday. We had a blast! This photo was made at Laurel Lake Vineyards, the last stop before returning home.

Big Sky

Here's another photo from Saturday's time at the ocean. I had some time work on this image in Photomatix Pro. They upgraded the program. This is a HDR photo from six images.

A trip to the ocean

Funny how I've lived on Long Island all my life, yet I can't remember the last time I swam in the ocean. Saturday my sister and brother-in-laws took the family, including cousins visiting from California for a drive and picnic on the ocean. The ocean water was crystal clear, calm and beautiful. I had a wonderful time in and out of the water.

I never knew how may 4X4's actually did this. There were about fifty vehicles there. Iw was very peaceful.

That's Entertainment

For the past eight or so summers I had the opportunity to cover concerts held by local municipalities. Rick Larrimore, the Ultimate Rod Stewart Tribute has got to be one of the best shows round. His is all about great entertainment and a true to form Rod Stewart show. His band, Blondes Have More Fun, are excellent performers. Don't ya think he even looks like Rod?

Brothers

A scene from the boardwalk at Tanner Park in Copiague  New York.

Incredible lightening storm

On the way home from work today, there was an incredible lightening storm. I detoured down to the beach and set up a tripod to make a few photos. 

This is my favorite.

The Happy Flower

 

Just a quick photo of the Sunflower growing in the garden. I really think Sunflowers are the happy flower! Today is the last day of July, tomorrow I have a golf outing to work; one of two for the year. I used to work four or five a year.

Just want to keep happy and look at the happy flower.

 

Dog Days

 

 

It's not even August yet and we've had some scorcher days. We had a stretch of days that were in the high 90's and one day 100 or better depending on where you were on Long Island. Our high humidity makes it more uncomfortable.

Isabel took full advantage of the cool leather sofa one of those days. She knows she's not allow on the sofa, but how could you resist a face like that.

Stay cool friends, and keep hydrated.

 

Queen Anne's Lace

This has always been one of my favorite wild flowers. Not only are Deucus carota visually attractive but they are a beneficial weed. Beneficial weed seems like an oxymoron, especially to an amateur gardener like me.

Queen Anne's Lace as it is known in North America, attracts lady bugs and other omnivorous insects. It is in the same family of plant as carrot, parsnip and dill. And is similar to poison hemlock, which was used to kill Socrates.

I often thought about cultivating a wildflower garden.

Funny Face

 

 

While driving through the village Friday, I passed this life size statue of a butler holding a tray. I had to stop for a photo. I tried playing with it in photoshop, but decided to leave it like it is.

 

Yellow Surfboard

 

I took a walk along the beach this morning, before the big crowds arrived. This was the closed section of the ocean beach, so no lifeguards or swimmers. There were a couple of sunbathers, but careful framing cropped them out.

The ocean was flat and there was little wind. It was beautiful.

Prints are available at my Etsy Shop.

Backlit leaves

Many years ago I worked in a ma-pa camera store called Cam-Ra Fair. Fred and Greta were the ma & pa, and they were great people to work for. At the time, we lived in an apartment and I didn't have a darkroom. Fred let me build a Black and White lab in the back of the store. It was win win, we offered custom black and white printing services and I got to have a darkroom again.

One day a young lady came in and wanted me to print an 8 X10 of backlit Maple leaves from her 35mm negative. 

It was a beautiful photo and I must have exposed dozens of frames trying to emulate that photo. I never came close.

I made this photo last Saturday while waiting for Evan to finish work. It's a color file and I wasn't happy with it. Today, I had the bright idea to change it to grayscale and play around with the tones a bit.

Much better. It's not Maple leaves, but it comes close to what I remember of that impressive photo.

Make mine red...

actually, Merlot is my beverage, Merlot and sangria. I have yet to try and make sangria at home even though I've collected a couple of recipes. To be honest, it seems time consuming and an awful lot of work for something that's not gonna last too long.

This was from the same photo outing the May 4 post was from. I never got around to finishing it. As with the others, this is HDR.

Bridgehampton

 

 

This weekend we took a ride to ArtHamptons, the largest collection of art for sale under one tent. It was hard to believe it was a tent, it was very big. Every genre and every medium was represented with a special emphasis on photography. Saturday and Sunday both included a tour “How to Invest and Collect Fine Art Photography.” There were a few items my wife and I loved and some that were very inspiring.

Today's post was made along the trek to Sayre Park. I needed to return after we were home to photograph it with the 400mm lens. Prints available at my etsy shop.

 

Pura Vida

I came across this old fishing vessel abandoned along the Shinnecock Cannel. When I looked up the translation of Pura Vida I found it was Costa Rican for Pure Life, though it is used to say “Full of life” or “this is living.” Which made me think of something one of the baymen I photographed said to me. We were out on a beautiful summer morning; he was collection crab pots on the Great South Bay and I was photographing him. He looked at the blue sky and said, “it just doesn't get better than this.”

I'm sure this vessel has some stories to tell.

Just relaxing in the shade

My mother-in-law and Isabel watching the swimmers this past 4th, as they relax in the shade. Isabel will sometimes venture into the water, but not often. She looks like she could use a tall drink!