Getting in the last word

 

Winter blew in and left some snow. I'm really sick of snow, but it was pretty. Look, the tulips and daffodils are breaking ground. It's time, enough is enough already.

ASpring Showers

 

Today's showers were just what I needed to get out and make some photos. Spring has always been one of my favorite times for photography. It puts an end to my winter blues.

 

More from the long walk.

Along my Saturday trek from the auto shop to home, I came to Good Ground Antiques. They always change their large windows to match the season and today they were decorated with green items for St. Patricks Day. Hampton Bays hosts a St. Patricks day parade on this very street, so why not go green.

The old soda bottles were on the floor and I just had to make a photo of them. I always love to walk past this place, they have great stuff.

Along Yesterdays Walk.

Along the bank of the Weesuck Creek, I found this leaf shining in its place. It almost has a glossy appearance. I kept on thinking of that Four Seasons song, Lets Hang on, which stayed with me the whole walk home.

A block or two from Bill's

My car needed an oil change and I usually use the same shop for all my auto service. Bill will do an oil change while you wait, as long as you get your car in early in the day. Yesterday was an exception, he had two employees out for a wedding and he asked if I could leave it for the day.  No problem, I decided to walk the six or so miles back home. I took my Canon G10 and started my long walk through East Quogue and Hampton Bays to Southampton.

I walked roads I normally drive and when you do that, you see things differently. You notice things you don’t get a chance to see because you’re driving, hopefully. 

After a while I realized that I left my cell phone home, and if I got into trouble I couldn’t call anyone. I’m not sure there’s many payphones anymore. Thankfully, nothing happened, and two and a half hours later, I was walking up my driveway feeling a little like Forest Gump. I almost ran up the last two hundred fifty feet to the door.

Today, I ache a little, but it was worth it.

Snowdrops

Last year, March 6 to be exact, I posted photos of these flowers for the first time. I didn't know what they were. Lynne, a fellow blogger identified them as Snowdrops for me. Two years ago they just seemed to pop-up out of no where. This year I found them in another spot in the year.

What's weird about the whole thing is that we built this house and had to clear the lot. Our town has free garden mulch for the taking, I've been getting this free mulch ever since we lived here. This is where the bulbs must of come from.

Today's post are two different views after the rain this morning. Today started with heavy rain and ended with sunshine. I'm looking forward to spring.

Walk around Riverhead

I was early to work today, so I took a walk around Riverhead. It was a nice day for a brisk early morning walk. Unfortunately, I wasn't having a visually creative morning. Still in a bit of a slump.

Today's post is from a downtown diner in Riverhead. The back few windows are covered with this silhouette paintings. I always loved them, as well as the typical diner food.

I used the Canon G10 on my walk today.

HDR expained (somewhat)

I needed to photograph this house which is part of park on the former land of the Van Bourgondien's of the famous Tulip fame. So I made a HDR and a straight image for illustrative purposes, since some asked what it was.

I use a program from Photomatix Pro to process my HDR images, there's a few different programs on the market and I've seen incredible results from a few of them.

HDR stands for high dynamic range. In HDR, the photographer takes multi exposures of the same scene, a camera meter exposure, and over exposure and an under exposure. The program combines the

exposures basically filling in the lost detail in the highlight and shadow parts of the image.

With the control sliders you can adjust the effects to no end.

Mostly I just enjoy getting the most detail I can in an image. But, some photographers make some outrageous images with HDR. Google HDR images to see some of the more outrageous.

Spring is around the corner

We had a beautiful sunny day today, a little windy, but it was nice. It was enough for me to get out and do some yard work. The Pussy Willows are up and when I pushed away the leaves, the Sedum were breaking ground. Just what I needed to make a few photos.  The temperature is suppose to drop tonight and be around freezing tomorrow. March weather can be so up and down.

Pideons on a fence.

 

These pigeons were sunning themselves on an overpass fence. I was only able to include about a third of them in the frame. As I approached them, some few further down on the fence. But as a truck of car zoomed by it didn't faze them. Go figure?

Winter Sunset

Here's the last keeper from Foster Avenue in Sayville. I originally made three exposures to make a HDR photo from this, but it didn't look as good as this one straight from the camera. It's not the program, it's me not having the patience to sit and play with all the sliders to see what each does. With most subject matter and HDR, I find what I'm looking for fairly fast. But, images with a bright sunspot don't work well in the program for me. Eventually I'll figure it out.

More snow.

After a couple of days of unseasonably warm weather, followed by a couple days of very cold and windy weather, now we get more snow. There were loud sounds of disappointment as people awoke to snow across the country. Shovel, shovel, shovel.

It really wasn't too bad, about three inches of light, fluffy snow. We were able to clear the driveway in no time.

Today's photo was made down at Foster Avenue in Sayville. The light and feather were just right.

Foster Avenue, Sayville

 

This photo is from the same place as yesterday's post. It's some kind of jetty or something. I used Photomatix Pro to process this HDR photo.

The water was so calm and the sky so peaceful yesterday. Part of it is because it's just a bay, there's never very big waves.

The Great South Bay, Sayville

 

I found this sign and thought it was funny how there were no boats out on the water. I guess the sign works.

 

This fruit has heart.

While I was looking through old images, I came across this Kiwi fruit photo I made June 2007. So happy belated Valentine's Day, I hope it was everything it's suppose to be.

I love fruit, Kiwi's are no exception.

Pines against a waking sky.

I'm feeling almost my old self again. I'm still a bit sore, but the head is clear. I was up early to take Evan to the bus for wrestling. It was too early for a walk on the beach, although I tried. So on the way home I stopped and trespassed on the private golf club down the road from where I live. To me, these old stately pine trees look like something from another country.

Beached Branch

Not driftwood, but, maybe one day. 

Between my head cold and work, I'm having a hard time figuring out which end is up. As a freelancer, you take it when it comes.

The Atlantic Ocean, Southampton, NY

Saturday Morning Sky

The sky and ocean seamed one this morning. It was hard to tell where one began and the other ended. I went for my ocean walk further east from where I normally go, for a change in scenery. I saw a group of dog walkers, one of whom I know, and a few dogs. Linda, confusing my camera strap for a dog leash, asked if I had Isabel with me. It's a shame Isabel is not tolerant of active dogs, it sure looked like they were having fun.

So I went east, and the dog walkers all went west. I photographed the morning sky and the rolling waves and the dogs ran wild on the beach. It was very peaceful.

Throat lozenges or else.

My throat is sore. This always seems to happen when I have work. Last month my billing was in the four figures. Now I'm busy and I feel horrible. Life, I guess.

This is another photo I made yesterday. I liked the separation from the background and used a fast lens opening to accentuate it.

Frozen Hearts

These little red berries looked like hearts frozen along the tree branches. We got the tail end of the big storm that crippled the mid western states yesterday. It was mostly rain and ice. This afternoon it was nearly forty degrees, it felt good.