After Sunset

Seagulls wading the surf shortly after sunset at Robert Moses Beach

The beauty about photography is that you never know what to expect and rule #1 is to always keep an open mind. I have come to learn that if I have any type of preconceived notion of what sort of picture I want to capture, I more often than not fail miserably. This might be especially true for landscape photography, where you can never 100% predict the weather, the clouds, the wind and the lighting conditions resulting from all of the above. I came to shoot what looked like a promising sunset, yet ended up being bland and boring and disappearing half way through behind a thick layer of haze. Yet the light reflected beautifully in the sand once the sun had set and those gulls just made for perfect models.

Squeaky

July weather at its best in Stony Brook Harbor

Today was one of these incredibly rare summer days on Long Island when the world seemingly has been cleaned by a squeegy all over. Sparkling sunshine and crystal clear air, not a trace of humidity. Little puffs of "Simpson" clouds in the sky. Colors were brilliant, as you can see in this photograph taken at Stony Brook Harbor, this picture came straight out of the camera, no pp needed to make it glow. Compare it to an evening autumn shot I took on October 22 2007 at the same location...

Dusted

Wintry looking canal leading into the Great South Bay

Today was the first day that really felt like winter and it even snowed. Well, it was more of a dusting but by late morning about 1 1/2 inches had accumulated. In this photograph, taken in the afternoon, most of it had already melted away, but a wintry look prevailed. This is a "beef stew for dinner" kind of day!

Floating

Floating Buganvilia blossom

I am back from a brief visit to California, where I took this photo of a Buganvilia blossom, floating above a reflection of the patio deck in my uncle's swimming pool. Love this shot!

See Through

Farm house window with a view - inside and out!

This old farmhouse is part of an outdoor museum called the Bethpage Village Restoration Project. Old buildings from all over the island have been brought here to be restored and be arranged like a village as it could be found in this area in the 19th century. They did a great job and you really feel as if you just have traveled backwards in time.

Reflection

Blue boat anchored at the Riviera Canal

Picture #17 and I have to admit that this is a lot harder than I thought. Nothing but pouring rain all day and today's lesson learned is that it is NOT that easy to do those "raindrops on my window"-shots as one might think. They have to be the right kind of drops, with the right kind of colored background, plus they are sappy. While walking my dog just before the sun set, I spotted this blue boat at the canal. Which is unusual, since most all of the boats here are white. I took my last chance and dug out my tele to get this shot. Did I mention I love the color blue ;) ?

Afternoon Reflection

Chases Lake in Upstate New York in late afternoon light

This is my first post and I am cheating already, because this photo was actually taken a couple of weeks ago. But I just pulled it off my camera today, does that count?