Stark

Bare branches at dusk, starkly silhouetted against a cold yet beautifully colored winter sky

I ventured out on one of the coldest days of the season to date with entirely different intentions, namely to capture a picture of the Big Duck in it's Holiday dress. I passed my turn-off and ended up turning around at a this dead-end street overlooking Flanders Bay. I was enchanted by the evening sky and picked this tree to provide a focal point. Goes to show you that you never know what to expect. The Big Duck pictures didn't come out at all, but this one's fast become one of my favorite landscape pictures of all of 2011!

Spring Springing Soon

Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park in Oyster Bay Cove

Fluffy clouds traveling along blue skies, a yellow sheen on the still-bare branchbes and grass turning green again all hint at the imminent arrival of spring. I cannot wait...!

Silver Lining

A sliver of light and color at the end of a drab and stormy early December day

I know it's been a while since I've been posting one of those ocean shots, but once in a while I just have to sprinkle one in...Here, the storm clouds gave way to a small band of orange at the end of the day. I just loved the speck of otherworldly red in the sky, but oh boy was it cold! I specifically drove down with tripod and all my gear to take photographs, and this is the only (& handheld) picture I took before running back to my car shivering like crazy!

Smoked

Lone cloud system moving past "Short Beach" by Smithtown, NY

Do you guys know the feeling? Sometimes there's just nothing to photograph. You haven't been anywhere interesting, the weather has been blah for days and the sky is white whenever you have some time to spare. That's how it's been for me lately, but today I was determined to capture something somehow with my camera. I went to an odd and out of the way place I found on Mapquest, just out of curiosity. It didn't look like much with the white sky and all. In the very far distance I spotted what I presumed to be a tiny cloud. After walking around for an hour and unsuccessfully trying to shoot gulls, I noticed that the "tiny" cloud started to obscure the sun and was actually quite the dynamic formation. I sat down in the sand and waited for it to move across the water. When it finally did, I took this shot. Not one of my best but I feel like it was at least worth the wait. What surprised me was how the light changed instantly the moment the clouds moved in front of the sun. It was bright afternoon light before and suddenly it looked like sunset an hour ahead of time.

Jaundice

Empire State Building glowing yellow tonight

I know, I haven't posted much lately - too busy with holiday preps and other things. But, I went to the city today for Christmas shopping, dragged my camera along "just in case". Wish I hadn't because now my shoulder hurts and I didn't really take any pics. But when I stepped outside the Manhattan Mall at 32nd and 6th, I couldn't help but be struck by the fact that the Empire State Building was yellow during Christmas season (usually it's red, green and white throughout all of December). But boy, did it look pretty against the darkening blue sky, so here's my shot for today. It isn't all that sharp because instead of my tripod all I had was a bicycle chained to a lamp post to steady my camera at 1/5 of a second. I still like it though, especially because the camera shake makes the moon look full although it wasn't ;). Oh - and why is it yellow? I had to Google that: "The Simpsons Movie DVD release from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment".

Anchored

Sailboats anchored in Huntington Harbor under grey skies

Went to shoot boats for a little Christmas project (don't tell my husband :) during a stormy day and froze my butt off. Only to discover I had a hair on my newly cleaned sensor. Notice the dark band among the masts on the lower right? I won't even bother photoshopping it because it's too much of a pain. But I still like this pic and couldn't produce too much else with this thing in the way. By the end of the day, I finally managed to get rid of it by blowing at the sensor one more time from a different angle. Risky! Don't try this at home....;)

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!

Branch Out

Shadow extends tree on warehouse wall

I thought this one looked kind of interesting, and it's not a collage - it's simply a tree, the sky, a wall and a shadow...

Deserted

Strange exercises at Robert Moses Beach

This is yesterday's picture and the beach is deserted after it suddenly got rather cold. I took my dog there to play and was baffled by this lone walker who kept flapping his arms while calmly walking towards the water...

Grey and Sand

Rainy skies at Robert Moses Beach

As I have said before, I won't ever get tired of taking pix at the beach. I love the beach when it is stormy but warm like today. If you look closely, you can still see the life guard towers lying in the sand - for the first time in history, the beaches were open on Columbus Day weekend, with temperatures reaching 87 degrees this past Monday! Now it has somewhat cooled off but it was still warm enough to walk along the beach in a T-shirt today.

Gloomy

A foggy day on the Great South Bay

The weather today was eerie - very warm but foggy and dark. I went for a drive along the bay and took this shot of metallic sky and water near Bellport, NY.

Roofie

Skittles the Cat hunting for butterflies

The roof is Skittles' favorite place to play. We currently are experiencing an invasion of Admiral butterflies because supposedly we are on their migration route. Skittles is going bonkers, but thankfully he hasn't caught one yet. But I loved the way he eagerly appeared in this "V"-section of our roof while I was walking through our front door.

Sunrise

Beautiful sunrise over the Great South Bay