Silhouettes

I just noticed that there are a lot of silhouettes in my photos.

I was passing by a Central Jersey horse farm at sunset. New Jersey is one of the largest Horse Farming states with several Billion dollars in revenue.   Heck, our official State Animal is the horse!  These horses didn't seem to care about that.

The photo to the left was taken early one morning off of the Bangladesh coastline just by the Sundarbans national park.   The Sundarbans is a mangrove coastal park that is mirrored between Bangladesh and India.  They're fishing between the mainland and a newly formed Island in the Bay of Bengal.   We visited the Sundarbans in the vain hope of seeing a tiger.  We saw tiger footprints, but not the beast itself.

This photo to the right was taken from the bridge of the Nantahala River at the NOC outside of Byson City North.   The river is fed from underneath Lake Nantahala dam, so the water runs in the 50's year round.  In summer time that means it's typically shrouded in mists as the cold water hits the hot summer air.  This photo, for example, was taken just before  a mid July sunset.  

MIAMI

Here's one really stupid decision I made when I lived in Miami:  I studied German at High School.  Not Spanish.  In Miami!   If only that was the dumbest thing I did down there.  Let me just say, I was a teenager.  Nothing seemed dumb at the moment it was actually occurring, of course.   But occasionally, shortly afterwards I realized it.  And other times it took a while for the dumbness to sink in.

Nice preamble, eh?  Totally unrelated to these photos, except to explain that I have family in Miami and get down there every once in a while to visit.

OK, so this isn't taken from Miami.  This is a view of the city from the Gulf Stream  several miles out at sea.  We were on a ship we had boarded up in Fort Lauderdale and were headed down to Key West.   And if you've ever been to South Florida, you know that 30 minute rain storms are pretty common visitors on Miami afternoons.  I'd guess that my mom's house is somewhere under the small bit of rainshower that's to the left in this photo.

This shot  was taken from Matheson Hammock Park looking north towards the city.    (The word "hammock" is used in Florida for a raised bit of forested land.)   This dawn photo looks across the pool that is filled naturally with tides from Biscayne Bay.   My favorite part of the park, though, is just beyond those palm trees.   At low tide you can walk pretty far out through the bay, observing fish and rays swimming past your toes.   Careful to keep your sandals on, though.   

And here's Miami Beach as seen from the Rickenbacker Causeway bridge on the way out to Key Biscayne.   Cyclists know the spot where I took the photo because it's at the top of the closest thing resembling a hill for hundreds of miles around:  the first rise of the Rickenbacker Causeway as it leaves the mainland. 

Heaven Above and Hangzhou Below

How can a city of around 8 Million people be a secret?  Impossible.  OK, not much of a secret, but Hangzhou is certainly not a well-known city outside of China.   I expect that to change now that there is a bullet train that will zip you there from Shanghai.  But until recently, it was not a western tourist destination.   For example, it still took some creativity to find a travel guide in English.


But it's worth the effort as Hangzhou is a beautiful city.  There's a saying: "shang you tian tang, xia you hang".   I got this from a web site, so I apologize if it actually means something nasty, but I've been told that it means "up there is heaven, down here is Hangzhou".


I was fortunate to visit there on business for a few days and stayed right near West Lake which has been a travel destination for centuries.  Every nook has its own scenic splendor, and its natural wonder has been engineered for even more beauty. Temples and memorials abound and the six arches along Su Causeway is a must for a stroll.    Most of that English travel guide I discovered talked about the lake and its surrounds.


As is my habit, I was up early each day and had a chance to capture some of the splendor at sunrise.

Architecture Wonder in Small Details

I just came back from visiting a Frank Lloyd Wright building just outside of Philadelphia.   I think I just stumbled around for an hour or so just staring.   There's a grand vision to come to terms with, but there are also the small details.     Here is a photo from that site along with a couple others that reveal a bit of detail in the architectures.

This building in a suburb of Pennsylvania was finished in fall 1959, just a few months after Frank Lloyd Wright passed away.   It's a Synagogue - Beth Shalom - that he designed incorporating many unique aspects including a sancturay that feels almost organic with what comes across as a naturally-formed bowl .  The soaring roof feels a bit like a tent with outside light seeping in.   Here is a detail of one of the three steel support beams rising up near the front of the sanctuary.

These windows were from the Merry Go Round at the Asbury Park, NJ Casino.  The Carousel was disassembled and sold in pieces to collectors around the world after it closed in 1988.  The city is undergoing a renaissance now, with the Casino building as a centerpiece.  But the horses will never ride here again.

This shot was taken from inside of the Castle Hill Tunnel in Buda looking towards Pest over the Danube River.  The tunnel with its scallopped edges was finished in 1856, seven years after the Chain Bridge was finished.  The bridge was the first permanent link between the two cities that merged to form Budapest, and it was only the second permanent bridge across the whole of the Danube.


And while we're on the subject of bridges, here's a close-up of the bottom of the George Washington Bridge connecting Manhattan to New Jersey.   This was taken from the top of a little red lighthouse that was standing there guarding against shoals in the Hudson River well before the bridge was built in 1931.

Photos for TK

It's my wife's birthday today.  So, here are a few of her favorite things.



DISNEY.  Disney.  Disney.  Disney.  Disney.   We visited Disney World in Orlando a few year ago, and she wore ears all three days.   Tigger ears, Minnie Mouse ears, and then she wore a princess crown.  This is a photo of the Castle fireworks taken from the top of the Contemporary Hotel.

WICKED:   TK has a multi-CD changer in her car, and slot 4 is reserved for the music of the Broadway show "Wicked".   Evil things happen if one dares to replace it, and once the CD starts playing, it MUST play until the end.  This photo of the stage was taken during a backstage tour a couple years ago.

FLORIDA GATORS:  A rabid fan. She bleeds orange and blue.   This photo was taken outside of the University Auditorium where the marching band was warming up.  Our daughter was a section leader that year.


BASEBALL:   She loves the game.  Ever since she learned how to use a scorecard, it's impossible to get her to put the pencil down during a game.  This photo of the Lakewood Blueclaws reminds me of her and how much she loves the sport.

Happy Birthday, Terrie Sue.

Water Shadows & Light

I feel ignorant whenever I'm talking to a group of photographers. I find their knowledge of lens choice, exposure settings, etc to be a bit intimidating.

I'm more of a 'point and shoot' kind of person. And if I happen to stumble onto something that works, I'll do it again and again. For example, my camera has a 'sunset' setting. I don't know what it does, but I know that if I use it whenever I see things in front of a body of water, there's a chance a decent photo may pop out.

For example, here's a late afternoon shot taken from the bridge in Bryson City, North Carolina right outside of the Nantahala Outdoor Center.  The Nantahala river runs briskly year round fed by water flowing from beneath  a reservoir, so the water temperature is always cold ... about 50 degrees F (10C).  This causes a layer of mists to constantly rest above the river on warm summer days.

This next photo was taken at about the same time of day on another river using the same "sunset" camera setting.  These are shrimp fishermen just south of the Bangladesh city of Mongla.   We were sailing past them after our son took us to visit the Sundarbans one spring.  (He was in the country for a year on a scholarship.  Here's his blog:  http://donnybangla.blogspot.com/)

And to prove this isn't a fluke, here's a photo from Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  It's a ship being led into port early one morning just around sunrise.  Ships gather outside of the port during the night and wait for daylight so they can be shepherded into the docks by the tugs.   Same 'sunset' camera setting.

It's an easy formula that works.  Just don't ask me what lens type or aperture setting I used.

Places of Worship

Five hundred years ago when it was founded as a regional center, Bagherhat historic district in Bangladesh was a showcase city. The city was swallowed by the jungle, cut off by re-aligned river flows, and was lost to time.  More than 50 structures from that grand period can be found in the region now, many refurbished during British Occupation in the early 1900's.   Part of the fun for tourists (like us) is that there is very little there to explain or guide you.   Besides the famous Shait Gumbad ("60 Dome") Mosque, many other beautiful structures are hidden across the suburbs of Bagerhat down dirt paths or resting in the middle of a farmer's field. By the way, curiously, the 60 Dome Mosque actually has 77 domes. We counted them. Anyway, women aren't permitted to enter the Mosques. This photo shows the doorway next to the waiting area where my wife's Bengali was constantly tested by women whispering a greeting (roughly "assalamu Alaikum") to see if she'd respond.

This next photo is closer to my home.  It's the "Yellow Meeting House" out in Millstone, NJ on "Yellow Meeting House Road" built in 1739.   The book "More Forgotten Towns of NJ" asserts that Abe Lincoln's ancestors settled here before moving on to Illinois and points to a nearby graveyard with headstones from the "Lincon" family.  Not this graveyard.  One several miles away tucked back in the woods.

This is also close to home.  The Russians emigrated to what is now Jackson, NJ in the first half of the 20th century and established a community of thousands.  This is one of the gold onion domes of Cassville's St. Mary's Russian Orthodox Church. 

Cycling photos

It takes a special skill for taking good sports photos.   The shots need a story line, so there has to be something interesting happen.   Yet the key is to get a connection with the people in the shot, so getting the subjects exactly spot on with the right focus is critical. I occasionally get a couple of good cycling photos caught in my lens, but it's more luck than skill.

Our bike club's race - the Tour of Colts Neck - gives a great chance to get some close up action shots.   I'm usually managing the auto traffic at a corner while the race is going on, so the riders zip right past.  I've tried hand-held shots, but it's not possible to watch traffic and the racers at the same time.  So I been resorting to placing the camera in a strategic spot and launching it to take multiple shots while I watch traffic.  Here the camera was on the ground.  I chose a shot where the pack was in focus and the breakaway rider had a little motion blur.  On retrospect, I wish that was reverse.

I used the same approach for catching the action at the Philadelphia International cycling Championship.   This was shot as they riders take the last turn at the bottom of Lemon Hill before they head up the Ben Franklin Parkway.  I set the focus, placed the camera on a stand just on the outside of the turn, and let it rip with an automatic series of shots.    I had the luck of catching Tyler Hamilton in this photo when he was riding for Rock Racing after his return from a drug suspension.

The grand scope of the sport is more within my ability to take photos.   I can put the cyclist in the scope of the scene, and scenery seems to be more my bag.  Here are a couple shot of the climb to the top of Alpe Galibier, the highest climb in the Tour of France.   I had a chance to climb that beast with a couple of friends from the bike club.   And, yeah, that's one of my friends way out in front of me.   Had a bad day.  But at least I salvaged it with a couple of spectacular photos.

Philly International Cycling Championship

It's going to warm up around here sooner or later.  Here are a few cycling photos to motivate summer warmth to come soon.

A group of us ride across our state (New Jersey) each June to join the crowds watching Philadelphia's big bike race.   The race runs down the Ben Franklin Parkway, past Rocky's Art Museum steps, and up the Schuylkill River to the hill at Manyunk ... the Wall.   Then it loops back down and pops up Lemon Hill before heading back up along the parkway in front of the art museum.   This is a photo of a small breakaway coming off of that last turn from Lemon Hill.

Manyunk is a party.   Crowds gather there to watch the tough climb, celebrate one of the first warm days of summer, drink beer, hose down the overheated cyclists, party, and drink more beer.     If you're looking for it, search on Google Maps for Levering Street and Lyceum Avenue in Manyunk.   We usually arrive there after a few laps of the race, so the crowds are already wall-to-wall and rowdy.   We watch from a midway spot on the wall.  We get there off of Main Street  by turning up Rector Street just south of the wall and following Tower Street to Lyceum.  To the left is a photo from that vantagepoint.


After watching a couple laps at the Manyunk Wall party, we'll  usually come down to Lemon Hill to watch a few more laps.  On the left is a photo of the smaller but equally fun viewing party on Lemon Hill.   This spot is just about a mile from the front steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum on the Ben Franklin Parkway.  (Click here for a map showing how to get there.)   After the last climb on Lemon Hill we'll scurry over to the jumbotron near the start/finish.   The photo on the right is from that spot ...  looking away from the Art Museum towards Logan Circle.   No, I wasn't laying in the middle of the road for this photo.  They narrow the roadway with barriers at this point, and I was standing behind those barricades.

Arizona

The Santa Fe Railway had the Hopi House built on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon in 1905 as a tourist destination adjacent to the luxorious El Tovar Hotel.  It was architected to resemble aspects of a Hopi dwelling and originally housed Hopi artisans at work.  Today it's just a shop with  artwork from the area and a few souvenirs.  One morning at sunrise I turned  away from the canyon rim to catch sunrise shadows on these windows of that shop.

But we wanted to learn more about real Hopi life and heritage.  So we stayed a couple of nights over at Second Mesa a couple hundred miles east of Grand Canyon Village.  Gary Tso of the Left-handed Hunter Tour company was our guide.   Photography in the villages is now prohibited, so I don't have any photos of a real Hopi house.  This photo to the left was taken of an abandoned shed from outside the hotel on Second Mesa.


We also stayed a night at the Moenkopi lodg.   It's a modern hotel that just opened on the Hopi land at the corner of the busy intersection of Hwys 264 & 160. The below photo was taken at sunrise behind the hotel just as Hwy 264 makes its last climb out of the valley housing the Hopi town of Moenkopi - with the fields at the north end of the town just barely showing up in this shot.

Below are the windows of the Hopi arts center on Second Mesa, just outside of the Hopi Cultural Center.  To be clear, the Cultural Center hotel is not within one of the Hopi Towns, so it was ok for me to take photos.

Photography is not normally permitted in Hopi villages.  But here's one book where the author was invited in to document their life and culture:  Hopi, by Jack Page.   It's a rare glimpse into the Hopi world.

Bridge Perspectives

While these bridges are some of the most heavily traveled in the world, these photos offer some less typical vantagepoints.  These may not be the best photos in the world, but they were fun to take.

The Ben Franklin Bridge spans the Delaware River between beautiful Camden, New Jersey and Philadelphia.    Built in 1926, the bridge now carries about 100,000 vehicles and 40,000 rail commuters each day.  The Camden Riversharks baseball stadium rests in the shadow of the bridge.  It's a fun ballpark with a kids' area that includes this merry-go-round.

An average of 190,000 vehicles per day cross this bridge across the New York Harbor.  The  Verrazano Narrows Bridge between Staten Island and Brooklyn was built in1964.   You get a peek of it at the top of this fall photo taken from the tip of the Gateway National Recreation area in Sandy Hook, NJ.    




To the right is a more traditional photo. It's taken from the bike path along San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.  Completed in 1937, it carries up to 160,000 vehicles a day.

Here's a bit of pseudo-math to give a perspective on how much traffic these bridges together carry - at around 450,000 vehicles per day.  At an average of 2 people per vehicle (not an unreasonable assumption), and adding in rail commuters who cross the Ben Franklin bridge, all together these carry something like 1 Million people per day or about 40,000 per hour if traffic were constantly running 24 hours each day.   To give a feeling for what this means, consider my local town, Freehold, which has a population of somewhere around 10,000.   So 40,000/hour means that every man-woman-and-child in Freehold would cross 4 times an hour, 24 hours a day.   I don't know why I felt compelled to estimate this, but there it is.....

Country Road - Fall Colors again

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It hit 70 degrees on Wednesday. According to the National Weather Service, the next time we'll see that will be in May. Yeah, May 2011. That's 6 months away.

For the longest time I was lucky to be able to commute to work by bike quite a bit, and it gave me a chance to 'see small'.  To see the little things that might look good inside of a camera. 

I had a flat tire one morning on Dutch Lane in Colts Neck.  I remember fixing it and then seeing the above scene across the road.   I figured it was fate to have the flat, because I wouldn't normally have given this driveway a second look.

A bit more abstract, but this was the road on a dark morning just after it had rained.  The white stripes are reflections of a light carried by the streaming water.




I was just about at the door one morning when I noticed the reflection from a puddle in the parking lot behind the building where I work.

Fog always has a way of making photos turn out well.  Just point and shoot, and just about every frame looks great.   Rumor has it that this is Springsteen's driveway.  Yeah, that Springsteen.  Here's an article I wrote about stalkng Bruce here at the Jersey Shore.