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here and there

Scenic shots taken everywhere, from sunup to sundown
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DSC_0020 winter scene at Snug Harbor
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DSC_0020 winter scene at Snug Harbor

waterfallsSnug HarborwinterscenicStaten Islandsld1bridgesfoot bridgessnow

  • DSC_0009 winter scene at Snug Harbor
  • DSC_0020 winter scene at Snug Harbor
  • Today on this chilly winter morning when I woke up and looked out my bedroom window, I was happy to be off from work, even if I had to shovel yet AGAIN on what seemed like the hundredth snowstorm of the season. (Honestly can anyone in New York even remember what the bare ground looked like before Christmas?)<br /> <br /> Besides not having to work, another thing I was looking forward to was going to meet my friends Michael and Ron for the movies early this evening, but first with a fresh blanket of snow on the ground I wanted to go to Snug Harbor and capture some pictures before the days stampede of foot prints cluttered up my potential scenes. Not wanting my very own footprints to ruin my own shot, I took the rather looong route around the entire Healing Gardens, after leaving the Chinese Gardens (which you can spot off in the distance barely to the left of the bridge), so I could come up from behind on this scene. But alas I was too late as the snow across the bridge and its' path had already been trampled by many a man and dog. But my healthy walk in the brisk fresh air wasn't all for naught, as even if the view I coveted was lost, that still that didn't mean I couldn't try an alternate view.
  • The day before on Monday, I spent time with my best friend Scott for the first time in well over 6 months, as we went to the movies and caught up. The following evening I would bring mom dinner at the nursing home and discovered that the Coumadin the doctors gave her to break up the blood clot in her leg last week, finally started to have a deleterious effect on her strength and lucidity. From that point on I never had the time to spend any full day photographing. But in between those two events I got up at 3 am and caught the train out to the other end of the island then hiked the mile or so to Wolfe's pond where the predicted moderately foggy conditions would create a sunrise that I had been longing to capture for almost 3 years.
  • Wolfe's pond
  • If you've taken on the arduous task of reading the many commentary's I've attached to my photo's you'll remember that I've mentioned more than once how every photograph captures a unique moment in time, filled with so many variables that you can never hope to come back to the same spot another year month or day and hope to record the exact same shot, if you failed for some reason to do so the first time. Life on earth is tremendously dynamic, and provides we photographers with endless ways and options to capture it's amazing images.<br /> <br /> Look how much difference just five to ten minuets between these three shots changed the way I decided to capture this scene. The colors here aren't much different from what you would have seen with the naked eye.
  • DSC_3341 foggy sunsrise at Wolfe's pond
  • Though I finally had a moment to pause and catch my breath after we buried mom yesterday, my days would still be filled with much of mom's affairs to take care of before my routine could return to normal - and the house, oh how many things fell into disrepair during mom's illness. My Uncle helped me take care of several of the home repairs while he and my brother stayed at my place for mom's funeral, but so much more needed immediate attention, and my friend and neighbor Gill promised to help me with them, but for now - at this moment, I put all those thoughts on hold and just looked out at the sea spread out before me as the ferry made it's way across the bay at dusk. I had just come back from the funeral home uptown with mom's death certificates, so I could fill out the different paper works that needed to be attended to now that she was gone.<br /> <br /> As my uncle prepared to get on the bus that would take him away from Staten Island on his journey back to Michigan, he said to me that I was going to have a whole new life from now on. I knew exactly what he meant, as for the last 10 or 15 years, no small amount of days after getting out of work, found me scouring around Manhattan looking to pick up something for mom she was in short supply of. Or buying her a surprise snack or meal to break up the monotony of nursing home food, or running home to make her a meal from scratch and bringing it to her for dinner. Now being able to go straight home and not visit or call her to check up and see that she was alright, would give me back time I forgot I ever had. But now that mom had joined dad in eternal slumber, and Uncle had left yesterday evening and my brother this morning for his flight back to Southern California, instead of looking forward to that whole new life, all I saw was a life with a giant hole in it. Thoughts like those had gone threw my head all day and now here again as I stopped snapping pictures for a short while and reflected. As I looked out at the slowly darkening sky, despite the emptiness growing inside me, I gazed at the setting sun and admired it's stunning beauty, as if it was a reminder from Heaven that our little planet would never be forgotten by the King of kings.<br /> <br /> In that moment I felt mom and dad living on inside of me in everything they taught Clifford and I while they were alive, and everything we did for the rest of our lives would be how they would leave their mark on this earth long after they were gone. Now as I saw Ellis Island coming up in perfect position for framing I also remembered that I was a photographer, and that my camera was still in my hands by my side, with an evening sky as beautiful as one could hope for. And so months later when things were finally getting back to semi normalcy, I got around to editing some of the shots I captured since mom passed away and came upon the ones I shot on this day. I chose to edit this scene in particular as a way to honor mom and dad and remind me of how incredibly proud Harold and Sarah Burton forever were of the photographer their number two son turned out to be.
  • DSC_5318 sunset sailing
  • DSC_5342 sunset traffic on the bay
  • It was 8:30 at night and I was heading home after a half days shooting in Central Park. Passing near this spot slowed my pace to a crawl, but without a tripod I knew there was no chance to do this scene justice. I will come here next spring equipped with that missing tripod, but one thing I know when it comes to taking pictures, you can never count on finding everything just the way you left it the last time conditions were the same.
  • Robbins reef lighthouse
  • I spent the afternoon on this day off from work at the Bronx zoo, a place of which I've been a member for over 25 years. However since moving to Staten Island over 20 years ago I hadn't visited it in all that time until last summer. I discovered that much is the same and familiar, though even more has changed and improved, and a bit I'd forgotten. While I was here I wanted to capture some of the improved or forgotten on film.<br /> <br /> Heading my way to the aquatic bird house after visiting the Butterfly Gardens, I made a right turn upon reaching the Dancing Crane cafe. Looking up ahead at the road before me, I saw the Zoo Center building, and liked the view. So I camped out for a few minutes to take some shots, waiting for a nice grouping of visitors that would compliment the scene. I didn't want too many people nor too few. And it would be nice if they were spread out well from foreground to background. And like the saying goes - if you know what your looking for your more app to recognize it when you find it.
  • dsc_7406 summertime scene at the Mere
  • Gapstow, wow
  • dsc_8240 waiting for the fireworks
  • dsc_8271 waiting around for the fireworks
  • dsc_8295 waiting around for the fireworks
  • dsc_8350 fireworks 2011
  • dsc_8334 fireworks 2011
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