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here and there

Scenic shots taken everywhere, from sunup to sundown
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dsc_8950 swans at the Harlem mere on a fall afternoon
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dsc_8950 swans at the Harlem mere on a fall afternoon

scenicfallHarlem MeerbirdsswansCentral Parksld3

  • Day two found me again trying to get back to the town of Hamilton from the other side of the island but a-g-a-i-n, I left out too late and was loosing the race with the sun on another slow moving bus, a-g-a-i-n.<br /> <br /> Finally I hopped off the bus early in a vain attempt to discover a clear sight line of the bay from a more distant location, but as I walked all along the coast I lost my favorite linen camp shirt slung over my camera bag because of the heat, and had to back track over numerous locations to look for it. Miraculously I finally found it in the dim dusk light (God answers prayers), but of course it was now even later when I got back to the middle of town than the day before. And by this time that mini Luxury cruise ship the "Silver Cloud" had slipped back out to sea, leaving a very empty dull scene in it's place. Now on the plus side, this time I DID have my tripod with me and so I walked in a lazy meandering route to the supremely colorful City Hall building I saw yesterday evening.<br /> <br /> This edifice doubles as an art center and possibly for that reason it is lit up at night more colorfully than any other City Hall I can ever remember seeing, and with my tripod handy this time I could actually capture a picture of it. I set up on the front lawn at an angle that would take in as much of the building as possible without tilting the camera up, which would have made the building appear like it was falling over backwards. As I squeezed off a quick half dozen shots or so, I heard a lot of commotion behind me to my right. Several people were all talking at once wondering what I was doing with my fancy looking equipment. Evidently it was not common for people to take pictures of Bermuda's City Hall at night using a tripod. They need to start, it is truly worthy of it.<br /> <br /> After I finished shooting, I figured there may be yet better angles of this building which would provide for a more pleasing composition. So with plenty of time before the next ferry, I collapsed my tripod, camera still attached, and like photographers of old, laid my equipment over my shoulder and proceeded to search for this new "better spot". However every new angle and spot proved less attractive not more. Well at least the trip around the grounds was providing me with some good exorcise on this clear peaceful night. Finally I came around to the front of the grounds and saw a view angle that held great potential. I stopped there for a few minutes to ponder if I should try to get a very low angle near the closest fountain's edge, or use a more normal eye view angle instead. Doing this brought me to the attention of 3 men - two young and one MUCH older, all speaking back and forth to each other about numerous things, and several though not all of their topics of conversation seemed to be about affairs that bordered on the low brow side of life. But in order to get the best shot from this spot I would have to stand no greater than about 2 feet to their right, hardly what I considered proper social distance from a group of people you never met, especially when one of them had obviously been drinking himself half silly. But the shot was so good I just had to have it, and so I did set up shop right next to them.<br /> <br /> As you could guess I quickly became a topic of conversation, and rather than ignore them I enthusiastically engaged them in back and forth chit chat, even with the rather tipsy older man who told me how currently he was on the lam, having escaped from a Cuban prison! Of the many drunken tales he told me about his life this serene evening, that was one of the few I thought had half a chance of being true - and still, I continued shooting. Switching my exchange to the two younger, sober fellows, I told them I was from New York. Delighted they asked me what part? When I responded "Staten Island" I received the blank stares I fully expected to get. After talking to me some more their curiosity overwhelmed them and they asked me if they could please look in my viewfinder to see what I was trying to capture. Agreeing I switched the viewing mode to "live view" which made it easier for them to see. Duly impressed they thanked me and eventually moved on. Actually I rather enjoyed the whole experience meeting and chatting with them on this beautiful tropic evening. Ah yes, there's one more thing I got out of my little excursion around the grounds to the front of City Hall - I also captured my best shot of the entire cruise.
  • DSC_7673 Gibbs Lighthouse at sunrise
  • All this vacation I had been hoping to get a picture of a rich red sunrise against a stunning blue tropical sky. But each morning cloud cover torpedoed those hopes. With today being our last day in Bermuda it was now or never when I set up my tripod on our veranda by flashlight, an hour before sunrise (who brings a tripod on a tropical vacation? - someone who really really loves photography). But when I woke up about a half hour later and peeked out behind the curtains I could see the cloud cover was going to kill this sunrise too when it rose in another 20 minutes or so. <br /> <br /> Sitting down on one of our deck chairs after aiming my camera exactly where the sun came up yesterday, I took in the whole tranquil view. Being up so high on our ship from the water created an utter silence that was almost spiritual. Now all I could do was wait and hope this cloudy sunrise would turn out to be more photogenic than the other disappointing ones I recorded on this trip to this point. Man how that turned out to be the case. Mercy how that turned out to be the case.
  • DSC_7757 the rescue tug
  • DSC_8193 dockside at the visitors center
  • I loved this moon gate at the Par-La-Ville park in Bermuda
  • DSC_8171 ferryboat waiting to depart from Hamilton
  • Jersey City coast line at sunrise
  • DSC_8281 Erie Lakawana ferry terminal
  • DSC_8331 early morning Jersey coast along the Hudson
  • DSC_8349 early morning Jersey coast along the Hudson
  • These townhouses looked so picturesque by the waterside, made even more appealing by the sunrise and the fall colors.
  • DSC_8392 sailing down the Hudson at sunrise
  • The ride up the Hudson as we arrived back home in New York yielded some very nice fall scenes.
  • One of my favorite parts of Clove Lake to photograph in, and one of the best times of the year to do it.
  • The fall colors around Staten Island were a little hard to predict this year. Sometimes flat sometimes colorful. And so I held out small hope that here at the Harlem Mere it might lean to more colorful than less, though I doubted it. But since I wanted to scout out locations up here for future reference for that inevitable fall where the colors were spectacular everywhere, I made the trek up north on this cloudy day. But it turned out that my first guess was correct and the colors were indeed drab and flat here as well, so I went into my scouting mode camera in hand to view the world through as I walked. <br /> <br /> As I took the long trip around the mere pausing at different spots while my minds eye imagined beautiful scenes that were yet to be, I stopped at this location as well, and as I did I noticed that the drab 'deadishness' of this autumn scene actually had an interesting charm about it.
  • dsc_8950 swans at the Harlem mere on a fall afternoon
  • Coming back to the Harlem Mere later in the week, on a bright sunny day, I walked back to one of the spots I scouted out before when it was cloudy and overcast. This time shooting through the trees in the direction of the sunlight turned what was a flat scene with dull fall colors two days ago, into a far more vibrant one. Standing here under this fall canopy was just as peaceful as it appears in this shot.
  • dsc_9143 fall comes to the Harlem Mere
  • I carry a small laminated folding map of Central Park with me when I know I'm going to take pictures there. On the map the sections of twisting roads running in and around the little lake in a location known as "The Ramble", looked like a great place to go to get some nice fall shots. It did not disappoint.
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