Photos by Tom Bushey

Top 10 photos of 2011

2012-01-08T00:19:00.002-05:00

2011 Top 10 POY - Images by Tom Bushey

Chasing the moon

2011-12-15T13:03:00.000-05:00

My plan was to find a good location to shoot the full moon as it was setting, which is when the lunar eclipse would be starting. Although I've taken moon photos through my telescope, I usually like to include something that gives the photo a sense of place.My idea was to frame the photograph to include the High Point Monument in New Jersey. Here's an image to show what I had in mind:

I used a program called "The Photographer's Empheris" to figure out where I needed to be to get the moon and monument together. I found the right spot in the darkness but could not get the picture I had planned.

My first problem was that the lights were not shining at the monument, which made focusing on the monument difficult. My second problem was the clouds were obscuring the moon. By the time I got everything set up, the moon was slipping behind the mountain.

Then I drove to another location with a better view of the western horizon: the scenic overlook off Interstate 84 above Port Jervis. I'd shot the moon from there before. But this time the valley was covered in fog, which I love to shoot. The lights of Port Jervis were even shining from beneath the fog.

Since the moon was still fairly far from the horizon, I drove to Port Jervis and then back east on 84 to shoot from the eastbound overlook, which is higher. Unfortunately there were clouds near the horizon that I did not see. Here's the moon just visible above the clouds:

By this time the sky was getting lighter, so I concentrated on the fog for a few photographs.

Look carefully and you can see the white base of the flagpole at Elks-Brox Park above Port Jervis. Here's a photograph I took from near the flagpole in October of 2006. You can see High Point Monument in the background, which brings us back to where we started, photographically.

Lightning in August

2011-08-15T22:57:00.002-04:00

With the stormy forecast for this week, I thought I'd post some photos of lightning from a thunderstorm earlier this month.

I noticed the flashes in the distance while driving home from the grocery store. The rain started falling while I was at my first location, the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Middletown, N.Y.

My next stop was on the outskirts of town to shoot lightning in the distance. Flashes were visible all across the horizon.

My final stop was the lake at Fancher-Davidge Park. I took a few photos there as the storm moved away.

Finally, here's a slideshow with a few additional photos. You can view very large versions of the pictures by clicking the icon on the lower right corner.

Lightning in August - Images by Tom Bushey

Sunday, foggy Sunday

2011-02-01T00:10:00.004-05:00

With another snowstorm on the way, here's a look back to January 2, 2011, when warm winter temperatures brought fog to the Hudson Valley. I took photographs of the fog over the Hudson River in Newburgh and New Windsor, and by the Moodna Viaduct railroad trestle in Salisbury Mills.

Sunday, foggy Sunday - Images by Tom Bushey

The fog was so thick when I arrived at the viaduct that I could not see the field across the road from the parking area. By the time I left, the fog was gone.

Moonrise over the Moodna Viaduct

2010-11-21T23:44:00.001-05:00

The Moodna Viaduct in Salisbury Mills is one of my favorite locations to take pictures. Of course there's the tall railroad trestle, but there are also hiking trails nearby on Schunnemunk Mountain, the highest mountain in Orange County, N.Y.
Late Saturday afternoon I planned to do a short hike and then shoot the moon rising behind the viaduct. I took a different trail than I usually do and found a clearing with a nice view to the east, where I took the photograph below.

The houses in the foreground are in the shadow of the mountain. That's Storm King Mountain in the background at right. And the Hudson Highlands on the east side of the Hudson River are in the background at left.

The trail continued around the bottom of the mountain instead of climbing upward, so I decided to head back to the viaduct. When I got to the clearing again, I noticed the moon in the sky.

After that I started walking faster back to the trestle. Once I got to the field, I started taking pictures and regretting that I had left my tripod in the car.

After trying different angles and lenses, I made my back to the car and set up my tripod for more shots, like this one from the parking area.

As the moon rose higher, I walked by into the field to try different angles. The photograph below is a composite of two images, one exposed for the moon and a second, longer exposure for the rest of the scene.

I waited at this spot for a while, hoping for a train to pass on the trestle. After I gave up and started walking back to my car, the train appeared. I just had time to put my tripod down and take a shot with the wide angle lens on my camera.

Here's a slideshow of these and other photographs I've taken of the viaduct. Clicking on the square next to the "SHARE" button gives you a fullscreen view.

Moodna Viaduct - Images by Tom Bushey

Long distance lightning and stars, oh my

2010-07-20T11:29:00.001-04:00

Last Saturday night I shot fireworks, again. But I liked the unexpected photographs I took while driving home from the display better.
After the fireworks I stopped at a grocery store. On my short trip home, the sky above was clear, but I noticed flashes of light in the west. My destination changed to a spot in a new subdivision with a clear view of the western horizon. The frozen meals and cold beverage in my grocery bags could wait.

Lightning was illuminated clouds low on the horizon. And the best part for me was that stars were visible higher in the sky. I had never captured a scene with lightning and stars before. Here' another photo with more stars.

The lightning was appearing all across the horizon. To get better pictures, I decided to drive further west and made two stops at the Bashakill Wildlife Management Area. The first spot, at a boat launch, was so dark I had trouble focusing the camera. And I left my glasses at the fireworks.

At the second spot there were lights in the distance to help with focus, and I got some good shots.

The lightning is smaller in the frame because I used a wide angle lens. The red streak and light comes from a fisherman casting his illuminated bobber.

The lightning still seemed pretty far away, so I headed west again, this time to the overlook on Route 52 above Ellenville. Someone else was already there taking photographs when I arrived. The following picture is looking northwest over Ellenville.

The final photo is looking directly west. The storm was actually in Delaware County.

Here's a slideshow of lightning images with some fireworks shots at the end.

Lightning and fireworks - Images by Tom Bushey

My excellent fireworks adventure

2010-07-12T23:32:00.001-04:00

My plan was to take pictures of the July 4th fireworks in Newburgh, New York, from the top of Mount Beacon. My plan didn't work.
I did hike to near the top of Mount Beacon, and I will do that hike again. But the trail was much steeper than I expected. Walking down that trail in the dark did not seem like a good idea.
Here's a picture of part of the trail and the view looking north from near the top:

The Mid-Hudson Bridge in Poughkeepsie is barely visible in the right photo.
After walking back down the mountain, and seeing a wonderful sunset in spots along the way, I decided to shoot the fireworks from the Beacon waterfront.
The sky and the water were beautiful even before the fireworks started. You can see the planet Venus in the clouds on the left side of the picture.

I must have bumped by tripod on the following picture, as you can see from the bright light at left, but I also captured a surprise in the frame.

Here's a slideshow of images from before, during and after the fireworks display. You can view the images larger by clicking on the icon under the bottom right corner of the photographs.

2010 Newburgh fireworks - Images by Tom Bushey

3 Days at the Fair races (running for 48 hours)

2010-05-23T11:20:00.002-04:00

I have photographed, and run in, many road races. The 3 Days at the Fair races were different. Some runners started at 9 a.m. on Friday May 14 and finished at 9 a.m. on Sunday, May 16.

Runners competed in races of 48, 24, 12 and six hours on a course at the Sussex County Fairgrounds in Augusta, N.J. I took the photograph of 24-hour competitor David Castellani on Saturday night.

Here's another shot from Saturday night of Tatsunori Suzuki and Scott Brockmeier running. Brockmeier won the men's 48-hour race. Suzuki finished third in the men's 24-hour race.

The following photo looks to me like a view into the mind of an ultra-distance runner. It's really a long exposure with fireworks in the background and the runner lit by a flash from my camera.

Here's a gallery of more images. Next year I plan to photograph the race again. I want to get there more than twice, and be there for a sunset and a sunrise.

3 Days at the Fair races - Images by Tom Bushey

What a winter

2010-01-13T19:53:00.000-05:00

As the Beatles song goes: "It's been a long, cold snowy winter." And we've got a lot of winter left.
I like the cold and snow, and I enjoying being outside in the winter and taking photographs, like the one above this post.

Perhaps I like the snow because I went to college in Central New York, where it seemed to snow almost every day during the long winter season. Of course back then I didn't have to drive in the snow.

I took the following photo while laying in the snow to get a low angle and shoot under the ice.

The picture was taken on a cold afternoon in a wetland area of Goose Pond Mountain State Park in Chester. The only reason I could get to this spot was that most of the wetland was frozen.

Here's a slideshow of images:

Jan. 2010 winter scenes - Images by Tom Bushey

Soccer celebration

2009-11-10T23:14:00.000-05:00

The World Series is over, and of course the best team won. But in high school sports, the fall championship season still has a few weeks left.

Last Saturday I photographed the Section 1 Class AA boys' soccer championship game between Horace Greeley and Arlington. Both teams brought plenty of fans to the game, which was played at Arlington High School.

The game was tied until Arlington's Rob Steven's scored in the second overtime period and set off a wild celebration. Take a look at the emotion in the photos.

Arlington wins - Images by Tom Bushey

More hang gliders above Ellenville, N.Y.

2009-11-03T11:26:00.004-05:00

I figured a good way to get back to blogging would be to start where I left off, with hang gliding photographs. Only this time the background has gone from green trees to browns and yellows.

I shot theses photos on a weekend, and there were at least 20 people watching the hang gliders and paragliders from the parking areas on Route 52 above Ellenville. I was hoping to shoot down on some of the gliders when there were landing, but most of them continued soaring high above me the entire time I was there.

Since I already had tight shots of hang gliders, I tried to get groups or hang gliders with something else in the frame, like a glider or a bird.

Here's a slideshow of some of the photos:

Hang gliders above Ellenville II - Images by Tom Bushey

Hang gliders above Ellenville, N.Y.

2009-06-21T14:36:00.008-04:00

The Shawangunk Ridge above Ellenville is a prime spot for hang gliding. The scenic overlook off Route 52 above Ellenville is a prime spot for photographing hang gliders. You can shoot hang gliders in the sky above and then below, and in the photo below, when they get ready to land.

These photos were taken on a Saturday evening. The sky was full of hang gliders and paragliders.

Here's a closer shot of two paragliders.:

The hang gliders and paragliders land at Ellenville Flight Park. Sometimes you can also see gliders that take off from Wurtsboro Airport.

Here's a slide show of the photos. To watch the show in full-screen mode, click the second icon from the right on the bottom.

Hang gliders above Ellenville - Images by Tom Bushey

High Point monument at night

2009-04-19T21:30:00.004-04:00

I took the following photo during a Moonrise Hike at High Point State Park in Sussex, N.J. The monument marks the highest spot in New Jersey.

I carried my tripod as we hiked along the Appalachian Trail to get to an observation post with a good view of the eastern horizon. The moon was hard to see at first because of clouds. I did get this photo, but it's hard to see much besides the moon.

The park also has its own blog: http://www.highpointpark.blogspot.com/

The monument makes a great foreground element to include in photos of the sky. I'm going to try to get back there a few times over the summer.

Eyes on the prize

2009-04-07T14:26:00.005-04:00

Sometimes interesting photographs appear right in your (or my) own home. This kitten jumped up on a counter in the kitchen to get a good look at the fish. There's a strainer of the top of the tank to keep the cats out.

Here's another cat photo, this time from the dining room. The cat likes to hang out in this basket. I just added a white foamcore board to the background.

Evening snowstorm

2009-01-07T10:28:00.005-05:00

Here are some photographs from a snowstorm on Dec. 19, 2008. I like winter weather and the pictures the weather produces.

These photographs were taken on Highland Avenue in Middletown, N.Y., two blocks from my house.

Here's a slideshow of more photographs from the storm:

December ice storm

2008-12-17T22:10:00.004-05:00

Winter has not officially started yet, but we've already had some interesting weather in the Hudson Valley. The higher elevations of Orange County, N.Y., were coated in ice from a storm last week. Here's a slideshow of some photographs I took on Saturday.

We had more ice this morning. Schools were cancelled. And significant snow is forecast for Friday. I can't wait.

Putting the elements together

2008-12-15T20:17:00.003-05:00

I've been trying to get a photograph of the moon over the Middletown skyline for years. December's full moon was the largest and brightest of 2008, because the moon was at its closest to the earth. The moonrise at about 4:30 p.m. was hidden by clouds (and I was out of Middletown on an assignment), so I shot the moon setting.

The idea is to shoot the moon when it's near the horizon, and to have something interesting on the horizon. This location in Middletown has interesting church steeples.

My problem was that from my prime location, the moon was too far to the left of the steeples. To get the shot above, I walked around and ended up shooting between two buildings. The moon would have looked larger closer to the horizon, but the lower the moon got the brighter the sky got, which make the moon harder to see.

This is where I wanted to shoot from:

Moon, Jupiter and Venus

2008-12-01T23:00:00.004-05:00

I struggled with clouds and logistics while taking some pictures of the crescent moon, Jupiter and Venus. This first photo show the three objects (Venus is at center) and some clouds, which were a problem early in the evening.

That photo could have been taken anywhere, so what I like to do is include some element in the foreground that adds to the photo. Tonight I was hoping to find a house on a hill decorated with Christmas lights. That never happened. But I did find a stretch of road that led to the conjunction.

The exposure of the first photo was 1/30 at f4.0 at ISO 800. The shutter speed for the second photo was 2 seconds (at the same aperature and ISO), so the foreground would not be black. That's why you can see the "dark" side of the moon lit by earthshine.

After more driving around, often with a car right behind me, I found a perfect location. The only problem was that Venus had just slipped below the horizon. But I'm going to try this spot again. The monument is at High Point, N.J., which is actually the highest point (1,803 feet) in the Garden State.

Here's a photo of a similar grouping from 2005:

And here's another from 2004, when the grouping was more spread out:

Ring Around the Moon

2008-11-24T22:00:00.006-05:00

"Ring Around the Moon" is the name of a Dan Fogelberg song and also the subject of some photographs I took on an October evening.

In order to show the ring, the moon ends up being very overexposed. That's why I used the trees to partially block the moon.

The ring around the Moon is caused by the refraction of moonlight through ice crystals suspended in the upper atmosphere. A moon ring or moon halo will always be roughly the same size - 22-degrees across the sky - because the crystals bend the light at a 22-degree angle from their original path.

In the photo below, the condensation trail from a jet is cutting across the halo. The contrail actually moved quickly across the sky.

Here's another photo that includes a basketball hoop. The backboard was lit from lights on a school playground.

Sunday night lights

2008-09-21T21:44:00.002-04:00

I shot the photo below after an Orange County Youth Football League game in Otisville, N.Y., on a Sunday night.

The sky didn't look that dramatic at the field, but I stopped on my way home when I saw this view. I only got a few frames off before the lights were turned off. I was glad I had a tripod in the car. The exposure was 0.4 seconds at f2.8 at 800.

Here's what it looked like with the field lights off.

Chasing a blimp

2008-08-23T15:00:00.006-04:00

A few weeks ago the Metlife blimp Snoopy Two flew over my neighborhood in Middletown, N.Y. I thought the blimp might have been going to Stewart Airport in Newburgh, so I started driving in that direction.

But I didn't have to go that far. The blimp was going to land at Orange County Airport in Montgomery, and I was there to take photos. The picture below was taken when I went back to the airport at night. I didn't know the blimp would be lit from the inside.

This is the only frame I got with the runway lights on. At small airports the lights are off until a pilot turns the on from the cockpit when taking off or landing.

The ground crew does a lot of work to get the blimp secured to the mooring mast and then ready to take off again. I went back the next morning to shoot the preparation and takeoff.

Here's a link to a slideshow of some of the photos:
>http://pa.photoshelter.com/c/tombushey/gallery-slideshow/G0000vI_lK4QsEvE/?start=

Even more of the pictures are available on my web site at www.tombushey.com

Run 4 Downtown in Middletown, N.Y.

2008-08-17T15:21:00.005-04:00

I'm a runner, and I like taking photographs at races. Here are some pictures I took at the Run 4 Downtown in Middletown on Saturday morning. In this race, the women started 15 minutes before the men. Below is a shot of the women on the starting line on North Street.

I like the next photo, of the men's start, because of the man looking on from the second-story window.

The final picture shows runners looking at the results posted in a window. I'm going to put many more photos of the race on my web site www.tombushey.com soon.

Chasing rainbows

2008-08-12T08:25:00.004-04:00

I spent some time chasing rainbows in Middletown, Montgomery and Hamptonburgh a few weeks ago. Here are some of the photographs.

The photo above was taken at my favorite rainbow and lightning spot in Middletown, N.Y. The following three pictures are from Pleasant View Farm in Montgomery, N.Y., about 25 minutes away.

The final picture was taken at Stony Ford Golf Course in Hamptonburgh, N.Y. I was hoping to find some golfers on the course, or at least a flag on the green. About 10 minutes later, as the rainbow started to fade, there was lightning in the distance. That would have made a nice picture.

Dark and stormy night

2008-07-25T11:39:00.004-04:00

The hot and humid weather we've been having finally ended with thunderstorms. I tried to get some lightning shots but had no luck. Then I saw the fog forming and moved to a different location.

I've taken shots from this same spot looking in the other direction.

Fireworks from above

2008-07-22T12:21:00.004-04:00

This is the second time I've shot the fireworks in Central Valley, N.Y., from the Route 6 overlook. The photograph at left was taken before the show started, but you can see a small burst of distant fireworks in the lower center above the shopping center lights.

I was hoping to get the moon with the main fireworks, but that was not possible from my location. I was also hoping to get some lightning in the distance, but the weather did not cooperate.

Wurtsboro airport

2008-06-05T21:59:00.004-04:00

Here are two photographs I liked from the grand reopening of Wurtsboro Airport on May 8. The first shows a radio controlled airplane in the foreground and real planes in the background.

The body language of the instructor makes the second picture. The airport is located on Route 209 in Wurtsboro. To see a slideshow of more photographs of the airport, click here.

Moon and stars, and stripes

2008-05-28T08:28:00.007-04:00

Here's a different sort of Memorial Day photograph.

The large flag was hanging from the ladders of two fire trucks on Highland Avenue in Middletown. The Memorial Day parade was to pass underneath the flag. Because of the wind, the flag was rarely hanging straight down. That made for interesting photographs.

Luckily I noticed the moon in the morning sky. Then I took pictures as the wind moved the flag into different positions in my frame.

Here's a shot of the flag with the ladders:

Birds of a feather

2008-04-22T22:59:00.005-04:00

Last week I shot photographs of similar birds perched on different objects. I believe both birds are sparrows.

Both pictures were taken early in the morning. The forsythia is on the side of my house. The fence is right down the street.

There's also an iron fence on the block. I've seen birds perched there too, so I'm going to try to add that picture next.

Good start to spring

2008-04-13T12:31:00.003-04:00

When the first thunderstorms of the spring came on April 1, I was ready. I found a good location, facing west with something interesting in the foreground, and waited. But I struck out; no lightning in my frames and then the rains came.

So then I moved to my second location, where I should have gone from the start. The spot faces east and has shelter from the rain. That's where I got this shot.

I have an idea for another location, with water to reflect the lightning, that I want to try later in the spring.

Fish in a barrel

2008-04-01T18:45:00.007-04:00

After I saw a photograph from the final day of skiing at Mount Peter in Warwick a few years ago, I just had to go to their Spring Rally. Last year I came late and missed the main event. Not this year.

Snowboarders and skiers, including some like the one above in costumes, built up speed coming down the hill and then crossed the water. Most actually made it all the way across.

The two fellows above did not make it across the water. But they did not get hurt either. The event was perfect for photos: the same action in the same spot over and over. That's why it was like shooting fish in a barrel.

Here's a slide show of all the photographs:

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Being prepared

2008-03-22T10:03:00.002-04:00

I took pictures at three Winter Series races in January and February. This photo was taken at the third race. I was searching for a good background to shoot the start when a young runner warming up ran past me. Luckily I was ready with my wide angle lens on the camera.

Lunar Eclipse

2008-02-25T11:18:00.008-05:00

The clouds cleared just in time for me to photograph the total lunar eclipse on Feb. 20, 2008. Here is a photograph of the full moon still behind some clouds.

I would have liked to include something in the foreground to show where the photograph was taken, but the moon was too high in the sky for that during the eclipse. My location was at my home in Middletown, N.Y.
Here is a shot of the moon during totality.

I took this photograph through my telescope at prime focus (the camera was connected directly to the telescope - no camera lens was used).
I also took some shots using a wide angle zoom lens and telephoto zoom lens to show the stars that appeared during the eclipse.

This photo clearly shows Regulus above the moon and Saturn at the lower left of the frame.

Big Dipper over the Bashakill

2008-02-15T11:37:00.005-05:00

The Big Dipper constellation is visible on the left side of the photograph, with the last star in the handle shining through the trees. I took the picture on Haven Road, which cuts across the Bashakill. Headlights from cars on Route 17 are reflected in the ice.

The lights from an airplane made the line low in the sky during the 15-second exposure.

Click on the photograph to see larger version.

Being there

2008-01-31T23:51:00.000-05:00

I drove about an hour to Livingston Manor on Sunday for their ice festival. I knew there would be figure skaters and races. I didn't know there would be a young boy wearing an Army uniform skating with an American flag in a tribute to his father, a major stationed in Iraq.

Sometimes the photograph just happens right in front of you.

Time machine

2008-01-06T14:46:00.001-05:00

Although we're six days into 2008, I still have a backlog of 2007 photographs to post. Here they are. You can click on the photos to see a larger version.

Be prepared. I always try to keep my camera with me in the car. On this cloudy November late afternoon I was not expecting to take photographs. But as I was driving, I noticed a thin band of clear sky on the Western horizon. By the time I got near my destination, the rainbow was in the sky.
I would have liked a more picturesque location, but I was still happy to get a rainbow photograph in November. And the sun came out so close to sunset that I didn't have time to drive anywhere else.

This photograph above is of the same shopping mall; this time I took the picture from across a highway after the sun had set. The streaks are car lights from the highway during the long exposure.

The following photograph was taken at Randall Airport in Middletown, N.Y. I have never seen all the landing lights on before or since. Too bad I wasn't there a bit earlier to get the rising moon lower in the frame. The moon also would not have been so bright. I could not get detail in the moon without severely underexposing the rest of the photo.

2007-11-14T07:23:00.000-05:00

I recently bought a spotlight to do some light painting. Here are two photographs from my first night out with the light. In the first, my spotlight lit the island in the middle of the lake.

In this photo I lit the soccer goal. I found out by trial and error that the effect works best if the object is lit from the side. It's kind of like getting the flash off the top of the camera. I put the camera on timer and then ran to a spot where the light hitting the goal would be from an angle. This would be a good setting to photograph a soccer all-star.

A lucky mistake

2007-11-04T08:54:00.000-05:00

This photograph is the result of a happy accident. I set up two flashes on the ground in front of my house to take photographs of my daughters on Halloween. I was having trouble getting the flash on the left to fire. It did not fire in this frame.

Louie the kitten just happened to sit by the pumpkins for a few seconds. Too bad Louie is not a black cat.

Both flashes fired in this photograph of one of my neighbors.

A kind of success

2007-10-28T11:41:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned in my first post, I've been trying to get a shot with a plane crossing in front of the moon for a long time. When I shot this picture, however, I was looking for a photograph of the moon and colorful fall leaves.

There's a connection between the plane and the glider (in a large image you can actually see the tow line), just as there is a connection between the earth and the moon (think tides).

This is a cropped shot of the glider passing in front of the moon.

By the way, I just noticed that I've been publishing this blog for one year. Happy blog birthday to me.

moon and clouds

2007-10-20T21:42:00.000-04:00

I was trying to take photographs of the crescent moon with earthshine through my telescope, but the moon disappeared behind a cloud bank. I took this picture when the moon peeked out for a minute.

I like the pink clouds lit by the setting sun. My exposure was 1/320th at f6.

This second photo was taken a little while later. There is still some light in the sky, but not on the clouds. This photo was taken at 1/160th. By the way, if you ever want to find out the times of moonrise and moonset (or sunrise and sunset) for your location, check out the U.S. Naval Observatory site: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneDay.php

Right after taking the first photo, I aimed the telescope at a jet plane with its contrail lit by the setting sun.

Now if I had the moon and plane in the same frame, that would be a good picture. I'm still trying for that photograph.

Night moves

2007-10-02T07:00:00.000-04:00

There's a lot of movement in this photograph, if you look carefully.

The picture was taken at 1:16 a.m. The exposure was 30 seconds at f5. The long exposure allowed the moonlight to illuminate the grass and clouds. The moving clouds were blurred in the long exposure, as were the leaves on the top of the tree at right.

The long exposure and the rotation of the earth also caused the stars to trail; they are elongated instead of being points. An even longer exposure would leave longer streaks or trails as the stars moved across the sky.

The constellation Orion is visible at the top of the frame. Orion is a winter constellation that can be seen late at night (or early in the morning) in the fall. The reason I was out taking pictures was that I received an email that auroras might be visible in mid- to low-latitudes. I did not see any.

Another lightning photo

2007-08-31T13:42:00.000-04:00

I did some storm chasing last night. The clouds to the northeast were lighting up, and I could even here some thunder, so I drove in that direction. Unfortunately, after driving for 20 minutes, I did not see any lightning bolts.
Then lightning appeared to the south. I drove to a golf course on a hill and took the photograph above.

The golf course green was lit by a bright light on the clubhouse. Too bad they took the flags out of the pins.

That frame was one of three with lightning bolts. But I missed the more impressive shots with lightning over much more of the sky. I guess timing is everything.
My exposures ranged from 15 to 30 seconds. The storm never got any closer. But there are still a few weeks of summer left.

Shadow in the sky

2007-08-12T14:43:00.000-04:00

The sky can add drama and interest to a photo. Or the sky can be the subject of the photo, as in this picture I took last month.

The contrail, or condensation trail, from a jet is casting a shadow on the clouds in the background. Here's a vertical version:

I always try to keep an eye on the sky, especially in the early morning or at twilight. I saw the contrail and shadow while on my way to a convenience store to get milk.

It's all about the lightning

2007-06-29T11:59:00.000-04:00

I like lightning photographs. Whenever storms are approaching, I check www.weather.com to see whether they will hit Middletown, N.Y. I have a one favorite location I try to get to before the storms hit. There's a nice view of some church steeples to the west (where the storms usuually come from), and I try to get dramatic bolts of lightning in the background.

A few weeks ago I went to this spot, but before I could get any photos, heavy rain started falling. I have other spots where I get a good view of the eastern horizon. I head there to get the storms moving away from Middletown.

So I drove to a spot facing east that has power lines in the foreground. Because the rain was still falling pretty heavily, I wedged my tripod next to me in the front seat of the car. I took more than 100 long exposure photographs. The only one with lightning was blurred. I must have moved the tripod.

This is a photo without lightning that I thought was interesting anyway. I believe the lights are from a passing ambulance. Most of my pictures only had streaks from headlights and brake lights at the bottom of the frame.

A few days ago, another line of storms rolled through and I went back to the same spot. This time I set up my tripod outside the car despite the rain. I took about another 100 pictures. This was one of two with lightning.

This photograph was a 2.5-second exposure because it was still twilight. The other picture, taken at night, was a 25-second exposure.

Here is a screenshot showing some of the frames without lightning.

It's all about the light

2007-06-10T21:11:00.000-04:00

Last week I took photographs at my daughter's elementary school chorus concert. The concert was held in an auditorium, but for some reason the children were on risers in front of the stage instead of on the stage.

That didn't affect the sound of the concert, but did affect the light falling on the singers. The children were mainly lit by two sets of lights on the sides of the stage. So the light was not as bright as normal stage lighting, and there were more harsh shadows visible from the middle of the auditorium.

In the following photograph taken from in front of the stage, you can see some of the shadows. The paper plate are causing some, but not all, of the shadows.

When I moved to a different angle, the light was much more dramatic. Some of the photos were blurred because I had to use a slow shutter speed (ranging from 1/125th. to 1/40th of a second). Some of the photos, like this one, I really liked. I think the boy looking up is checking out the circle of changing colored lights on the ceiling of the auditorium.

Road race finish line

2007-06-05T13:51:00.000-04:00

I took pictures at a 5K road race near my home last weekend. I used my new mountain bike to get runners at the start, near the 2-mile mark and at the finish line.

One of the best pictures came near the finish line. But the photograph is about spectators, not runners.

Sometimes it pays to turn around and see what is happening behind you. Sometimes reaction photos are better than action photos.

Stars over Schunnemunk Mountain

2007-02-25T20:53:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite spots to take photographs is in Salisbury Mills by the Moodna Viaduct, which is a tall railroad bridge over the Moodna Creek. I've photographed there at night before, but not in the winter.

My idea was to get a snowy field in the foreground, the trestle and then a starry sky in the background. But some of the snow had melted, I was having trouble focusing on the trestle and the sky in that direction was spoiled by light pollution.

That's why I took this photograph over the mountain. This was the only frame I had with a car driving by on Otterkill Road. I was using the 10-second self-timer so I would not shake the camera at the start of the 15-second exposure. For this frame I just tried to push the shutter gently and get the car in the picture.

2007-01-27T12:31:00.000-05:00

It was a cold and windy twilight. But I still wanted to get a photograph of the crescent moon and Venus in the western sky. I knew the pair would be close together because I got an email alert from Spaceweather.com.
I went out just after sunset but had trouble finding the moon. As it got darker, the moon and Venus were easy to see. Then I just had to find something interesting to put in the foreground of my photograph. I tried a church steeple before finding a view of Maple Hill Elementary School.

Then I took some closeup photographs with a telephoto lens. Some were blurred because of the gusts of wind. The exposure was 1.3 seconds at f/4 with a 300mm lens.

Venus is at the lower right, the star Deneb Algedi is at the upper left, and Nashira is between the Moon and Venus.

Christmas kitty

2007-01-05T09:53:00.000-05:00

I was taking pictures of my children opening presents on Christmas morning when I heard a noise behind me. It was not Santa scurrying up the chimney but Louie sneaking up the bannister to play with the decorations. I used a slow shutter speed and a Vivitar 285 flash on my Canon 20D. Then I went back to taking more photos of my children.

cross country meet

2006-11-22T08:06:00.000-05:00

I started taking sports photographs in high school and never stoppped. I've shot NFL games and college games along the way, but I still like taking pictures at high school events. The access is great. Most of the time I can shoot from whereever I want.

I even like taking pictures at cross country meets, which some photographers find boring. After all, it's just runners running. But you can be very creative at the meets by using different backgrounds, different parts of the course, different lenses and different shutter speeds.

The New York state cross country championship meet was held in Warwick, which is about 30 minutes from my home in Middletown. I got to shoot 10 races, which gave me the opporunity to try things a few times until I got the photo I wanted.

I shot the start of three or four races before getting this photo.

First I tried shooting from ground level. Then I noticed a tall ladder by the finish line. I set my shutter speed to 1/40 and braced the camera on top of the ladder. I have my shot line up perfectly, and then a silver van stopped on the road behind the starter. That ruined the photo for me.

So I waited one more race and got the picture I wanted.

Another work in progress

2006-11-07T11:26:00.000-05:00

We have lots of squirrels around our house in Middletown, N.Y. Every once in a while I see one jumping from our fence to the roof of our garage. My idea, as a photographer who loves to shoot sports, was to get a peak action shot of the animal in the air.

Unfortunately, as soon as the squirrel would see me, it would take flight before I could take the photograph. I even tried set up in the yard and then have one of my children go around the house and herd the squirrel in the right direction.

This photo is close, but not exactly what I was looking for. It's a cropped version of a horizontal photo.

The moral of this story: if you see something interesting but don't get the photo, just be patient. Wait for the moment to happen again.

Close, but no cigar

2006-10-23T18:55:00.000-04:00

For months I've been trying to get a photograph of a jet, or any kind of plane, passing in front of the moon. I know it's been done before: check out this photo.

My best attempt so far was a near miss in August. I used a Digital Rebel and shot through my 1 00mm Orion refractor telescope .

I was too early and then too late. I've tried again since then, but have not seen an aircraft cross the moon. Maybe I should shoot near an airport instead of in front of my house.

Vacation photos

2006-10-15T20:30:00.000-04:00

I've been on vacation the past week, and I've been taking lots of photos: photos at night, photos at dawn, and lots of fall folliage photos.
For months I've been wanting to get a photograph of a moonlight canal boat ride on the D&H Canal in Cuddebackville. Saturday night I did, sort of. The ride was over by the time I got there.

This picture was taken as people were leaving the boat for the night. I used a 25-second exposure with my Canon 20D. To light the boat and the trees on the left, I walked up to the boat and fired a flash: once at the boat and once at the trees.

I like the way the photo came out. But I think I dropped my compact flash card case that night in the dark. I went back early the next morning but could not find the case. I did decide to go to another location to take more photos.

I drove down Route 209 to Port Jervis and went to Point Peter, which overlooks the city. The fog from the Delaware and Neversink rivers was beautiful.

I'm going to try to get photos at another canal ride later this month. I might also try to get back to that spot above Port Jervis.

Welcome

2006-10-13T09:42:00.000-04:00

For the past 25 years I've been a photojournalist at the Times Herald-Record in Middletown, N.Y. Fairly recently I've started taking more photographs for myself. This blog will be a place to show some of those photographs and talk about how and why they were taken.

As a staff photographer, the pictures I take for the newspaper are owned by the newspaper. And designers at the newspaper decide how the photos will look in print. That's why I like taking my own photographs.