The USS Little Rock, the Buffalo Military and Naval Park, Buffalo, NY.
Scenes from the Snowy 716
It took a while: we recorded one of our latest initial snowfalls, if not the latest initial snowfall, ever. It didn’t actually snow until November 30, and then last weekend we had our first trademark lake-effect storm of the year. This one didn’t clobber us too badly where we live, which is kind of a change from recent years; we got maybe two feet plus some change. That sounds like a lot, but it fell over two days and really, given some of our recent experiences, two feet is pretty much toward the “inconvenience” end of the scale. (Areas to the south, called “Ski Country”, got the brunt of it this time, and honestly? Good.) And as I write this, we’re in the upper 30s and nicely melting, and we’re going to be in the 40s the next few days. That’s the cycle we like to see: we get popped with snow and then melt a lot of it off. Lather, rinse, repeat–until March or April.
Photos:
Share This Post
Marisol
Portico
An abstraction from nature
A few weeks ago I spent a morning at a particular spot in Chestnut Ridge Park, about as far into the park as one can get without getting out and walking. It’s a spot most people at the Ridge don’t go to, because it’s so far into the park’s interior, but it’s hardly deserted; it’s just far from the entrance. At this spot, one of the park’s streams–I believe this one is actually the one that goes over the Eternal Flame Falls, farther upstream–drops something like, oh, I don’t know, maybe 20 or 30 feet, over a few hundred feet of stream bed. So there are a lot of short drops, sloped spots, and deep plunge pools.
On this particular day there wasn’t much water–there usually isn’t, in August and September–so there wasn’t much to photograph by way of flowing water. So while I did get in some nice practice with shutter speed and working with the light, I didn’t get a ton of images from the session that I really liked…but I did like this one. It’s almost an abstract, almost impressionist in what it suggests without being able to depict it without enough water to do so.
Also that day, I photographed this wonderful old well house. Chestnut Ridge has a lot of these, and I’m saddened to think that they’re probably going to all have crumbled away within another decade or two. This one, by its surroundings and the way it always seems to be sitting in half-light, makes me think that I’ve entered a Hayao Miyazaki movie every time I see it.
Share This Post
Golden Hour shining on Buffalo
Last weekend I had an opportunity to go out and do some shooting at Golden Hour, which is what photographers call the rough hour at sunrise or sunset. I hadn’t had an opportunity like that yet, and I am thrilled with the results. I haven’t edited them much, but I did edit this one just to give a taste of what the evening was like.
Lookin’ good, Buffalo. You’re lookin’ good.
Big version available here.
Share This Post
Buffalo skies
Sometimes I don’t want to go to work but I grit my teeth and go anyway, and the Sky Gods see this and take pity on me by giving me something amazing to look at as I arrive…like this morning when the sunrise was shrouded in mist over the creek and through the trees, creating the most wonderful shafts of golden light.
I’m always a big fan of our skies here in Buffalo. We have the best skies I’ve seen, quite frankly, outside of any place that rhymes with “onolulu”.
Share This Post
On the cusp
Fall isn’t here yet, but we can certainly feel it knocking on the door. And I’m fine with that! Fall is my favorite time of year, followed by winter, and lately summer has been rising in my esteem. The summer that’s entering its final weeks was a particularly pleasant one, if my photos (many of which are still awaiting editing!) are any judge. There’s one big post about my day shooting around the City of Buffalo that’s still waiting in the wings…but for now, here’s my latest panorama of the Buffalo Niagara region as imaged from the sledding hill at Chestnut Ridge Park. Note that now you can see clearly the emerging superstructure of the next home of the Buffalo Bills, and between the cranes, on the horizon, the faint skyline of Niagara Falls, ON.
Bigger version here.
Share This Post
Reflection and Paddler
Tone Poem Tuesday (716 Day edition)
Today is 716 Day! That’s when we turn as a nation to the region of The 716 and bow to the country’s greatest place. Or something like that! In truth, with the possible exception of Ithaca and the Finger Lakes, I can’t think of anyplace I’d rather live, even with all this area’s warts and self-inflicted unforced errors. There’s just too much that I love about this region. Ditch it for one of the Carolinas, so I don’t have to shovel snow and pay less taxes? No, thank you!
Here’s a photo I took last week of downtown Buffalo, as seen through the support pylons of Buffalo’s Skyway. I like how this one turned out, especially since this isn’t my final edit at all; this is a very quick edit of the jpeg in Snapseed. I haven’t put the RAW file into Lightroom yet, so we’ll see how that turns out.
And now, music! Here is “Flivver Ten Million” by Frederick Converse, a work which honors the ten millionth Ford vehicle. The piece is actually about Detroit, but this performance is by the Buffalo Philharmonic, which makes it appropriate. Plus, Detroit and Buffalo are quasi-sister cities in a lot of ways (some good, some bad).