Wednesday, September 23, 2020

End Of Yet Another Era

 When you reach your 7th decade you are naturally going to see A LOT of Eras ending. This one particularly annoys me. The Wall Street Journal, venerable business newspaper with such a range of reporting, will no longer deliver a print edition to where I live. I can get the digital edition for about 70% of the cost of the print one. But digital delivery systems are not particularly convenient to read at the times I would be reading the WSJ. Not going to do that. So after 40 after 40 years, done, over. So sad.

Sunday, September 13, 2020

Falls-19th Century-Relics

 Gad how I love it when my adoring public responds to the rapid changes in blogospheric content so quickly. Right from our Nation's Capital, the cry comes...Thank God, Finally, An Insufferable Amount of Pictures! How could I know that people were suffering from almost withdrawal type symptoms due to the lack of photo posting on the blog resulting from our enforced lock down. Who am I to resist the call of duty?

Off we went in serious search of photographic opportunities. I started the day off using an old lens to determine if some of my frustrations from the prior day were the result of the new camera or the new lens. What I discovered is the new camera does process information slightly different than the old version requiring an adjustment in how I set things up. But the new lens has its peculiarities as well. It goes to a very low f-stop but only at its shortest length. As soon as you start zooming out to a longer length, it goes to much higher f-stops like old walk around, zoom lens. Once you accept this it is like having two separate lens in one. 

Today we visited Ithaca Falls, one of 10 major falls in this area. Then we went to the small town of Moravia (birthplace of Millard Filmore - on free de-I Sandia Travel's Post-Covid Tours vacation if you know who Millard is without checking up on line you bastards!). Moravia is noted for its 19th century architecture (as are many towns here) but is unspoiled by the 'quaint' bug that has hit many places. 'Quaint' is code word for 'now has lots of trendy eating places and places to shop.' Finally we just 'ran into' a place on a road with some ruined barns and buildings.  Really a pretty good day for working the camera.

Ithaca Falls

Coming up to the Falls


A Waterfall Study

I really tried to restrain myself...I really did




Two Natural Beauties

Tree Roots and Other to Study



On to Moravia

Famous Church with Alter from Austria that we couldn't get into because Wife is on the lam from her Tram fines in Austria! No because it is closed because of the pandemic.

Oldest House in Moravia (but far, far from the most interesting)

Good luck symbol we saw everywhere

Now! On to a SERIOUS study of 19th Century homes












Found at a lakefront - handy dandy geese repellents. They work. Just down the shoreline from these was a ton of geese shit


And out in the middle of nowhere

Barns and Corn


Finger Lake Daleks

Derelict School


From on our way back on Sunday in Pen Yan a cool looking mill that is still in operation


Saturday, September 12, 2020

New Camera-New Lens = ?????

 We are taking a little sojourn. As things are opening up every so slightly and as at least in certain parts of the country, people are acting in a more and more responsible way, we both felt the need to just get out. We thought about going to Colorado but honestly we live in the mountain west and we were just there in the summer. So we decided to try the Finger Lakes area of New York.

This is our first time flying since the pandemic

Things were quiet in the Albuquerque Sunport

Less so in Chicago where we changed planes. But I was literally giddy entering the airport, going through security, all the way until actually being on the plane where it was right back to the old airplane experience. 

Both in the airports, the airplanes and in the hotels (both Hilton brands), the protocols for safety seem to be adhered to pretty strenuously by the vast majority. We chose the area we did for low population density, good state numbers and rates, and strong state policies. We felt good with people using safe behavior patterns with one exception which was close to a University. We was double careful there and left as soon as possible. 

Our goal was just to get back out, see what things were like, feel how comfortable we felt AND use our new cameras and lens. Wife got the newest version of our Olympus OMD-M III and gave me her old M II. It operates different than the M I than I had. We were also trying out a new walk around lens that is a 12-200 zoom with a lowest f-stop of 3. 5. If that means anything to you, you are probably more photographically oriented than I. 

Day one was a lot of frustration with the two new devices. Plus we were looking for authentic, older architecture. We'd read there were lots of 'quaint old towns' but evidently that is code for 'refurbished old towns with lots of trendy places to shop and eat.' I was also tired which meant I was fighting a lot when driving.

Anyway, on to Saturday's photographs 

First on in the town of Canandaigua - Lake front












 In the town









The Finger Lakes are major wine country. Unfortunately, tasting with pandemic restrictions is by appointment only and we hadn't done enough research as to where we would be do do so.


                                                    Along Seneca Lake in Watkins Glen




Responsible Photography


It is important to understand what we value most in our country

Watkins Glen is home to a Grand Prix race track

                                                    And finally SIGNS OF THE WORLD

                                        Do we really need to 'Practice' Social Distancing? Can't we just do it?