Black angel

In Vale Cemetery, the Veeder plot is watched over by this angel.  She's cast of a black metal but wears a greenish patina.  The Veeders were among the very first Dutch to settle here in the 1660s.  I always love passing by this section of the cemetery.  It's right on the edge of the vale, almost a cliff, where the Cowhorn Creek flows down below, but up here, it's a quiet, leafy sanctuary.  There's even a concrete bench that's part of the next-door family plot so to speak.

Lens	Minolta MD 50mm f1.4
F Number	4.0?
Focal Length	50.0 mm
Exposure Time	1/200
Exposure Program	Manual
ISO	100
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Snapping turtle

I was walking down in Vale on Sunday, and it was bright and sunny.  Despite the draining and construction on the pond down there in the fall and winter, the wildlife seems to be doing fine.  This snapping turtle was sunning itself near the bank, and I walked very slowly until my 100mm equivalent lens had a decent chance of capturing it.  Even still, I could see its eyes watching me, so I ended up cropping this image so the turtle was more prominent.  I estimate the shell is between 18 and 24 inches from front to back.

Lens	Minolta MD 50mm f1.4
F Number	4.0? (didn't record it)
Focal Length	50.0 mm
Exposure Time	1/2000
Exposure Program	Manual
ISO	100
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

No flowers here

This is what most of the lawns look like now that we've been hot and dry for more than a month.  I hope this monarch butterfly finds some food for its migration!

Lens	Minolta MD 50mm f1.4
F Number	4.0
Focal Length	50.0 mm
Exposure Time	1/250
Exposure Program	Aperture-priority AE
ISO	100
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Green Vale

There is so much brown; the weather has been hot and dry.  Lawns especially are brown, but even many gardens are looking as though they are missing a soaking rain.  But not down here, at the bottom of Vale.  The Cowhorn Creek is low, but it is still flowing, and the foliage is lush as a jungle here.  The cicadas are singing, bees flitting from flower to flower and the fish are snapping up small bugs that fly too close to the water.

I used the old Minolta 50mm lens for this; the camera couldn't record the F-stop, since it's completely mechanical.  I think it was F8.  I tried letting the camera decide on the shutter speed.  Not bad for auto-pilot!

F Number	8.0?
Focal Length	50.0 mm
Exposure Time	1/80
Exposure Program	Aperture-priority AE
ISO	100
Exposure Compensation	+0.33
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Parachute guy

It was a nice day, so why not throw parachute guy toys out the upstairs window?  The angle makes this look like power lines are involved, but those lines are about 40 feet higher than the toy.

F Number	11.0
Lens ID	-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length	45.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 90.0 mm)
Exposure Time	1/640
Exposure Program	Program AE
ISO	400
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Skywatch Friday

This photo was taken at the downtown Greenmarket on the 8th of July.  The clouds were much more dramatic then than they are right now.  After weeks of unrelenting sun, the sky is completely overcast today. Maybe we'll get a soaking rain - we can use it.

A group of photobloggers post a photo of their skies each Friday - it's called Skywatch Friday. Click the link to see photos from round the world.

 

F Number	8.0
Lens ID	-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length	24.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 48.0 mm)
Exposure Time	1/1000
Exposure Program	Aperture-priority AE
ISO	100
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Garden spider

I have a grape vine that I optimistically planted as an arbour.  For the first time in 5 years, it has some grapes - I guess I pruned it correctly last year.  Anyway, it has nice foliage and makes shade for some hanging plants hung out there.  It also has wild, searching offshoots that reach in all directions including this one which reaches out into the air above the driveway.  A couple of days ago I went out to find this garden spider had cast her web across the span.  Spiders aren't the most attractive creatures, but anything that eats mosquitoes and the like is a friend in my book!  I don't know where she went, because there was no web the next morning.

F Number	5.6
Lens ID	LUMIX G VARIO 14-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length	45.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 90.0 mm)
Exposure Time	1/1000
Exposure Program	Manual
ISO	400
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Astro Buck

I wish!  This came to Schenectady with the lunar touch sample.  It is a static display with the back open so you could climb in and have a photo taken.  My wife knew I couldn't resist.  I love the idea of flying in space.  I spent 5 nights on a nuclear submarine with small racks (beds) no privacy and equipment sticking out into every inch of living space.  Loved it.  I think I could do a 6 month tour on the space station, easy.  The old Mir, maybe not so easily but I'd still have gone.  Skylab, oh yeah!  Yes, I love the idea of being an astronaut.

As for the suit, well it's not a Shuttle EVA suit, and it's not an Apollo EVA suit and it's not a Russian EVA suit, but if you look only at the top half you can imagine you're in a current suit!  I am such a geek!  Actually, a few years ago I have the privilege of meeting a NASA space suit designer named Amy Ross.  Who got into the space business through the influence of her dad, NASA astronaut Jerry Ross.  I got to put my hand in one of the gloves she worked on - oh how cool!  She came to the Schenectady Museum too.

F Number	6.3
Lens ID	-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length	14.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 28.0 mm)
Exposure Time	1/320
Exposure Program	Program AE
ISO	400
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Moon rock!

This is probably the most useless photo I've ever put on here.  By 'useless' I guess I mean to say that it conveys no information about Schenectady, it's clearly uninteresting as a photograph and it's not showing a celebrity or anything.

It's a rock.  A small piece of a rock, actually.  Polished, embedded in plastic, it's unremarkable in how... ordinary it looks.

It's a rock from the Moon.  Jack Schmitt picked it up on the first day of the very last Apollo mission (Apollo 17) to the moon.  He found it 60m from the Lunar Module (east, between the LM and SEP), put it in a sample collection bag which went into a sample collection box (you know that NASA has acronyms for all this stuff, right?) and that box was hoisted into the Ascent Module.  They left the moon, docked with the Command Module and transferred the box there, sealed with lunar vacuum inside.  After a fiery re-entry, the box was transferred to an aircraft carrier, then to the Lunar Receiving Laboratory, where a slew of scientists got to work on it.  It was sliced into several pieces, each one carefully documented.  The original rock was designated sample 70215.  I know, how glamorous can you get?  The itty bitty piece here is called 70215,11.

This tiny piece of the moon travels the US in a NASA trailer.  Inside the trailer is a bit of information about the space station, a bit about Orion / Constellation (the Shuttle replacement proposals) and what seems to me to be a very little bit about The Moon Rock.

Which I touched.

And so I was very happy that it came to the Schenectady Museum.  It's not the sort of photo that means much to anyone else, but I'm posting this one for me.

F Number	5.0
Lens ID	Lumix 14-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length	26.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 52.0 mm)
Exposure Time	1/10
Exposure Program	Program AE
ISO	800
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Blessed rain

Here in Schenectady county, we are merely abnormally dry.  That's the official word from the weather people.  It seems as though we haven't had any rain for a month, but the climatology report shows we had a total of 0.14 inches of rain this month (compared to 1.72 inches expected).  At any rate, it rained this morning - for a good 20 minutes.  I can't say that this will alleviate our dryness, but it was very welcome.

Lens	Minolta MD 50mm f1.4 (100mm effective)
F Number	4.0
Focal Length	50.0 mm
Exposure Time	1/60
Exposure Program	Manual
ISO	100
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Sunset in the Helderbergs

Driving up along the Helderberg Escarpment, and saw this fabulous sunset.  I must have taken 50 photos!  It was so hard to choose just one to post, but I like the farm silhouette here.

A group of photobloggers post a photo of their skies each Friday - it's called Skywatch Friday. Click the link to see photos from round the world.

 

F Number	6.3
Lens ID	LUMIX G VARIO 14-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length	14.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 28.0 mm)
Exposure Time	1/160
Exposure Program	Manual
ISO	400
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Dill

I just liked the looks of this dill growing at the community garden.  It's green, but such a different green from everything around it.

F Number	5.6
Lens ID	LUMIX G VARIO 14-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length	45.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 90.0 mm)
Exposure Time	1/125
Exposure Program	Manual
ISO	160
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Double rainbow

OK, so I cheated on this one.  We have not had rain for weeks, and the sun has been beating down, so the garden needs to be watered every day.  I was there late in the afternoon, and the sun angle was just right to catch this double rainbow in the spray from the hose.

F Number	5.6
Lens ID	-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length	14.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 28.0 mm)
Exposure Time	1/320
Exposure Program	Program AE
ISO	100
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Bathing beauties

I was the passenger whilst driving to the community garden plot and saw these birds cooling off in a bit of water.  Someone down the street had the sprinkler on and the kids were cooling off there.  Some of that water ran down the street and the birds were cooling off here.  It pays to have the camera with me!  The heat wave is supposed to break today.

F Number	7.1
Lens ID	LUMIX G VARIO 14-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length	45.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 90.0 mm)
Exposure Time	1/250
Exposure Program	Program AE
ISO	100
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Watching the fireworks

We went to see the Albany fireworks on the 4th.  We've been going to East Greenbush, looking down from the hill down into the valley.  The place we go has been getting more and more developed.  I decided to try out my much loved, 1960s vintage Minolta MD 50mm f1.4 lens on the micro four thirds adapter.  Not too shabby for manual focus and hand held.  This was lit by the parking lot lights.

Lens	Minolta MD 50mm f1.4
F Number	1.4
Focal Length	50.0 mm
Exposure Time	1/60
Exposure Program	Manual
ISO	1600
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Setting sun on cloud

Taken on our way to see the fireworks on the 4th.  I decided to tr out my much loved Minolta MD 50mm f1.4 lens.  I'd forgotten how wonderful those 35mm film lenses feel!


A group of photobloggers post a photo of their skies each Friday - it's called Skywatch Friday. Click the link to see photos from round the world.

 

Lens	Minolta MD 50mm f1.4
F Number	1.4
Focal Length	50.0 mm
Exposure Time	1/400
Exposure Program	Manual
ISO	100
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Huck and the tea mug

My regular digital camera is a Panasonic Lumix G1.  It's a Micro Four Thirds camera which means it takes interchangeable lenses.  I only have the kit lens that comes with it, but I bought a Minolta MD to M43 adapter, so I can use my old but beautiful Minolta 35mm film lenses on it.  It feels funny having those rather solid glass lenses on the end of a very light camera, but it feels good that those lenses are seeing again.  The one downside to this adapter is that the camera can't read the lens settings.  It's not the adapter's fault - the lenses haven't got any way to tell ANY camera what they're set to!  It's back to original principles for me...

The subject of this photo is Huckleberry the cat.  He loves me when I sit at the computer.  This is his secondary position, on the desk top in front of the monitor.  If he's not here, he's in my lap, head on my wrist as I try to type!  The focus is a little soft; there's no dazzle or split focus aid to help me out, and it was rather dim indoors but I like how it turned out.  Not to shabby for the equivalent of 150mm hand-held!

Lens	Tamron SP Adaptall-2 35-80mm
F Number	2.8
Focal Length	75mm
Exposure Time	1/6
Exposure Program	Manual
ISO	800
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Monthly Theme Day - Chimneys

A Schenectady landmark since 1887, this building was built by George Westinghouse up on Broadway hill for his mother, who refused to leave her downtown State Street home so she could be closer to social life.  Since the late 1920s, the building has been the site of the Bond Funeral Home.  They maintain the historic building and grounds immaculately.

It's the first of the month, and that means the City Daily Photo bloggers are posting photos based on a single theme.  This month, the theme is chimneys.  Do have a visit and see all the wonderful photos from around the world!  NOTE: the portal is down again; apparently still searching for a host.  Try this backup site instead: http://cdpbthemeday.blogspot.com.au/

F Number	8.0
Lens ID	LUMIX G VARIO 14-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length	30.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 60.0 mm)
Exposure Time	1/320
Exposure Program	Landscape
ISO	100
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire