07 Clouds Thicken and Darken, originally uploaded by Adventure George.
Taken from the series of images on Fairyland Point Blues. These images are from Bryce Canyon National Park, Fairyland Point Overlook. The time of day, the darkening skies in the distance but sun in the forefront added to the evanescent of the scene and softened the pinks and blues.
image By George
copyright ©2008 GCheatle
Check out Mom and her ducklings. They appear to me to be Blue-winged Teals. I was taking landscape images along the shore of Lake Pleasant in the Adirondack Mountains when I spotted a mother and her babies swimming along the shore.
Quickly changing lenses, I grabbed some unexpected and fun images. I shot these using my Sigma 150 – 500 MM telephoto zoom – hand held.
“Chance favors the prepared mind,” as the old saying goes.
Be ready for the unexpected but fun image appearing unexpectedly.
It was raining when I arrived at Lin and Rich’s Ewing, New Jersey home. The storm intensified Friday and continued Saturday and Sunday diminishing on Monday.
Today, Tuesday, the sun shines. You can see some of my images of the storm damage on my flickr account – click here to go to these images. I must say, traveling has it surprises. Hm . . . that is what help make it so much fun.
11 Mar 2010 – Thursday morning I boarded the Amtrak Empire Service for Penn Station, NYC transferring to a NJ Transit Express for the trip to the Hamilton Station where Lin and Rich met me.
It was an easy and uneventful trip. The train was half an hour late into Albany but nearly on time into Penn Station.
The track from Albany down the Hudson is good. The train, according to my Garmin GPS [map 60CSx], with which I was tracking the trip, reached a top speed, between the two, of 112 mph.
The connection with the NJ Transit couldn’t have been better. I went up from track level to the expansive street level lobby. Purchasing a ticket on one of the many vending machines, I heard the final boarding call for an express train south on the Northeast Corridor.
It must have brought a smile to others watching me run with my suitcase and wearing my backpack. The many two level cars were full as I joined the last-minute rush to catch the train. Thankfully I found a place to comfortably – well sort of comfortably – stand.
It didn’t take longer than fifty-five minutes and soon meet up with Rich and Lin at the Hamilton station.
03 56 Boardman , originally uploaded by Adventure George.
They warned us days ahead.
At first it was a major storm with snow measured in feet. Then the amount of snow was reduced to was more manageable amounts. Friday, today, after a night of snow, they said the snow would change to drizzle and the temperatures rise above freezing.
Today dawned with new snow near a foot. Then to the surprise of those weather predictors, the snow continued throughout the day and the temperatures remained below freezing.
This morning I was out taking pictures and generally enjoying myself. Walking out the door became a mini adventure. The snow on the ground, the snow in the air quieted the noises of the City. Nothing was in sharp focus. The falling snow saw to that. Walking was at best difficult on the sidewalks. The street had one plow pass something late in the night.
Some were powering up their snow blowers and making a start clearing driveways. I wasn’t out long before the City’s sidewalk plows came through pushing the snow with their V blades.
I waved. The driver nodded and he was past. It didn’t seem that long before he was plowing the walk on the other side of the street.
For my part, I was snapping pictures documenting the morning.
Then it was back inside, sitting at the computer working on the images of the morning and some from my recent time in Yosemite.
I worked till four when the snow stopped and mysteriously the sky cleared long enough for the sun to shine and the waning but almost full moon visible.
Yes, today’s weather presented a mini adventure and much enjoyment.
It is Monday and raining again. That didn’t daunt us seasoned travelers. The truth is our guides were the ones keeping us on track. George was up for the 6:30 am coffee run to the bakery. After an early breakfast, all breakfasts are early on this trip, we traveled to the Point Reyes Bird Observatory for a walk among the local ecosystem to various mist net collection points. The nets capture small song birds for examination and banding. The PRBO has many years of records and uses this research to track trends in the bird population.
Next we walked among the tidal pools left from the retreating Pacific Ocean as it raced to reach low tide. With us were board surfers and kayak surfers and beach walkers. We entered the beach at Bolinas which is many respects is a fifties hippy community.
We moved our picnic from out-of-doors to indoors thanks to the rain. We are glad for our rain outfits today.
After lunch we travel to Samuel P Taylor State Park for a time among the large Douglas firs and giant redwoods. Inspiring. We took time to just wander off and be with ourselves in the midst of this majesty.
As the afternoon closed we make our way over to the an area of the San Andreas Fault famous for the 1906 earthquake. An 7:30 dinner ended our full and rewarding day. The rain? It hardly made a difference to us as we went about touring!
Adventures in Word & Image 