Scattered Thoughts . . .

It has been brutally hot today (I'm still sweating and it is now dark outside) and there were swarms of tiny biting flies whenever the wind died down but we had a really nice day... The view from behind the house as the setting sun reflects off the boats in the yard... I stepped out onto the deck to shoot this shot...  I wasn't out there longer than three minutes before I was completely covered in biting flies...  that wasn't too pleasant!

All packed up and ready to go... We made the big summer move to the lake house yesterday. We managed to tie five kayaks on the roof of Sheila's car and the sailboat on the top of my car.  Both cars were loaded to capacity inside. Actually, Sheila's car bottomed out on the private road to the lake house.   Wow...  I was not ready for this move and it took a lot out of me! My spine is screaming, my feet are unhappy and my legs are uncooperative. I'm bent over like I'm 90 years old and I'm moving very slowly. The house, however, is now ready for guests and some fun times! Oh...  we planned to be out of the house and on the road to the lake house earlier than usual... one last visit to the bathroom... then dumped some Rid-X into the toilet to let some bacteria do its thing to the septic tank...  flush our new toilet... the Rid-X clumped up into a solid clump and clogged the toilet.   Ugggg....   On the road to the lake house... That's what I get

I've been struggling with some ideas of what to do with all of my older video clips shot on cameras with far lower resolutions than is typically displayed today.  The video world and televisions are quickly upgrading to 4K while 6K and 8K cameras are already readily available. Full HD video clips only fill one quarter of a 4K screen... so... what to do with all these older clips to make them look acceptable at a time when resolutions are increasing drastically? To make matters worse, I have a lot of HD video (not "Full HD") which is even smaller! I got to thinking that I could use those lower resolution video files in picture-in-picture windows and they might not look so bad at the higher resolutions. The only way to know for sure was to try it. A screenshot of this side-by-side video technique. I went searching for some video clips and found some sailing clips that I shot way back in 2013. We were at the lake for Adam's birthday on this day. It's always

A month or so ago, I wrote about seeing loons sporting different colored plumage. I saw loons with a band of deep green on their necks... I saw loons with a band of deep blue on their necks... I saw loons with a black band on their necks. That left me wondering and searching for a reason. I was initially wondering if this was a sign of maturity... adolescence... breeding... or nesting. It turns out it was none of the above. I've found that the appearance of green or blue or purplish bands on some loons is simply due variables such as the angle of the light, wet or dry feathers, and the color temperature of the light. For example, near dusk or near sunrise, the color temperature is a very warm orange or yellow yet the color temperature at high noon is a much colder blue. When you combine these varying lighting scenarios with the angle to wet feathers, you can see different colors.   Even when you hold a clean, fresh bird feather in your hand, you can oftentimes see a changing

While I wait for some paint to dry so I can apply another coat of paint, I thought I would write a little bit about some photos I shot recently. I was out on our dock one morning and I noticed this tiny wake about one hundred yards away... I grabbed the camera that had the longest lens mounted on it...  zoomed... I quickly confirmed it was a beaver. I was hoping to get a tail slap and a big splash but that never came. He just swam around for a little while and then quietly slipped underwater. I just wish he was a little closer to the house so I could have gotten a slightly better shot.... It was early one morning... one of those rare mornings at the lake with no fog and no clouds... over in a darkened corner to the left of our house, about one hundred yards away, I noticed a loon. He was alone and just paddling around in the dark shadows of early morning. I kept my camera focused on him... it was too dark for a shot though... a black and white loon in black shadows would have ma

Although these two photos look like things may have gotten a bit out of hand and some anger prevailed, that wasn't the case.  In the splashing photo, the kids were playing and laughing... I really have no idea what Kenzie was thinking when she had that scowl on her face in the other photo though. I don't remember anything of significance happening... regardless, in these two photos, Kenzie appears to have a bit of an attitude...

Well... summer is over (although, you'd never know it by how warm it has been lately) and our time at the lake for this year is behind us. I know I'd like to get back to the lake again during foliage season but, considering how far behind schedule I am with projects around the house due to my health, that is unlikely to happen. So, I have put together a photo album of photos from the lake this summer... Lake Groton Photo Album - 2015

Over the past few nights, I've been collecting all the video clips I shot while we were at the lake house by putting them in a single folder on my desktop computer. After seeing the number of video clips in this folder, I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by the amount of video I have... Apparently, I shot 10.4 gb's of high definition video... comprised of 60 video clips... with a total running time of almost 90 minutes. That is a lot of video!   (In addition to the 2000 or so photos I shot!) Although I shot most of this video myself, Sheila shot a few minutes of these video clips and Sheila's brother, Doug, also contributed a few video clips so I didn't actually shoot 90 minutes of video all by myself. My plan is to cut and splice all these clips into one cohesive video that is no longer than 8-10 minutes. I honestly have no clue how I am going to do that but I need to try.  I actually had some ideas in my head as well as on paper before we even arrived at the lak

The moon... crisp, clear skies with no light pollution help in capturing some crisp crater detail. For the most part, the weather at the lake has been beautiful. Most of the clouds and rain have been at night. Getting the rainy weather only at night has been great and makes for a lot of beautiful, sunny days but it really puts a damper on any photography of the night skies. Fortunately, we did have a few nights of clear weather at night... very few. On one such night, I grabbed my tripod, my best camera, a couple of good lenses, and a wireless remote shutter release and headed outside to the dark and very buggy deck. One of the newer cameras I have been using is amazing for low-light work but I am still learning what it can do and trying to figure out how to do different things such as shooting night skies. The unique thing about shooting night skies is that each exposure requires a few minutes plus a couple of minutes of adjusting settings... over and over... until you get

UPDATE, 1 July: I received a letter this morning from one of our friends at Lake Groton which alleviates some of my concerns about seeing fewer loons thus far this year. I was a bit concerned that perhaps the population of loons was again dwindling. It turns out that there are a few more loons on the lake than I had counted, plus... Just this morning (coincidentally, my birthdate), two loons were born on the north end of the lake. These two loon chicks have been named Janice and Janet .  Since the wildlife at our home in Waterbury has also been slow to appear this spring/summer, I am going to assume that perhaps weather patterns account for the timing of the appearance of summertime wildlife being a bit slow this year around our neck of the woods. Now, I'll need to see if I can capture a photo of Janice and Janet as mom and dad acquaint them with life. Original Blog Entry, 29 June: Although the wildlife has been very quiet and elusive this year, I did manage to capt

As we do on many evenings, Sheila and I headed out on the kayaks for an evening paddle on one particularly beautiful evening. It was sunny and warm... the lake was calm... the sun was getting low in the sky illuminating everything in that soft evening golden glow. It was the perfect evening for paddling and I was hoping for some good photography. We headed down toward Boulder Beach at a very relaxed, slow pace. As we approached the beach, we were surprised to find that the beach was quiet. Not a single person was on this beautiful beach on this perfect evening. We paddled around the swimming area and approached a rougher beach area intended for boats which is adjacent to numerous picnic areas. As we were paddling by this beach, a tiny bit of movement caught my eye...  As I stopped paddling, I dipped my paddle in the water to turn my kayak so I could look more closely... I could just make out two young duck chicks on the beach. Although they blended in with the sand quite we

We had a brilliant, colorful sunset last night that lit up the stormy skies...resembling a distant forest fire or even a distant bomb blast. The colorful, bright, fireball setting sun contrasted perfectly with the stormy clouds looming overhead...

We've been so busy that I haven't had many opportunities to share some photos so, while it is raining and the house is quiet because our guests haven't arrived just yet, I thought it would be a good time to share some photos... We had a really nice visit with Tom and Karen for a couple of days. We kayaked the longer length of the lake and explored some marshes and the dam...  Our young airman visited a few times (the one wearing the dog tags)...  One of our many sunsets as viewed from the deck... This shot, below, is a long exposure shot. It was almost completely dark outside but I kept my shutter open for 10 seconds which brightened the sky considerably and it also smoothed out the surface of the lake... a nice landscape shot... The loons (and all wildlife, for that matter) have been rather elusive this year. My latest loon count is at only four loons on the lake this year. Last year we had at least seven... I know this s

Today was another stunningly beautiful day. We expected the rains from the remnants of the tropical storm (named "Bill" according to Sheila) to cause problems for much longer than we experienced. Fortunately, this storm hit us through the night and left us with a beautiful day today. Last night, however, was brutal!  We had high winds and heavy rains while the winds blowing across the lake and toward our house caused a bit of a rise in lake elevation on our side of the lake like a mini-storm surge. The lake completely covered our beach and even made its way up a few steps toward the lawn.  This storm reminded me of terrible storms on the waterfront of Long Island when I was growing up. I laid in bed worrying about the power, the roof and the boats while wondering what the high winds were blowing away from our deck and yard. This house is sort of like a houseboat as it is perched out over the lake so the house was also making many unusual sounds as it was battered by

Loading up the cars on another final night at the lake house... Every year, we always dread one particular night. As this night approaches, we would prefer that time stands still so this night could never come to be. This dreaded night is our last night at the lake house until the following year.  Putting aside all the work that must be accomplished in packing, cleaning up and securing boats, loading up cars, and cleaning the house, it is always a bit depressing knowing that it is our last night at the lake and we will be headed back to civilization and the real world in the morning. This is now the time of year when we start planning for the upcoming summer at the lake house. As I begin thinking about all that must be accomplished in getting ready for this year at the lake, I can't help but remember our last night at the lake.  Two things always stand out in my mind about this dreaded night... The first image which seems to be etched into my mind is one of the cars being

Our little picnic area on Lake Groton... I wanted to write about this last night but just could not find the energy to do so.  I did, however, manage to post a link late last night on my Facebook page to a small album of photos from our visit to Lake Groton last week.  So, now I will also post that link here and write a little about this latest visit to Lake Groton... First, here is the link to the album...   Lake Groton - 15 Aug 2013. Our original plan was to head back to Groton on Adam's birthday...  August 14th.  Well, the weather didn't cooperate so we postponed the short trip by a day.  Unfortunately, because we postponed the trip, nobody was able to join us.  We still enjoyed ourselves but it was a little disappointing that nobody could make it for Adam's birthday celebration. Putting that disappointment aside, the weather was awesome!  It was a little chilly when the sun was behind the scattered clouds, but the sun was very warm (actually, it was HOT at tim