Writing Blog Tom Bessette Words & Images

Tom Bessette: Words & Images

Thoughts on Life, Image Making and Writing...

Archive Blog - July through October 2, 2009

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Friday, October 2nd 2009 Here's some information about Nature's Classroom. I spent all last week there, chaperoning 5th graders from my daughter's school. I volunteered because my daughter wanted me to, and they needed men who could stay the whole week. I expected it to be a bit of a chore. Little did I know... I can't say enough about the quality of the Nature's Classroom program. My advice to parents of 5th graders is: If your kid's school does it, champion it and support it fully. If your kid's school doesn't do it, start yelling at them to get off their duff's! The program is an intelligent mix of summer camp-like experience, classroom instruction, citizenship, science, and environmental education; like nothing I have ever seen. At right are kids making ice cream in one of the many classes.
	The whole experience was hands-on, living it classroom indoor and outdoor experience. Nature's Classroom provides an extensive list of classes that he school can choose, and the kids then sign up for their choices, sometimes getting their first choice, sometimes not. The field groups and classes have a 1-11 teacher student ratio and are taught by young enthusiastic staff who clearly love the kids and what they do. At left are two kids dissecting a fetal pig. Other classes that I witnessed included rope bridge and geosesic dome construction, leaf and tree identification, bottle rocket launching; there were many others that I wasn't able to attend because there were always 6 or so classes running simultaneously. All the kids I talked to, every one of them, thought the whole experience was 'totally awesome'. Their teachers (from the school they attend) agreed that they may have learned more and better that week than all year in school.
I am partial to the outdoors and nature. OK, I am a card carrying tree hugger and proud of it! Shame on those of you who aren't! So, I was especially appreciative of the outdoor education that the kids received. From night walks with experiments concerning various typed of luminescence (Triboluminescence!!!), to tree and wildlife identification and life history discussion, to fire building and shelter construction, many of these kids were exposed to things that they had never seen and may never see again. To see kids amazed at the sight and feel of a Yellow Spotted Salamander, to actually becoming aware of the types of flora and fauna that surround us, was a wonderful thing to see. The Nature's Classroom teachers were unifiormly patient and caring, and really knew their stuff and how to make it understandable to young minds. I can't say enough positive about them!
	Anothert terrific aspect of the experience was the community awareness and team building exercises that all the kids took part in. At left is the rope bridge built in one of the classes my daughter attended, which the kids were able to enjoy the rest of the week. Rules of use included needing one adult present and at least two spotters for every kid who wanted to traverse the bridge. I spent a lot of time being that adult! At meals, the kids were taught to aspire to being 'ORT' free, which meant that they took from serving stations only the food they would actually eat, learning how to not waste food. It became a heady contest, with songs, ORT reports and enthusiastic commitment. they had the opportunity to speak publicly, offering a 'Positive Share' to the audience. The parents I have spoken to since say their kids are still talking about the week, singing the songs and continuing to be ORT free. I would volunteer for this again, with pleasure!

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Tuesday, September 29th 2009 Post 2

Back to Becket, Massachussetts.

It is located in the Berkshires in western Massachussetts, not far from Lee, at exit 2 of the Mass Pike.

So, nice hills, lots of rural areas and forests; the Appalachian Trail snakes through.

I love streams and falling water, always been partial to it. The wetness, the darkness of the interior of the woods, the calming sound of flowing water.

Another chaperoning parent, who had been there before told of a waterfall a short walk down a gravel road, then down a path through nice woods. I ended up spending hours there, exploring the stream.

In the past I would have been happy with a half hour visit and two or three images of the falls and the stream feeding it. No longer.

I shot well over a hundred images of this stream across three days, an hour here, an hour there. Produced a modest portfolio that I hope shows what I felt of the character of the area in my gallery: Becket, Along the Stream.

The whole time, I was thinking dark and wet. Yup, it was dark and I got wet. I was using a crappy little light-weight tripod that bit the dust Friday morning anyway. The head would never really tighten up and I was using the self timer with a ten second delay in hopes the wobbling would stop by the time the shutter released. Worked, mostly!

Once, one of the parents came with me and hung out serenely while I scrabbled around wet rocks and muddy banks. God knows what the person thought of my squatting and cursing.

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I got into the details. Sure I made some general stream-type images, but I was ultimately attracted to the rocks and leaves and the flow of the water as separate subjects in their own right.

Lush colors in the denseness of the interior light. No sunlight to speak of, I allowed the camera to deepen everything, exposing about a stop under, mostly, richness, detail and lushness. Delicious!

With better equipment (wider angle lens, sturdier tripod) I am sure I would have produced shots of such technical brilliance as to be the envy of the entire photographic world.

I'm happy with these.

And I am very happy that I was able to spend time in such a beautiful place.

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Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

Spent last week chaperoning my daughter's 5th grade class at Nature's Classroom, which was held at Camp Chimney Corners YMCA Camp in Becket, Massachussetts. I'll talk more about that in another post.

Although I was on duty a lot, I did have snatches of free time during their activities, usually about an hour and a half at a time, three times a day. Not enough to jump in the car and explore too much, but enough to wander the local woods.

We had a beautiful week of balmy 70's temperatures and it only rained once, Wednesday night, after the evening activites were done, and then not much at that.

So, when I wasn't needed, I wandered off, just like I always do..........

All through the years, like most people, I have been fascinated by the fall season. Beautiful foliage, the feel of the end of summer. Photographically, I would look for expansive scenes of that foliage, leaf peeper extraordinaire.

At Becket, the leaves had barely started to turn. Mostly still green, a few pioneers had made the leap and they stood out in stark contrast to the laggards.

So, I wandered with this in mind and took advantage of the situation. I looked for these contrasts. I shopped isolation; instances of the lonely leaf, among crowds. View this modest portfolio at my gallery: Becket: Turn of the Season.

As is usual for me, I sought to photograph only that which I found undisturbed; that is, I choose not to add my 'artistic' touch to any composition by re-arranging the natural objects in a more 'pleasing' arrangement. In other words, I leave it all to hell alone and just compose without moving anything.

Nature does a proper job of showing us excellent arrangement without our having to impose our sense of beauty and order to its work. Even when I am making nature related images, I still see myself as a documentary photographer, recording what I see, as opposed to an 'artist' who might create a new world. There's that damned 'A' word again.

Anyway, I found much to photograph. The digital camera allows much experimentation in general, and allows me to be unconcerned about wasting film. So, I now take many more images than I used to, trying different compositions and exposures, and playing with light intensity and color values. Consequently, I have been able to break away from some self imposed constraints under which I labored in the past. In wasting images, I am finding new standards and am looking at things with a fresh eye.

This may not seem the same level of revelation to you as it is to me, but...

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Thursday September 17th, 2009. Post 3...

The Lure of The Morning.

At lunch today with a colleague. Talked about my CRAZY-TRIP to Bog River.

He asked me what it was like being out on the water so early in the morning.

It has been a strong lure for me since I first started camping in the Adirondacks, 40 years ago.

I am not a morning person. Most days I don't want to get out of bed; don't want to start the day. No, not that I don't want to start the day, just that I am so cozy and comfortable under the covers that I always think: just a few more minutes...

But whenever I think I can get out and witness another misty sunrise, my motor runs and my ambition escalates and I drag my tired @#$! out of the sack.

It is almost mystical for me to be drifting on the water around sunrise. I am drawn to it and have never really been able to explain why.

Sure I like making misty morning light images. People seem to like seeing them and that makes me happy, I guess.

But it's more than that.

As I float on calm waters, I watch the light change by the second. The world seems new, fresh, hopeful. The wildlife is waking up and starting out on the business of the day. The air is rich and clean and refreshing. The world is calm, yet productive.

I am peaceful, at rest, and as one with something higher, something larger than life.

I am with my god.

I am not in any way a person who follows a particular religion.

I like to think that I live my life by Christian ideals, mostly, but I do not follow the accepted Christian faiths. I don't follow any faiths except that which I find in myself.

When I am on the morning water, I feel close to an answer. Not quite reaching it yet, not entirely sure what it is, but close. It is there. I can feel it.

I watch the light grow and change and the world wakes up to a new day. The sun breaks the horizon and casts a glow, warming me, drying the damp, lessening the chill, lighting my way.

I can sense greatness. I can feel beauty. I can hear truth. I can know reality.

I can see.

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Thursday, September 17th, 2009....Post 2

This is something that has taken me a long time to learn. I am still shaky with it...

All through my screwy life, I have always been in a hurry, especially when driving.

I am always focused on where I am going, painfully conscious of the time it is taking me to get there, and anxious for the journey to end. Hiking, driving, reading, writing, making images, it was all the same. Get there, finish, be done.

Coming home from Bog River, I knew I had to take my daughter to soccer practice at 4PM. It was around 1PM as I was getting close to Indian Lake. I had told them I would be home by early afternoon, to be safe. I was later than I had wanted to be. I had to move.

As usual, my eye was being caught by potential image-making opportunities. I did my best to ignore them. I had to make time. Like always. Get there, be on time, finish what you are doing, don't get distracted.

But, damn it, these ferns I was seeing at the roadside were calling me. Stop! Take time out. Photograph meeeeee!!!!!

So, I did. I pulled over. I stopped. I realized that it would only take a few minutes and I could be on my way again.

There was a light pattering of misty rain, hardly enough to make it seem damp. Trucks and RV's were screaming by, trailing dust devils and rocking my car as they passed, roaring by in haste.

The ferns were changing, brilliant yellows, oranges and rust browns. The forest was quiet and peaceful, with the grinding river of traffic whizzing by.

I sloshed around the spongy ground, loving the ferns, ignoring the screeching vehicles behind me.

Got some images, felt I had taken time out, and was on my way again.

Got home in time.

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Thursday September 17th, 2009

More on my Bog River CRAZY-TRIP last weekend...

OK, so no cool telephoto lens, but I did take a few shots of the Eagle and Heron I saw.

At right is an American Bald Eagle, in flight overghead as I drifted on the Bog River Sunday morning just after sunrise. In the whole image, he is very small so I cropped significantly and am amazed at how wellk this image taken with my little camera held up.

It is very gratifying to be seeing Eagles. I gew up expecting them to be extinct any time, and here I am, seeing them in the wilds of the Adirondacks. The EPA DOES WORK!!!

As I said in the earlier post, the Great Blue Heron was trying his best to stay away from me.

Among the few grab shots I made, I got this one which I find interesting, having never thought to take a photograph of one in flight before.

I love how this captures his legs hanging down; he had taken off seconds before when I grabbed this one.

Too bad Kim wasn't with me, she just loves these guys. To see them regally stalking the shallows is a feeling of really being at one with the wilderness.

I'm still waiting to see a moose, though!!!

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Tuesday, September 15th, 2009...Second Post in one day.

Had to run an errand at lunchtime. Listened to NPR while I drove (I do that a lot!). They were doing a piece on the financial meltdown of last year and brought up the case of John McAfee, creator of McAfee Anti Virus software. They made hay about his personal fortune dropping from roughly $400 Million (Wikipedia says $100 Million) to around $4 Million.

In an interview that was part of the piece, McAfee said that his fortune didn't decline because of the crisis. He claims he woke up one day and realized that he had 6 houses and tons of possessions that he never even used, so much so that no single person could EVER use it all. He talked about how it was inherent in the Western system that we are encouraged to accumulate wealth and the trappings of wealth. (I am paraphrasing) We are not, in any way, justified in owning all this stuff that we can't use (people do not need to own six houses simultaneously) when the vast majority of the world's population can hardly get enough to eat. We can put spin on our wealth and say that we earned it, or that those 'poor' people just aren't as smart, or whatever, as we are, but the fact is that we are consuming and consuming just to own and parade our 'stuff'! We can never have enough.

So, he said, he just started giving it all away. That is why his fortune is now smaller. Now, I don't know if he is being absolutely truthful, totally deranged, or something in between. All I know is that what he claims to have done is exactly what Christ suggested we all do, all those years ago. Hmmm!

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Tuesday September 15th, 2009

Did a CRAZY-TRIP this weekend. Forecast was for a nice morning Sunday after a day of rain. So, after my girls went to bed Saturday night, I loaded the boat on the car and drove up to Bog River, getting there around midnight. I parked in the lot, cracked open a beer and read until my eyes were shutting and slept with the seat reclined. Couch pillow and fleece blanket and the clothes on my back. Geez I'm not as young as I used to be! That car seat was not luxury accommodations. Ow-eee!

On the water before 6AM. Paddled up the river to Hitchins Pond. Not much mist, but a nice sunrise. I was struck by the richness of the light and found myself concentrating on water reflections on the shore. Lots of fallen trees and rocky outcroppings; calm water. See the gallery: Bog River Reflections.

I was all alone.

Lily Pads and sky Reflections, Bog River

Beavers slapped warnings as I drifted by; I didn't see a one of them, just heard the rifle cracks of their tails on the water, the sound ricocheting alnong the shoreline.

I thoroughly annoyed a Great Blue Heron who was trying to hunt breakfast at marsh edge. As I approached, he would laboriously get himself airborne and alight 100 yards or so farther along. I would approach again, he would scram again; went on for over a half hour.

A Bald Eagle was checking me out, wondering if I was small enough to attack. His white head was brilliant in the sun and he swooped overhead twenty or thirty times before heading off in search of more accessible prey.

One problem of the simplified camera I carry is the lack of a long telephoto lens. No dramatic close-ups of Mr. Eagle or Heron for me. Oh, well, others are doing it.

Four hours on the water, I got back to my car, had breakfast at the Long Lake Diner, and was back home by 2PM.

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Tuesday September (already!!) 8th, 2009

Spent last week in Avalon NJ. Way down on the southern tip of the state, just north of Wildwood.

Instead of general vacation shots this year, I decided to spend my free time making Black and White images of details that caught my eye.

While on the beach, I wandered the high water line and played with the macro feature on my trusty Canon G9.

I made images of whatever washed up on shore and was deposited there, mostly shells and seaweed. I shot about 300 of these and have culled out a selection of 54 and put them in my gallery: Avalon 2009 All Along the Waterline.

I did a similar project at Avalon Campground where we stay when we're down there.

This late in the season, some of the leaves were already falling.

The campground is situated in a scrub oak forest. There are a few other trees there, too, but oak trees predominate.

I wandered, bending and stretching over the ground, and photographed oak leaves on the sand of the campground forest. Again, I shot well over 300 of these and culled out a selection of 40-some to show in my gallery: Avalon 2009 Oak Leaves on Campground Sand.

Nothing earth shattering here, but some nice almost-abstract images, I think. Whiled away some time, anyway!

Let me know what you think. Oh, yes, I did have ice cream every day. Gained weight, too!

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Friday, August 28th, 2009

Heading to Avalon NJ for a week at the beach. Leaving Sunday and staying until next Sunday. Looking forward to a week of relaxation and Springers Ice Cream. We stay at Avalon Campground, which is actually in Clermont NJ.

I will have my camera, of course, and will be making images of whatever I see. We are also bringing our boats so we can do a few paddles in the back bays down there. We'd like to explore a few areas that are difficult to get to from the commercial kayak rental facilities.

Will post images and information here when I get back.

On another note...

My 'Little Brother' Javontae's father returned home from incarceration two weeks ago. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get ahold of Javontae since, so I dion't know how things are going.

Hope everything is OK, little brother...

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Monday, August 24th, 2009

Neighbor was over and as he left he yelled that there was a rainbow.

We all ran out and there it was, a full rainbow stretching in an arc across the sky, with the beginnings of a double above it.

My camera lens wasn't wide enough to get the whole width in, so I settled for this partial view. Good enough, and I have the strong memory of seeing the whole thing.

The kids stared in awe and my daughter's friend wanted to go get that pot of gold.

One of the better rewards for sitting out a rainy weekend, for sure.

Thanks!

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Monday, August 24th, 2009

Sitting in my family room yesterday with the game on. Looked out through the slider screen and was struck by the fact that it all had the look of 'End of Summer'.

Though all was still green, the sizzle sound of the Cicadas and keening of other late summer insects was loud and prophetic.

The air was clammy and sultry and there was starting to be some litter on the patio, the kind that starts to accumulate towards the end of the season.

The air had that smell to it, the odor of the beginnings of decay, when the greenery is starting to dry. You smell it in the fields and it is undeniable that late August has arrived.

Fall is not far, now.

My garden is still producing.

I picked about 4 pounds of cherry and grape tomatoes yesterday, along with six beautiful green peppers. I also picked six large tomatoes, the ones that had escaped the rot blight that is common this year. I am getting more than enough cucumbers, although the lettuce and blueberries are about done. Maybe one more crop of green beans coming. I have one watermelon about the size of a cantaloupe that may or may not get large enough to eat.

I looked at my tomato plants and saw again that the season was nearing completion. The plants were putting all their effort into the fruit and the leaves were drying, the plants looking scraggly and near death. I find myself pulling off the dead leaves in an effort to make the plants look healthier, only to find more the next day. The season is marching inexorably past.

Maybe two more weeks and then I'll tear everything out and prep for next year. But this week, we'll have tomato and cuke sandwiches every night while we can. With Pesto!

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Monday, August 17th, 2009

Spent a good part of the weekend canoe camping on the Cedar River Flow.

Central Adirondacks, west of Indian Lake. It is a 14 mile +/- drive from Route 28, just north of Indian lake Village, the last 5 miles to Wakely Dam are gravel. Not a lot of people go there, it is pretty remote, but there is an old ranger station there and people bring in their RV's and all and set up free camping. So, there are motor boats on the lake and the sites are well 'developed' with rustic furniture and leftover garbage and metal apparatus. That also goes for the sites out on the lake itself, most of which are water access only.

I got there late on Friday and had just enough time to launch, paddle about a mile into he lake and find a site. The site was OK, but not my usual preference because of the obvious signs of overuse, including a stripped birch tree right next to the rustic worktable. Stripping kills the tree. Ugh!

I was up and on the water, as usual, before 6AM Saturday morning. Not a thick mist like I had been seeing lately, but thinner, and excellent for combining views with atmosphere.

I have already posted the images in a new gallery called Cedar River Flow August 2009.

Wow! Did I see beaver. I would float still, nestled in the shore rocks and wild rice and water lillies and they would swim all around me until they noticed me, at which time they would smack their tails with the usual rifle-crack noise and disappear. I would move a few hundred yards away and witness a repeat performance.

This guy on the left was dragging breakfast and saw me well after he had gotten to within 15 feet of me. He stopped still and floated, eyeballing me all the while while I shot a few frames.

Then he slapped the surface and disappeared.

I saw, easily, fifteen beaver lodges, both right on shore and also up streams that feed the lake. The one on the right was more than three feet high and about eighty feet wide; you are only seeing a small part of it here.

The lake itself was beautiful, with many bays and an undulating shoreline, much of it sporting acres of wild rice and grasses in the shallows. I paddled most of the shoreline. The lake is about three and a half miles long, although the bottom half mile or so is well grown in, with a winding channel where the Cedar River feeds into it from the south.

Paddling around this area was very nice. I saw flocks of Canadian Geese resting before their travels and saw a few Great Blue Herons stalking the shallows.

I was hoping and hoping to see my first Adirondack Moose, but...

Lots of Beaver, though.

At left is the Cedar River, or 'Carry' Lean-To.

To reach it, you paddle a ways up the Cedar River from the Flow. The stream is obviously cleared now and then, as there was much evidence of broken beaver dams and cleared fallen trees.

I paddled upstream against a stiff current and a decent headwind, but my Hornbeck Canoe had no problem and neither did I.

Tons of late summer flowers! Look at the gallery.

As the crow flies, it is probably no more than mile and a half to the lean-to, but I paddled much more than that as the stream meandered and twisted it's way.

Pulled up at the lean-to landing and said hello to an old friend.

Kim and I had been here about 15 years before when we hiked this section of the Northville Placid Trail (NPT). We had walked in five days from Piseco to Wakely Dam, and still consider it to be one of our classic trips. Five days and we saw three people, total, one hiking out as we hiked in and two hiking in as we hiked out.

The Lean-To is in great shape, thanks to the Lean-To adopter who volunteers to come in and sweep up and report to the rangers when repairs are needed. Great job. Kim and I adopted a set of lean-to's years ago and I know how inconvenient it is to keep coming in, over and over. Kudos!

I walked out to the NPT proper and retraced a few of our steps. The top sign at right shows the distance to Cedar River HQ, which is at Wakely Dam.

I had planned to stay on the flow another night, but something told me I should head home. I did and found my wife flustered by Kitchen problems.....

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Thursday August 13th 2009

Heard from a Graduate School colleague recently...

She looked at my website and commented that I was very prolific, meaning that I took lots of pictures, something she remembered from grad school. I never thought about it much.

I know from my reading that many of the famous photographers exhibited a relatively small body or work. I always assumed that they were seriously editing their images and showing only the truly and absolute best. Others showed many, many images; some could argue that stronger editing would have made their output even better. I don't know.

I do edit my images. I cull out obvious mistakes and clear duplicates. Things I tried that didn't work, thinks that may have worked but I decided I didn't like. For example, I shot more than 300 images last weekend in the St Regis Canoe Wilderness (gotta love those digital cameras; no costs involved for film and processing!) but showed only 59 in my St. Regis gallery. I won't argue that every image in that gallery is carreer making or breaking 'Art for the Ages', or that any of them are, for that matter. I am always more interested in examining a place/situation/entity, showing it in it's moods and evidencing my understanding of it, rather than merely using it as a tool to get a 'great image'. I used to get into this argument a lot in grad school. I always argued against the implied or presumed 'right' of a photographer (or artist or journalist) to use something or some place or situation as a means to their end. I don't feel we have the right to merely use, without doing service to the subject.

I must not be an artist after all.....

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Tuesday August 11th 2009 Thinking back two weekends ago... Kim and I went to the Hildene Craft show in Manchester Vermont. Lots of great stuff, as usual, but one vendor really caught our interest and made me think. We are redoing our kitchen and have picked cherry cabinets, so Kim was attracted to a vendor selling cherry bowls. You know, wooden salad bowls made out of cherry and other woods. While my wife was inspecting potential purchases, I photographed the vendor.
	This woman, Carol Joos, proprietor of The Bowl Works was one of ONLY THREE vendors at the show that were actually producing work as we watched. She was meticulous and interested in what she was doing and often had onlookers. As she worked, we discussed craftsmanship and quality and she told me much lore about her profession and techniques. We didn't talk about how much money she made or how successfull she was financially, but we did talk about love of craft and quality. Much of what she was saying was similar to how I think about my avocations of photography and writing. I do in fact like to sell pieces and I sure do hope one or more of my books gets published someday, but I do it for love, not money. Those of us who produce these things do it because we feel we need to. I would argue, though, that my quality production is not in the same league with this woman. She is light years ahead of me.
Kim picked out a superb bowl. Mid sized, big enough to hold a salad to feed our family. filled with all homegrown vegetables from our garden, this month anyway! Astonishingly, the bowl matches the new cabinets very closely. And, we have a keepsake, made with seriousness and respect for materials and craftsmanship.

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Monday August 10th 2009

Just got back from a long weekend of back country canoe camping in the St. Regis Canoe Wilderness in the Adirondacks.

Kim and I packed up last Thursday night, loaded the car with our gear and boats Friday morning and drove up to Floodwood Road, just north of Fish Creek Ponds State Campground on Route 30 north of Saranac and Tupper.

We'd never been in this area before and so were concerned about the number of cars and people in the parking lot for access to Long Pond. just past St. Regis Outfitters, about 8 miles in on Floodwood Road.

We easliy carried our gear and boats the third of a mile portage from the parking lot to Long Pond, well ahead of three groups that, with kids and heavier gear, just plain took longer to get there. Our Hornbeck Boats weigh only 15 pounds and we easily sling them over our shoulders and scoot through the woods.

We launched on Long pond and paddled about a half mile and found an open campsite on a point on the north shore, deciding to grab that and base there rather than risk getting further in to find unavalable campsites and then miss these closer ones. We set up camp and then set off up the pond. It is a beautiful place; the pond is maybe two miles long with many bays, twists and narrows. We skimmed quickly and easily in our boats. The families after us had managed to get sites in a far bay of the pond and so were all right. There were maybe two sites available that Friday night when all was said and done.

We got back to our site well before dark, had the sandwiches that we brought in, hung our food, had a small fire for a while and were in bed by 8:30 or so, reading until the eyes got heavy.

Owls and Loons serenaded us all night.

Me paddling on Floodwood Pond

Kim Paddling Floodwood Creek

Kim on Pink Pond

Loading Boat on Long Pond

Kim Pulling Boat between Slang and Turtle Ponds

Saturday morning, I had a fog and was on the water by 6AM. I will have the images up in a new Short Takes gallery shortly.

I paddled up a steam that connects Long Pond with Pink Pond, then found another very narrow stream that brought me to a pond with no name (at least on my paddlers map). There I watched the sun burn through the mist. In no time, the fog lifted and I realized it was 8AM already and paddled back through the streams to our campsite.

We had apples and leftover sandwich for breakfast and then headed off on the pond. We paddled to the end of the pond and made the carry over to Slang Pond. Two campsites, both taken. We explored a bit and paddled into the narrow steam connection between Slang and Turtle Ponds. At it's narrowest, we pulled our boats through beautiful gravel shallows and pushed into Turtle Pond. A family of loons swam around, teaching youngsters to fish. At the far end, there were about 6 canoes with beer cans all around. We clambered up over the tracks and met a bunch of guys out for a wild weekend of camping, fishing and finishing off ten cases of beer. We paddled a bit on Hoel Pond, then came back through, explored a bit more on Long Pond and came back to our site.

Nice fire Saturday night, but still in bed by 9:30.

Sunday morning, we were up before 7AM to pack up.

The loons were having a family reunion in our bay and we watched a group of six scrambling around on the water, diving and flapping their wings and calling our with their erie song.

We were on the water by 8AM and paddled up into Pink Pond so Kim could see it. We saw geese and a beautiful stream with a wonderful rock outcropping. I got distracted taking pictures, as usual.

We got back to the landing and carried out to the car, loaded up and drove the short distance to St. Regis Outfitters. There we met Dave Cilley, creator of the Adirondack Paddler's Map that we were using. We bought his companion book on the spot and he signed it for us.

We then put the boats on Floodwood Pond to look at the southern area. We paddled past the big island and down to the southeast cove. We entered the stream that I will call Floodwood Creek and paddled it's length, about a mile or so, to Little Square Pond. The creek and pond are incredibly beautiful. Back on Floodwood Pond, we saw a Great Blue Heron perched in a tree, he flapped off squawking when he saw us.

It was clouding up and we were off the water by noon and set off to Tupper lake for lunch and ice cream. Ahhh!

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Thursday August 5th 2009

@#%! Dress Codes!

Just re-reading an old restaurant review this morning in the paper. Local celebrity (almost!) chef Dale Miller recently opened up his new restaurant in Albany. Great review! But...noted under dining attire was "Business Attire or better".

OK. Here goes... I am against dressing up. I believe that 'good' dress is an offshoot of our attempt to appear better than the masses, the have nots, the average people. I am fortunate to have a position that does not require me to wear a suit. If I had to, you can rest assured I would always appear stained, threadbare, shiny-seated and wrinkly, like many of my colleagues who do wear suits. When one wears a suit or other fancy clothing, one is not instantly prepared to run after a fleeing child, or save unfortunates from burning buildings, or catch beloved pets who are about to run in front of a car. I can remember 'holing' many pant knees as a child because my dress leather shoes had no grip on the asphalt that paved our playground.

Many of the arguments I hear bemoaning the decay of dress standards decry the fact that we have stopped caring about how we look in public. I say rubbish! I do care how I look. I wear clean, intact blue jeans, clean, neat Nike's or walking shoes and either good looking polo's or button down shirts. No throttling tie around my neck, thank you. I don't look like I am pretending to be better than anyone else or have my nose stuck up in the air with my 'class', or fantasy standing in the world. Go ahead, dress up all you want. Look fancy and special. I don't care.

Sorry, Chef Miller, I guess I can't come to eat your well reviewed food. Too bad. You wouldn't want a lower class person like me in there to sully the premises.

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Wednesday August 4th 2009

Javontae came with us to my cousin's family picnic up in Washington County.

A lovely day and the kid had a great time swimming and playing with my nephew's play station. That was a big deal.

We got ice cream on the way home and all in all it was a succesful day. Not quite camping, but still good.

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Friday July 31st 2009

Well, the weather crapped out and the forecast is for a day of rain, so no camping with Javontae. There is no way I would take this kid camping his first time in a downpour. We'll do it sometime, soon!

So, anyway, Bill Jay has died.

Lifelong photographic educator, critic and lecturer, longtime contributor to LensWork magazine, writer of the 'End Notes' feature and one of the few voices in photographic discussion that, I believe, actually gets 'it'! My opinion is that if you want to receive a periodical that celebrates image making in it's purest form without all the hokum that emanates from the art world, you should look into LensWork.

Portrait of Bill Jay Bill Jay

I will miss his pithy and humorous comments on photography and the vagaries and weirdnesses of the 'Art World'. He stated, correctly in my estimation, that the 'Art World' is controlled by a few hundred elite people and not at all by the mass audience. It is these few who push the progression of what is considered art and what is not, and who, somewhat from the background, disctate what is taught in art programs in colleges.

I myself get tired of all this discussion. I earned a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Photography and I can tell you it was no fun. Being continually told things like "It's been done before" and "You are not making Art" got pretty frustrating pretty quickly. I believe that we all do what we do. Some better than others, and some more seriously than others. I can tell you that the people in the MFA program with me were nowhere near as serious about what they were doing as I was, yet, somehow, because they were willing to listen to all the natter from the art experts, producing mundane work in the process, they were more in tune with the prevailing trends and, thus, more artistic than I was.

Yadda, Yadda, Yadda. Bill, I will miss you.

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Thursday July 30th 2009

Finally Javontae will get to go camping.

Javontae is my little brother. As in, Big Brothers, Big Sisters. I volunteer through the BBBS of the Capital Region office.

Javontae and I have been matched since September 2007, so are coming up on our two year anniversary. He is 12 now and only about an inch shorter than me. I'm not tall, but come on, huh?

So, anyway, we have been planning to get him camping since we first met. BBBS required that we be matched for a year before planning anything overnight, which brought us to last fall. So, now we are going tomorrow. We'll do one night to start at a state campground where we can keep the car near. I'll bring my big Old Town canoe so he can get to paddle on the lake. We'll roast hot dogs on the fire. If we get a nice morning, I'll bring him out on the lake in the fog.

He is excited, but very nervous, so we'll take it slow. He worries about bears and wolves and hates bugs. He has been on a few short hikes with me and has done well, so I expect this will be a good introduction. If he does well with this, and is still interested, we'll hit Forked Lake in the fall and really show him some nature!

He is a good kid. Dad has been in prison for about 6 years and is getting out in a bit over two weeks. I don't know what that will bring. The kid sure could use his dad. I mentor as best I can but I'll never be dad, nor do I want to be. Javontae and I see each other only about once every two weeks or so, depending on the season, and my impact on his life is limited, but the good people at BBBS tell me that these relationships do help, even if it doesn't always look it.

We go to a lot of UAlbany basketball games (I have season tickets) which he loves and we watch our local minor league baseball team, the Valleycats, a few times each summer. He likes doing yard work with me and has said he likes lawn mowing and the like because he can see what he has accomplished. I admit that I push him, a lot, to do better in school and he gets some B's now and hasn't been failing lately, so maybe I am helping. He and my daughter are pretty decent friends and that's good for both of them.

I'll let you know how we do on this campout!

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Wednesday July 29th 2009

More in our Blue Mountain Lake Vacation

I have now posted a selection of the images I made in a gallery linked from either my 'Adirondacks Untamed' page or my 'Short Takes' page.

At right is a picture of a few of the shoreline cottages at Prospect Point from the dock. Nice Adirondack Chairs!

See my posting below (Monday July 27th) for further information about Prospect Point Cottages.

I got out for a morning paddle our first full day, on the water by 6:15AM. Thick fog that didn't really start to lift till near 8AM.

The image at left was made just east of the narrow passage from Blue Mountain Lake to Eagle Lake, looking back at the emerging Blue Mountain.

Blue Mountain Lake has many islands and they make for great compositions in the mist. You will see a selection of these in my Blue Mountain Lake Trip Gallery.

In general, our weather was partly sunny; almost no rain but some days were cool, temperatures barely getting to 70 and good breezes off the lake to keep any bugs away, and keeping us in long sleeves.

A light fleece, maybe, a good book and an Adirondack Chair on the lakeshore, and we were in business.

We did some nice easy hiking.

At right are the girls looking at Blue Mountain Lake from Castle Rock, a very popular mile and a half one way hike to a spectacular outcropping on the north shore of Blue Mountain Lake.

We also hiked to Chimney Mountain, a very interesting climb with unusual rock formations at the summit and also caves just off the top. We feasted in a great raspberry patch just shy of the summit. See the gallery pictures for images of Chimney Mountain.

We also visited a few streams and ponds and Dead Man's Brook Waterfall.

All the hikes were relatively short, though our 9 and 10 year olds would disagree. Ice cream was often called for by hike's end.

Girls on castle Rock

We visited a craft fair in Inlet on Sunday. A few of the booths had crafters creating their wares, including a potter and hand loomer, pictured above. There was also a paddle maker (not pictured) who I enjoyed talking to. Kim bought a loom frame from the woman whose hands are at work above.

Of course we had brought our Hornbeck Boats with us. In case you don't know, these are ultra lightweight canoes that paddle like kayaks.

Kim has the original "Lost Pond' boat, a 10'8" canoe that weighs a tad under 15 pounds, total. I have their 12' low profile model that gives me a bit more capacity and speed and only adds a half pund to he total weight.

Both boats are Kevlar inside and Carbon Fiber outside with wood rails and decks. We can and have carried these easily on short and long portages between rivers and ponds and we just plain think they are the coolest boats made by anyone,anywhere. Visit their website and then go visit their facility in Olmsteadville in the Adiriondacks, near Pottersville at exit 26 of the Northway I-87). They have a pond where you can try the boats and fall in love like we did.

At right is my wife in hers, on Blue Mountain lake, after an exploratory trip to the islands.

Ahhh! Relaxation...

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Monday July 27th 2009

Just got back from a weeklong vacation. Sigh!

We stayed at Prospect Point Cottages on Blue Mountain Lake in the Adirondacks. Not the type of place we would have thought we'd like.

My wife and daughter and I usually like wilderness camping, but our friends stay here a week every year, and when visiting them last year we impulsively booked a week. There is a huge waiting list but they like to rent to people they meet and know. We lucked out, in the right place at the right time.

What an outstanding place. Great for kids, relaxing, nice easy paddling around a beautiful lake. They supply all linens and cookware and even firewood. Coffee was made every morning in the library and they had wireless internet access, too. Great beach, dock and float for the kid's swimming. They have canoes available to use (not rent, just use!!) We sat around a great communal bonfire, made by John, on Wednesday night, with music and singing, and teh requisite S'mores.

Many of the same families go to the same cabins the same weeks every year and everyone knows each other from past years. We were accepted right in and made friends with excellent people from Rochester, Pittsburgh and Maryland, in addition to New York State. A big hello to Kevin and Mary Lou, Ed and Donna, and Jerry and Claire and families. A special thanks to managers Alene and Carole who were friendly, funny, iconoclastics and amazingly welcoming and helpful.

One of the better vacations we've ever had, not in terms of adventure, but for pure enjoyment. We have already booked the same week next year and intend to visit in the fall, too. That said, they are booked solid every weekend through mid October. Geez!

It is such a pleasure to find a gem like this. They are stuck with us, now, for life! I'll have pictures up soon.

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Tuesday July 14, 2009

Got a rejection letter today.

I have my memoir & first novel posted on this site (see Writing link above). I had sent them both in to a Universtity Press that had invited me to do so. They send manuscripts out to a cadre of 'Readers' who then report back with their comments and recommendations. The one for my novel, Burning Second Street Park is the one that came yesterday. The reader actually liked the work but thought that there were many areas that needed significant revision, so much so that the reader recommended against publication. The University Presses do not have the personnel or resources to help authors with revisions, so that put the kabosh on the whole thing. Sigh!

So, if I want it published, I will have to go the self publication route. Costs money and then you have a vanity book, I guess. OK, but we all have dreams that our work will be appreciated and published professionally. I understand that getting books published is tough and that some major best sellers went through rejection after rejection, but, if publishers are not even accepting books for consideration and agents don't return emails of phone calls, what do you do?

Keep plugging, I guess!

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Monday July 13, 2009

We hiked Cascade Peak yesterday, Sunday July 12th 2009.

Cascade is considered the easiest (closest to the road, short hike, not too steep, etc.) of the Adirondack Mountain's 46 peaks over 4000 feet in elevation.My wife and I had hiked this mountain many times in the past, summer and winter. When our daughter was born 10 years ago, we pretty much stopped doing much of anything like this, except our annual campouts. Now that our daughter is 10, we are starting back up with it, and chose this as her first Adirondack High Peak, and our first in a long, long time.

The trail was much more eroded than we remembered. This trail gets a lot of traffic and attempts to keep it in good shape must be frustrating to the DEC crews and volunteers who routinely come to work on it. The damage got progressively worse as we ascended the ridge. Right at the beginning a sign advised us to carry rocks to the summit to assist the summit stewards in maintenance and regeneration of the alpine vegetaion, which we did.

I had 'not-so-fine' memories of past hikes, when I had schlupped tons of camera gear and a heavy tripod up these mountains. Now, I was toting only my Canon G9 point and shoot camera. In retrospect, I am getting images just as nice, and am reveling in the simplicity of sticking with the basics.

My daughter was a good sport about slogging through the woods, but when we got higher, she had a burst of interest and energy and went bounding up ahead, leaving her parents grunting below. She loves being 'up high'!

We deposited our stones and made the summit in two hours, fifteen minutes. Slow, but successful.

There were many hikers at the top, but many were leaving already. It was windy and on the chilly side. We found a protected ledge and had a comfortable and leisurely lunch with a good, close-up view of Porter Mountain and Giant Mountain in the background.

Cascade has 360 degree unimpeded views from it's rocky summit cone. It is a shade over 4000 feet in elevation but has one of the most expansive views in the Adirondacks, especially considering the relative ease of getting there.

I had climbed, in my younger days, nearly every one of the peaks I could see from my perch. I had dragged 4X5 field cameras, medium format cameras and 35mm cameras with extra lenses, along with the extras one needed when venturing to these elevations.

I smiled down at my G9 and got up to make some images.

In the image at right, in the center, is Mount Marcy, the highest peak in the Adirondacks, at 5344' elevation. It is a lovely mountain, relatively easy to climb, if you don't mind some distance.

My all-time favorite Adirondack mountain is Algonquin Peak. It was my first. I had climbed it initially in 1974 when I was nineteen and had summited it 31 times since. I have slept on it summer and winter. One January evening I had ascended and built a snow cave on the summit, right under the summit wall. That was the first time I saw the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights). Crisp, clear night, about twenty below. When I think back I am amazed at some of the idiotic things I have done.

Today was not like that. Brisk, instead of deadly. I wandered all around Cascade's considerable summit area, composing numerous views, playing with exposure, thinking about post processing changes, but, mostly, communing with an Adirondack summit for the first time in ten years.

My daughter was investigating boulders and rain puddles, and asking about the various peaks she could see, daddy telling her all she needed to know.

Now and then, sunshine would peek through and warm us.

I saw wonderful evidence that the work of the Summit Stewards and volunteers was being successful. Areas that had been eroded mud holes were now covered in a fine mat of alpine grasses and wildflowers.

The Great Range, at left, saw-toothed across my horizon, under broken gray clouds with occasional blue breaks.

The croud thinned until we were among less than ten people remaining on top. We sat and enjoyed it all a while longer. I aklways hate to head back down, leaving these wonderful places, wondering when I will be able to visit again. But, as always, we had to go.

As usual, the hike down was a pain in the knees and ankles. Because of our out of shapeness, it took us five minutes longer to make the descent than it had taken us to climb.

We'll have to work on that one!

Oh, yeah, we deserved the ice cream at the Keene Stewarts Shop! I got chocolate.