Tom Bessette: Words & Images

Monday January 22nd, 2010

Presidents Weekend in Lake Placid...

Jenna thought the High Peaks Resort was very fancy and couldn't believe that we would stay there, it was so nice. Are we raising her properly, or what??

Friday we hiked up Mt Jo in our snowshoes. We hit a stunning day. Calm, sunny and 13 degrees when we started; beautiful hiking weather.

At right are my two girls on the summit, with Mt Marcy right over Jenna's head and Colden with it's great slides to the right of Marcy.

At far right, you can just see the lower elevations of the McIntyre range. Pictures are at my gallery, Adirondacks Lake Placid February 2010.

There wasn't much snow at all, possibly the least I've ever seen this time of year. The trail was packed solid, but the shoes came in handy beacuse there were some tricky icy spots.

In fact, ice was the order of the day. It flowed over the many rock outcroppings, as in the image at left; evidence of some warm days that melted away our snow.

At one spot, we hiked up a considerable section of frozen stream with a river of ice flows, and our cramponed snow shoes came in handy, big time, although my peanut little girl couldn't always stamp hard enough to dig in.

The summit was beautiful and the hike down sweet. We reconnoitered at the hiker building, and Jenna got a snack, of course!

Later that day, back in Lake Placid, my two girls braved the Mirror Lake Toboggan Run.

I toted the toboggan up the wooden stair-ladder to the top. There were signs everywhere warning that people with heart issues (like me!) shouldn't make the run.

I had done it years ago, but got to the top this time, looked down (way, way down) the icy run, and the ice of Mirror Lake in the distance, and decided that somebody should be available to take pictures, namely, me!

I had all I could do to trudge back down the stair ladder.

My girls ran it four times. I let them carry the toboggan back up the other three times so I could be in picture taking position.

Good of me, huh? The least I could do.

Of course we attended the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival parade on Saturday.

I can't say enough how much fun it was. Totally different from parades you might normally watch. It was homespun, for sure, creative, humerous, eclectic.

I was as facinated with the spectators as I was with the floats.

We met Jenna's friend, Maddy there (and her family, of course) and had a great time. Cold, but great!

We visited the Ice Castle, worth the trip by itself, then had a great early dinner at the Casa Del Sole mexican restaurant right in Saranac.

Of course we sat at the outside bar having a cold one while we waited for our table. One of those things that you just have to do. They did have heaters, sort of...

We had had a great time in the hotel, and had dinner at the Great Adirondack Steak and Seafood Restaurant Friday night. One of our favorites. I had a couple of pints of their craft brewed beers and Jenna had root beer brewed on the premises.

We worked out in the hotel fitness room, visited the in house restaurant Dancing Bears for a dinner and breakfast all three mornings. We sat by the fire a lot and even swam in the hotel pool. We weren't feeling quite expansive enough to visit the hotel spa for massages.

Kim and Jenna decided to skate on the 1980 Olympic Speed Skating Oval. They went around four or five times. It was cloudy and turning a bit colder so they were happy to quit.

We headed over to Tupper Lake, stopping for a quick slice of Pizza in Saranac, to pick up Jenna's friend, Maddy, then took the Adirondack trail down through our summer haunts of Long lake, Bluie Mountain Lake and all on the way home.

Nice drive, great weekend!

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

A weekend respite up north...

Kim and I headed up north this past weekend. Stayed at Prospect Point Cottages in Blue Mountain Lake Friday and Saturday nights.

They made very nice brunches, we brought a bottle of 'Wow' wine (and drank it!) and sat by a snapping fire quite a bit.

Beautiful winter weather, my best friend and mate with me...what could be better. Well, our daughter was with grandma; she would have been bored out of her skull, so even though we missed her, all was well.

View a selection of images in my new gallery: Adirondacks January 2010.

We tried out our new snowshoes and they were great. Above is Kim on Rock Lake (Blue Mountain in the background) on Sunday, at left I'm taking a break on the Rock Lake Trail, also on Sunday.

Saturday after breakfast (brunch!!!), we drove to the Forked Lake road near Long Lake and sallied to the trailhead for Upper Sargeant Pond.

Not a lot of snow this year, probably not much more than a foot on the ground in the woods. The trail was well packed, easy walking with the shoes, and the woods were absolutely beautiful.

1.3 miles into Sargeant Pond, pretty much flat with a few ups and downs, very pleasant walking. We walked out onto the frozen lake and it was almost hot out there. Full blazing sun in a crystal clear blue sky, radiant heat reflecting from the snowpack on the lake.

No wind at all.

We followed tracks of a pack of four wolves down the shoreline and found a stashed canoe. Left it there, of course.

After our hike back out, we drive over to the Forked Lake Campsite road, which is supposed to be unplowed in winter and, thus, impassable, but it was so packed down by snowmibile tracks that we drove right in the mile and a half to the landing. Gotta love 4 wheel drive!

It was a snowmobile mecca, there. We counted 34 machines, dodging open water and racing around the lake.

Beautiful reflections in the open water, like the one at right.

We followed the shoreline out to Campsite 75, where we camp most years, to see it buried in the snow, which it was.

It was also covered with snowmobile tracks, as the machines came right up the campsite beach, roared through right where we usually set up our tent, and plowed through the rear of the campsite back to the lakeshore.

Of course we stopped at Buttermilk Falls; it was roaring then drove into Long Lake Village and stopped at the Adirondack Hotel and got distracted by wine and beer and wings and Adirondack Fries for a few hours.

Next morning, again after brunch, we checked out and drove south to the Rock Lake trailhead and followed the beaten path to the lake a half mile in.

Colder and windier and starting to cloud up, it was still a pleasant walk out on to the lake and across to the remote campsites on the other side, Blue Mountain smiling down on us all the while.

All weekend, I was drawn to the forest twigs poking out of the smooth snow, casting shadows.

I took many images like the one at left.

It was a great weekend!

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

Been a while...

I haven't taken a picture since the last set described in the previous post, way back in December, a long time for me.

Haven't been writing, either, except to edit my novel, so that I can re-submit it to the agent.

But, I ran into an old pal on the way to my office this morning, and we talked about some of the people we both knew from Cohoes that he is in touch with. The conversation got me thinking about those high school days and all the crazy stuff we did.

If you are interested in reading about how stupid I was back then, I cover it in two chapters, 6 & 7, of my memoir: Going to Church in the Strawberry Patch. I just re-read some of it myself and, phew! What a dummy! Chapter 6 and Chapter 7. Days of Yore.

I'd enjoy hearing any comments!

Monday December 28, 2009

A Sunday Ride to Lake Placid & Keene Valley...

Kim needed a Windproof/Waterproof Outer Shell jacket for our planned Winter Activities. We couldn't find what she wanted locally. I had gotten mine last year at Eastern Mountain Sports (EMS) in Lake Placid, and so we decided we would take a day trip north to see what we could find.

We found a great one at The Mountaineer in Keene Valley, by the way! One of our favorite stores, it has high-end technical gear that will set you back some serious cash, but is the best you can buy. EMS had the same jacketI have, but not in a women's cut, so we went back to the Mountaineer.

Of course, I took pictures between stops. It was a balmy day, well into the thirties. The drive up was rainy and misty but it was clearing by noon and there was standing water everywhere. The images are in my gallery: Ausable Cascade December 27 2009.

Above is one of many images I made of reflections in standing water on top pf ice (there's a mouthful!) on The Ausable River, right behind The Mountaineer. I slushed through foot deep wet snow to the riverbank and stood in one spot, shooting in all directions for about fifteen minutes, while my wife waited patiently.

After shopping and lunch in Lake Placid, we took a detour down Adirondack Loj Road and drank in the sun-shiny view of the Marcy/Colden/Algonquin massif trio that dominates the skyline.

We drove down to where the road crosses the infant Chubb River and parked. I slopped down the embankment under the bridge and spent some time making images there, including the one at left.

Again, Kim waited patiently.

After the pause at the Chubb, we drove back out to Route 73 and cruised back towards Keene, passing the Cascade Peak trailhead and then traversed the pass along the Cascade Lakes.

Stopped at the low end of Lower Cascade Lake and made a few quick images of the ice and the far shore. There were lots of ice climbers around, enjoying the balmy weather.

Got back to the Mountaineer, picked up Kim's new jacket.

Then, importantly, we drove back 5 miles to the Stewarts in Keene for extra thick chocolate shakes. Contraband!

Drove the almost 3 hours home in time for me to come in for a volunteer overnight shift at UAlbany, taking temperature measurements.

Don't ask!

Wednesday December 16th, 2009

Behemoth Microsoft does it again...

Just heard the not-unexpected news that our beloved Microsoft will cease support of the Windows XP operating system this coming July 2010. Read more at Information Week. Here are some thoughts:

As is typical, Microsoft releases software packages well before they are 'ready for prime time', so to speak. No matter what the software is or is supposed to do, it is always filled with bugs and holes, and I mean ALWAYS! Then, users who are foolish to run out and buy the product, usually in upgrade form, rise to the task of dealing with the clunky, problematic software, reporting back to Microsoft (at the user's cost, of course) all the hang-ups and freezes and hackings and everything else that is a part of using Microsoft products. Then, Microsoft, over the course of a year or so, releases updates and service packs that fix some of these problems (but NEVER ALL) and by two years out, you have a product that, at least in some ways, does what it is supposed to do. By that time, of course, they are already releasing a new version, at new cost, and knowledgeable computer geeks the world over cringe yet again. Hand in hand with this is Microsoft's insistance that we upgrade, at our cost, to the new version as it comes out.

Interestingly, Microsoft periodically releases products that are so bad, so unusable, and unworkable, that the user population at large simply rejects it, in time. This happened 10 years ago with Windows Millenium, which replaced Windows 95. Even stalwart Microsoft apologists (and they are legion), hated that OS, complained bitterly about it, and many large institutions insisted on refusing to use it at all. Shortly thereafter, Microsoft released Windows XP (AKA Windows 2002) and, although it wasn't great, it had only the usual problems, which were mostly, eventually, remedied with service packs. By the time you were running Windows XP with Service Pack 2, you had a pretty stable and usable PC.

This has happened again recently. Microsoft, with much ballyhoo, released Windows Vista (in the process, as usual, making Windows look and attempt to work more like the Macintosh operating system). They wanted us to abandon XP and upgrade to this new saviour of our computing lives. XP was no longer offered on new PC's and the bandwagon was revved up. However, system managers the world over recognized a Millenium level gremlin as soon as it was released and, in short order, Microsoft was forced to reverse itself, and continued to make XP available and supported. At my workplace, we made the quiet decision to continue installing XP on new PC's and ignored Vista. Vista was soon discontinued.

Now, we have Windows 7, the new (yet again) saviour of our computing world, jam-packed with 'to die for' features and benefiting from a strong advertising rush. I haven't played with it yet, it is so new. Based on past experience, I want to let it fester out there for at least a year, so as to see if it is a typically bad OS or a spectacularly bad OS. It will be one or the other. And, as is usual, Microsoft is darkly hinting that we better embrace this new system (at our cost of course) and they won't continue to support the old XP system.

I wouldn't worry about all this. Same old, same old. By the time summer comes around, we'll know just how bad this all will be, and so will the important institutional and business system managers. If it is spectacularly bad, somehow Microsoft will suddenly back down and say Oops! If it is only typically bad, there will be service packs galore and the product might be working acceptably, that is if your standards aren't too high. There will be some compromise, I am sure. There always is, after the threat!

Thoughts on the holidays...

I'm a grinch, a scrooge, a bah humbug sayer!

OK, so maybe a lot of it is an act. But, I really do not enjoy the Christmas (Holiday) season the way many people claim they do. The holiday cheer, and the barrage of insipid, repetitive Christmas songs... If I hear Andy Williams sing 'Its the Most Wonderful Time of The Year' again, I think I might puke. I could write some new lyrics fo rthat song.

We are all caught up in this totally manufactured need to buy gifts, spend money. We are bombarded by information from the media telling us to the detail how bad or how good Black Friday was, and how well or bad merchants are doing in general this month. The news can get gloomy, saying that the economy is in bad shape because we are spending, in aggregate, 7% less than we did last year and the retailers are hurting, because, after all, they make most of their profits for the year during this season. And, that's a problem for us, how???

We are trained to measure our happiness according to the number and quality of our possessions. If the kid doesn't have a North Face brand jacket, he or she isn't cool. $100 to $150 for a fleece jacket because of a brand name? When the one in Target is every bit as good, quality-wise, and is less than a third the price? PUHLEEZE! I know, it's been this way since advertising started, but, indeed, it gets worse every year.

My daughter, bless her heart, is buying gifts this year with her own money. She got something for her Paternal Birth Grandmother, Monique, who she loves dearly. She got something for her mother, and we will shop tonight for something for her baby half sister. She has a few friends that she wants to buy for. I am counseling her to keep it minimal; a token small gift is fine, no need to spend al lher allowance on stuff. That said, one friend has told her that she wants tio buy her, as a Christmas gift, a pair of new Converse sneakers, because her current pair is no longer pristine. These things cost more than $30, even on sale. This friend's parents seem, based on my experience, to be considerably more willing to spend money than we are. My daughter is understandably worried about spending $5 on a gift for this friend when the friend may spend $40 on her. These kids are 10 years old. They are way to young to be entering in the Christmas Gift Accelleration Mode, where everyone has to get better and better gifts to keep up.

We know people. cash strapped to the max, who have filled their credit cards to bursting with gifts to outdo last year; they'll spend 2010 paying off these balances in time for next year, IF THEY'RE LUCKY!

Then, there are those who have very little money and no credit. Two years ago, when I first had my little brother (BIG BROTHERS, BIG SISTERS), I bought him a gift and was able to get a few donated things via BBBS (donated by the local Target Store); a game or two and a few household items. I delivered them to their crummy apartment a few days before Christmas and my little's mother (husband in jail, no job at the time, no furnishings in a rat infested apartment, barely fighting off despair) hugged me and cried, saying that if it wasn't for me, they would have had NOTHING for Christmas. NOTHING! And, here we are, spending godawful amounts on flat screen TV's and Ipods and phones, and pricey designer clothes for kids who will outgrow them in 5 months. At least my Little's family is in better shape this year. Dad is home, Mom and Dad are both working, new apartment, furniture...

OK, enough! I do go on, sometimes. But, dammit, this is all wrong!

Wednesday December 9th, 2009

Our leaders are fiddling...

I think about this stuff a lot. Got my Newsweek yesterday and was caught up by an unusually frank article on global warming, Power Failure, and our politician's handling of it, as it were.

I don't only blame our politicians, even though I fervently believe that it is our leader's responsibility to surround themselves with knowledgeable people who synthesize information for them so that they can make responsible decisions and tell us what we need to know. I also blame us. All of us, including myself and everyone I know.

We are all intelligent enough to know that we are living irresponsibly, using up fossil fuels that are limited in supply. Burning them causes pollution. They will be used up someday and be gone permanently. We know this. We all, every one of us, know this. Yet, we all have our heads in the sand, thinking, when we do at all, that soon our leaders will come up with a plan that will be painless and allow us to continue living our lifestyle while still being 'green'.

We latch on to small victories, like our pitiful attempts to recycle and our increasing use of 'fuel efficient' vehicles. Energy efficient windows, buying local food, gardening in the summer months. We don't search for more because we are all busy with the minutiae of our daily lives. OK, but we really don't want to think about it. It's sort of like being a Christian. Christ said, very clearly and authoritively, that to be true believers, we had to give away ALL our worldly goods and follow him. To be a true green person, we would have to give up all our powered toys and tools, like the snow blower I used this morning to clear my driveway so that I wouldn't have to shovel it by hand and the car I drove into work with, so that I wouldn't have to take the bus, which I could do, at some inconvenience.

I don't want to change or work harder, or live a simpler life. Probably neither do any of you reading this. It's different, scary, less opulent. Unknown. We continue to limit our thinking to short term. We just press on, consuming, wasting, using up large amounts of the world's resources to continue a lifestyle that 70% of the world's population will never attain.

Doing little things is something, I guess, but it is mostly a whitewash, like what our politicians are described as doing in this compelling article.

It pisses me off, but...

I am still waiting for someone to give me a painless fix.

I'm fiddling, too.....

Monday December 7th, 2009

First Snow, 2009...

We got about 2-3 inches this past Saturday. It snowed pretty much from around noon to past 9PM, but the small amount is all we got.

I had to run to the store Saturday afternoon and got distracted, as usual, by the beauty of new fallen snow. Instead of keeping my nose to the grindstone and concentrating on my chores, I drove on down Orchard Street near my house to an area of fields close by. Wet snow was falling and it was mysterious looking and beautiful. My lens kept ketting wet but I was able to keep drying it. That said, if you look close at some of these images, you can see blurry areas that indicate water droplets.

I continued on to Five Rivers, a State Preserve nearby and drove down to the pond. I was fascinated by cattails on shore becoming encrusted with snow, and was able to capture the streakiness of the snow as it fell with the dark background. The bridge at the pond was beautiful, too, and I followed the boardwalk a ways.

Being that I was in sweats and sneakers and is was a wet slushy snow, I was getting a tad damp. Then, I realized that my wife would be wondering what became of me, what with shaky driving conditions and the fact that I was only supposed to be gone a few minutes. I am such a child, sometimes.

So, I went home...

See the whole gallery at First Snow December 2009.

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

It's December already....

I'm hoping to get one more Adirondack paddle in, possibly this weekend. I'll attempt to get up Saturday or Sunday morning and drive north, see if any of the lakes are still open. Since we've been warmer than usual, I am guessing I should find open water. A paddle in December! I have to do it, you know, because it's there!

Holidays, holidays, holidays. Sigh...

If it wasn't for my wife and daughter, I would just drop out of all this holiday foolishness this time of year. Going into debt to buy frivolous things. Toys that will be broken or boring all too soon, gifts to adults that they would have preferred not to get, all in the name, really, of enriching the retailers and continuing to feed our consumer frenzy. My wife, bless her, donated to te local food pantry instead of buying her staff stupid, useless, overpriced gifts this year. We should all be doing that. How did we let ourselves get into this 'NEED' to spend so much of our money this time of year. Why is it that we somehow define ourselves by our stuff? Is this how Christ wanted us to celebrate his birthday??? Or, how God wanted us to celebrate Hannukah?

Publishing a book...

I think I might have an agent fo rmy novel, Burning Second Street Park. I had a professional critique done for them (the agent, at their request) and it was almost all positive, saying only to clean up a few mistakes and insert some more conversation instead of so much narration. Not to make the book 'better', but rather to make it more 'salable'. I am willing tio do this and have started editing, and intend to spend a bit of time this month finishing it up. If anyone wants to read it and make any specific suggestions, I would really appreciate direct, hard, unblinking opinions. This is crunch time. If I am to get it published, I need this unbiased help. When you have written something like this, you are generally so close to it that it is hard to see it clearly.

Help!!!!

Monday, November 30th, 2009

A quick exploratory sojourn...

I drove my wife, daughter and mother-in-law down to NYC two Saturdays ago so they could see the Christmas Show (Rockettes) at Radio City Music Hall. I dropped them off near the venue, parked the car in a garage at 10th and 51st and got over to the subway.

I took the red 3 train up to the South Bronx to see what I could see. I was pressed for time, as usual and of course, but instead of just waiting around I thought I could see some sights and make a few images.

I only made about 30 images, having spent much of that two hours riding the train, but the few I did make are in my gallery: Two Hours in NYC, November 2009; two of them are here.

I got off two stops into the Bronx, at Grand Concourse and 149th St.

It was a cool, damp day but the sidewalks were still teeming with people. Even though I am a pretty astute observer, I can be pretty dense sometimes. It took me a while to realize that I was the only white person in view, and I was hearing no english spoken at all.

Except...

I passed a store front where some men (not boys) were hanging around and one of them gave me a hard look, and just as I walked by, he sneered, "What the @#$! you doin' up here, get your ass gone". Or words to that effect. I just kept walking.

I was a tad nervous taking pictures after that. I got a great wrap from a street vendor, than got back on the subway and stopped in Harlem at 125th street and spent the last of my time making images there, then finally, late, made my way back to Times Square to hook up with my girls In a driving rain that soaked me to the skin.

Monday November 16th, 2009

The Ice Encroacheth...

Took last Friday off. The weather looked good and I wanted to get on the water one last time before the ice came in in the Adirondacks.

Got up at 3AM and was on the road at 3:20AM (had loaded the canoe and gear the night before). Drove up to the west end of Forked Lake and was on the water at 6:15AM. It was 19 degrees as I put into the water. Paddled a mile due west of the landing and into the Brandreth Inlet. Had ideas of paddling to to and beyond teh big beaver dam that has been there as long as I have been going there.

Well, the ice beat me to it. The lake was totally clear but the inlet was covered by a layer of scrim ice. Everything was all frosted and the ice was crunchy as I broke through with my paddle and the canoe grated through. All the little inlets at the shore were frozen over, but I was able to proceed slowly and carefully up the inlet, the broken scrim reconnecting and hardening behind me. I took pictures the whole time, of course, enjoying the patterned ice and the frosted reeds and grasses.

See a selection of the images I made at the gallery: Forked Lake November 2009.

I finished a series of images and drifted up to the edge of an open area and bumped. I batted at a shelf of ice with my paddle, and the paddle just bounced right off. I slapped harder and the paddle bounced higher. I drifted near and leaned and punched with my fist and the ice shelf held firm. There was no way through; I was as far as I was goung to get, a good quarter mile downstream from, the beaver dam.

I made the best of it, drifting back down the inlet, scrunching through the lighter ice, taking many images of frosted shoreline, frozen mud flats choked with leaves and glistening shoreline.

At 8:30AM, my feet were as frozen as the water, the cold and damp were working into my bones and I was running out of steam. With all the heart medication I take, I am more susceptible to cold than I have ever been. I have to admit it and realize I am not as impervious to cold as I used to be.

I visited a few of the old campsites we used to stay at and started paddling back the mile or so to the landing.

Just as well, two boatloads of hunters came droning in. I went and spent some time at Buttermilk Falls and then had breakfast at the Long Lake Diner.

Home by 2PM and had time to change the hot tub water!

Wednesday November 11th, 2009

History...

Finished re-scanning a selection of old Cohoes postcards and images from my collection.

Great old stuff that shows Cohoes (my home town) as it looked long ago. I have been collecting these, mostly off eBay, for about 10 years now and have quite a few of them. I am always looking for ones I don't have and am willing to pay a reasonable fee to buy them or at least scan them for publication here. See my gallery: Cohoes Historical Images.

I will be scanning my collection of Capital Region (New York State), Erie Canal and Adirondack postcards for inclusionm on this site at a later date, as I get to it.

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

Back to Documentation...

Planning to drive my wife, daughter and mother in law to New York City this Saturday so they can see the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Show. I won't attend; instead I am planning on taking the subway up either to Harlem or the South Bronx to wander the streets and make some images.

I spent all spring and summer revisiting my photographic roots, making nature images in the Adirondacks and elsewhere as the opportunities arose. Lots of fun, but as the weather is changing, I am getting interested in the idea of returning to the documentary stuff I was doing for the past decade. I have been wanting to get into the less affluent areas of NYC for a while, so this will be a short chance to get acquainted with what is there.

As an example of what I am talking about, below are a few samples of this style of image made in the Adirondacks. See more in the area of my website under Adirondack Document. I also have extensive images of this type under Argyllsire Farm, Cohoes, Border Crossings and Finding USA. Browse around and see what I have been spendiing my time at.

Wish me luck for Saturday...

Monday, November 9th 2009

Time to start fighting back...

Small family snafu this weekend.

Some members of my extended family are conservative. Our politics are pretty much the opposite (I am not speaking for my wife here, she can speak for herself). I am liberal, especially on social issues, less so on fiscal issues.

That said, I am getting very tired of the sanctimonious right wing talking heads who hide behind 'Family Values' and 'Christian Ideals' and other such bull, all the while preaching a brand of hate/fear/invective that is at stark odds with anything that Jesus Christ ever stood for. I am talking about the Rush Linbaughs, Glen Becks, Dobsons most tele-evangelists, and, to a lesser extent, the George Will's of the conservative media ilk. These 'Anti-Patriots' (my term) are all about fomenting fear, distrust, hatred, ignorance, and divisiveness, so as to enrich themselves and stir up the uninformed among us.

The family snafu started when one of them sent me another one of these missives that fly around the internet. This one was about the purported bill the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is pushing through congress to make it illegal to use the cross or other religious symbols in our national cemeteries. Of course, as is always the case, it is a total lie; no truth to it at all. Check it out at the ACLU site or on Snopes. The ACLU, which specifically defends the constitution from 'America Haters' (and believe me these conservatives do indeed hate America), is under continuous attack by these defenders of anti-Americanism. They will stop at nothing to get and stay in power and enrich themselves and their colleagues.

So anyway, this family member usually doesn't send much to me. They know how I feel; we have gotten into this before. But this one got through, and it was so obvious that I called them on it, telling them pointedly not to waste my time with this crap anymore, and chewing them out for irresponsibly passing these things on with no concern about truth ot anything alse. Now they are mad, telling me that they haven't felt so much anger from anyone since... well that's none of your business. I could have said what I said more nicely, I guess. For the twentieth time.

But, sometimes it's time to speak up. Most bad things that happen in the world happen because good people allow bad people get away with stuff. And, (and I really believe this) these conservatives and fake Christians are really, really bad people. Unfortunately, the fear they have let loose on us all has created followers. Dictators and other speakers have been doing this for years. Recently, Hitler did it in Germany, Lenin and Stalin did it in Russia, Bin Laden is doing it in the Muslim world now, and Bush & Cheney tried it with the Patriot Act and their other unilateral retractions of our freedoms. Remember McCarthyism??? Sell the fear, and sell yourself as the savior, and worried, unthinking people will run to your side. That is easier for them than it is to find out the real truth for themselves. It is eaiest to listen to those yelling the loudest. Then, the 'savior' can pretty much curtail freedoms at will and prosecute enemies, all in the name of protecting us from those outside evils.

I would argue that all forms of political and religious orthodoxy have their roots in conservatism.

Conservatism is all about I GOT MINE AND YOU CAN'T HAVE IT AND YOU ARE DIFFERENT THAN ME AND SO MUST BE BAD. I HAVE TO HATE YOU TO FEEL GOOD ABOUT MYSELF. I DON'T WANT CHANGE. I WANT EVERYTHING TO STAY THE SAME SO I DON'T EVER HAVE TO LOOK AT MYSELF AND THINK THAT MAYBE MY LIFESTYLE IS NOT THE ONLY WAY TO LIVE.

Believe me, if Christ were on earth today, he would be preaching liberalism, just as he did 2000 years ago, and the Limbaughs of the media, the Bush's of the political world and also the leaders of most conservative Christian churches would be calling loudly for his crucifixion. And, I am sure Christ would get to die all over again for our sins!

So, anyway, after years of saying I would, this morning I atually went on line and signed up to be a card carrying member of the ACLU. This act won't change the world, for sure, but I am planning on joining the discussion. Shame on me for living this long as an American citizen and NOT joining the ACLU.

Thursday, October 29th 2009

Another taste of mortality.....

This is not supposed to be about me, but I am feeling it.

My cousin Mark died this morning. He was 61 and it looks like he had cardiac failure in his sleep. His son, Jimmy, emailed me and I talked to him on the phone a short while ago, and also talked with my cousin Jesse, Mark's wife.

Mark and I were not close; never were, particularly, but we were good at exchanging jabs, barbs and witicisms at the family funerals we met at. He was often iconoclastic and always blase about most things. If your feelings would get hurt easily, he could be difficult to have a conversation with. I remember he had a heart attack at least 25 years ago, but had not heard at all that he had lasting problems from that. I don't remember the details, if I actually ever even knew them.

This is bothering me much more than I would have expected, considering I saw him about every 5 years or so. He was the age my brother Bob would be if he had lived (Bob died in a swimming accident in 1975). He was 7 years older than me. I had my very own heart 'episode' just under three years ago. My family is aging and dying off. My sister Judy turned 67 today; her husband Ron is 70. The years are rushing by, summer lasts only a few days, it seems (although winter still seems to last for years at a time!).This is getting serious, here.

So, I am sad for Jimmy and Jesse, who have lost their father and mate, and I am wistful about our family, dwindled as it is becoming.

Monday, October 26th 2009

An hour in New Scotland...

Saturday October 24th was a raw, rainy fall day. My wife and I were driving home along Route 155 in Voorheesville after doing chores. It was the type of weather that, in years past, I would have not considered for photography. I would have gone on home, stayed in, warm and comfortable, thinking about the other things I needed to do, and realizing that an hour was too short of a time in which to be creative.

This time, I saw potential images in the roadside woods and fields. I drove on home, dropped off my wife, kissed her goodbye, and headed back out into the day. It was about 1:30; I had to pick up my little brother, Javontae, at 3PM so we could make the 4PM basketball game at UAlbany. So, I had about an hour to get a few images.

Brightness came and went, interspersed with gray, leaden skies, blowing leaves and smatters of rain. I stopped the car at a likely spot and found various things of interest. I saw red, red berries dripping water, surrounded by dying leaves. I photographed the trace of the old entrance road to Bender Farms. I made images of tapestries of foliage, the same foliage I had been driving by, unaffected, over the last week or so. Near Voorheesville, I stopped at the stream that is hidden right next to Route 155. I had passed this stream hundreds of times and never stopped to look at it. Sure it runs under a culvert, and, sure it isn't quite an Adirondack pristine watercourse. For whatever reason, I had never given it a second thought.

I did today...

As usual, I lost track of time while making these images. I got lost in the moment and forgot everything else for a little while. The muse takes over and the eye travels, and I make an image, then another one, then another one, then...

Then, I came to, and saw that it was about twenty to three. I flew to my car, raced into Albany to Javontae's house, and picked him up about three minurtes late.

Take a look atthe whole gallery at: New Scotland Autumn.

The basketball team looks to be pretty decent this year, by the way!

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

A step back to last year...

Was going through some old images and came across the pictures I made during our vacation week at Raquette Lake last summer. We had stayed at Golden Beach Campground on Raquette Lake and made various day trips here and there while we were there.

A selection of images is in my new Gallery: Raquette Lake 2008.

Last year was the first year I was shooting entirely with my new Canon G9. I was still getting used to it and the idea of being completely film less (and film cost-less) and I can really see a difference between pictures taken last year and those I made this year.

As usual, I was mostly interested in images made during morning mist and had two nice mist days last year. there was one great sunset, too, the first night!

With my new found freedom, I made images of our daily jaunts, also.

At left is the small Ice Cream shop at the marina on Blue Mountain Lake. I had been to Blue Mountain Lake (actually 'BY' it) many times, and last year was the first time I had ever found this spot, tucked down near waters edge. You pretty much have to know where it is or have an eagle eye for small roadside signs to see it. We stopped there a number of times this year, too, while we stayed at Prospect Point Cottages, a short walk away.

We also found a great breakfast diner (Image in the Raquette Lake Gallery) that has since closed. I even took a few images of campers at the campsite, along with some images of the Tahawus Ghost Town and other locations.

The campsite itself, we thought was only OK, but that is mostly because we are much more used to the solitude of wilderness camping. Here, we heard generators during the day, pickups and RV's rumbled past our camp, and people partied well into the wee hours.

Not our favorite way to spend the week, considering we were sleeping in Kim's brother's Pop-Up Trailer and using the public rest rooms.

That all said, we did have a pretty good week. Though it was the COLD week that summer, we still managed to enjoy ourselves. We climbed Blue Mountain, had dinner and saw a movie at this quaint theater in Inlet (this year, too!), did a number of short day hikes, and even drove to and up Whiteface Mountain, at right. You can drive most of the way to the summit, and either take an elevator to the top, or hike a VERY INTERESTING trail to the summit, which we always do.

Again, since Kim and I, and as of this year, Jenna has, usually hike roadless peaks, this was a bit less than satisfying, but still a great place to visit when you don't want to put much effort in.

We won't do a trip like this again, preferring camping at places like Forked Lake or staying in nice cabins like those at Prospect Point, we still had a good time, the kid enjoyed it, and there you have it.

I guess I have to stop being so snooty!

Monday, October 19th 2009

Woke up yesterday morning in a waterfall mood. Same mood I seem to have been in for the last few weeks.

So, got up and drove south to Rensselaerville, up in the Helderbergs, and about a half hour south of Albany.

I was heading for the Rensselaerville Falls near the village, but as usual, got distracted by the quaint look of this historic place.

See my gallery: Rensselaerville October 2009 for a selection of village, falls and a few other images.

The mileage sign at right is posted on a historic building at the main intersection of Route 85 and Main Street. very handy if you need to figure out how long a drive it is to Albany, Boston, or Panama, for instance.

The village itself is very crowded, amazingly so for a tiny hamlet way out in the boonies.

It is generally very well kept up. The people who buy these houses seem very interested in historical preservation. There is a Biological Research Center, the Hyuck Preserve (where I was supposedly heading), The Catalpa House Bed & Breakfast, and the Palmer House Cafe, an upscale restaurant. The hamlet projects artsiness and history. Also nearby is the Rensselaerville Institute Conference Center.

I spent a bit of time wandering Main Street, searching out details without bothering any homeowners, as best I could. This is a popular spot for local amateur and pro photographers, and I would imagine the locals get a bit tired of us, especially those of us who clamber around private property as if we own the joint.

Of course, I was mostly attracted to the old building that was, at one time, I think, a gristmill, known, anyway, as the Mill House. The old boards of the loading dock, right on Main Street, were wonderfully weathered and I spent time making images, like the one at left, of the details.

Time was fleeting, as usual, so I grabbed my tripod and hiked up into the preserve, along Ten Mile Creek, towards the main falls, at right.

Ten Mile Creek flows out of Lake Myosotis, cascades down Rensselaerville Falls, and then continues through the village and beyond, with small riffles and falls every little way and a big dam back at the Mill HouseI mentioned above.

The trail crosses below the falls on a bridge, and includes a nice prominent sign that clearly states, 'No Climbing on the Falls'.

Unfortunately, you just can't get great images of the falls unless you walk just a bit further at water level to where I got this image, at right.

It was slippery and, in spots, I could understand why they want to keep the public away, but I went anyway. I was careful!

On the way back down the trail, I descended to water level for nice rushing water and small falls close-ups.

I was very careful! Really!!!

Just across the bridge at the base of the falls is the remains of the original Felt Mill established in 1870. Tthe preserve itself was created in 1931. Read at the site pointed to by the link 'Felt Mill' above for more information.

Great old native shale walls, covered in green moss, quietly blending into the hemlock forest. I spent a while here making a number of these studies. I am always such a sucker for texture.

After more time along the stream, I got back down to the Mill House on Main Street and made some spillway images just below the bridge.

Then I got back in my car and headed back North on Route 85, past Westerlo and Berne and down the hill to Clarksville, at the base of the Helderbergs. Stopped at Meadowbrook Farm for a few cornstalk images (don't ask me why!).

Was planning on going right home, but a sign for fresh potatoes caught my eye and I turned right in the village in search pf the farm.

Just outside of Clarksville, on the side road, I crossed Onesquethaw Creek and spied a beautiful hollow along the stream.

I stopped teh car and got out and wandered a few minutes, making a few images like the one at right.Got back in the car and off again insearch of those potatoes.

Wound around country roads, probably lost, and then came upon the old pickup and another sign and, there they were, potatoes and brussels sprouts, still on their stalks.

Two bucks for four pounds of potatoes with the dirt still on, how can you go wrong. It was the honor system and I dropped two bills through the slot. Considered the sprouts, but...

Back on the road, came to an intersection and took a left, expecting to get back to Route 443, but ended up further east on Route 32. No problem, I lnew where I was, and was home in less than fifteen minutes.

Took my daughter to her soccer games, her team tied both games, and we FROZE!

Thursday, October 15th, 2009 Post 2

Finishing up Columbus Day.

Wow, a whole day to follow my nose in the Adirondacks. No plans, no commitments, no time constraints (except the limitations of daylight hours); just go where I want and do what I want.

I wanted to take pictures of some favorite spots. A selection of these images are in my new gallery: Columbus Day 2009.

Near Utowana lake is a stream that flows from the south under Route 28 and into the Marion River. I have photographed this stream more than once before but wandered about a half mile up its course this day, making general scenic images but mostly concentrating on details as I have been doing all summer.

The water was luscious, with the usual fallen leaves and tumbled boulders.

Leaving the stream after about an hour, I headed east to Blue Mountain Lake and then north towards Long Lake. Turned left at Deerland Road and drove to Buttermilk Falls. I have photographed this falls many times, in fact, the image on my home page is one of this spot made with my 4X5 Field Camera at just this time of year, abiout 12 years ago.

This time, I looked for wildness and details. Took some different images of the falls themselves, a few of which you can see in the gallery, but then found a large puddle with leaves floating in it; an example at left. Made a number of these.

I have a plan for a new photo book called 'A Reverence for Adirondack Waters' that I hope to compile of recent and older images over the course of teh next 6 months or so. Maybe some publisher will pick it up if it's good enough. It's always good to dream, anyway. At any rate, these are the type of images that I think about for that book.

I didn't derive into Forked lake. I would have been way too tempted to put my boat in the water and I had ideas of other places to visit in the short time I had today.

So, I left Buttermilk, stopped at the Long Lake Stewarts for lunch and then headed north.

Just north of Long lake is the Cedarlands Boy Scout Reservation. A year or two ago, the State of New York purchased a conservation easement to the 5500 acre lands, including McRorie Lake. Under the agreement, as I understand it, the public cannot use the land during summer scouting season, but can go in there and explore off season, which it now was. I had been intending to do this since I first heard of it, and so drove in today.

I was able to drive up Kickerville Road to where you used to be stopped. Now, I was able to drive in a mile or so to a new parking area in a field. I walked about a half mile or so to to the put in at Mud Pond. I hadn't carried my boat in because I didn't know how far it would be. In my gallery, you will see a few images I made along teh way, nothing particularly illuminating. You paddle Mud Pond and down a stream to a carry to McRorie Lake itself. I'll do that another time.

Back on the road, I headed north to Tupper Lake and then east towards Saranac Lake, looking for picture opportunities.

I had seen this wetlands area many times, pictured above, but was never in a position to stop and really look at it. This time I spent a few minutes, and although I didn't climb down to it, it was beautiful and I made a few images like this.

I continued on past Saranac, the day growing late, past Lake Placid, and stopped to witness, for perhaps the 200th time, the view of the high peaks from North Elba. I included one picture of Algonquin in the gallery.

I moved on to the the Cascade Lakes, and stopped, as I have manhy times, to shoot the Cascade itself and reflections and foliage at this beautiful spot.

I then moved on to Chapel Pond, west of Keene Valley on Route 73. A famous rock climbing area, Chapel Pond displays wonderful reflections of the cliffs that rock climbers favor.

The last few images I made were on a tripod low light, long exposure, just as it was getting too dark to see what I was doing. Example at left.

A fine day, time to get home to my girls.

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

Along the Marion River...

Back to Columbus Day, this past Monday. So, I pooted on Utowana Lake for a bit more than an hour. Then I paddled into the Marion River, which flows west out of the lake, towards Raquette lake. A selection of he images I made here are in my gallery: Marion River.

Within a quarter mile, I came to the carry that bypasses a falls and rapids area. The carry was maybe a thrd of a mile along a beautiful path that you could easily drive a car on.

At the low end of the rapids, the put in enters a beautiful river. Fairly strong current, but it was with me, flowing west, and easy to handle in my trusty boat.

The frost was thick here and I was completely distracted, taking image after image of frost covered grasses and shoreline.

I paddled down the river about two miles or so, meandering among the curves and oxbows.

Unfortunately, even though otherwise you would never know it, the river is not far from Route 28, and I could hear trucks and RV's and such grinding up hills and keening around bends in the road, off in the distance, so the experience was not all that wilderness-y.

I saw much evidence of beaver and muskrat activity, and a few otter slides, but, darn it, still no moose. If I were a moose, I wouldn't hang out here, either, what with the road noise and all. Not a luxury resort area to a moose, I'm sure.

After I turned around, I spotted a Great Blue Heron stalking the shore a bit ahead of me. Usually these birds are very wary and won't let you get too close, but this guy was either new to the business or didn't see me as a threat.

At any rate, I got close enough to get a slew of images like this before he finally squawked away.

Back to the carry, I noticed the nice woods on the south side of the trail.

I put the boat down and spent a happy half hour walking around. The area had clearly been extensively logged a while ago and there were still vestigal paths here and there, but the whole area had a real primitive feel to it, untouched, wild and primeval.

The day had clouded up a bit and the light was wonderful, with peeks of sunshine occasionally, warming the trees, and softening the air.

This area used to be more civilized than it appeared now. There was once a railroad between the Marion River and Utowana Lake, serving rich turn of the century (19th to 20th) tourists. There is a site with old postcard photos of the area. I have an image in my Marion River Gallery that shows the area as it looks now. You can compare it to the 'Upper Carry' images posted on that site.

Now, other than the road noise, the area is seemingly pristine, the tourists gone, and only wilderness visitiors like me breaking the solitude.

At left is a fallen tree that completely blocked the river, creating a small, very photogenic waterfall.

This land is all private and posted, allowing the carry pass-through only. So, I was careful about getting my images with minimal tresspassing. That said, I did leave the path for those woods images above and also for this falls image. With my apologies to the landowners who kindly allow my passage, I swear I did no damage and left no trace of my passing.

Philosophically, I am of two minds about this tresspassing stuff. On the one hand, I believe in land ownership, to an extent, and want to abide by the posted signs, especially when the landowner is obligingly allowing me passage. On the other hand, my liberal thoughts wonder why one person or group can, beacuse of their accunmulation of money and power, unilaterally keep the public from using land.

Ownership, in practice, is always temporary. People die, things are sold; the reality is that we are all always ONLY caretakers of whatever we possess in this world. Is it really ours, or does it really belong to a higher power. If so, maybe we should be willing to share more than we do.

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 Post 2

Got up at 4AM this past Monday morning, Columbus Day.

On the road by 4:15, heading up to Utowana Lake and the Marion River, west of Blue Mountain Lake, where we stayed this past summer.

Had my Hornbeck Boat loaded on the car and some cold/damp weather gear with me, expecting it to no longer be summer in the Adirondacks.

I had been wanting to paddle on these two waters for years; had intended to while staying on Blue Mountain lake (they are all connected) but it just never happened. So, here I was, driving north in the dark, ready to spend a few hours exploring.

Got to the path to the put in on Utowana, right next to the sign for the lake on Route 28 west of Bue Mountain, at a tad after 6:30AM, and was on the water well in time for the sunrise.

A beautiful morning!

It was 26 degrees by my car thermometer as I pulled up. A good chilly start.

Not much mist, but there were pockets and tendrils of it floating here and there, enough to add significantly to the dreaminess of the lake.

There was a heavy frost on the grasses and reeds alongthe shore and especially on the small hammocks and islands that dot this, the west end of Utowana lake.

A modest selection of images taken that morning is in my gallery: Utowana Lake, October 2009. I spent a good hour or more pooting about the hammocks and islands, making sunrise images and frost images, toasty in my gear and enjoying myself hugely.

There was just enough air movement to routinely float me away from my selected spot while trying to make images, so it was work, as usual, but worth it.

As the sun rose, the frosted vegetation started to glisten and twinkle.

The deadfall at right was on the shore in a cove just at the entrance to the Marion River. All the branches were covered with a thick frost that shone yellow as the first rays hit it.

I'm a sucker for reflections, especially reflections in morning light. OK, OK, I'm just a sucker for morning light in general.

I coasted along the shores, finding ever new compositions and sights to marvel at. I never get bored with this. It's worth the early drive, the cold, the dampness, all the inconveniences, everything.

I would live here if I could find a way to do it and keep my family happy and fed at the same time. As it is, I steal these moments when I can pull it off, and make do.

The beauty of the digital camera (assuming you carry enough battery power and memory capacity) is that you are no longer worried about the cost of film and, especially, processing. So, you can shoot and shoot and shoot, experiment, experiment, experiment.

Additionally, you can immediately review your results on the screen, seeing an accurate representation of exposure and composition, allowing not only deletion of mistakes, but the realizattion that you got it right or wrong and the opportunity to correct. My percentage of 'Keepers' is so much higher now, and that is a great feat.

These mornings are each unique, and it takes effort to get here on the right type of day and at the right time. I no longer get home after a shoot and, a week later, find that I didn't get what I wanted, and there is no way to go back and get it again.

The opportunities are no longer lost to mistakes, ineptitude, or indecision.

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

Below freezing when I got up this morning.

The front lawn, and our car windshields, were covered with a pretty thick frost. The sun was starting to hit and the lawn was sparkling in the cold.

I grabbed my camera and made a few quick images, just to show what it looked like.

Walking over the lawn made footprints in the frost. I could hear my shoes crunching the frigid grass. The air was brisk and I could see my breath.

In only a shirt, the cold bit at my arms and fingers, warmth from the glow of the rising sun counterbalanced the frost.

The grass glistened.

The yard was dotted with stray fallen leaves.

In the shadow areas, the leaves were well frosted. In the areas where the sun was already hitting, the leaves were clear, but with a rim rime of frost tendrils at their edges.

Being completely lazy, I didn't want to get down low on my knees, get my pants wet, and have to change, just to get a better quality frosted leaf picture for this post. So, no art, here, just an idea of what was there, lazily rendered.

Good photographers KNOW that you have to get down and dirty (and cold and wet) to get the really good images. Not this morning, sorry.

I did what I could, squatting and stretching, holding the camera at arms length. The pictures sucked, but, too bad.

I still had to scrape those windshields!

Saturday, October 10th, 2009

Played a bit more with these same images discussed in the last post.

Decided to play with Duotones. So, changed the image mode to Duotone and played with the colors. Since my images wree already pretty dark and rich, I went with lighter colors. Too dark, and the dark areas mud right up. You can't save Duotones as JPEGS, so after applying my duotone choices, I reset the images back to RGB so that the color tone could be included AND saved as JPEG. A few needed a tad adjustment of the levels.

I didn't do enough to justify a gallery, so here are six of them to look over. As always, I would appreciate any comments via email. Click the 'Email Me' Link above.

Friday, October 9th, 2009 - Post 2

As mentioned in an earlier post (now on my Archive Blog page, see link above), I revisited a selection of the color nature images I made this summer and transformed them into Black and White ('grayscale' is the proper term!) images.

I am presenting them to you in a special gallery at: BW Transformation Fall 2009.

OK, OK, I am on the fence about this. Since I have gone to digital, I no longer shoot in Black and White. There is no need to choose, since I am no longer using the venerable Kodak Tri-X film that I hasd used for my BW image making for years and years.

Now, I can shoot everything in color and simply make images BW at will, still having the color original. So, I have been shooting in color, and enjoying it, and not making BW, except for this year's Avalon Along the Waterline and Avalon Leaves. They were shot in color and changed into B&W.

So, now I have taken some images from the rest of the summer and changed them.

What I see is that I still love Black and White.

The tones and the feel seem more artistic to me. I like the grayscale way of looking at things; we get to see their essence beyond color.

These were all just fine, as far as I am concerned, in color, but a few of them really shine in B&W. Some work better than others.

Interestingly, I am working only with the JPEG versions that my camera made, not the RAW files. I will choose a few of these and go back and visit the RAW files. The Photoshop CS4 RAW Image Processor allows one to process the images as if you could make decisions about light temperature, filtration and exposure duration that you cannot do on already processed JPEGs or any other file format.

Help me out here. I don't care who you are or what your background is. Look over the BW Transformation gallery and send me an email listing your 3 favorites and your 3 least favorites. I'll choose from everyone's favorites and run them through the RIP. See what I get!

Friday, October 9th, 2009

It's fall and coming up to the end of another good weather camping and outdoor season. The leaves are falling, my kid is back in school and playing soccer on weekends, I am coaching, and we have ramped up our routine busy-ness yet again.

We'll still get out a few times, and we do get outdoors in the winter, but our favorite activities, camping and canoeing, are pretty much done till next year.

So, in a bit of a maudlin mood, I am thinking about my favorite place in the world, Forked Lake. The images posted here are from my gallery: Forked Lake Atmosphere.

Most of us have a place that is special to our hearts. For me it is pretty much the entire Adirondack region, but Forked Lake is a strong first among equals. I have spent at least one night camping on this lake every year since 1970, when I was fourteen years old. which makes 2009 my 40th straight year. My wife has done her 21st straight year and Jenna did her eleventh this year, also. It is 'Our' place, now.

I feel a sense of belonging there. I know every bay, every rock outcropping; I have paddled the entire shore, well beyond the confines of the state campsite. I have hiked the surrounding trails, seen deer, bear, bobcats, coyotes (still no moose!), mink, otters, and beaver.

I have paddled the morning mist whenever it offered, portaged over beaver dams while investigating the two swamp inlets, and sat quietly, communing with the silence and freshness of this unspoiled place.

And, yes, I have sat through ferocious storms and cold, damp days.

I have always loved the early morning. The best days are those where the night sky has been clear and the air cold. Fog forms over the water in the wee hours and as the day dawns, the lake is enshrouded in a mist of ever varying thickness.

Some days I can be out and see the sun rise through the mist, casting a glow over everything. Other days the fog is so thick it doesn't burn off until it suddenly lifts hours after sunrise. On still other days, a misty rain or leaden sky have their own beauty.

I am made happy by the fact that my wife and daughter also love it there. They enjoy the yearly sorties to the lake nearly as much as I do.

My wife and I have discussed going a year without visiting Forked Lake on many occasions, but can never quite bring ourselves to do it. It is simply part of our blood.

Over the years, a few friends and family members have come camping with us. There may be new traditions starting up there, too. Our friend Stacy has now come three years in a row with her daughter. She was not a camper before this but now comes back for more, her experience of Forked Lake storms and other crazy weather notwithstanding.

It is the beauty of Forked Lake that caused me to want to take up photography, which has always been, and still is, the avocation and passion of my life. I will never get enough of photographing the lake in the morning mist, of paddling up the swampy inlets, of sitting by the fire under outrageous stars.

I go other places and enjoy other endeavors, but always come back to Forked Lake.

My wife understands that my ashes are to be spread at Forked Lake, so I can rest here after my body has done its job. I will rest in peace.

Monday, October 5th 2009

Had a few free minutes on Saturday and drove up to Thatcher Park, not far from my home.

This is a great place, situated on the northeast edge of the Heldeberg Escarpment. It is a popular day use picnic area and home to the Indian Ladder Trail, which meanders at the base of a roughly 100 foot high cliff, a very popular walk.

I wasn't interested in the trail today, but rather wanted to make images in the woods and along a stream I know of.

As usual, I was immediately distracted by the Overlook and spent a few minutes of my hour taking in the view, an example at right. There was some mist and gray skies which made it more interesting than a sunny day, at least to me. See a selection of images from this hour in my Short Takes gallery: Thatcher Park.

Since it was a cloudy day, the light was perfect for woodsy images. Underexposing and using the tripod (it was too dusky in the woods for hand holding) made for rich colors and an incredible depth to the images.

Again, a major salute to digital technology and my ability to preview results on the LCD screen and not waste film in bracketing and such.

People were picnicing all around me but I had these little pockets of woods and pathways pretty much to myself. Set up the tripod, attached my little gem of a camera and shot away.

I made images of paths and the forest floor. For years I would have done these in Black and White and, in fact, plan to put together a portfolio of a selection of my color images this summer as BW in a week or so, like I did with my Avalon Images in August, so watch out for it.

I kept coming back to the cliff edge path and saw ever changing looks off the edge, including this one, to the right, where the mist had closed back in on the escarpment and obliterated the views off.

I'm a sucker for this kind of stuff.

Time was short, though, I had to get back home soon, so I pushed on the the stream that empties out over the cliff, spraying over the Indian Ladder Trail below.

I crossed the Cliff Edge Trail bridge and heard voices on the trail below.

Me, I left the bridge and started wading up the edges of the stream.

Unlike the Adirondacks and Berkshires, which feature rounded granite rocks and boulders in the watercourses, the Helderbergs and Catskills display flat sedimentary rocks framing the running water and stream bank edges.

Frogs flopped into the water ahead of me as I made my way along. I had to look especially hard to even see them before they splashed; they were pretty much the same color as the dun colored rock and if they weren't moving, blended in almost completely. I think I saw no more than five before they hopped in and swam away, and I heard at least fifty flop-splashes.

No pictures of them at all.

As was true of last week, I was drawn to leaves and rushing water details, and, I feel, took a lot of pictures that look like what I did at Becket last week, but...

I spent about half my time up to my ankles in this stream, along a 100' length!

Thatcher, again, is noted for it's cliffs. At right is a look down a cliff towards the Indian Ladder Trail at the base.

The Indian Ladder Trail used to be longer and ended at a cave renowned for its fossils. As a kid, my dad had taken me along the old section, which was already hard to follow back in 1963. I saw, and went in, the cave, and my uncle collected a few fossils then. That all is now closed off, has been for years; the path now barricaded off and grown in, the cave hidden and hardly talked about. I think researchers can go to it, but not you and me.

I keep thinking that I will climb past the barricade and bushwhack the trail to see if I can get to the cave, just to see it again, but then again, I hate to do something that maybe I should just leave alone.

I'm not the kid I used to be. And, I'm not the kid my father used to be, either!