Self Portrait with Bald Eagle

Torrington, Connecticut

OLD/USED BOOKS (and Reindeer)

Ansonia, Connecticut

Plus, a canoe, and Santa, and more.

Cat with Camera

Ansonia, Connecticut

Billboards

Ansonia, Connecticut

Birds

Ansonia, Connecticut

Seagulls hang out over the Naugatuck river valley.

Winter Light, XVIII: Strip Mall

Hamden, Connecticut

Winter Light, XVII

Roxbury, Connecticut

This weird blockhouse with antenna towers and wind gauges sits at the edge of a narrow road between two large fields. Apparently it's some sort of simple but automated control tower for what the locals sometimes call Roxbury International.

Posting may be little interrupted for a few days. Aside from the holiday season we're having major problems with the house heating system. Expensive and uncomfortable to have the boiler roaring away but not sending steam to half the radiators, and getting service people out at this time of year is a nightmare. Then I'll lose a lot of today driving halfway across the state for a medical diagnostic test. Maybe I'll get to make some more Winter Light shots somewhere along the way.

Winter Light, XVI: Retriever Trials

Roxbury, Connecticut

Yesterday afternoon I was looking around for some more winter light material. The sky was completely bald and boring, but the sun was utterly clear and unusually intense for winter. One of the places I went was a small park, large fields of a former dairy farm now open for public use. There are also some pretty nice views of the surrounding hilly terrain since this bit of land is a drumlin with views pretty much 360° around, except as blocked by trees. This is typical of western Connecticut terrain, not especially unusual, but it's open to the public. I'm used to seeing maybe one car parked as someone goes for a run or a walk, but yesterday the place was almost crowded with cars and pickup trucks. It took me a moment to figure out what was going on, but there was some sort of competition or field trial for retriever dogs taking place.

Detail

The dogs were retrieving "ducks" that looked awfully unconvincing to me, but from the preparations I observed the recognition is all about smell.

Winter Light, XV

Woodbury, Connecticut

3:31 this afternoon. Cold out with a biting wind. Not fun to be outside in it.

Winter Light, XIV

Morris, Connecticut

Winter Light, XIII, with more crows

Roxbury, Connecticut

Winter Light, XII

Warren, Connecticut

Stencil

Shelton, Connecticut

Bike

Derby, Connecticut

ONE WAY

Derby, Connecticut

Jove?

Derby, Connecticut

Winter Light, XI: Victory!

Walden, New York

More shadows. It's not quite three o'clock in the afternoon, last Sunday, and the sunlight is coming in nearly horizontal.

B&D TAXI

Walden, New York

Winter Light, X: for the Solstice

Watertown, Connecticut

Saturday I noticed that Tina's car had a nearly flat tire. The tires are brand new, barely a thousand miles on them. I filled it and found the head of a roofing nail dead center in the tread. So Monday morning at dawn I headed for the place where I've gotten replacement tires for more than twenty years. They don't fix flats with a "plug" but do the full repair—dismount the tire, vulcanize a patch from the inside, then mount and balance before putting the wheel back on the car. It can be a pretty busy place, but less so right after they open at seven, so I left in the dark with the temperature about 15° F. Then of course made some pictures while they did the repair.

There's a used car lot neighboring the tire store to the east.

Out back there are some retired semi-trailers that are used as a warehouse for stock.

Over on the west side there's a big nursery/greenhouse place that has been out of business for a number of years now. All looked pretty interesting in the cold winter light as the sun eased up into the frozen sky.

Fitness Pole Dancing

Walden, New York

Winter Light, IX

Derby, Connecticut

Shelton is Hilly

Shelton, Connecticut

Winter Light, VIII: Derby from Shelton

Shelton, Connecticut

Winter Light, VII: Toplands Farm

Roxbury, Connecticut

Winter Tree

Liberty, New York

YOGA RANCH

Woodbourne, New York

Winter Light, VI: Crows, at Toplands Farm

Roxbury, Connecticut

Every Thing Hand Made

Pine Bush, New York

Winter Light, V: Shadows

Ellenville, New York

Sunday I took a day-trip to the part of New York that lies just south of the Catskills. Recently, I'd found that there are some interesting towns there. The weather forecast was for cold air, barely above freezing all day, and dead clear skies. Clear blue skies and unvarnished sunlight are my least favorite shooting conditions but I thought it would be a good way to continue my experiment, trying to find good pictures in winter light. Some pictures from the day have been turning up here, along with the remaining interesting pictures made around the edges of my recent weekend workshop in NYC.

Liberty, New York

What I found in this awful-looking light was that I suddenly became fascinated by shadows. The clear sunlight gives shadow edges with high definition, yet because even at noon the sun is very low in the sky there's a lot of atmospheric diffusion, which makes the shadows relatively "open."

Walden, New York

In mid-summer on a clear day the shadows are so dark it's hard to retain detail in a sun-and-shade picture even with negative film. On December 11th at this latitude, sun-and-shade subject brightness range is an easy catch even for a micro-4/3s sensor.

RESERVED PARKING

Pine Bush, New York

PROFESSIONAL BUILDING

Pine Bush, New York

The Shadow

Walden, New York

Two Storefronts

Ellenville, New York

Ellenville, New York

Fire Hydrant, With Label

Walden, New York

For Colin.

NO OVERNIGHT PARKING

Ellenville, New York

trade only, by appointment

New York, New York

Baldor

New York, New York

Need a Sitter?

New York, New York

GRASS?

New York, New York

POST NO BILLS

New York, New York

Gag a Maggott

New York, New York

It's hard to imagine a less appetizing picture than this awfully Photoshopped English muffin with its congealed pat of butter.

Fog

Roxbury, Connecticut

Wednesday afternoon, rain and fog in unseasonably warm weather. Then it cleared and the temperature dropped dramatically, falling way below freezing last night.