The Red Brick Church in Berkshire, NY

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I live next to a church that sits right on the corner of Route 38 and Glen Rd here in Berkshire, N.Y.  It's a pretty neat looking old building.  I have no idea how long it has been around for - I'm guessing a while anyway.  Admittedly, I don't spend much time in churches - most of my Sunday's are at races or football games. I did happen to pop into this particular church a year or two ago - they were having a bake sale, or maybe a blood drive?  I don't know - I forget now - but I had to physically go inside of the place.  Once in I happened to get a peak of the main room where the pews and stuff are.  I decided right then and there that I had to speak with the "Padre", as I call him, and see if I could get permission to shoot the interior of his church 'cause it looked pretty cool in there.  :)  ( I'm guessing maybe he's a "Minister"?  It's not a Catholic church -- I dunno what kind it is -- but I like Clint Eastwood's use of Padre from some of his old westerns ... <grin>  )

The Padre' here at this church - he's a pretty cool and interesting guy whom I have met on more than a few occasions locally and he was more than willing to hear me out.  We agreed that I should just keep in touch and let him know if /when we wanted to see if we could do this.  That was late last summer.  This past Thursday morning I happened to notice that the (now low and early rising sun) was basking the church once again as seen in the top photo.  It was time to speak with the Padre' ...

My thinking is that the church, being situated and facing more or less to the east, early morning sunlight would be best.  I'd hoped to catch the stained glass windows getting illuminated via mr. sun and the interior in general taking on a nice "glow".

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I'll be adding more photo's to this post over the next few days ..  I wound up bracketing and doing some HDR as it was pretty dark in there.  We turned up a couple of the lights but that just killed the atmosphere that I wanted / was looking for so - tripod, cable release and slow'ish shutter speeds were the order of the day.

This was a learning experience ...  wouldn't mind trying a do-over.  | Click the photo to view it larger | Click here to view it really large (3600px)

Last ones ...

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WNYOA 2014 Round #3

Round 3 is now in the books and it turned out to be a great day for racing and the racing itself was great too! I've got a couple of neat little panorama style shots that I wanted to share with everyone from the start / staging area of both the Big Bikes and Big Quads races, and since I'm now into the Big Bikes and Quads photo's I figured that I would just throw a couple more images into this post and then call it a day.  All of the mornings races (Pee Wee's) are already loaded up at the galleries.  You can check them out here.  ( along with the other races as they go up )

This was the start line area for the Big Bikes about 30-45 minutes prior to the actual start of the race. There were still a number of racers who hadn't even come out to staging yet.  There was some good racing to be had and, as you can see, spectacular weather to enjoy it in!

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I moved in to see if I could get one from a closer perspective but because I'm not very tall I just wind up aiming the camera in the right general direction with it held aloft over my head.  Look at this one large - it has some problems as the pano didn't stitch together all that well.  I "corrected" some of the really bad ones (people missing heads or having hollow bodies...  lol ! ) but there are still at least two pretty bad ones in there that I left - see if you can spot them (and others... :)  )

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So it was race time and the premier event of the day was on the line.  the AA/Pro class field is especially stacked this year with really good riders and it has proven so far to be a good one to watch.  I deployed "mister remote" for the first time ( a remotely triggered camera ) and it was able to grab a few interesting shots from its vantage point for the start of the bikes.  "The Bat" Ben Bouwens on his #23 Yamaha came out of the first turn like a shot and grabbed the holeshot.  "Old man" Scottie Rich was hot on his tail pipe with the rest of the field in furious pursuit.  Interestingly enough the defending WNYOA #1 plate of Grant Maryott came through my shooting position in what appeared to be near last place.  Two hours and several laps later it was role reversal.  Maryott demonstrated why he is riding the red #1 plate as he worked his way up through the field and not only caught the flying Bat but overtook him, and at the end of the day left him some 30 or 40 seconds in errors.  Anyone who knows the WNYOA series and has watched it over the years knows that Bouwens is tough - simply keeping up with him is one thing - but to chase him down AND pass him?  Dude ...  !  If everyone on the front line can stay healthy and minimize mechanicals we as spectators could be in for a really good year of AA Big Bike racing!

Bouwens grabbed the early lead and held it for quite a while. This was as captured by "mister remote" | Click the photo to view it larger

Bouwens grabbed the early lead and held it for quite a while. The Bat would have to settle for a 2nd place finish on the day though as a hard charging Maryott caught and passed him.  This was as captured from my shooting position with the other camera | Click the photo to view it larger

Maryott didn't get the greatest of starts for the day but ...  (see next photo). This was as captured by "mister remote" | Click the photo to view it larger

Maryott rode hard and determined which paid dividends at the end of the day. The #1 plate was number #1 coming through the checkered flag.  This was as captured from my shooting position with the other camera | Click the photo to view it larger

This was the start line area for the Big Quads about 30-45 minutes prior to the actual start of the race. There were still a number of racers who hadn't even come out to staging yet.  Yep -- good turnout!

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The Big Yellow Tree

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I've been noticing this tree for the last couple of weeks as I head north on route 46 out of Munnsville.  It has been yellow like this for sometime now and I've been tempted to shoot it but I just hadn't - until today.

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With all of the greens of the grass, fields, and even tree's finally starting to come into full bloom, and the brilliant blue sky and the light'ish wispy clouds as a backdrop this tree looked all the more commanding, and it's yellow color was particularly brilliant.  I was hoping to try and capture that, plus the vibrancy of the overall scene itself.  Initially I just pulled the car off to the side of the road and grabbed a frame or two but I *had* to actually get into and onto the field where this thing lives.  I look around and there is a house right across the road from it.  A singular house - no others around.  This has got to be the property owner... so I walk up the driveway and note that it appears that the back porch / door is the most oft used entrance to the place.  There is a person inside - it's a beautiful day out and people have the doors open letting in fresh air.  I knock as a nice woman answers and calls to her husband at the same time.  I inquirer re: are you the property owners of the field across the road.  They, almost in unison, note the camera in hand and laugh saying "Yes - go ahead - you can go over there and take some pictures.... "  They seemed to be a nice enough couple (older couple) - the gentleman even stepped outside with me and was telling me about some other cool stuff that might make for some good photo's and was pointing me in the general direction where some of these things are.  He looked off sort of longingly at one point and muttered ".... well used to be down that-away anyways ...  been a few years since I've been down there myself ...  "

I thanked them for their time and for letting me go onto the property to make some photo's.  I'll show them these on my tablet and get a print or two made up for them if they'd like.

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18 March

This morning going into work...   she was thinking about crossing the road.  We sat a looked at one another for a moment or two.  Yup - she was thinking about it . . .   her little friend in the background though was like "...  uhhhh....  I don't know - we should turn back.... "

They turned back.  :)  This was near Morrisville, N.Y.

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I saw this on my way home.  I like blue.  I really.like.blue.  And the sun.  I've always been a self proclaimed sun god worshipper.  Hot good, cold bad.  It's just that simple.  :)  This one was up on the ridge just above and slightly north of Munnsville, N.Y. dropping down onto route 46.

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Photo for Feb 26 '14

I went exploring back roads again on my way home tonight.  I was successful in that for a while I really and truly didn't quite know where I was, or frankly, how I managed to get there.  This was one such road / scene I encountered.  I quite honestly have no idea where it is - and for that matter - if I could find it again.  I'm thinking I probably could - and likely will.  I will head back out this way come spring time.  I saw some really cool looking old barns and stuff - must explorer further.

Anyway - todays picture.  :)

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Morning After the Big Storm

....  driving into work I happened to notice this near Virgil, NY.

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Nikon Repair of my 24-70 Lens (NOT)

....  as many of you know I killed my Nikon D700 and Nikkor 24-70mm lens a month or two ago while at the races.  I slipped on some (unseen) ice and went down very hard.  The aforementioned hardware went down even harder and basically got banged up pretty bad.  ( the lens was actually snapped in two...  )

Readers digest:  I created a little gallery for visual purposes and had some of the Nikon repair guys look at it to see if they could tell me if it was repairable or just a big heavy paperweight.  They indicated the former (fixable) and recommended that I send it in.  Today I get notification from the repair facility that it CANNOT be (economically) fixed and that it will cost more to fix it than it would be for me to purchase a refurb'd unit.

{sigh}  Feeling like I was led on . . . .   :(  I was give a $650'ish dollar figure to fix.  I'm told a refurb will run me $1400. 

Grrrrrr .....    not entirely happy.

The body is fixable ( I guess ...  I haven't heard any change of mind from them with that - yet ).

{another sigh}

The top of Crow Hill Rd. near Munnsville, NY.

In the meantime -- I grabbed the shot above this morning on my way into work and just quick post processed it on my laptop here at work.  I don't have photoshop installed on this thing but I do have lightroom.  It is an 8 frame pano (handheld / vertical).  I exported the raw files out to .jpg's, and then brought them into the freeware Hugin software to generate the pano.  It's not bad ...  the one propeller on the right hand side didn't line up very well but ...  for not spending any time on it and, again, free software.

I'll likely re-do it, clean it up with photoshop when I get home tonight where I can use layers to fix things if need be.

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm lens