Schierer Space

Nate’s wake-up call assured that I was up early enough to head out to the coast to capture the first sunrise of the year. It was WICKED cold here with temps in the single digits and a breeze. My normally robust glove liners and mittens were not up to the task as the morning light finally peeked through the ocean clouds.

I stayed to watch the sun climb up through the clouds and illuminate the mist on the ocean. At least until my hands started to get really cold.

This wasn’t quite the earliest glimpse of sun on the USA, but close enough in my book.

Happy New Year!

Sunday morning found Nate wide awake and K&I not wanting to be. K got up on Saturday, so I got Nate dressed and put him in the car for a road trip.
We didn’t go far, just over to Green Lakes State Park in Fayetteville. This past weekend was as beautiful as a central New York fall can be: Mornings that are crisp and cool with the slow rising sun filtering through the steam which rolls off of every waterway. Afternoons with a golden glow as the sun hangs low in the sky to illuminate the crimson and fire of maples trees in all of their glory. Finally, sunsets that last forever and clear purple dusks that fade into the darkening fog of night.

Sunday was just such a morning, and Nate was decked out in his coat and mittens, while I zipped up my thick fleece jacket, slipped on some glove liners and snapped the 70-200mm lens on the camera. A few clicks of the backpack buckles, and Nate & I were off.

The sun had just risen over the hills at the side of the larger of the two lakes and it was catching the tops of the trees as we descended.

When we reached the lake, it was covered in a thin layer of steam, which was rolling along the surface, pushed by a breeze that couldn’t be felt.

We walked quickly to the end of the lake where there is swimming and other activities in the summer. The beach is closed now, and at this hour in the morning, save for a few morning joggers, empty.

The lifeguards are not needed, the boats are pulled up on shore and the buoys rest in expectation of ice to come.

The benches sit idle more than not, basking in the reflected sunlight to store up warmth for the long nights to come. A few cheerful souls do come to sit and eat, and add another memory to this place, but mostly it is still.

Yes, fall is the time of the inevitable, when the trees don their Sunday best for one last dance before the long winter. The grapes glow golden in the morning sun, and store its warmth deep in their roots.

Amidst all of this, we simply walk and smile.

To celebrate Mike and Becki’s engagement, the college crowd staged a photographic scavenger hunt in Albany, NY. Although most of the ‘tag’ pictures were just simply not worth sharing, some were odd or aesthetic enough to post. This wedding shot was certainly a highlight.

I also snagged some shots of central Albany.

The next day K,N & I got up early (or more specifically Nate got up early) and we went for a walk to spare the other ex-revelers a few more moments of rest. This shot taken by Kristin really says it all:

Misty morning in more ways than one.

After another round of Killer Bunnies, we headed out into the Sassatelli woods (not on your map) to enjoy the warm fall day. Eventually, K&N turned back (Nate was walking too slowly to keep up) and I ended up meandering about by myself taking pictures of whatever caught my eye.

Nate and I took a little drive this morning to get out of the house (and give K some peace). It was a morning of empty rainy day roads and misty views of the start of fall color.

As we wandered one sight of interest was a private veterans memorial with it’s very own helicopter.

Eventually, we found ourselves in Deruyter where we stopped at the Red and White Cafe. They had obviously not been open very long as the staff was confused and disorganized and the menu fairly limited. One side of the shop has a candy counter and deli, while the other side has a small seating area and a coffee counter.

Also, minus two points for not having a high chair. No big deal, Nate is well enough behaved to sit on my lap… as long as he’s getting fed. I kept him distracted with the tiny little glass of OJ. Breakfast of 3 pancakes, 3 sausage links and a slice of (luke warm) buttered rye toast arrived fairly quickly. Portions were decent but looked tiny compared to the gargantuan servings we get at Emma’s Diner.^[1] The pancakes were really good though (Nate agreed!), I think they were made with a buckwheat mix or perhaps whole-wheat flower giving them some bite^[2] which complemented the real maple syrup.^[3] We took some latte and pastries home to K. She judged the biscotti (almond apricot if I remember correctly) very good but the cinnamon roll was average. I note that this review is somewhat negative at this point, but I have to say the place was well lit and decorated warmly in an old country store kind of way. The owner (I assume) came by to talk with me several times and she apologized for the lack of high-chair and their general unpreparedness. If I’m in Deruyter for breakfast again, that attention will earn her another visit… we’ll see if they get their act together.

1. Strangely, I have never done a post about breakfast at Emma’s, this will have to be corrected. [↩]
2. In the sense of resistance to bite not that they had little teeth or in the hot pepper sense. Hot pepper pancakes would not go well with Maple syrup. [↩]
3. A requisite in my book for any pancake serving establishment in central New York. [↩]

As promised I’ve posted the best of the Niagara Falls images. (Technically, they are still uploading to the gallery.)

Overall conclusion, misty air around the falls makes for pretty blah photography in general. My favorites out of this set are definitely the macro shots of the flowers. There are a few interesting angles thrown in from when I was able to snap a quick shot between attempts to quickly remove the water from the lens filters.

Also, I’m noticing that the crud on my imager is finally reaching intolerable levels. I’ve been avoiding buying another bottle of Eclipse because it’s such a ripoff to pay $9 shipping on an $9 2-ounce bottle of methanol (half of which will evaporate between uses). Unfortunately, methanol is considered a controlled substance from a shipping to random civilians point of view. Otherwise I could buy very high purity stuff directly from a chem supply house for a fraction of the unit cost.

No time to comment as I’ve already missed too much sleep tonight trying to get stuff wrapped up before the Dragon*Con trek.

After our trip to Canada over the weekend to see Niagara Falls and other sights (pictures to follow in a later posting), we had the joy of experiencing the new and improved US border.

It took us about 2 hours to wait in line with the other cars for about 60 seconds with the border agent. What are we doing with all of the delay if the search is so cursory? I can only assume that somebody is getting the nth degree. The question, of course, is: Is it the right somebody?

Anyway, this sign says it all:

These pics are from the end of June, but for some reason I haven’t gotten around to posting them. K’s folks were out visting so we took Nate to the zoo with them. He was a bit more interested this time, or at least Grammy was able to keep him entertained.

In any case, here are some more pics from Rosamond Gifford Zoo.

We took Nate to the beach on Friday. This wasn’t his first trip to the beach, but the first time the weather was horrible and he was so small we didn’t get him near the water.

This time he played everywhere:

the dry soft sand…

the wet smooshy sand…

splashing at the thin edges of the waves…

watching the waves come in…

and wading in “deep”.

All of which culminated in some fantastic Daddy assisted body surfing.

More trip pics in the gallery.

With the grandparents watching Nate, K & I went down to the beach. After walking along the beach, we stopped in Old Orchard for a bite to eat. Parked at the side of the plaza was the “Conference Bike“*. Neither of us had seen such a thing and it is both a thing of creative beauty and a pretty cool mechanical gadget.

The quadricycle (double wheels at the rear) is powered by all seven riders while one steers and operates the brake and bell. Each rider has a seat and pedals (and can grab on the the circular bar in the middle) which connect by chain to a common drive shaft. The drive shaft is connected using universal joints to form a single drive which operates a heavier chain to the rear wheels.

The front wheels are turned via a steering wheel and what looks to be a rack and pinion type steering setup. The bike was available for rental at $70/hour.

There are other pics from our trip so far up on the gallery.

Earlier this week there was an especially beautiful day on tap so I took off work early and we went to the zoo. This was our first time to the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse. Nate seemed to notice the animals when they would move around and would get fairly excited. The rest of the time he would watch people walking by and point to things that caught his eye.
I, of course, took the opportunity to photograph the various animals and birds. This was a lot of fun, and quite challenging as most of the indoor environments were quite dark. The 70-200mm got quite a workout and I ventured into ISO settings that I normally don’t dare to use. In the end, quite a few shots were pretty compelling, but are not the highest quality due to noise or lack of sharpness from the lighting.

As we were about to leave, we noticed that on of the she-lions was right up against the Plexiglas. This was a nice opportunity to get closer to a lion than I remember being before.

Take a look at the gallery, here are some highlights.