2010 Wall Calendars are Ready!

Click Here to See the 2010 Views Infinitum Calendar!

In these days of iPhones, Blackberries, Internet portals and computerized reminder services, I still find a wall calendar a very welcome, colorful and useful tool for my office and home.  If you feel the same or know of someone who does, check out the 2010 Views Infinitum Wall Calendar.

I have selected 12 of my best photos from the blog from a variety of subjects you see here weekly.  You can preview the entire calender by clicking on the ad to the left or the link above. The calendar is  printed on durable 100lb. paper stock and measures 11 x 17 inches when hung on a wall or bulletin board.  The price is only $19.99 (US currency) plus Shipping.

If you have any questions, leave me a comment and I’ll get right back to you.

Assignment 4 Recap

Looks like you all had some interesting takes on Assignment 4: November.  I would like to report that November in upstate New York as returned to normal.  Grey clouds, rain and colder weather has set in for the rest of the month.

Carsten, one of three Danish contributors here, started us out with a steel gray reflections a on a very still lake.   Then he followed it up something which brightens each of his Novembers the last 20 years or so, his daughter’s birthday.

Anna Preston told us what November means to her with more reflections this time from Kansas.  Don’t be surprised, cows in a red field is something Anna knows how to do well.

Our new friend, Nye, who is living in the southeast of the US by way of southeast Asia, talks about a Blue November with a lot of color and some help from her dog, Max.

Amy-Lynn from the province of Nova Scotia, Canada, joined us for the first time with her take on November living near a sea marsh of gold.

The talented Birgitte from Denmark favored us with one of her collages which alternatively gives us dark and bright images of November.

I chimed in with my take on what happens to all those pumpkins which don’t get chosen for Halloween.

Isa from Switzerland shares with us what her garden looks like in November.  However, she could not help but include her beagle, Ninio.

For awhile this week, I was worried this was all I would get this time.  However, my favorite bloggers came through for me as always.  Thanks!

Kanniduba and TheDailyClick where on the same wavelength with their “What November Means to Me” photo essays.   KD gave a past, present and future look at November in upstate NY.  Michaela, who did a series of November photos on her blog, chronicled what a November in Texas is like.

Our third and newest Dutch contributor, Annemiek, introduced us to the Danish word for autumn, herfst, in some remarkable photos.

Robert from Canada contributed two posts about November.  The first one showed us a discovery of color in the middle of November drab.  He followed that up with a golden walk through the woods once the leaves have all fallen.

Gerry from that wonderful place in Michigan called Torch Lake took a page from Birgitte with her own collage of photos taken from the roadside in November. Gerry submitted a couple more from her cast of Torch Lake Views irregulars with two different views of the same subject.  First, Babs showing her skill with a fast lens gives us a portrait of a milkweed releasing seeds into the wind. Second, Katherine created a textured and artful image of another milkweed plant.

Bernie Kasper from the BFK Photography blog has been recovering from the swine flu but still managed to find and share with us a beautiful November stream.

Deanna, who says her blog started out as a travel blog but ended up a Mommy one, mixed them together and gave us a post of November frost and cruises. Deanna also runs photo challenges on her blog if you are interested.

Lastly, Jennifer slide in at the last minute with her take on November called No Leaves, No Flowers… Thank you for joining us!

This was not the easiest assignment to do.  November seems to be one of those times of the year people would rather not bother to go in.  You all came through with flying colors even if there wasn’t much of that to photograph.

As I said in the introduction to this assignment, this is the last one for 2009.  December is usually a very busy time for everyone including me.  For those who are clicking through to my flickr photos (in the left sidebar), you know I’ll soon be off to the House of Mouse.  Hope you are all ready for it!

View 99: November Pumpkins

Pumpkins sitting in a field in November near Baldwinsville, New York.

Not all pumpkins end up as Halloween Jack-O-Lanterns.  Some are left in the fields to rot and be plowed under like the ones pictured above and below.  I didn’t expect to show you these on such a clear and sunny morning.  November is normally the cloudiest month of the year in upstate New York.  So, this is an atypical look at November for my assignment on November.  However, November does mean the end of the harvest and decay of what’s left behind and these photos definitely reflect that.

Rotting pumpkins left in a field near Baldwinsville, New York in November.

I used my new filter to take these photos.  The Tiffen 77mm Color Graduated Neutral Density 0.6 filter worked to perfection to cut down the bright sky by 2 stops and helped to balance out the exposure.  This allowed me to expose for the pumpkins without blowing out the sky.  The filter worked very well with the Tokina 11-16mm ultra wide angle lens.

Viewpoints II “16×20″

The 2nd photo exhibit by the Syracuse Photographers Association, of which I am a member and contributor to, starts on Friday, November 20, 2009 with an opening reception attended by the exhibiting photographers from 6 to 8pm.  There will be  hors d’oeuvres and liquid refreshments served for all who attend.  Admission is free!

This show features all the photos displayed in matted 16 by 20 inch frames.  Most are for sale by the photographers if you are interested and would make wonderful gifts for the upcoming holidays.  The show runs from November 20 to January 11, 2010.

Click on poster below for a bigger and more readable version.

Viewpoints II, an exhibit by the Syracuse Photographers Assoication.

Click Here for Directions to the Westcott Community Center

Assignment 4: November

Even though time is something Mankind created, each calendar month seems to have a certain feel to it.  It’s reflected in nature and the events placed in the calendar.

I live in the northern hemisphere and in an area which gets four distinct seasons.  November to me is a transition month between the colorful autumn and festivals of October and the winter and holidays of December.  The days grow shorter, darker and colder yet some days are bright and warm.  Nature has prepared with most trees now bare of leaves and a hard frost has stopped growth.  Here in the United States, people celebrate Thanksgiving with family and prepare to go shopping on Black Friday.

November is our final assignment for 2009.  Show me what November means to you.  You can create new photos or use something from your archives on this assignment.

November can be colorful like this sunset I photographed last year at Onondaga Lake Park near Syracuse, New York.

As in the other assignments, do not send me your photos. What I would like you to do is post them on your blog, flickr or other photo sharing site, personal website or any other place on the Internet where you can place a link to it here by making a comment to this blog entry. Then we can visit those sites and learn what we all think of the month of November.

Please, have your photos posted by Wednesday, November 18, 2009. Don’t have a place to post? Might be a good time to start up a blog or join a photo community like flickr or Exposure. As I did for Assignments 1, 2 and 3, I’ll put together a recap with my comments.

If you have any questions, leave me a comment and I will be happy to answer them. By the way, I would really appreciate it if you would help spread the word about this so we can get lots of people to participate. Thanks!

View 98: We are the Champions!

Celebrating 100 years of Baldwinsville High School football, the B’ville Bees varsity football team ran over the Christian Brothers Academy (CBA) by a score of 30-12 in the Carrier Dome on the Syracuse University campus to claim the New York State Section III Football Championship.

B'ville (Baldwinsville) Bees Football team celebrates the New York State Section III Championship in the Carrier Dome.

Running behind a dominating offensive line, Malik Burks (1) ran for 243 yards on 43 rushing attempts and scored 3 touchdowns.  The Bees defense shut down the CBA passing attack in the second half who lead at halftime 12-8.  As an alum of Baldwinsville, I was proud of the team and how they came from behind to win.

Click Here for More Photos from the Baldwinsville vs. CBA NYS Section III Championship Game.

Malik Burks (1) is interviewed by local television after being named Most Valuable Player for Baldwinsville. Baldwinsville defeated CBA to claim the New York State Section III High School Football Championship.

Since this game ended, I have found out the Syracuse University Football program is NOT interested in Malik Burks.  Malik is a senior and is being actively recruited by three other Big East football schools.  This astounded me.  The current SU Football coach is on record as saying he would do his best to recruit the most talented New York high school players.  Yet, here’s the number 3 running back in high school football in the entire nation right in SU’s backyard and they are not interested?  If I was the SU coach, I would not only recruit Malik Burks, I would offer to take the number 44 out of retirement to do so.

A Disney Perspective

The article that follows was posted on the Picture This! Disney Photoblog this morning.  I wanted to show it all to you and point you to Shrew’s Daily Shutters Challenge post on the subject of Perspective.   Perspective is an important concept for us photographers as we search for our views of the world around us.

Perspective is defined as ” to look through”. For photographers, it means to look at something differently. To find new perspectives. At Walt Disney World, where people take millions of photographs each year, finding new perspectives can seem a daunting task. I look at it as finding “my” perspective and sometimes a little help can open up whole new ways of looking at things.

The photo below of Minnie Mouse’s statuette was pointed out to me by another photographer. I have seen similar photos on flickr, too. But, I had never seen it at dusk with an orange castle softly focused in the background which turned out to be “my” perspective on this subject.

Minnie Mouse admiring Cinderella Castle.

Taughannock Falls Panorama

I warned you about seeing more panoramics. Here’s one from Taughannock Falls State Park. This is a vertical panoramic where I kept my camera in the vertical (ie., portrait) orientation while taking the 5 images. I did this hand-held as I found out my tripod’s ball head isn’t very good for doing panoramics. Doing it this way, I sort of missed the bottom of the waterfall. I still like it, yet, I want to go back someday to redo it. As before, to see a bigger version, click on the photo.

Panorama of Taughannock Falls near Ithaca, New York. Click for larger image.

View 97: Enchanted Pumpkins

Major League Baseball's 2009 World Series teams depicted in pumpkins at the Enchanted Beaver Lake event in the Beaver Lake Nature Center near Baldwinsville, New York.

Attended the Enchanted Beaver Lake annual event and walked past some 500 lighted pumpkins carved with traditional Halloween favorites like Jack-O-Lanterns, witches, ghouls and ghosts to sports teams and movie characters.  The trails were dark with only the lighted pumpkins available which added to the enjoyment of the event.  The hot cider and fresh donuts helped, too!

The night was cold so Beaver Lake had a special campfire going to keep people warmed up.

I used the same technique I use for photographing Christmas lights which I wrote about on my Disney photo blog to photograph these pumpkins.

The largest pumpkin had a place of honor overlooking the festivities. He seemed a bit of a joker type to me.

Assignment 3 Recap

I’d like to first thank everyone who participated in my latest photo assignment on the subject of water.  It’s always fun to see how people interpret these assignments.  As I did for my previous assignments, here’s my recap in order of appearance.

We first found out that water in Florida pools is “wetter” and ducks do take to it in this entry by sorrentolens.  Psst, he later clued me in for the reason it’s wetter is because of a chemical used to keep the pools clean.  Science can do some interesting things with water, too.

Next up was an amazing photograph showing a two-colored river from Laos brought  to us by Nye Noona.  Nature sure is full of surprising water tricks.

Jason presented us with a Montana waterfall using the nice long exposure techniques I found wasn’t so easy to do.  Sometimes getting to the waterfall isn’t all that easy either.

Gerry, realizing she lives near a lake, figured she had something for us.  She then proceeded to share some history about Torch Lake and it’s clarity.   Later, one the Torch Lake Irregulars named Katherine, added a photo of water in two states, liquid and gas, in a haunting photo of a lake at rest.

Sharing how a photo can emotionally affect us once the story behind it is revealed,  Valerie recounts how frozen water near a tragic airplane crash site close to her home looked like nature was weeping for the victims.

The Daily Click, on a trip to Galveston (uh, oh, now I got that song in my head!), shows us the power and beauty water brings to those living on the U. S. Gulf Coast.

Birgitte checked in from Denmark with a tale of how a body of water has affected her country’s history over the centuries in a stunning use of storytelling photography.  Birgitte’s sister, Tone, using her mobile phone camera joined in (literally) with this excellent self-portrait.

Carsten tuned “just a puddle” into a work of art.  To me, he showed the relationship between the Sun and water and how we need both to survive here on Earth.  Also, don’t miss his other water post which you can get to from the first link.

I chimed in with a ping from my post about how a little creek created a large gorge by cutting through hundreds of feet of rock via moving water.

The husband and wife tag team from Kansas, Anna and Preston Surface, brought us two very different water photos.  Anna showed us one of her lovely “water colored” versions of a quiet creek with fall colors on it’s banks in a nice use of natural framing.  Preston’s gave us a photo-journalistic view of how water is life and must be shared.

Mike Criss gave me a personal reminder of a temperate rain forest waterfall he shared with us from Alaska which took me back to a time I spent in Olympic National Park along with the feel and smells of an ecosystem most people don’t associate with North America.  Thanks, Mike!

A Half Hour A Day dived into the assignment with first an autumn view of Lake George then a first attempt at photographing a drop of water into a bowl of water.  This exercise turned into not a only a learning one but a therapeutic one, too.

Shrew showed how stopping water in action can be just as dramatic as using long shutter speeds.  Still think that is a cutout and not a real person.

Even after a long absence, this assignment was a great success.  You people are all very talented and creative.  I got one more assignment for this year which I’ll post in a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, check out two other blogs which invite you to stretch your photographic muscles: Shrew wants you to show some perspective and Darwin is looking for Fall Photos but both need your submissions by October 31, 2009!  Read their posts carefully on how to join in.