August 21st, 2010 by Max
Last week Jen PO and I went looking for Osprey and all the natives of my favorite swamp. Ethel and Albert were, for the first time this summer, not at home. The kid has flown and maybe they were taking a break.
We never got real close to any of the big birds, but we got a few shots. We did see an eagle or two.
The nice thing was that the Egrets are back and that timing isn’t always easy to make. They pass through. Next time they might be gone.
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August 7th, 2010 by Max
Just go out where there’s a shallow pond, a riverbank or any place where water stands, and you’re likely to see life. This river overflow floodplane pond down in Deposit, NY has seen its share of Herons and Kingfishers but a surprising lack of ducks.
I stopped by the other day and got hit with a Mallard.
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August 5th, 2010 by Max
Last month I went to Montezuma, I know, rare trip to the wildlife refuge. And Drove about a mile and a half up the +4 mile main pool drive and had to turn around, the main trail was closed. But on my way back I saw out the drivers window a Great Blue Heron that I had missed on the way up. He was down a 5 ft embankment, but real close. So I got out of the car and took a hand ful of pictures before he flew off. [They have this amazing way of knowing when you're changing the camera settings, and so ... no flying pictures.]
So, though people have seen a million GBH pictures on my blog before, here are two of the better ones I’ve ever made.
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July 23rd, 2010 by Max
There’s two Osprey in particular that I find, every time I go to Montezuma. A nested pair that I call Albert and Ethel. Ethel lost a couple feathers.
Here are some more looks at them.
Check out the Great Blue Heron in the first one. Twice in two weeks the Herons and the Ospreys had a war of words. As he flies away – to me – the heron looks like a Pterodactyl.
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July 19th, 2010 by Max
Tourists and artists hang out in Windham deep in the heart of Delaware County, NY. Not exactly a sleepy little town Windham is a smaller eastern version of what I imagine Aspen to be. A destination for skiers and in the summer a destination for vacationers with a standing thriving artists community.
Stamford. A little less rural, but still rural, no regional ski center right up the hill, but a vacationers paradise anyway and another home for rural artists.
The Catskills, like the Finger Lakes and the Adirondacks, also are among the green and blue beautiful upstate vacation destinations that so many people can’t imagine are part of New York. Shhh! Don’t tell anyone.
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July 17th, 2010 by Max
Check out the flying green heron. And the dinosaur headdress spike thing.
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July 15th, 2010 by Max
The Guinea Hens live just down the road … and seemingly IN the road. Sometimes at their own peril according to the woman who owns them where they lived on the other of the street.
The Blue Jay was in my back yard eating my blueberries. Do you suppose there is some connection?
I’m pretty happy with the stop action shots.
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July 10th, 2010 by Max
Here are the rest of the houses I photographed in Sharon Springs. Note the size of the hotels and how many of the houses are tucked in among trees. The place was at once bucolic and grand. And its making a comeback.
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July 10th, 2010 by Max
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July 9th, 2010 by Max
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July 8th, 2010 by Max
The next week or so will be my NY houses and such from a couple trips around upstate I recently took.
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July 7th, 2010 by Max
Nestled at the base of the Catskill mountains, Stamford, NY, verdant and lively, holds the dreams of vacationers and adventurers alike, summer and winter, and oh God especially the fall.
Nurtured in a brightly lit studio in Stamford (as well as many other locations in the region) art is growing wildly. If you happen down the main drag in this bucolic little village any time in the summer however, you just might see Tim Touhey pounding on his bongos, soaking up the green and the scenery and opening his life to his experience of life.
You’ll need to get over the romantic notion that he’s sitting here watching the cars, stuck like so many creative souls, art blocked and desperate, for Tim lives his life with passion.
Step inside, the artist will gladly take you on a tour of his paintings, his sculpture, and his passion. And the passion is there. Tim’s art is high energy, brightly colored, electric stuff that jumps off the walls of his long and open feeling studio. Angular lines vibrate like the heads of the bongos pulsing with a wildness that affirms live and nearly bursts off his canvasses.
Post modern? Who knows? Expressionistic probably. But who cares about labels. Just stand in the white bright studio and let your eye wander over wild pastels and passionate oils. A year ago a friend and I stood there talking with Tim and feeling the art, each with our own favorites. Mine, sadly perhaps, were the more composed, controlled and defined sheets. Her’s the wild abandon more random choices. All colorful and lively. There were more than enough to make us wish we could buy that one and that one and that one!
The thing, well a thing, that makes the artist unique is that he’s persevered. He’s done the thing. Making a living creating art is difficult. Its easy to give up. Look down the hall in any magazine’s creative department, any manufacturer’s [for as an art teacher once told me "Anything that has been made, has been drawn first."] and you’ll see artists. All of them artists, and nearly all of them doing what they’re doing to make a living, and doing what they love in their soul in the after times.
Tim does what he loves every day. And he’s making a living at it. Its still a quiet living, in that quiet town at the edge of the Catskills. So go see Tim. Go feel the life in his paintings. And if you’re lucky he may even play something for you on his grand piano!
A man with this much talent, who does what he loves, must be appreciated. If you can … make an investment in art. You’ll appreciate it later.
http://www.touhey.com/index.html
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July 7th, 2010 by Max
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July 6th, 2010 by Max
More of around the state:
Note the strange sculptures. Down near a fishing access site near Schnevous Creek by Oneonta there were these sculptures. Some pentagrams. It looks like a cross tipped sideways and something that just looks like a jumble to me. Not sure what it all means, didn’t want to fish there though.
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July 5th, 2010 by Max
This is actually on the way to Ithaca. The title is a little personal joke. Lisle is a small small town with 3 municipalities (Lisle, Center Lisle, and Upper Lisle). I figure if I hit enough back roads there’s probably a “Slightly west of Upper Lisle around somewhere.
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July 4th, 2010 by Max
Our next little tour through the countryside involves a pair of road trips. Mostly this will be more of my NY houses, but who can resist a train. I took this one from three angles, because I couldn’t figure out the best approach to take. When I got the images home I realized they kind of work as a set. And no, I wasn’t hit by the train. In fact, it wasn’t moving.
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July 3rd, 2010 by Max
More birds. Various situations. I particularly like it when I get a sequence of a big bird landing like this Great Blue Heron. I think its a touch more elegant than the earlier post of the red faced Moorehen. Though I have a fondness for them too. And Cormorants [which aren't here]. I like Cormorants. Oh, and Coots too. My favorite duck like birds are Mallards, Cormorants, Coots and Moorhens.
My favorite wading birds are the Herons of all colors … and I like the Ibis too!!!
But my favorite birds are probably the Osprey, though, yes, I like all the raptors.
When I see a swan like this I think, “Do they really fly?”
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July 2nd, 2010 by Max
Its not uncommon to see deer at Montezuma. I’ve even seen them standing knee deep in swamp water to eat berries. This one was just out in the field, where there really isn’t much and not too far from the NYS Thruway [Don't worry, there's a fence] on the back part headed toward RT 89 and the exit. What I didn’t see till I processed these pictures, was that it looks like there’s a little one in the high grass possibly feeding off Mom. She stayed a bit of a long time and I didn’t see a baby run away, but the big one bounced like a spring.
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This buck was at another location at the site, and way off. I just shot it to see what was next to the deer, but finding even a 4 point buck in the middle of the day, its pretty unusual.
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This one is just a throw in. I call it a Zombie deer. It was in a holler with little light and the flash snapped on. iPhoto didn’t handle the “red eye” well.
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July 1st, 2010 by Max
This time of year the colors begin to appear. I didn’t take any of my typical pictures of the purple flowers. I saw a show that said that some of them are interlopers and are crowding out the more desirable species.
Yes it sounds a little presumptuous to say which ones are desireable, but the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge makes just these decisions. They even drain the land, pull some plants and plant others which are preferred by ducks and other water birds. And, they push the very land around.
I think they know what they’re doing. But I too get frustrated with the meddling. On the other hand, the place is always different. If its not the people, its the time of year. I ALWAYS see something interesting up at Montezuma
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June 30th, 2010 by Max
These two Osprey were not friends. The female was sitting on the nest. These two, I think are males, the one coming from the left just passing through, but he’s flying over the nest. (A nest I later found out had had one egg not open and one small osprey baby disappear – the staff thinks it blew out in a storm).
I think the one on the right just was saying “Keep right on going”. Of course the shots with them actually tangling didn’t come out. The bird on the right followed the other all the way across the highway and out of sight.
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