Shared From Mountaindale After Dark...Should Have Been Here From Start

After The Storm...a Couple Photographs

This week it has been more like winter here in Downtown Mountaindale, the temperatures today warmer, but still a bit nippy.  A lot of times (read that to mean most of the time) I have my Canon Rebel digital camera beside me in the car when I go out to run errands, and the other day was no exception.  One never knows when something or another will catch your eye, and sometimes lady luck shines on your camera and the results are a photograph or two worth sharing. 

Sitting here in my apartment trying to stay warm this afternoon I downloaded images from my camera, and a couple pictures I happen to really like and thought I would share them here for everyone to enjoy.

As you leave the "Town of Fallsburgh" heading toward the Shop Rite in Thompson, New York you'll see these power poles off to your left about two miles out of town.  It had stopped snowing, but there was a misting rain in the air, the sheen of ice could still be seen on many of the trees branches along the drive, and the road conditions saw me moving along slower than most days.  I've passed these power poles numerous times, and they just not not shout out to me, but on this day, the poles in unison just seemed to speak out in unison, "Take our picture".

I so covet these lens!

Seeing the results, very happy that this was a day when my camera was with me in the car, and that I happened to have my 55-250mm Zoom lens on the box.    For the money, you just cannot beat the Canon Rebel EOS, though, if I win the lottery, would love to have a full set of their top of the Zoom Lens with all the bells and whistles on them.  For that matter, I would love just being able to shoot with these lens for say one week...especially if I could pick any location in the world for that one week.  Wondering if Canon has any need for a product tester in Sullivan County NY?  I will work for free if I get to keep anything I test...can I give you a wish list?  Anything on this page I would so die for...OK, not die, but drool over in a covetous fashion...did I mention my birthday was last week?  Of course, thinking if I got that incredible EF 800mm f/5.6L IS USM   or the EF 400mm f/2.8L IS USM  I would need to invest in a new box for such incredible lens.

Another couple of pictures I snapped were at the entrance to our own "Rails to Trails" here in Mountaindale, including one of the Train Garden in the proverbial dead of winter.    This one is not as spectacular as the one above, but still liked it, perhaps because I spent so much of this past summer working on the trail during the installation of our "Train Garden".    I also just have an affinity for pictures that just seem to fade into infinity, almost always stop when I see a road or path that seems to present a feeling of great depth.  Streams are another one of those  subject matters that quickly catches my attention for the very same reason.

Sure for those of us who spent our summer working on the train garden will find this winter shot of our sculptural interpretation fun.  Waiting for spring so we can see how many of our garden perennials survived after the drubbing they took in last year's hurricane.  The garden is definitely going to need some TLC this spring, as is the portion of the trail just up from it that was all but washed out.  Of course, looking at how hard some of our neighboring communities were hit by Hurricane Irene, we here in Mountaindale can count ourselves very lucky.
 

For those of you who have gotten this far, just a reminder that Sunday March 10th, 2012 will  see Rock Hill hosting the Second Annual Rock Hill Saint Patrick's Day Parade beginning at 12 Noon.

Also on March 10th, the Sullivan Renaissance Annual Conference, which officially kicks off this years Sullivan Renaissance Project season.  Applications for the 2012 Sullivan Renaissance Program are available online, and due in their office no later than 5 PM on March 21, 2012.

There is Something Majestic In Architectural Decay

The past few days, camera in hand I have been walking, driving around our area of Sullivan county taking shots of derelict beauty, old decaying homes, bungalows and buildings that seem to be almost everywhere in this area, testament to glory days long ago past into the history books, even these remnants slowly giving up their ghosts as Mother Nature reclaims her own. There are stories in most of these crumbling architectural skeletons, hand stitches curtains blowing in the wind, the pane of glass once protecting them broken, jagged glinting as the sun shines across its surface. Peeking through a door almost off it's hinges you spy an old chair, or perhaps a sofa, most of its stuffing gone, perhaps carried away by birds every spring during mating season.

Closing my eyes, can almost see a house back in the day, children flitting to and fro, laughter filling the air. Seeing the old cook stove, can see a mother, aunt or older sister putting on a pot of stew, or perhaps baking muffins in the oven below. Walking around the place, you see old discarded steel lawn chairs from maybe the 1940's rusted, still taking up residence under a giant oak tree, the green moss creeping up the trunk.

Done with one dying relic, I return to my car moving down the road, stopping at an overlook that has played and continues to play host to thousands upon thousands of summer visitors, the place quite except for the sounds of rushing water on this cold winter day. I left the formal structure, scampering over boulders left back in the days when glaziers receded back too their homes found far further north than where I stood. I snapped more pictures, capturing the movement and the season in my lens. The scene so different, devoid of the children playing along the water's edge that summer is used to...does the river here miss that noise, is it aware of the changing seasons, looking forward to the spring still months away?

Just a Few Photographs

Trying to spend some time in the new year being more creative, while at the same time also working at being healthier, losing a bit of weight. To that end, grabbed my Canon Rebel this morning and went out for a walk of about two miles, snapping some photographs along the way that I thought I would share here.

This first one was taken along the Rails to Trails corridor heading toward Woodridge. Love the color of the leaves, so muted and ethereal against the green of the pine needs.

I have an affinity for old abandoned buildings, decaying relics of days gone by. This door was found behind one of the many abandoned homes that dot the landscape here in our small hamlet of Mountaindale and its surrounding area.

This next picture is a close up of the same door, the decorative work on the door plate quite stunning. Of the two, the second one is my own favorite, as it is emblematic of the attention to detail that you do not see today in pretty much everything. Back then, the most mundane items had a flair to them, a small bit of decoration making the ordinary extraordinary. This particular building provided several hidden treasures as I walked around its exterior.

This cast iron knoll post from the front stairs of the building was tucked under a small covered entryway into the basement of the building and would have been tempted to bring one home to display in my livingroom, but would have needed a couple of very strong bodies with me, or a dolly to have gotten it back to my apartment, and God only knows how I would get it up the stairs and into the front room, but do love it. As a subject of a photograph, love the muted pastel palette of the photograph.

In front of the building, the columns were yet another surprise, the lead green paint tenaciously holding on in some areas provides beautiful texture as well as stunningly unexpected color.

This one walk around a forgotten building turned out to be a photographer's dream, and it just goes to show you, that if you look closely, there are beautiful pictures to be found almost anywhere if you have your eyes looking for them. It was cold out, and after these pictures, headed back home to get warm, though I would take my camera with me later in the day on my trip to Ellenville.

Again, as I was driving down 209 found a few more pictures that saw me stopping my car, grabbing the camera and snapping away, capturing the moment forever in a digital pic.

Mother Nature at her finest...so simple, and yet so beautiful. Thinking this one would also make a great pencil drawing one day this winter when the snow is flying and I find myself trapped inside looking for something to amuse myself with for a few hours. Snapped this next one about 50 yards down, same subject matter, but has a completely different feel because of the background colors.

It was a good day for taking photographs, and I have several more that I may share over the next few days. I leave you though with just one more...windows on an old house that I stumbled upon while out for a drive on New year's day. Again, took several photographs of this home, it's windows, each one of them beautiful treasures evoking feelings of a time long ago past.

Hope you have enjoyed my photo montage. Not sure how good I am at it (digital photography is still new to me), but do enjoy the whole process involved, though have to admit I miss the good old days when you went out with a few rolls of TRI X 400 ASA film, then spent a couple of days playing in the darkroom. Times like this, show my age, as well as my old school ways when it comes to things creative, though I will admit it is fun being able to so quickly play with and change photographs taken with digital technology.