No Pun Intended
Some sights from last post.
Moss on the edge of upper Taughannock Gorge cliff, with the falls in background far below.
The last flower of autumn, a single bloom of Ironweed.
An Autumn Revalation
After leaf fall abrupt emptiness of Taughannock Falls is visible from the south rim. Beyond, you can just make out the enormous carved limestone slabs that protect visitors from the constant infall from the gorge walls allowing them to approach the falls.
Black Valley
Here we are standing in Moll’s Gap, looking northwest into Black Valley, a place so remote it was among the last, on the island itself (“mainland”) to be electrified or connected to telephone networks.
Beneath our feet are the slopes of Derrygarriff (in Irish Doire Gharbh) of the Mangerton range. Across the way is Crossderry peak of the Dunkerron mountains, the townland is named for the peak. Black Valley, now a southerly route to the Gap of Dunloe well known to certain hikers and cyclists, is beyond the far mountains.
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Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Holding On
The oak holds tight to leaves, sometimes until spring when new growth pushes last year’s off. Here is a cluster on a bright November afternoon hanging above the South Rim trail of Taughannock Falls Park of the New York State Finger Lakes Region.
Here we are in Moll’s Gap, also known in the Irish language as Céim an Daimh (meaning, Gap of the Ox)
Here we are, on the road from Kenmare to Killarney, N71, part of the Ring of Kerry around the Iveragh Peninsula. The spot is the mountain pass Moll’s Gap, also known in the Irish language as Céim an Daimh (meaning, Gap of the Ox). In the Nineteenth Century a woman named Moll Kissane ran a public house here, operating illegally.
The mountain of this townland, named Eirk (also known as Adhard) , is composed of a fine grained sandstone found in a wide swath from North America’s northeastern coast, Greenland, Ireland, Great Britain — lands formerly part of the same ancient continent.
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Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Winter Preparation
Perched on its doorstep, an Eastern Chipmunk gorges on an ample supply of acorns. These small rodents are omnivores. Here are two shots, each with an acorn in hand and full cheek pouches.
catching late light
This evening cirrus clouds filled the sky at sunset. View the following photographs to understand how these forms are named from the Latin word for a ringlet, or curl, of hair. Formed above 16,500 feet, on this day the cirrus glow with the light of a sun low in the sky.
Here is a wide view from our driveway that includes a deteriorating con trail and possibly a mixture of other cloud types, I am no expert. I used a Canon “zoom” lens for flexibility in framing. To minimize exposure time for a crisp capture of the moving object, ISO was set to to 1,000 and the f-stop minimized.
Post production I needed to spend time removing dust spots (neglected to clean the image sensor), some of the images still have those annoying spots.
We enjoy looking west across the valley when the hills are glowing.
References: search for Cirrus Cloud on Wikipedia.
first photographs for a recent National Registry of Historic Places listing
Wiki Loves Monuments 2017 is a contest that closed September 30, 2017.
Click for Wiki Loves Monuments 2017 contest
The National Register of Historic Place # 16000590, the Dennis-Newton House of Ithaca, New York is a recent listing, dated September 6, 2016. In researching potential for the Wiki contest, I discovered this place was absent a photograph. Seizing the opportunity, I grabbed these photographs the same session as the suppressed Ithaca Pottery Site, published in my blog in April.
The location was a revelation, around the corner and a few blocks down from our son and daughter-in-law’s house where they are raising three (of our 12) grandchildren, across the street from where the children take swim lessons. Parking in downtown Ithaca is incredibly coveted and I was not motivated to shoot during the golden hour where cars would, maybe, not be parked out front and the light perfect for the west-facing façade.
Above is the street frontage of 421 N. Albany Street, Ithaca, New York, a home privately owned. The house is as originally constructed and considered the birthplace of Cornell’s Alpha Phi Alpha, the first Greek letter, African-American collegiate fraternity established from this location in 1907.
Named for the original owner, Norman Dennis who built it around 1870 and a later owner, Edward Newton, who is directly connected with the early years of Alpha Phi Alpha; the house was recently renovated with a building permit still posted in the porch window, partially obstructed by glare.
The frontage view is partially obstructed by a Black Maple (Acer nigrum) and provides shade from the afternoon sun.
To compensate for the time of day, the tree and parked cars I captured interesting details of the front porch. The time was day was perfect for photographing these and, in the golden hour, will be unevenly illuminated. Note the elegant door glass panels, solid wood door and trim with original porcelain and metal door knobs and lock. Porch trim includes decorative brackets, spandrels, posts.
Here is a different angle on the porch trim to include the porch’s fancy balusters and rails. The decorative head on the window is wonderful. The private owner recently renovated the property, there is a building permit still posted in the window.
Much of the information for this blog came from this web page.
In preparation for shooting, I mounted the Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM lens on the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II body. The frontage and second porch shots were at 70mm, 1/200 second, ISO 1,000, f/7.1. The middle shot, of the door, was 1/250 second at f/5.0.
Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
A 2021 Blessing
The Magnolia genus has been around for eons, come characteristics are protective from beetles as they existed before bees and relied upon beetles for fertilization. Our’s may be the species Magnolia dawsoniana (Dawson’s Magnolia), it shares many of the published characteristics: among them tolerance to our hardiness zone 5, flower color and shape, tree growth pattern.
This was an exceptional year for blooms. starting late April, lasting into May. The fence around trunks is for protection against bucks (male deer), from rubbing their horns in autumn.
For most of these 2021 photographs I used the lens Canon 24 mm f/1.4L II USM, the one captioned 50 mm I used Canon 50mm f/1.2L USM. The Canon EOS 5D Mark IV dslr with the Manfrotto Studio tripod with hydrostatic ball head for all.
The last great year was 2018……
For these 2018 photographs the Canon 24 mm and Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L “Macro” lenses with Canon’s EOS-1Ds Mark III dslr.
finding a suppressed location
Wiki Loves Monuments was a contest that closed September, 2017.
Click for Wiki Loves Monuments 2017 contest
The National Register of Historic Places, online, lists the Ithaca Pottery Site(# 79001635) as “address restricted”. There is no photograph published for the site either on the register or Wikipedia. Here is an opportunity and a mystery. Where is the suppressed location of this historic place? There is the opportunity of completing the record by capturing a photograph.
There is another online reference listing the site as 423 E. Lincoln Street. The site is “I Love the Finger Lakes”,
I researched the physical location of the site and found it to be in a historically industrial area of Ithaca, close to Ithaca Falls. The correspondence I found online named Ezra Cornell as the owner when the pottery concern was active. He donated the land for Cornell University and the location is consistent with his ownership. There is a large wooded lot behind the building.
Last week I visited the address and guess the best light was the morning, returned yesterday to acquire the photograph. There was a knoll across Lake Street that gave this view. There are conflicting elements in this photograph: the far hills are beautiful, the pole with wires very difficult to remove. Also, the address is not visible.
The street passing left to right is Lake Street. Crossing lake street I took several shots, negotiating the light traffic to eventually stand in Lake Street for this shot.
In preparation for shooting, I mounted the Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM lens on the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II body. This shot was at 70mm, 1/200 second, ISO 1,000, f/7.1. I hated the power lines and could not avoid them from any acceptable angle.
The only solution was to spend hours in Photoshop to achieve the result in the header.
Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Michael Stephen Wills Photography 