Take the Leap, or Not
The bed of Dry Creek bends before the fall. Fillmore Glen, New York State Park, Moravia, Cayuga County, New York
Fillmore Glen New York State Park, Cayuga County, Moravia, New York
Fillmore Glen Autumn
Patience was a virtue as I set up along Dry Creek where it bends before approaching Cowsheds waterfall drop-off. Fillmore Glen, New York State Park, Moravia, Cayuga County, New York
I say “without” with reservations. A moving hiker was blurred out in this 3.2 second exposure at f/22. I hid the blurred figure with a cut and pasted pristine pixels from the second exposure. The “without” take is earlier than “with.”
A minute and 50 seconds transpired between exposures. In that time, Pam rested her hiking pole against the wall.
Fillmore Glen Autumn
The bed of Dry Creek bends before approaching Cowsheds waterfall drop-off. Fillmore Glen, New York State Park, Moravia, Cayuga County, New York
Looking east
This the fifth and final of a series of landscape photographs taken from this position.
The peak is named, in the English language, Slievenaglogh. It is so strange as it’s not English, being instead a transliteration of the Irish name “Sliabh na gCloch.” This is “Rock Mountain” translated literally. Slievenaglogh is carried to the townland, a long thin swath of land being the peak and associated ridge-line.
The rocks up there are called “gabbro,” a type of magma slowly cooled under ground. Slievenaglog, Slieve Foy across the valley, and the Morne mountains all formed within volcano magma chamber(s) of the Paleocene, 66 million years ago, a time associated with extensive volcanism and the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event that gave rise to the current age.
Our younger cousin has been up there, optimistically we left it for a later trip.
and a shifting of crops to (human) wheat from (cow) corn
Wednesday, June 15th, we were on a turn to heat and humidity with this day of light breeze, temperature in the 70s making hiking around Tremen Park a joy.
These snapshots, taken on the fly with an IPhone 7, are the high points.
The first is a dandelion look alike with yellow flowers, petals shaped like teeth, though on a long hard stem and multiple flowers on a stalk. Known as meadow hawkweed, yellow hawkweed, field hawkweed, king devil, yellow paintbrush, devil’s paintbrush, yellow devil, yellow fox-and-cubs, and yellow king-devil with two scientific names: Pilosella caespitosa and Hieracium caespitosum.
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Aquarium as metaphor
Perusing the Epcot brochure as we walked beneath “Spaceship Earth” (see photograph, below) we planning the afternoon. Between that moment and Tokyo Dining at 7 pm we had a afternoon “Fast Pass” for Spaceship Earth.
It was natural to wander into”The Seas with Nemo and Friends,”the first attraction after Spaceship Earth, first turn on the right. Pam and I were enthralled for an hour, walking about, viewing a 5.1 million gallon “Sea Base” aquarium.
A metaphor of aquarium occupants stops at the glass edge, the sea creatures on one side of the glass, the humans on the other very much closer to each other, breathing the same air.
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Here is a crowd favorite, the “funny nose” Unicorns.
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amid the COVID crowds
In the 2000’s the company I worked for was installing software at Walt Disney World and over several trips became familiar with the Team Disney building, especially the wonderful sundial. My coworkers and I took dinner once at the “Rose and Crown” restaurant, Epcot United Kingdom pavilion. At first glance Epcot pavilions have a high cheesiness potential. A saving grace, what most impressed me, was the staffing. Young people from the United Kingdom served us, creating a deep authenticity to the experience.
I always wanted to visit “on my own dime”, January 2020 seemed like a good time. We are not “Disney or Die” (as in “Give Me Liberty AND Give Me Death”), the news available to the public was of an ill defined illness in China. Over that week I researched the park and purchased tickets for Friday, January 10. That morning I greeted the dawn and we headed out later morning for Orlando.
Once Walt Disney World is once again open, as I am sure it will be, two important preparations I recommend are (1) install the “My Disney Experience” app and, on arrival (2) take a photograph of the parking location before boarding the tram. The Disney Experience smart phone app allowed us to book restaurant reservations. Admission fee includes several reservations for attractions, to skip the line. Disney calls it a “Fast Pass.”.
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In keeping with our dangerous position, wandering among COVID-19 spotted crowds, “the invisible enemy,” here are several dangerous inhabitants of the first attraction we enjoyed, “The Seas with Nemo and Friends.”
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Not quite murmuration
Today, enjoy two videos of shorebirds taking flight at once. Starlings can flock and swarm in clouds of birds, called murmuration. My videos of a shorebird colony taking fright, at something unknown as the beach was empty, are from my IPhone 7.
This is a still image, high resolution, similar to the view of the second video. A repeat from yesterday.
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With a tripod it is simpler to achieve a level horizon….
December 3, 2014 President Obama warned of the coming pandemic and passed along plans and a team to the incoming Trump administration. By December 2019, the pandemic unleashed in China, Trump gutted this capability and, while Pam and I were planning out January 10th Walt Disney World trip, hid the truth from United States Citizens.
We were keeping an eye on China, by January 10th the Chinese communist government was lying, “there is no human-to-human” transmission they told the WHO (World Health Organization). Knowing the truth, our plans for that day would be different.
Shroomed (Happy May Day)
One week before January 10, the dawning of the day photographed here, “the CDC Director Robert Redfield was notified by a counterpart in China that a “mysterious respiratory illness was spreading in Wuhan [China]”. Redfield notified HHS Secretary Alex Azar shortly thereafter, who shared his report with the National Security Council (NSC). According to The Washington Post, warnings about the virus were included in the President’s Daily Brief in early January, an indicator of the emphasis placed on the virus by the intelligence community.” December( and maybe October/November), 2019 through January, 2020: COVID-19 was spreading across the USA as visitors from Wuhan disembarked from planes.
The following images compare IPhone 7 to a dslr mounted on a tripod.
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With a tripod it is simpler to achieve a level horizon….
I heard the word “shroomed” (as a verb) used in Episode 1, Season 6, of Bosch. As in “the Federal Government treats us like mushooms”: grown in excrement and kept in the dark.
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First of a looooonnnngggg series
One day after my “Sunrise Texture” series as the sun rose on Cocoa Beach I was waiting with the same photographic kit. It was perfect weather for a visit to Walt Disney World, planned for that day: unsettled.
This image couple demonstrates the effect of long / short exposure without using filters. I changed the ISO and F-stop to achieve these effects.
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With a tripod it is simpler to achieve a level horizon….
I turned around to observe the colonies of shore birds…..
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Michael Stephen Wills Photography 