Letchworth Lights

Letchworth State Park is far enough away from big city lights for naked eye viewing of the Milky Way. There's a satellite passing through, dead center, visible in the larger version. From our camping trip on the night of August 22, 2016.

Tendrils

Lightning tendrils looking east over Schenectady Airport.

Above Abe

One of my favorite parts of the Lincoln Memorial is the ceiling, but you never see it in photos. I'm here to make things right.

MLK 4

I had a couple of extra lenses in my bag at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. I used them to try something new — pick out some key words from MLK's speeches that exemplified his goals, and tell his story in shorthand.

The lettering carved into the granite is exquisite. The font used is called "King" and was custom created for the Memorial by the stonecutter who carved the inscriptions. The gift shop book where I learned this fact also uses the font in print, but its spacing has been mangled. You would think it easier to manage letterspacing on a computer than in granite.

The rounded photos came from my 10.5mm fisheye, and for these I'm sticking it right into the engravings, less than a foot away. The photos that fade from sharpness to blur come from my 50mm f/1.4, which you can shoot at an angle to nicely throw backgrounds out of focus, but I had to back up quite a bit to frame the shots. Both of these are prime lenses — they don't zoom ... you have to zoom with your feet.

MLK 3

Engravings from the walls of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, DC. Walking through the place reading these quotations from his famous speeches, you realize what an important thinker he was, and how crucial he was to America.

I love this one, it transcends race in America, and also applies to events around the world:

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."

Fishbowl

You're on display, too, at the Apple Store off Yale campus, New Haven, Connecticut.

They've started using iPad-based mini-kiosks next to each of their products to show specs and features — clever idea.

Moonbase Alpha

I'm finishing up my longest work trip so far, 11 days, and I'm excited to get home tonight. I've been from Albany to Chicago, San Francisco, then Maui, Honolulu and other towns on the island of Oahu, with a few final days in Washington, DC. Today I'm in northern Virginia before heading home.

Here are the lights of O'Hare Airport in Chicago, a place I get stuck all the time ... and this trip was no exception. Between terminals they have this flashing neon installation over the moving sidewalk bounded by wavy, colorful walls similar to the decor from my favorite childhood TV show, Space: 1999.

This crossing never gets old for me. I carried my fisheye a quarter of the way around the globe to get this.

30th Street Station

This is the main hall of Philadelphia's 30th Street Station which opened in 1933. We were trying to guess the height of the ceiling, and our estimate came up short — it's a grand 95 feet. The art deco chandeliers themselves are each 18 feet long and irreplaceable.

Here's something wild: the roof is built with reinforcement so light aircraft can land on top. I'm guessing they no longer allow that with all the high rises of downtown Philadelphia around.

Behind the menorah at bottom center of my photo is the schedule board. The letters and numbers on the board are split in half horizontally and spin around like Rolodex cards. Every so often the board updates, sending a loud and satisfying clatter echoing across the main hall.

The original 1978 application for the National Register of Historic Places concludes:

The 30th Street Station has endured as one of the last examples of the architecture of the past great railroad era. it is a building of self-evident importance and a significant landmark for the City of Philadelphia.

The application also uses schmancy words to describe the architecture: travertine, clerestory, entablature, porte cochere, spandrels, caissons, modillions, dentils. Someone's been studying their architecture. I just think it's pretty.

It's an impressive space to occupy, it reminds you of the past sophistication of rail travel.

You Can't Handle The Tooth

Have you ever been on an escalator and wondered if the steps you're standing on would fold into the floor and you'd slide all the way down?

These toothy geared pieces of hardware were standing next to a broken escalator leading into the Atlanta subway.

Maybe they're escalator parts? Or a tool for fixing escalators? I couldn't tell. The teeth attracted me, they look a bit sinister.

Es Selamu Aleikum

Photographing along Michigan Avenue in Chicago late at night, I was blocks away from my hotel, but I wasn't going to make it back without finding a restroom first. I ducked into a luxury chocolate and cheese bar which seemed to be the only place open at the time. I was greeted by the most amazing ornate lobby.

It took me a bit of research to figure out what this building was. The engraved inscription on the marble lintel was the start — "Es Selamu Aleikum." This is a Shriners' greeting which means, "Peace be with you."

Some more searching on "shriners" and "Michigan Avenue" led me to find the building used to be the Medinah Athletic Club, built in 1929, complete with 440 rooms, a 14th floor swimming pool used by Johnny Weismuller and Esther Williams, and a zeppelin dock on the roof. It's now the Intercontinental Hotel.

Wheel In The Sky, Keep On Turning

At Navy Pier, extending out into Lake Michigan, Chicago.

Knock, Knock. Who's There?

Giant ball, tall as me, chock full of knockers in the Albany Airport.

It's an art piece but is also supposedly a tradition for fliers to knock for good luck before their outbound flights.

I usually rap on it a couple times if I'm headed to a flight down Terminal B. I mean just look at it. It's like bubble wrap — too hard to resist.

Tribune Tower 1

One of my two favorite buildings in Chicago is the Tribune Tower. Its design came from a 1922 contest to create "the most beautiful and distinctive office building in the world."

More pictures coming of this one.

Driver's Seat

Every time I'm on my way out of a plane I get a glimpse the cockpit, and always want to see more of what's going on in there. I figured it was some kind of security breach to look inside ... but then they leave the door hanging open before and after your flight, so why not ask? So this time I got my fisheye lens ready, and as I was exiting I asked the flight attendant if I could take a picture.

She went up to the bridge with my request, and I was astounded when I got a yes! I had a nice conversation with the co-pilot, who turned out to be a Canon shooter and has a collection of expensive lenses that puts mine to shame.

I did some looking around online and found lots of 737 cockpit photos published, so I'm not releasing any secrets here TSA will cart me away for.

I can't even guess how many movies and TV shows I've seen where an airplane pilot is incapacitated and some random passenger off the street (maybe even Balki has done it?) has to take over and land the thing. After looking at the mass of switches and control panels going on, I'm not sure if this is reasonable.

Michigan Ave. at Chicago River

Looking South down Michigan Avenue, where this main drag crosses the Chicago River. Float down the river to the left a couple city blocks and you'll dump into Lake Michigan.

I love this view because the river provides a horizon to the mass of buildings waiting on the other side. On the right is the new Trump Tower.

If you watched the first season of the Donald Trump vanity TV show The Apprentice, I am pretty sure this is the construction project the winner, Bill, got hired to oversee.

Cloud Gate

I didn't know this sculpture was called Cloud Gate, but I knew it was in Chicago and that I've wanted to see it for a long time. We passed right by on the shuttle ride from the airport, so I knew exactly where to go.

It's stainless steel, and the one minor disappointment is the trails of dirt (bird poop?) that have run down from the top after a rain. I could have done some good with a roll of paper towels and some Windex (well, me and another dozen people, it's pretty gigantic). But don't let that minor point distract, it's a really fabulous piece.

Most people end up underneath it — called the omphalos — and it's so large there's room to admit everyone who wants to get in. The reflections underneath in the convex area get very complex. Even now I have a hard time picking myself out in that last picture.

I love public art installations, and most people see them passing by accidentally. This one is worth going to see on purpose. It's fantastic.

Royals 2, White Sox 9

I'm in Chicago today and getting ready for my meeting that starts tomorrow. Tonight we went to U.S. Cellular Stadium for a White Sox game. Neither Oprah nor President Obama were at the game as far as we could see. There was a lot of action tonight — lots of hitting. My kind of game.

We had front row tickets at the left field bullpen and got to watch the Chisox pitchers warming up. At the end the pitching coach tossed baseballs to the little kids at the railing, including the 5-year-old son of one of guys in our group.

I am loving beautiful Chicago. I've never spent any time downtown before, it's always been visiting family out in the suburbs, or flying through and switching planes here. More pictures to come of this gorgeous downtown. I'm still here but can't wait to get back again for a longer stay.

Balltown Over the Mohawk

I'm going through old files and keep finding shots I've never published. Here's something from last summer, just after I got my fisheye lens, when water was flowing in liquid form in upstate New York.

This is a view looking westward at sunset of Balltown Road crossing the Mohawk River. The water coming towards us is headed east to the Hudson River.

This is one of four bridges I can take to get into Albany for work. I avoid Balltown Road because it's only two lanes and gets snarled with nerdy engineers driving to work at GE and Knolls Atomic Power Lab (we'll see if this gets any comments).

I'm taking this picture standing on an arched stone extension into the waterway which I'm guessing used to be part of either the old bridge or the Erie Canal.

Peonies 2009

Our peonies always arrive in early June and smell fantastic. The first day they bloomed I was in the house with all the windows closed and their smell was still drifting in from the backyard.

I've heard a couple experts say it's always good to go back to photograph something you've shot before, it helps you see new things you may have missed last time.

Here's the third installment of peonies, this time around with the fisheye lens, after previous shoots in 2008 and 2007.

Smithsonian Gardens

A couple shots outdoors on the south side of the Smithsonian Castle.