My Frozen Upper Niagara Moonscape

Another Day has come and gone. Did you know it's been 1195 days since the pandemic began? What I cannot believe is they're saying covid will be around for a loooong time, and will be so common it'll be treated just like the flu. Covid19 is not a flu!!

Went out again today to freeze a little bit more. With the blowing wind, the windchill is down to the low-20s but the temperatures has been like this for many weeks! It's not the coldest I've been out in chilly weather, and probably will not be the last. I am just glad the cameras aren't affected too much by the cold!

This scene is the icy upper Niagara River of western New York again! In previous years, just about ALL of the river is frozen. This is the first Winter I've seen less than half of the river iced over. 

Doesn't this lower portion look like a moonscape?

 

 

 

 

 

Just love the upper Niagara River in the Winter!

Another Sunny Day with Blue Skies, plus other thoughts!

BUT those blue skies were just patches of blue, though that sun did feel good, but there was little heat from the sun as the winds were blowing so the windchill was an average of 10 degrees BELoW freezing!!

I delighted in seeing the Canada Geese flying as usual but then a flock of swans flew by to their favorite destination about a mile up the river. 

How's the wildlife where you are? 

With Valentine's Day coming up, I've been wondering about the various places and eateries struggling to get our attention and business. What I want to know is WHY after all the hype, the medical reviews and suggestions given, do restaurants and other eateries still offer their clientele foods that will most likely either kill them soon, give them medical problems within a short time, or worst: make them so unhealthy, that even walking will with difficulty, if at all! 

Why does the american foods business care only serving unhealthy foods that will promote a lot of business in a few years, to the medical system? Does the restaurant and food service industry even care about my and your health? I guess that is a resounding NO, but it seems their message to the clients is to continue coming in to keep us in business before you start to get sick and die! When I go out to eat, I always look through the fatty and junk food listed in the menu, and it seems these days the only alternative for me at my not-young age, is to eat seafood, and most of the time it's fried! So, it's salmon again! Have you also noticed that IF vegetables are served, it's a tiny amount - so small that even a squirrel would be starving! Vegetables are so minimal in cost, it should be the food item on their menu that has the bigger font type and size, not to mention when served, it should be a huge amount!

Icy but Populated Upper Niagara River

Yesterday we were blessed with a fairly decent day with even visible splashes of blue sky! BUT the clouds were gooorgeous! How were the clouds in your area? Just mouse-over with your cursor over the image to see which image was snapped with my phone or the camera!

Today the upper Niagara River of western New York was still whitish with a lot of ice passing through, along with those ice donuts I enjoy seeing! Lots of Canada Geese in the area above and below, along with Common Mergansers and more in the river during these cold winter months!

Ice Donuts of the upper Niagara

Have you ever seen these? Seen first while in Norway. Now I can say I've seen these in the USA! Caused by pieces of ice in the river streams or water where there's water in motion. As the water freezes, it'll spin in the current to eventually appear as these floating ice discs! Very cool! There's never one that looks exactly like another! Really!

Buyer Beware of H2o and ATT!!

We have been to Michigan often as we like the area and have family there. Unfortunately, Michigan does not like us as we have NO phone service once we get into Michigan. We currently use Mint [T-Mobile] and have no access to phone service, data or even messages while in the state of Michigan. So this time we decided to buy a ATT sim chip since they seem to have service there, but went instead with H2o as they use ATT but offer a better rate. 

My phone is UNlocked. I've only purchased UNlocked phones since decades ago as I may use different sim chips while traveling, and especially while in Europe. NOWHERE on the H2o or ATT websites or in advertising, did we see anything pertaining to once a sim chip of H2o or ATT was inserted into ANY phone, unlocked or not, it would be locked!

Dirty cheaters!

So we've been back from Michigan over a week now. Yes, we did enjoy having a bit of service and even data....  at least I did. My wife maintained her phone with Mint Mobile and sure enough, and as expected, she had NO phone service or data while we drove the shorter quicker route through Canada, and later in Michigan. 

Though there were problems, I did have phone service and data almost all the time we were in the Great Lake state. It was a great test which would be good for the future should we return to Michigan again.

Unfortunately I later lost my Mint Mobile sim chip and had to order a replacement. This happened while we were inside the car and before we drove through Canada for our return home trip. The replacement sim chip arrived finally after a week and though it was activated without problem, everything functioned as before with the exception of the data; there was none. So we tried this and that and a bit more for days, but nothing worked. 

After a few hours online today with Mint Mobile technicians, we were told that we had been locked out of the phone by the company of the other sim chip used in Michigan. A fast search online shows that H2o and ATT typically locks the phones of their users so they can only use these companies only! IF we had seen this before we purchased the sim chip, we of course would NOT  have used it at all, let alone purchased it at all!

Buyer beware! Do not support H2o or ATT in their deceit!

Update: It's been exactly a week since we had the initial problems with my phone and discovered my phone had been locked after using a H2o sim chip in my Galaxy a50 phone while on a trip to Michigan where we rarely have service nor data coverage. We have emailed h20 several times and the idiots working there have not even attempted to respond to our request to unlock my phone! Buyer beware!! 

 

 

Looking Back at West Coast Memories

 After so many centuries - I've always wanted to say that - I can accurately and honestly say as long as I have been behind a camera viewfinder, I've been trying to archive those image files! I haven't advanced too much in that endeavor though, and yes, I just create yet more self-inflicted work and it's already too much work!

It's not all work though, as I relish in so many great events, times and memories that I am seeing. It's so unfortunate that I have lost many of my negatives though, as I had trusted "friend" Zach Kunkle with a lot of my personal stuff and later abandoned all of this stuff which consisted of furniture, personal papers, many negative files, books, lots of 5x7 silver framed images (Black and White nudes), very expensive equipment including a Canon DSC520C camera body, my Lucky darkroom enlarger and associated darkroom stuff, and more, in a back yard shed in Lenoir, North Carolina a few years ago. 

Here's one image that was snapped back in San Francisco, and as usual I am just so amazed at what my camera has seen and recorded!

My cameras and I have been to a lot of places and seen a lot of stuff! I even remember a trip south to San Diego where I went for my Navy bootcamp, and to sightsee and do a few more things than I was able to do way back in the early 70s!

 

Reflective Balboa Park 

Hotel del Coronado

Coronado Bridge

New Year New Insights

Haven't been here in what seems to be forever. Busy here and busier there. But the camera is always with me....

Brought into the Olympus digital system about two years ago - tis strange since in the past century I had a film Olympus camera: the ever-popular OM1 then later the OM2. It didn't last long though, before I swapped those out for a different camera. I cannot count on both hands and feet the numerous film cameras I've had, and now in this new digital era the story is the same: I cannot count on both hands nor feet the digital cameras I've gone though!

I currently have two EOS R5s with a few RF lens, and will be swapping those out for a single Sony A7c, replacing the Sony camera I picked up over a decade ago while in San Francisco, and now that A6000 is in Andalucia with my grandson Dylan. Hoping he'll enjoy it as much as I did!

The R5s were just too heavy to carry and I am NOT getting any younger! I need lighter and just as robust and capable, and liked the way it handled and the great sharp images it gave me!

It's raining in western New York (WNY) as I type. My leased Hybrid Kia Niro is now just a wee bit over a year and a half into a three-year lease, BUT if I could trade it in for an EV or another hybrid with a better range and eMPG at a price NOT in the clouds, I'd do it in a heartbeat. 

Other news: today closed my only active site featuring my imagery for sale, and now have only this blog and a portfolio online now. I just had waaay too many websites and it's difficult to stay on top of everything. I do NOT know how others do it all, and are successful on their virtual platforms. I ditched facebook a few years ago, this time permanently. I was back on twitland for a few months, but I just closed that just minutes ago also. 

Now I'll have more time to "image-archive" which is changing also: now instead of archiving, I will just simply delete all my images.

I am not a famous well-known photographer and I don't didn't ever get a lot of visitors to my many image sites. You know what happens when one isn't getting the foot traffic to a physical store, and virtually it must be the same. I see no sense in populating a site with my imagery if few will even take the time to see my imagery let alone purchase one. It's a huge world out there, and with more people thinking they are master photographers which I never have been, to compete with....  well. It was just a matter of time that I closed up my shop. No one will miss my imagery. No one will miss me!

Hoping everyone is staying as possible. The wife and I still wear our masks at the ready - around our necks -while outdoors to wear so we try to keep ourselves and others as safe and healthy as possible.