White Snow Again in western New York

Well, after a few days of "nice weather" in western New York (WNY), we have snow on the ground again. It's not much...  probably less than an inch, but it's yet another white scene as we are looking out the window. The temperatures however, have been at freezing during the day and colder at night for many weeks!

As discussed after the Buffalo 2022 Winter Blizzard that claimed many lives as power was lost in many areas, if you find yourself without power and don't have a gas heater, you can use a camping tent to stay warm. Use blankets to cover the tent to better insulate the tent for a more efficient warm tent! 

Don't have a tent? 

Use your available furniture to provide support for your blankets to form a makeshift tent! You've seen kids do it to create a fortress, now YOU can do the same to stay warm during power outages in Winter! Even a kitchen or dining room table would provide a thick roof, then hang blankets off the sides then crawl inside and stay warm! It won't be the most comfortable bed but it could see you surviving a winter storm of a few days or till the power grid to your area is restored! 

If your gas heater is still operating well, no matter how cold it is, remember you need ventilation to move the air around to prevent the chances of carbon monoxide building up within the living areas where your gas heater is located. This can be the situation for any type of gas heater!

Just stay safe and always be aware of the cold in your home and while out on the roads! 

Stay safe wherever you are! 

Take a few minutes to make an emergency kit to leave in the car during the Winters. This kit could consist of a thick blanket, a few thick coats, sweaters, thick pants, etc, and a few snack bars, water, a fully charged phone and possibly a power bank with usb cables for your phone, flashlights or what I like better: a headlamp so your hands will be kept available to do other things, a safety marker, flares or safety lights, etc. 

We purchased solar batteries last year which charge using foldable portable solar panels to charge these solar batteries, and we are shocked but pleased to know that even with snowy overcast days, we will get a trickle charge input to our batteries and though it's a tiny amount, it still charges our batteries! Recently we also purchased a small unit that will jumpstart our car battery, and also has an air pump, a bright light, and also usb connections. This is great for using in the car and now anytime we are roadtripping, we ensure this is in the car also.

If you have other tips/advice for others, feel free to comment and describe your best tools, ideas, and things you'd have to keep safe and warm during any emergency situation! Hope this helps and you'll never need to use these tips or items, BUT if you ever do, you're prepared!

Above all, stay safe at home or while out on the road!

ooooh, the smoke....

...blocked our view of the fireworks, so the trip to Treasure Island was a waste.... or was it?

I had planned on going to Marin County to sit at the headlands for three hours to save myself a good picture spot. Fog was forecast so I thought instead the Marin County bridge lookout point.... but sometimes the fog can be over the water and the northern portion of the bay and not San Francisco. I finally decided driving to Treasure Island... by coincidence, another photography friend was going also, so we planned to meet there.

For those not in the know, Treasure Island is the land added to Yerba Buena Island. It's an man-made island that housed patrol boats during WWII, and most of the facilities on the island was still there, though the housing buildings have been converted and/or renovated and being sold to civilians as condos and townhouses. I must say, for the money, it offers a fantastic view of the bay and the City though the drive is very hectic at times. Most of the still-standing military installation buildings, except for the main administration building at the entrance to the island itself, is now closed off and abandoned. If you ever get a chance to enter the main admin building, it's really beautiful and hosts gorgeous murals on its walls. It's a very spacious building and is great for photography!

So, I fought the traffic through North Beach and the Embarcadero, many areas closed due to the imprending fireworks show, and I couldn't believe the amount of traffic and people on the streets! I can compare it to being within five city blocks of Times Square on New Year's Eve!!

Arriving at the island, I started taking pictures right away... the tip of the Transamerica pyramid was covered in fog, and at times the tip would peek through ~ it was a great image. I then drve onto the island and looked for a parking spot at the very outer end, where I planned to set up. The wind was brisk, and water was being kicked up by the winds forecast to be steady at 15kts, but I thought it gusted at times to about 20 kts. There were already a lot of people walking around, BBQing and with friends and family, and of course along the water's edge were those with tripods and cameras, hoping for that fantastic fireworks picture over the SF skyline.

After some time, I hooked up with my friend and we waited patiently for night to fall. The scene from Treasure Island is a great dream, not only in the lovely skyline but also in the activity upon the bay waters.

Quite a few tankers, cargo and container ships crossed into my line of vision, plus sailboats, tugs, pilot boats and water ferries of every sort. As night fell, the steamboats slipped their moorings and joined the traffic enroute the fireworks site at Pier 39 and the Aquatic Park areas. Yes, I counted at least two Mississippi (I haven't had to spell that since I was in grammar school here decades ago!) steamboats lit like christmas trees... it was a sight to see!

Pelicans flew past many times, always a wonder to see and admire!

The fireworks at Sausalito started at 9pm and I was shocked we could even see it!! The fog had just lifted a little and we could see the lights glittering in the black, as the streams of fire soared upward then exploded. Soon after, the fireworks in San Francisco started and amazingly, the fog was thicker there than in Marin..... I think we saw just one hug red starburst that exploded, its red flares a glimmer of pinpoints of blood-red before it disappeared into the fog below, and that was it. We could hear the fireworks, the thunderous explosions but we couldn't see anything past the light flashes through the thick fog. We didn't know it then, and I didn't think of it either, but the smoke generated from the ground explosions of the fireworks going off created so much smoke on the water's level, that it mixed with the fog to hide everything from us watching from the east ~ and that included my location on Treasure Island. 45 minutes we could actually smell the thick gunpowderly smell that blew from the fireworks barge to the east by the wind. I think the best view would've been from Ft Mason or nearby there. In that spot, the wind would have blown everything away so that one could enjoy the light and color!

During this time, there was a steady stream of slow-moving white lights coming down onto Treasure Island ~ cars and more cars of people wanting to come to the island! That steady slow movement of lights did not stop till after 10pm, then started the slowly-increasing glow of red taillights as everyone tried to leave the island at the same time. So I waited around with my friend and watched the skyline, talked a bit about photography, and waited till the traffic died down.

I arrived in North Beach about 11pm and still North Beach was crowded with a mess of traffic of cars and people! I have never seen my corner so busy at this hour, and even as I was downloading my pictures to hard drive till midnight, I noticed a steady line of cars moving past my windows till past 1am!!!!

Of course, if you want to see my favorite images of the night, see them at my photo page here! Enjoy and hoping your Fourth was quiet and safe!