Looking SKYward to NeoWise

The comet C/2020 F3 (NeoWise) has been on the news and online for weeks now, and it's the brightest comet seen so far this year! 

Over the Niagara Falls on 14 July (comet is at far right corner in the clouds)

Sheila and I have been snapping pixs of it for three days, not including last Wednesday when we had thunderstorms most of the day and night so it was impossible to see. We have also been trying to get the comet in different WNY locations, and so far succeeding! The last time I saw a comet at all, was in Rota, Spain back in the late 90s, and I remember seeing that comet even during the day hours, it was soooo bright!!! No pictures from that as it was still my film days, but how I remember the details so well!!

At Niawanda over the Radisson Hotel Niagara Falls-Grand Island

So do YOU look up to the sky at night? We do, and so should you!! The comet has been in the NW sky now, and "rising" each following day even higher than the night previous. We have even tried to see it, and with success, even on cloudy days when the forecast cloud cover was less 50%. Good luck!!

Both above pixs while at Old Fort Niagara last night

 

Back out in the Public Again

It felt so strange, to be pulling up to a restaurant and going INSIDE to dine!! 

We went to a local Longhorn restaurant yesterday. The parking lot was filled with reserved parking spots for those getting curb service for their food takeout, but saw many other numbered parking spots, for unknown reasons. It was a big parking lot, only used by Longhorn, so I just circled around and picked a spot that was completely unmarked. We had NO idea if I should call first or just go in, and since I saw some others already park and go in, we did too!

Of course we had our masks on, and the front doors were displaying signs of mandatory facemasks use, but we have been to many other places with similar signs, but while inside the facilities, you would see people with NO masks walking around. What good is having a sign stating wear a facemask or you will be denied entry, then seeing people inside NOT wearing masks with no problem or concern by anyone?

So we were shown to our table, but saw many tables marked not for use, to keep customers' distances apart. 

The floor was very slippery, as if there was a thick coating of either car oil or soap. The man who showed us to our table joked how so many people - as we were - expressed concern or indecision about coming out, and had even asked us if this was our first dining out since the pandemic started. We said it was, and reassured us with "No worries, everyone has been kinda wondering what to do after they walk in!".

The food of course was excellent as always. We always share a single order of their Parmesan Crusted Chicken with a side of the oven-baked sweet potato, and the chicken is so tender and so full of flavor you could cut it with your eyes!

Delicioooous!!

It was great to eat out again, but not a problem with us. We both enjoy cooking, and take turns cooking. Sheila is a fantastic cook, and we both do not eat red meat.

At almost 2 in the afternoon, there were few people in the huge dining area. Most were single older men - whom Sheila and I joked that they were just tired of cooking for themselves for the past few months!

Have you gone out in your area yet to support your local businesses and enjoy a dine-in meal at the same time?

Testing a Slik SGH300 Gimbal Tripod Head

I have heard about it, seen them from far, and during a huge 2013 international watersports event in San Francisco, even got a chance to use a camera mounted on a very pricy tripod gimbal system (fitted with a 300mm and later a 600mm lens), but personally, I have never known anyone who has owned one.

Now, just days after receiving a Slik SGH300 Gimbal Tripod Head, and fitting it on a Manfrotto Neotec Pro tripod I picked up used years ago and both from Fireside Camera in San Francisco, I now have the best of two worlds!

I have been into photography for over three decades, looking through viewfinders with different tripods, BUT this must be the most versatile tripod I've ever yet!

No more locking down or releasing to fold up a tripod leg. Now I just pull on each leg and extend. To get it closed is just as EASY: I fold all three legs together, press and hold the release button at the top of each leg at once, then just push down on the tripod head to close! Before with other tripods it'd take me a max of 2-3mins to open my many tripods, but this tripod has me using it as quickly as within a minute if that long at all. Closing it is even more quick and simple, and does not even take 30 seconds with the method I just described above!!

Now I have just picked up a Slik SGH300 gimbal, and this addition to the Neotec Pro is the best combo ever!!!

Now I have a VERY easy to extend/fold tripod topped with this very small, light and efficient tripod accessory head that enables me to do more and much easier than I've ever done with a tripod in my lifetime behind cameras!

No matter what I've had and used in the past, every basic tripod and standard head I've had would NOT allow pointing my camera almost straight, and definitely NOT point my camera straight up (for those occasional night sky pixs)! Even more bigger and heavier tripod heads I've had wouldn't allow me to point even halfway to straight up! In all cases, I'd end up shortening one tripod leg very low to point the camera straight up, but nowadays even with a camera swivel screen, I'd have to be very low also just to look through the screen or the viewfinder! Of course the live-view on the swivel screen would be useful if I didn't mind having to switch batteries often! Sure, using the standard swivel ball-head is almost efficient BUT I didn't like using those, and I have at least two!

Enter the gimbal, and NOW I can stand straight with my camera at eye-level, and able to easily tilt, pan or anything else with the camera to any position including STRAIGHT UP effortlessly! It's a joy to have and use, and am sure this gimbal will now stay on the tripod permanently! The only thing the gimbal doesn't allow me to do is use a corded shutter release remote, but I can live with that (or maybe not). There is a hole and a slot that looks like it's for a thin cord but with my current remote, it still won't pass through. The pictures are from a recent sunset while testing the gimbal fitted onto the Neotec Pro recently. 

Hey, the sandflies seem to have disappeared for the past week!!!

WNY = Sandfly Center

Just back from the river and the sunset, and the sandflies were in the millions. Of course though we went for the sunset, I seriously thought there were so many sandflies in our pictures that the sunset was more secondary than being the main focus point!! To avoid having the sandflies even more evident in my images, I snapped at the fastest largest aperture possible, so the insects wouldn't appear darker or more sharper than I wanted them to be!

Can you see the dark spots? Those are sandflies!!

It's kind of sad when this happens, but sandflies actually provide a very important role in their hatching around this time of year -- birds need to eat too, and that human filth and slop that makes US fat and heavier, is actually bad for the birds. These insects on the other hand, are a perfect snack and protein meal for the feathered ones, so feast on, oh little ones!!!

Lightning Strikes

Last night was a light show of sorts, and the very best type: Nature put on this show just for me (okay, not just for me but it felt like it since it seemed I was the only fool outside for an hour in the hail, wind, rain and coolness!).

I have tried almost all my life behind a viewfinder, trying to capture two subjects: meteors and lightning. In 2016 I succeeded in getting the meteors and now surprisingly, I catch them easily!

Lightning on the other hand, has been elusive still, till a night ago when a long line of severe thunderstorms began moving into western new York. We were watching the 11pm news as usual, and then began the weather forecast, and it was then when I thought it would be the best time ever for a lucky night of lightning! I hurried to dress, grabbed the camera and a bag to cover it with, and walked quickly to the riverside to set up and try my luck once again!

I've known since the last century that the wind picks up once rain falls somewhere. That started up as soon as I stepped outside. It hailed for a while, then continued on and off of pouring rain while I was busy exposing my virtual film!

There were also quite a few times I'd be blinded by a white flash! I figure a strong lightning had just hit somewhere, and sure enuff, when I looked at the images later, I had quite a few frames that were close to, or completely white! So sign of a bolt on film but I know it's probably in there hidden in the whiteness somewhere!

BUT my life-long goal in capturing one of those lightning flashes has finally succeeded, as I ended up with a few lucky images!

But I also enjoyed my time out in the darkness, as there wasn't a second when the sky was NOT lit up with bright flashes hidden by thick clouds, and later as the clouds seemed to thin out, I could finally see the fabulous lightning lighting up my sky for some time that night!

What a splendid light show!!!! Did you see it in your area?

Stay safe and masked on this Day 106 of the New York state pandemic!!

Looking west toward Grand Island, New York

The flashes of lightning was without end but gorgeous!

Always great to see Nature at work!!