Photos by Tom Bushey

The crows return to Middletown

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Bushey) — Mon, 07 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Every winter thousands of crows return to Middletown, N.Y. And every winter I try to find and photograph them. In the past, the crows would roost in downtown Middletown. The city would play recordings of crows in distress and shine green lasers at the birds to get them to leave.

That seems to have worked. For the past few years, the crows have been roosting in the Town of Wallkill. After feeding in the countryside all day, they return to the the Middletown/Town of Wallkill area late each afternoon.

The first place I spotted the birds was Randall Airport. They gather here in a staging area before heading to the roosting site.

The birds roost off Route 211 near some of the shopping areas. The theory is that the crows like to roost in lighted areas so they can see any predators, like owls. The birds were perched on a store before heading to the trees to roost.

The crows then gathered in the trees along Route 211.

That's Saturn and Jupiter shining in the background, below.

You can see these and many more crow photos on my website.

Storm chasing

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Bushey) — Mon, 15 Jul 2019 23:53:00 +0000

So I tried to do a little storm chasing on Saturday afternoon. The forecast was ominous, the sky was dark and I could hear thunder in the distance.
I headed toward the storm. My goal was to get dramatic photos before the rain started. The Black Dirt area is very flat and wide open, so I thought I'd try there first. This photo was taken on Onion Avenue as the rain started to fall. The storm was moving from right to left across the frame.

I drove away from this location to get away from the rain. Looking west, the view was thunder clouds in the distance.

The rain seemed to be moving away, so I returned to the first wide-open location. Here's a wide-angle shot of farm fields with rain in the distance. The sky was brightening, as you can see on the right side of the image.

Hoping for a break of sun that would produce a rainbow, I headed for higher ground. The sun appeared, but no rainbow. Here are two photos looking toward the Pine Island area.

I drove toward Warwick in search of a rainbow, but found nothing. Driving back to Middletown, I noticed more storm clouds to the west. Maybe I'd get a second chance.

Dark clouds moved across the sky, but there was no rain and I didn't see any lightning. The photo above and the photo below were taken by Randall Airport.

Saturday night flights

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Bushey) — Thu, 24 Apr 2014 12:25:00 +0000

Warmer weather brought me to Randall Airport recently. While raking leftover leaves in front of my house, I could see planes towing gliders into the sky and decided to make the short drive to the airport.

I did not have to wait long to get pictures of a plane and glider taking off.

This pilot flew low over the airport before coming in for a landing.

I saw this ultralight flying from by house. But when I got to the airport the pilot was finished flying and just lifted a few feet off the runway once or twice.

A hot air balloon crew had started to set up on the side of the airport. But they waited a while, I think for the winds to die down, before inflating the balloon.

The photograph I really wanted to get was the balloon and the moon, which was in the eastern sky.

The problem was that I was so close to the balloon that I had to use a wide angle lens. A telephoto lens would have made the moon larger in the frame.The first photo below is with a wide angle. The second and third photos are with a longer zoom lens.

Here's a slideshow of more photos from the airport that evening:

Saturday night flights - Images by Tom Bushey

Wallkill River Ice

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Bushey) — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 02:50:00 +0000

Like almost everyone else in the northeast, I'm getting a little tired of all the extreme cold weather this winter. But I also decided to take advantage of the cold and get some photographs of ice on the Wallkill River at Benedict Farm in Montgomery, N.Y.

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A couple of weeks ago I stopped there on one of the few relatively warm days we've had in January. Although ice still covered the river, the park was covered in fog.
Last week the scene was completely different. Instead of dealing with light rain and clouds, I was facing bright sunshine and temperatures in the single digits. Blocks of ice were piled up on the river banks in some areas. And the smooth surface of ice was interrupted in places with jagged pieces.

Here's an overall look at ice on the shore with the river in the background. I used a wide angle lens to take this picture.

After shooting many photos from right next to the blocks with my wide angle, I backed up a bit and switched to a telephoto lens.

Here's another shot with the longer lens.

For the next photo I moved behind the blocks of ice for a detail shot.

All of the photographs so far were taken fairly close to where I parked my car. Next I decide to take a walk along the river toward the back of the park, an area I had never checked out. Walking helped me stay warm, but I did not find that many spots along the river to take photos. I was, however, rewarded with the photo of the bald eagle at right. I heard the cries of hawks, and I had seen hawks at Benedict Farm before. But this was my first time seeing an eagle there.
On my way back to the parking area the sun was lower in the sky. The shards of ice were now more backlit, which made for more interesting pictures.

Here's a slideshow with these images and more:

Wallkill River Ice - Images by Tom Bushey

Friday night flights

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Bushey) — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 02:01:00 +0000

Friday night flights of gliders, hang gliders and ultralights at Randall Airport had been on my list of things to photograph for the Times Herald-Record for a long time. Friday is my day to work late, starting at 1 p.m., but I usually have assignments to shoot that evening.

A few weeks ago I was finished with my other assignments by 6 p.m. and headed to the airport to see if any balloons were preparing to take off. I saw no balloons but I did notice one ultralight coming in for a landing.

Luckily for me, the ultralight was preparing to tow another tandem hang glider into the sky. He actually towed the hang glider four times, which allowed me to figure out how to get the pictures I wanted.

My later photos were also helped by a beautiful sunset. I really like the scale of the ultralight in this picture:

Finally, here a picture of the hang glider approaching the airport.

The images above and others were published in a photo gallery at recordonline.com. The Times Herald-Record also published four of the photos on Aug., 28, 2013.

In case you're interested in taking a flight, the tandem hang glider rides at Randall Airport are offered by Hangar 3.

Schunnemunking

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Bushey) — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 17:53:00 +0000

These lyrics by Carole King from "Up on the Roof" describe how I feel about climbing Schunnemunk Mountain.

When this old world starts getting me down
And people are just too much for me to face
I climb way up to the top of the stairs
And all my cares just drift right into space

Lately I've been hiking the Trestle Trail by the Moodna Viaduct in Salisbury Mills. The area is part of Schunnemunk Mountain State Park. The summit of Schunnemunk, at 1,664 feet, is the highest spot in Orange County, so you could call Schunnemunk Mountain the roof of Orange County.

The trail is steep, especially once you climb past the train trestle, but the views are beautiful. Last Sunday was warm for November, and the afternoon light made for nice photographs.
Here's a are a few views from the climb:

On the way back down the mountain I stopped at another spot with a great view and a wooden bench. The bench has a plaque: "In memory of Sharon Guilfoyle". There were roses on the bench, probably placed their on Oct. 22, the anniversary of her death.

The bench has been at the spot just off the trail for years. But I discovered another memorial nearby for the first time. What I first thought was just a pile of wood was a remembrance for deceased pets. A small plaque on a tree read::" DEDICATED TO: The Animals Who Share The Trail & Life With Us."

Here's a slideshow of these and other photos from my hike:

2012 November Schunnemunk Mountain Hike - Images by Tom Bushey

Top 10 photos of 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Bushey) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 05:19:00 +0000

2011 Top 10 POY - Images by Tom Bushey

Chasing the moon

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Bushey) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 18:03:00 +0000

My plan was to find a good location to shoot the full moon as it was setting, which is when the lunar eclipse would be starting. Although I've taken moon photos through my telescope, I usually like to include something that gives the photo a sense of place. My idea was to frame the photograph to include the High Point Monument in New Jersey. Here's an image to show what I had in mind:

I used a program called "The Photographer's Empheris" to figure out where I needed to be to get the moon and monument together. I found the right spot in the darkness but could not get the picture I had planned.

My first problem was that the lights were not shining at the monument, which made focusing on the monument difficult. My second problem was the clouds were obscuring the moon. By the time I got everything set up, the moon was slipping behind the mountain.

Then I drove to another location with a better view of the western horizon: the scenic overlook off Interstate 84 above Port Jervis. I'd shot the moon from there before. But this time the valley was covered in fog, which I love to shoot. The lights of Port Jervis were even shining from beneath the fog.

Since the moon was still fairly far from the horizon, I drove to Port Jervis and then back east on 84 to shoot from the eastbound overlook, which is higher. Unfortunately there were clouds near the horizon that I did not see. Here's the moon just visible above the clouds:

By this time the sky was getting lighter, so I concentrated on the fog for a few photographs.

Look carefully and you can see the white base of the flagpole at Elks-Brox Park above Port Jervis. Here's a photograph I took from near the flagpole in October of 2006. You can see High Point Monument in the background, which brings us back to where we started, photographically.

Lightning in August

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Bushey) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 02:57:00 +0000

With the stormy forecast for this week, I thought I'd post some photos of lightning from a thunderstorm earlier this month.

I noticed the flashes in the distance while driving home from the grocery store. The rain started falling while I was at my first location, the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Middletown, N.Y.

My next stop was on the outskirts of town to shoot lightning in the distance. Flashes were visible all across the horizon.

My final stop was the lake at Fancher-Davidge Park. I took a few photos there as the storm moved away.

Finally, here's a slideshow with a few additional photos. You can view very large versions of the pictures by clicking the icon on the lower right corner.

Lightning in August - Images by Tom Bushey

Sunday, foggy Sunday

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Bushey) — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 05:10:00 +0000

With another snowstorm on the way, here's a look back to January 2, 2011, when warm winter temperatures brought fog to the Hudson Valley. I took photographs of the fog over the Hudson River in Newburgh and New Windsor, and by the Moodna Viaduct railroad trestle in Salisbury Mills.

Sunday, foggy Sunday - Images by Tom Bushey

The fog was so thick when I arrived at the viaduct that I could not see the field across the road from the parking area. By the time I left, the fog was gone.

Moonrise over the Moodna Viaduct

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Bushey) — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 04:44:00 +0000

The Moodna Viaduct in Salisbury Mills is one of my favorite locations to take pictures. Of course there's the tall railroad trestle, but there are also hiking trails nearby on Schunnemunk Mountain, the highest mountain in Orange County, N.Y.
Late Saturday afternoon I planned to do a short hike and then shoot the moon rising behind the viaduct. I took a different trail than I usually do and found a clearing with a nice view to the east, where I took the photograph below.

The houses in the foreground are in the shadow of the mountain. That's Storm King Mountain in the background at right. And the Hudson Highlands on the east side of the Hudson River are in the background at left.

The trail continued around the bottom of the mountain instead of climbing upward, so I decided to head back to the viaduct. When I got to the clearing again, I noticed the moon in the sky.

After that I started walking faster back to the trestle. Once I got to the field, I started taking pictures and regretting that I had left my tripod in the car.

After trying different angles and lenses, I made my back to the car and set up my tripod for more shots, like this one from the parking area.

As the moon rose higher, I walked by into the field to try different angles. The photograph below is a composite of two images, one exposed for the moon and a second, longer exposure for the rest of the scene.

I waited at this spot for a while, hoping for a train to pass on the trestle. After I gave up and started walking back to my car, the train appeared. I just had time to put my tripod down and take a shot with the wide angle lens on my camera.

Here's a slideshow of these and other photographs I've taken of the viaduct. Clicking on the square next to the "SHARE" button gives you a fullscreen view.

Moodna Viaduct - Images by Tom Bushey

Long distance lightning and stars, oh my

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Bushey) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:29:00 +0000

Last Saturday night I shot fireworks, again. But I liked the unexpected photographs I took while driving home from the display better.
After the fireworks I stopped at a grocery store. On my short trip home, the sky above was clear, but I noticed flashes of light in the west. My destination changed to a spot in a new subdivision with a clear view of the western horizon. The frozen meals and cold beverage in my grocery bags could wait.

Lightning was illuminated clouds low on the horizon. And the best part for me was that stars were visible higher in the sky. I had never captured a scene with lightning and stars before. Here' another photo with more stars.

The lightning was appearing all across the horizon. To get better pictures, I decided to drive further west and made two stops at the Bashakill Wildlife Management Area. The first spot, at a boat launch, was so dark I had trouble focusing the camera. And I left my glasses at the fireworks.

At the second spot there were lights in the distance to help with focus, and I got some good shots.

The lightning is smaller in the frame because I used a wide angle lens. The red streak and light comes from a fisherman casting his illuminated bobber.

The lightning still seemed pretty far away, so I headed west again, this time to the overlook on Route 52 above Ellenville. Someone else was already there taking photographs when I arrived. The following picture is looking northwest over Ellenville.

The final photo is looking directly west. The storm was actually in Delaware County.

Here's a slideshow of lightning images with some fireworks shots at the end.

Lightning and fireworks - Images by Tom Bushey

My excellent fireworks adventure

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Bushey) — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 03:32:00 +0000

My plan was to take pictures of the July 4th fireworks in Newburgh, New York, from the top of Mount Beacon. My plan didn't work.
I did hike to near the top of Mount Beacon, and I will do that hike again. But the trail was much steeper than I expected. Walking down that trail in the dark did not seem like a good idea.
Here's a picture of part of the trail and the view looking north from near the top:

The Mid-Hudson Bridge in Poughkeepsie is barely visible in the right photo.
After walking back down the mountain, and seeing a wonderful sunset in spots along the way, I decided to shoot the fireworks from the Beacon waterfront.
The sky and the water were beautiful even before the fireworks started. You can see the planet Venus in the clouds on the left side of the picture.

I must have bumped by tripod on the following picture, as you can see from the bright light at left, but I also captured a surprise in the frame.

Here's a slideshow of images from before, during and after the fireworks display. You can view the images larger by clicking on the icon under the bottom right corner of the photographs.

2010 Newburgh fireworks - Images by Tom Bushey

3 Days at the Fair races (running for 48 hours)

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Bushey) — Sun, 23 May 2010 15:20:00 +0000

I have photographed, and run in, many road races. The 3 Days at the Fair races were different. Some runners started at 9 a.m. on Friday May 14 and finished at 9 a.m. on Sunday, May 16.

Runners competed in races of 48, 24, 12 and six hours on a course at the Sussex County Fairgrounds in Augusta, N.J. I took the photograph of 24-hour competitor David Castellani on Saturday night.

Here's another shot from Saturday night of Tatsunori Suzuki and Scott Brockmeier running. Brockmeier won the men's 48-hour race. Suzuki finished third in the men's 24-hour race.

The following photo looks to me like a view into the mind of an ultra-distance runner. It's really a long exposure with fireworks in the background and the runner lit by a flash from my camera.

Here's a gallery of more images. Next year I plan to photograph the race again. I want to get there more than twice, and be there for a sunset and a sunrise.

3 Days at the Fair races - Images by Tom Bushey

What a winter

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Bushey) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:53:00 +0000

As the Beatles song goes: "It's been a long, cold snowy winter." And we've got a lot of winter left.
I like the cold and snow, and I enjoying being outside in the winter and taking photographs, like the one above this post.

Perhaps I like the snow because I went to college in Central New York, where it seemed to snow almost every day during the long winter season. Of course back then I didn't have to drive in the snow.

I took the following photo while laying in the snow to get a low angle and shoot under the ice.

The picture was taken on a cold afternoon in a wetland area of Goose Pond Mountain State Park in Chester. The only reason I could get to this spot was that most of the wetland was frozen.

Here's a slideshow of images:

Jan. 2010 winter scenes - Images by Tom Bushey

Soccer celebration

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Bushey) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:14:00 +0000

The World Series is over, and of course the best team won. But in high school sports, the fall championship season still has a few weeks left.

Last Saturday I photographed the Section 1 Class AA boys' soccer championship game between Horace Greeley and Arlington. Both teams brought plenty of fans to the game, which was played at Arlington High School.

The game was tied until Arlington's Rob Steven's scored in the second overtime period and set off a wild celebration. Take a look at the emotion in the photos.

Arlington wins - Images by Tom Bushey

More hang gliders above Ellenville, N.Y.

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Bushey) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:26:00 +0000

I figured a good way to get back to blogging would be to start where I left off, with hang gliding photographs. Only this time the background has gone from green trees to browns and yellows.

I shot theses photos on a weekend, and there were at least 20 people watching the hang gliders and paragliders from the parking areas on Route 52 above Ellenville. I was hoping to shoot down on some of the gliders when there were landing, but most of them continued soaring high above me the entire time I was there.

Since I already had tight shots of hang gliders, I tried to get groups or hang gliders with something else in the frame, like a glider or a bird.

Here's a slideshow of some of the photos:

Hang gliders above Ellenville II - Images by Tom Bushey

Hang gliders above Ellenville, N.Y.

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Bushey) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 18:36:00 +0000

The Shawangunk Ridge above Ellenville is a prime spot for hang gliding. The scenic overlook off Route 52 above Ellenville is a prime spot for photographing hang gliders. You can shoot hang gliders in the sky above and then below, and in the photo below, when they get ready to land.

These photos were taken on a Saturday evening. The sky was full of hang gliders and paragliders.

Here's a closer shot of two paragliders.:

The hang gliders and paragliders land at Ellenville Flight Park. Sometimes you can also see gliders that take off from Wurtsboro Airport.

Here's a slide show of the photos. To watch the show in full-screen mode, click the second icon from the right on the bottom.

Hang gliders above Ellenville - Images by Tom Bushey

High Point monument at night

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Bushey) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 01:30:00 +0000

I took the following photo during a Moonrise Hike at High Point State Park in Sussex, N.J. The monument marks the highest spot in New Jersey.

I carried my tripod as we hiked along the Appalachian Trail to get to an observation post with a good view of the eastern horizon. The moon was hard to see at first because of clouds. I did get this photo, but it's hard to see much besides the moon.

The park also has its own blog: http://www.highpointpark.blogspot.com/

The monument makes a great foreground element to include in photos of the sky. I'm going to try to get back there a few times over the summer.

Eyes on the prize

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Bushey) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:26:00 +0000

Sometimes interesting photographs appear right in your (or my) own home. This kitten jumped up on a counter in the kitchen to get a good look at the fish. There's a strainer of the top of the tank to keep the cats out.

Here's another cat photo, this time from the dining room. The cat likes to hang out in this basket. I just added a white foamcore board to the background.

Evening snowstorm

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Bushey) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:28:00 +0000

Here are some photographs from a snowstorm on Dec. 19, 2008. I like winter weather and the pictures the weather produces.

These photographs were taken on Highland Avenue in Middletown, N.Y., two blocks from my house.

Here's a slideshow of more photographs from the storm:

December ice storm

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Bushey) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 03:10:00 +0000

Winter has not officially started yet, but we've already had some interesting weather in the Hudson Valley. The higher elevations of Orange County, N.Y., were coated in ice from a storm last week. Here's a slideshow of some photographs I took on Saturday.

We had more ice this morning. Schools were cancelled. And significant snow is forecast for Friday. I can't wait.

Putting the elements together

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Bushey) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 01:17:00 +0000

I've been trying to get a photograph of the moon over the Middletown skyline for years. December's full moon was the largest and brightest of 2008, because the moon was at its closest to the earth. The moonrise at about 4:30 p.m. was hidden by clouds (and I was out of Middletown on an assignment), so I shot the moon setting.

The idea is to shoot the moon when it's near the horizon, and to have something interesting on the horizon. This location in Middletown has interesting church steeples.

My problem was that from my prime location, the moon was too far to the left of the steeples. To get the shot above, I walked around and ended up shooting between two buildings. The moon would have looked larger closer to the horizon, but the lower the moon got the brighter the sky got, which make the moon harder to see.

This is where I wanted to shoot from:

Moon, Jupiter and Venus

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Bushey) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 04:00:00 +0000

I struggled with clouds and logistics while taking some pictures of the crescent moon, Jupiter and Venus. This first photo show the three objects (Venus is at center) and some clouds, which were a problem early in the evening.

That photo could have been taken anywhere, so what I like to do is include some element in the foreground that adds to the photo. Tonight I was hoping to find a house on a hill decorated with Christmas lights. That never happened. But I did find a stretch of road that led to the conjunction.

The exposure of the first photo was 1/30 at f4.0 at ISO 800. The shutter speed for the second photo was 2 seconds (at the same aperature and ISO), so the foreground would not be black. That's why you can see the "dark" side of the moon lit by earthshine.

After more driving around, often with a car right behind me, I found a perfect location. The only problem was that Venus had just slipped below the horizon. But I'm going to try this spot again. The monument is at High Point, N.J., which is actually the highest point (1,803 feet) in the Garden State.

Here's a photo of a similar grouping from 2005:

And here's another from 2004, when the grouping was more spread out:

Ring Around the Moon

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Bushey) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 03:00:00 +0000

"Ring Around the Moon" is the name of a Dan Fogelberg song and also the subject of some photographs I took on an October evening.

In order to show the ring, the moon ends up being very overexposed. That's why I used the trees to partially block the moon.

The ring around the Moon is caused by the refraction of moonlight through ice crystals suspended in the upper atmosphere. A moon ring or moon halo will always be roughly the same size - 22-degrees across the sky - because the crystals bend the light at a 22-degree angle from their original path.

In the photo below, the condensation trail from a jet is cutting across the halo. The contrail actually moved quickly across the sky.

Here's another photo that includes a basketball hoop. The backboard was lit from lights on a school playground.