Travelin' About

Ah - I just discovered 45 free minutes while my pecan pie bakes. I am thoroughly enjoying this holiday season as I have made time to make some presents from my heart, stop and enjoy the company of people who have been tremendously meaningful to me and take walks as often as I can (thank you weather for remaining mild) to help me ward off the abundance of sugar and unneeded calories. Life has been hectic as we bid on a house but lost it to a higher bidder and then discovered another that is a truely lovely house, but it did require a relatively unplanned trip to Austin Texas last weekend.  All-in-all, life is good. The engineer gave it a great report and, despite the need for cosmetic surgery, I believe we will live many long and productive years in this new house. In other news, I won Print of the Year at the Dutchess Regional Professional Photographer's annual print competition. That blew me away! There were so many gorgeous photos - I was stunned when I realized they called...

Well, as if packing up a house isn't enough to do, my past year's worth of marketing is finally paying off. A few lucrative jobs have come up and I'm doing what I do best - photographing events. I felt "part of the family" recently when I shot a Ribbon Cutting for Nerak. Maria and Simone were so much fun to work with - they and the Nerak staff - transformed an industrial site into a warm, inviting setup for a celebratory luncheon. Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce came out in full force for a lovely, Autumn Ribbon Cutting at Nerak. Many people were fascinated about the conveyor belt system and the success of this German based company in our local area. That job reminded the Vice President of Development at New York Academy of Science that I am a specialist in candid shots and getting people who are socializing to pause and smile for the camera, so she hired me for their recent Gala at Cipriani's in NYC. Close to 500 people showed up and squ...

“Do not go where the path will lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail”  Ralph Waldo Emerson So, I was surprised to see that my last post was only 2 weeks ago and a lifetime ago. I've been to a memorial service in South Carolina, shot school photos in New Rochelle, did an engagement shoot, a Ribbon Cutting at a Conveyor Belt company, and visited Austin for our granddaughter's first Halloween. My little lobster with her carniverous Mommy and Daddy.  Oh, and we sold our house in New York and are buying one in Austin. This is more of a shock to me than to anyone. I never WANTED to move to Texas. I am the Hudson Valley Gal. I wrote tourism articles for years boasting about all of the amenities the Hudson Valley has to offer. I have a website, www.HudsonValleyScenes.com ! And yet, we experimented this past summer and rented a condo in Austin and fell in love with it. There is relatively no snow in Austin, the price of living is cheaper than NY and ...

Note the plane about to land that is BELOW us! A pilot friend of mine has been offering to take me up in his Piper Cub - a 2 seater that was built in 1946 and refurbished more recently - and our schedules just never seemed to mesh. But last week he called and I jumped. The Hudson Valley is a spectacular place to see from the air and we are right smack dab in peak season!   For the most part, the trees are not all changing at the same time and there is still a lot of green, but there are some outrageous clusters of shocking color, especially in eastern Dutchess County,  that make up for the lackluster year. The reds and oranges in these clusters just seem to pop.  What made our flight even more fun was spotting sites that I've written about or visited in the past.  Mid Hudson Bridge and the Poughkeepsie waterfront. Walkway Over the Hudson Walkway Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park. Innisfree in Millbrook Vanderbilt's Estate - one of the...

Trophy Point Cadets paused to pose. It still amazes me to discover there are folks who don't know who Scott Kelby is. As a Photoshop nut, I've been following him for years.  He is the founder and president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) as well as a prolific writer of books, magazines and educational materials for many software programs as well as photography, how to light it and process it. He has made a huge difference in the lives of most photographers and everyone who uses Photoshop. I remember reading his blog 4 years ago and realized I missed the first "Photowalk" where he suggested that photographers get together and help one another learn new things about their photography.  Since missing that first one, I haven't missed another. Three years ago I walked with about 50 other photographers in Coney Island. Last year I stayed local and walked across the Walkway Over the Hudson and this year I was fortunate enough to be ...

Chrysler Building Browsing through my images, I realize that I take a tremendous amount of vertical images. Perhaps that's because I used to work as a magazine editor and I see everything as a potential cover. But there is something about vertical images that I really like. It especially works well in NYC with the many spectacular buildings. Grand Central Terminal  Even Grand Central Terminal, which also looks wonderful horizontally, manages to still look stately in a vertical presentation. Not sure what this building is. I saw it in a movie last night and was excited to see that I had shot it not so long ago. Any readers who can help me name this building? NYC is always a place of inspiration and offers so many photo opportunities, no matter what time of day, year, or where you find yourself in the city.  You can even find cows.... And there's always the famous Empire State Building with it's ever changing colors. Empire State Building But you can't ...

OK, so I had a tough time explaining to my family and friends why I was taking a trip to the Thimble Islands, mid-week, with a busful of senior citizens, without my husband on our 13th anniversary. We rarely do anything celebratory and this trip was only available to Marist CLS (Continuing Lifetime Studies) members, a group I applied for and was fortunate enough to be accepted in (a few years earlier than I anticipated). It seems most of the members are 10-20 years my senior. I am actually the baby.  As I am always up for a worthwhile photographic journey, especially when it includes lunch and no driving, so I signed up. Those seniors really know how to have a good time. They started out by playing with bubbles. I was afraid I'd be like a fish out of water, not knowing anybody. But I pulled out my trusty ipad2 and started showing it off. Before long, I had shared that I used to work for our local newspaper and pretty soon folks were calling me "Miss Poughkeepsie Journal...

It's important to blog on a regular basis. I read that all the time. You have to keep your audience interested and coming back. That said, I see that I have not lived up to my own expectations. However, I have been active in researching new places, new technology and new ways to try and communicate. While sifting through my images, I see I have been a very busy photographer, even if I haven't been a dedicated blogger.  One of the new places I explored was   Asheville, North Carolina. We visited very dear, old friends.... Who took us to see the   Biltmore, the largest privately owned home in the US.  Surrounded by lush, rolling green mountains, the   Biltmore   is as exquisite inside as it is outside and the grounds are spectacular as well. Getting closer to their own home in Boiling Springs, South Carolina, we even had time to fool around with Einstein. As the owner of a new ipad2, I showed my toy off to friend, Judy, who immediately...