Key West road trip

I snapped this photo in Limerick NY 5 miles from my home. I edited it with Instagram. As I post this we are stuck in traffic on rt 81 about 20 miles from Binghamton .

E.E. Cummings Poem

Close up detail of a melting snow bank in Pulaski, N.Y.      photo by Gary Walts

in Just-

spring          when the world is mud-

luscious the little

lame balloonman

whistles          far          and wee

and eddieandbill come

running from marbles and

piracies and it's

spring...

E.E. Cummings

Since I was a child I have been intrigued by melting snow banks. I would look at the little streams of water running down the road from beneath them.  I noticed how the snow morphed into craggy ice crystals.  I would take in the formations of mud that appeared from the dirt once hidden in the snow. They are like mini glaciers. They say that the rocks and boulders strewn through the landscape were deposited by glaciers. But I 've often wondered how the rocks and boulders became embedded within the ice. I have not researched it, but have surmised that they were from meteor showers pummeling the Earth eons ago. 

So I just got into my car after pumping gas in Pulaski, N.Y. when I spotted the melting snowbank. So I made a photo of it. It is a scene that always takes me back to my childhood.

Instagram Scenic

This is just a super quick post. I am spent. But the photo presented here was made with Instagram using an iPhone 5.

The photo below is the same scene snapped with a Nikon D300. I'll try to add more later.

Third Day of Spring Time In Northern New York

By the calendar it is almost Spring here in Northern NY.  Most of the snow has melted, but it was a mere 14 degrees at my home in Chaumont this morning. I snapped the picture presented here this afternoon in Pulaski, NY. As the snow melts the dirt hidden with it becomes apparent. I do hope all is well in your world.

The dirt hedden withing a snow bank is revealed as it slowly melts away with approaching Spring. Pulaski, NY. Photo by Gary Walts

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A Bit Of Landscaping

Hello everyone out there. I have been busy lately, could have written about many things, but life is complicated and I get tired. This landscaping  photo I snapped this afternoon at a church in Syracuse.  It's not great, but somehow the shapes, the little patch of snow said something to me. Spring is on it's way, but temperatures at home lately have been hovering around 20 degrees.

A week or so ago I played a 2 hour gig at Cafe Mira in Adams, NY. That went particularly well. I was well practiced for one thing, and for another, the LR Baggs pre-amp that I recently purchased worked like a charm to tame and fine tune my overall sound.

I also just replaced a sway bar link on my 2002 Dodge caravan. That should have been simple, but turned out to be a bit problematic. Maybe I can go into that another day. We also just purchased a used, 2011 Kia Sadona mini van for the Better Half. We plan on driving that to Florida in the first week of  April. We will be spending a week with her sisters in Key West.  I'm looking forward to that.

So, that's the latest from the North Country.

Open Mic Night at Aubrey's, Cape Vincent NY

There was another open mic night tonightn at Aubrey's in Cape Vincent. Hosted by Phil Dumond. So I went down and played a few tunes. Basically I think I sucked. Well, not really, not in the big scheme of things,but I was not satisfied with my performance. I have been working up some new pieces and would have liked to tried them out, but my confidence failed me. Why? Well, once again I will balme it partly on my sound. We had a tough time getting the volume up where I would like it. There was a lot of room noise to play over. The place was full of people. Anyhow, I recently bought an LR Baggs pre-amp which I thought would solve the volume problem. And it did EXCEPT there was an annoying hum coming through the system. If  I held the pre amp in my hand it was OK. When I set it down the hum would manifest. After some screwing around I simply played with a less than ideal sound. It was annoying and distracting. Other performers this evening didn't seem to have this problem. I do not experience this trouble when I play through my Fishman SoloAmp 220.
Let's size things up. I can play the guitar. I have the technique. For the most part I know my songs.I think my biggest problem is concentration. Distraction. I distract myself with my goofy thoughts as much as getting distracted by equipment/sound problems.

World's Largest Snowman

This giant snowman is possibly the largest one in the World. It is located at a farm on NYS Route 126 in Champion, between Watertown and Carthage NY.   

I snapped these photos earlier this Winter. We have since had a couple of thaws and I am not sure just what condition it is in today. Otherwise, it remains a somewhat typical February up here in the North Country. It has been clod and clear. My wood pile is on the wane and we have ordered more home heating oil for our apartment house on Clay St, Watertown.  Today's price is $3.89 a gallon. What an outrage. Gasoline has gone over $4 a gallon. It is $4.04 here in Chaumont. What can the increase be from? There has not been any oil related crisis' in the news lately. I suspect oil is rising because the dollar is weakening. The Fed has been printing money which would weaken the dollar which in turn raises the price of oil. Oil goes down when the dollar is strong.

Valentines Day Photo: Love Me

I snapped this photo on a city street in Syracuse, NY and saved it for Valentines Day. Hope you all have a nice one.

I snapped this image on a street in Syracuse. I don't know who the artist is, but similar Love Me pieces are pasted around the city.   Photo by Gary Walts

Last Nights Gig Went Well

OK, so last night I played an event at the Jefferson County Historical Society and was pleased with how I did. I played just fine. No complaints. I will add that it was the first time I have used the LR Baggs GigPro pre-amp. What a terrific little piece of equipment. More on that at a later date. Am in a hurry at the moment.

Car on Snowy Highway

A car travels North on a snowy, icy  interstate Rt. 81 in Watertown, N.Y.   photo by Gary Walts

Yesterday began with a temperature of 4 below zero at my home in Chaumont, NY.  By mid day it was 22 above. I was one of 3 entertainers to play at a spaghetti dinner fund raising event at the Italian American Club in Watertown. I played for one hour, 12:00 to 1:00
How did I do? Well, sucky I thought. I did get very positive feed back from the people that were there, including my fellow musicians. What I do not understand is how I can play so well one night ( as I did a couple weeks ago at Cafe Mira)  and then so poorly (by comparison) another time. I suppose it all boils down to you have good days and you have bad days. 
Here is an example: At Cafe Mira I played an arrangement of the Beatles tune Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da by the Australian guitaris Joe Washington. It is a fun arrangement but difficult. In recent months I have been polishing it up and it is still not to the level I would trulky like it to be, but, It's pretty darn close. I am comfortable with it. I've played it out frequently in the last few months and it always goes over well. I played it GREAT at cafe Mira. But yesterday, I forgot a passage. I fumbled all over for a couple of moments wondering what in the Hell was I doing, where was I going? It is in comprehensible to me how such things occur. I also had big trouble with Elton John's Your Song as arranged by Larry Beekman. It started in the opening measure. I stuck with it though and after some confusion pulled it off. It is such things that drove me to abandon music some 25 or so years ago and just stick with photography.

Tomorrow, Valentines Day I am playing an event at the Jefferson County Historical Society, something with a chocolate and wine theme. We will see how that goes.
Good night all.

Winter Photo: Weeds in Snow

This Winter photo was snapped in Pulaski NY a couple of weeks ago. I parked my car in a bank parking lot  and spotted these weeds standing in the snow. The background is a cement wall of a building. The photo was made with a Nikon D7000 with a 70-200mm Nikon f2.8 lens. The lens creates a shallow depth of field that throws the background so far out of focus it is not recognizable.

These weeds caught my eye as I was parking my car in a bank parking lot. Snap snap... another Winter Photo.

So far February has been typical for northern New York.  It was 3 below zero here in Chaumont this morning. Today I had the pleasure of photographing Tom Dotterer at his liquor store on North Salina St in Syracuse. He is 77 years old and a well known baseball coach for many years at Christian Brothers Academy. About a week ago he was shot in the eye during a robbery of his store. The gun was a pellet gun of some sort so the wound was not life threatening. In fact, he was back to work at the store the next day. Sadly though, some days later his eye had to be surgically removed. The photos I made today will be published this Sunday. Tom Dotterer is a great man. He talked much about philosophy and his love of books and poetry. I was most impressed. I actually met him a couple of years ago when I photographed him for the sports section of the Post-Standard while he was coaching a baseball game.  There was no time to get to know him  then. It's funny how things work out. If I had not stayed on with the Post or had not been offered a position with our new company, Syracuse Media Group, I would not have had today's experience.

Snow Today on Super Bowl Sunday

Woke up on Super Bowl Sunday to a lot of snow here in Chaumont, NY. The photos are of my house on Washington St, and a view looking down Washington Street as seen from the end of my drive way.