On a recent snowy weekend, B and I hiked West Kill peak. It starts on a trail head that we have hiked many times in the past. Notably, it is the trail on which Diamond Notch Falls (see above photo) is located. The peak was mostly socked in. But the scenery along the trail was worth the effort. Continue reading
The Kelly Hollow trail is a nice little ~4 mile loop that is a fairly quick drive from our spot in the Catskills. I like this trail because it is easy enough that Lola can still make it the whole way on her geriatric little paws. It also has some nice scenery, despite being closed in on all sides by Millbrook Ridge (I think). B and I had never hiked it in the winter until recently, when some friends of ours were upstate for a holiday weekend. This is typically a pretty popular hike because the trail is so mellow. Amazingly, we did not encounter another soul on the trail that day. I launched the drone over the beaver pond located roughly at the halfway point on the trail. The pond was partially frozen over and had a very cool looking gradient from above. Another cool visual element was that the trees were only snowy above a certain elevation line, but not along the trail (see bottom photo). Here are a couple of the images (our party is in the lower right corner of the top photo, for reference).
B Enjoying the Views from Wittenberg
After getting off to a super snowy start, this winter has mellowed out considerably over the past several weeks. Apparently it’s not just the Catskills. I read today in Gothamist that we are in the fourth longest period in history (since they started keeping track) with no measurable snow in NYC. Not good for skiing, but not terrible for hiking, assuming that one chooses to ignore the potential future implications as they relate to the global climate. Or maybe it is just La Nina? But hey, it was a 3 day weekend, the weather was unseasonably warm and we took advantage by going on a very long hike!Continue reading
2022 was another super weird year. This time last year, I felt like 2022 was going to be the one where we would finally regain some post-pandemic “normalcy.” Welp, that kind of went out the window in February when all of the Ukraine stuff started. It seems like things just spiraled into bizzaro world from there. I can’t really complain from a personal perspective, other than about the anxiety caused from uncertainty of macro issues beyond my control. Overall, I consider myself very fortunate to have had another year of meaningful experiences and personal growth. Met some very cool people and spent time with people I love.Continue reading
Moon Lake, Utah– June 2016
I recently received a huge batch of scans of 35mm film shot over the past 5-6 years. I tried out a new (to me) lab for processing called Dark Slide. It is a one-lady owned and operated lab out of CT. I read about them on Field Mag and decided to give them a shot. I mailed in two rolls of Velvia 100 and one roll of Porto slide film in Sept. It took a while to get the results (and I’m still waiting on the prints/slides). But hey, these exposed rolls were sitting on my desk for about year. So what is another six weeks? Haha. Anyway, the scans came back in high resolution .tif format. I have exported a few to JPEG and posted them here. Mega gallery below-Continue reading
Facing South on the Luis I Bridge
To celebrate our birthdays this year, Britt and I decided to take a quick trip to Portugal. Neither of us had been prior. It rained most of the time, but we still had a blast. Read on for some spots I would recommend, as well as a lengthy photo dump.Continue reading
Welp, another really weird year in the books. In keeping with tradition, here is a video I made with photos that I dumped from my iPhone. Some were obviously taken with a real camera, then saved to my phone for sharing, etc… Each frame is a couple tenths of a second. Anyway, here is a link to some of the archives. And here is the recap from 2021–
It was kind of cool to wake up to the sounds of fog horns on the East River Saturday morning. It was one of those days where it never really rained, but everything was wet all day. It has officially been three weeks since surgery. I’ll be starting regular PT week after next. I have enjoyed the steady return of my mobility, and decided to capitalize on it Saturday after spending some time with PJ. I drove to the Tarrytown reservoir and took a lap on the reservoir trail. I wished so badly that I would have brought my real camera with me. Instead, all I have are these mediocre-ish cellphone snaps. The fog transformed the depressing dead-looking winter woods into a nearly silent ethereal dreamscape. I felt like I was walking through an Isabella Stahl photo.
Switching gears completely — One of my 2020 goals is to get back on the horse creatively. As a part of my end-of-year and end-of-decade reflections, I became painfully aware of how drastically my time spent being creative has waned over the past several years. One decision that I have executed to proactively kickstart said goal, is taking a break from Instagram. I disabled my account shortly before midnight on Dec 31. It was an idea that I had been leaning toward for a while (since the app was acquired by F@#$book).
When the app first came on the scene, I feel like it actually may have helped my creative juice via the inspiration I gleaned from the photographic works of my peers and acquaintances. In the past couple of years it seems to have devolved into the same torrent of internet diarrhea that is F@#$book. Having so much additional down time lately while recovering from surgery has intensified my awareness of how much time can be wasted mindlessly scrolling absolute nonsense (yikes!). Some people do dry January. I’m doing ‘gram-free January. So far I don’t miss it at all. I’ll re-evaluate on Feb 1. In the meantime, perhaps I’ll find the juice to expand the content on Jake.News beyond monthly playlists and the occasional book review, hehe. I realize that the ‘blog’ as a format has been dead for a while now … oh well.
For now, please enjoy this set of photos from my walk through the woods in the fog.
Saturday morning was one of those rides where I wish I would have had my real camera with me. I saw so much good stuff. It was a little hotter than ideal, but the visibility was really good and the sky was loaded up with cartoon looking clouds. Anyway, here are a couple of images that I managed to snap with my celly.
A few weeks ago I was reading an article about stuff to do in the city when it is so hot outside. One of the suggestions was a lobster cruise in the harbor. It looked awesome. The more that I looked into it, I realized that the cruise was on one of those giant clipper ships. I had seen the boat’s sister ship that leaves from North Cove marina. I worked in towers at WFC for 8 years. So I had seen it come an go a lot. I had just assumed that it was all tourists going for a sight seeing cruise on the Hudson (and as such, had no desire to participate). Not that there is anything wrong with tourists. They are awesome. But if I was going to be on a boat in the harbor, I want to be having fun, not listening to someone talking on a loudspeaker about the history of Governor’s Island, and indigenous marine life.
As it turns out (and it frequently does), I was wrong. The Clipper City actually has a multitude of options for on board activities that are not really geared toward tourists at all. I booked the “Lobster & Beer Lovers” Sail. It is catered by the Maine born Luke’s Lobster. We actually have one in our neighborhood and like it quite a bit. The outing did not disappoint. We even ran into one of our friends who just happened to be on the boat for an outing with her colleagues. The staff was friendly, vibe was good, weather was awesome, food was excellent and the beer was cold. I totally recommend it. We are definitely going to do this more often.
