Brian, Sarah and Amy take a break.

With no sign of winter letting up and temperatures skyrocketing into the teens we joined some friends for a snowshoeing expedition in Oatka Creek Park.  Brian and Cindy Westrich gracefully volunteered to give Amy and me along with Rich and Sarah a guided tour of the park that is less than a mile from their home.  When we planned the outing earlier in the week the forecast was calling for temperatures in the high 20's to almost 30.

Interesting textures and shades of grey on the creek.

Although we barely made it to the mid-teens the exercise and the fact that we were coming off several days of below zero temperatures everyone was plenty warm enough. This park is not as popular as many of the larger county parks so we pretty much had the entire park to ourselves.

Brian gave us a wonderful tour of the park.  We learned about some of the names given to the trails by the local cross-country team that the Westrich boys competed for.  We snowshoed along the creek and he pointed out old abandoned mines and the trails the mining cars took.

Mallards on the creek.

They used to mine gypsum in the area to provide fertilizer to the local farms.  Most of the mines are closed off and the area is spotted with sink holes due to collapsed mines.  The major landmark of the park is Oatka Creek itself and the water was flowing freely as even weeks of below freezing temperatures have been unable to freeze it over.  There was fairly large flock of ducks using the creek as we hiked the shores.

One of many feathers left behind after something ate something.

The park houses an abundance of wildlife as evidenced by the many tracks we came across.  We also believe there are one or more large birds of prey frequenting the park.  We saw evidence of a small bird (maybe a female cardinal) having met its demise as well as some gruesome remains of what we think was once a squirrel (I decided to leave that picture out of the posting).

Snow covered rocks leading into the creek.

After finishing the hike around the park, we followed Brian and Cindy to their home for some skyline chili, wine and continued socializing.  We had a great time and were glad to get out and enjoy the foul weather a bit instead of staying inside and complaining about the cold and the snow.

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Amy and I took a week long vacation to Walt Disney World in Orlando.  I promised her I wouldn't take my good camera gear and turn this 30th anniversary celebration into another photo expedition that she endures so often.

What I decided to do to provide something for this week's blog is to use my iPhone and make Instagram shots during the trip.  I am usually pleased with the results from Instagram and it is often fun trying to pick the right filter for the scene, one that enhances the mood of the shot and doesn't harm the picture.  Instagram has made some changes to their app and the filters supported in recent months and a I'm not sure its for the better.  You may have seen some or most of these already if you follow me on Instagram or via Facebook.  

My top choice is made purely for nostalgic reasons.  Over 20 years ago I worked on the first all digital (capture to print) photography system created by Kodak and used to capture riders on the Splash Mountain log flume attraction in the Magic Kingdom.  I have fond memories of testing the system by climbing into the log flume at the bottom of the big hill and essentially only riding the last 20% of the ride so we could calibrate color and lighting (need people in the boats to get flesh tones right).

As for our trip, we had a wonderful time.  The weather on Sunday was near perfect but that turned out to be the best day.  Monday, our actual anniversary, saw heavy rains all afternoon but that did not spoil our special dinner at Jikos inside the Animal Kingdom Lodge.  The rest of the week was clear but unseasonably cool for this time of year with high's in the low 60's.  Given what was happening back here in Rochester, we weren't complaining.  We took one day away from Disney property and ventured over to Universal Studios to check out the Harry Potter themed sections and some of the other unique locations in Islands of Adventure. The Dr. Seuss area is always awesome and the rides are more my speed.

On Thursday we tried our hand at miniature golf since our package came with a free round and we were ready for a break from the parks.  I was pretty consistent and Amy was all over the map but had some spectacular holes: 2 eagles and almost a hole in one on a par 4.  These were not your average putt-putt holes as some measured over 120 feet with undulating greens and sand traps.  With a birdie 3 on the 18th and Amy making a 6, I ended up winning by a stroke.  I'm still not sure if she let me win that last hole or not.

On Friday we visited 3 separate parks. We returned to the Animal Kingdom in the morning to see what we missed due to the Monday rains.  We then went to the Magic Kingdom for the afternoon and Epcot for the evening.  We had reservations for dessert and drinks with front row seats to the Illuminations fireworks and light show that evening.  A nice ending to our week away.

The trip home brought us rapidly back to reality.  The flight out of Orlando was delayed due to no crew and we ended up choosing to reschedule through Chicago and try to get on a morning flight to Rochester (the east coast airports were not looking promising).  We did manage to get on the flight and it left a bit late but we made it.  Our caravan, which we took to the airport because its our oldest vehicle and didn't care if anything happened to it, wouldn't start after being in sub-zero weather all week.  We took a cab home and I spent the next hour getting the drive way cleared.  I'll see about getting the van when things warm up a bit, maybe Tuesday when its supposed to be a balmy 22 degrees.  Low 60's really wasn't that bad.

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Amy and I had a pretty exciting weekend this past week as did most New England Patriot fans.  In addition to the obvious excitement of the big game and its spectacular finish it was Amy's birthday. So we are believing that Malcolm Butler delivered Amy a very special birthday present and parties were being held all across the country because it was her birthday and not because of some sporting event.

On Saturday evening the night before the big game our company, Kodak Alaris (not Eastman Kodak Co.) was throwing a celebration dinner to thank the employees for a successful 2014.  I set up the studio in the basement to take high key shots against a white background because I didn't want to pass up the opportunity for portraits seeing how we were all dressed up and all.  We did the same thing last year for the company dinner so last minute I decided to try something else and use our living room as a setting.  The nice leather recliners that we have and hardly ever use (there are two in the room) and the floor to ceiling book cases that line the walls had potential for a good setting.  Trying to decide how to pose for the shots is always something I struggle with so I'm sharing a picture from each of the choices we went with.  I think the both work and I like both pictures.  We actually did some with Amy standing like I was but the one with her leaning on the arm of the chair was so much better.

With the studio all setup for the high key shots, I decided more casual pictures on game day were in order so with our game day attire on we grabbed some props and took a few pictures.  I actually like the formal portraits better but given the outcome of the game and the fact that landscape oriented pictures work better in the top spot, I decided to use that picture.

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I liked the Pepsi Cola cap artwork.

On Wednesday evening this past week several work colleagues, their friends and I ventured to the abandoned Rochester subway system for some extreme photography known as steel wool spinning.

Political statements can be found almost anywhere.

Yes, Rochester once had a subway system that has long since been abandoned and city officials continue to debate as to what to do with what remains.  In the meantime it serves as a unique and interesting backdrop for this type of photographic art.

The entrance to the subway near the Dinosaur Barbecue. 

 We were in the area under the Broad Street bridge and Rundel Memorial Library where the concrete surroundings make for a safe environment for flying molten steel wool and the abundant graffiti art adds interest to the shots as well.
This was my first attempt at this particular type of photography and I want to thank Dan Olean for arranging the outing and inviting me along.  Venturing into the dark abandoned tunnels under the city after dark was a little less scary with a group of seven people to share the experience.  For the record, we didn't see another soul the entire time we were there and I didn't really feel all that unsafe.
So how does this type of photography work?  This link will help explain it but essentially you attach a kitchen whisk to the end of a cable, stuff steel wool into the chamber of the whisk, use a 9 volt battery to ignite the steel wool (yes touching to contacts of a 9 volt battery to steel wool will ignite it) and start spinning.

Using a wall barrier to direct the sparks.

Of course before doing all that you should position your camera where you want it (hopefully a safe distance away to avoid ambers) and set it up for a proper exposure.  Most of the shots here were taken at ISO 400 for 30 seconds at f/11 using my Nikon D750 and a 24 mm f/2.8 prime lens.  The resulting pictures are quite dramatic and you get the impression that molten fragments are flying everywhere at a rapid pace.  That isn't exactly how it looks in real time.  Sparks are definitely flying but at a slower rate than the pictures seem to indicate.

Under the library on a sheet of ice.

 The result of integrating all the flying sparks over the 20-30 seconds that they are being produced leads to the impression that it is more intense than it actually is. That doesn't mean it isn't exciting at times.  Seeing pieces of molten steel wool fly towards you and your camera only to fall a few feet short can be a bit exciting.  This is why we all wore safety glasses and old jackets that we didn't care too much about as well as making sure our cameras were covered and our lenses protected with cheap skylight filters.  I don't believe anyone or any gear had direct contact with an ignited piece of steel wool.

View of the Court Street bridge from under the library

We took over 2 dozen pictures of spinning steel wool during the time we were in the underground.  The first several shots were taken under the Broad Street bridge which was more open and had very high ceilings.  After that we moved to an area that is under the public library and had some section of river overflow in it with a thick sheet of ice.  We figured this would make for an interesting effect to see the molten steel wool hit the ice and slide along it.
I only have a  few samples from the adventure in the blog.  I have posted a majority of them to a flickr album that you can visit.  If you are interested in steel wool pictures in general there is a flickr group for those as well.

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