Kodak tower peaks over the buildings of the High Falls district.

A few weeks ago the subject of this blog was the Rochester skyline taken from the river walk trail just south of the city.  This week I decided to get up early on Saturday morning and venture to the High Falls area of Rochester to view the same section of the city from the north.  The High Falls district of Rochester has a lot of history and a lot of unmet potential for the city.

Another view of Kodak tower behind old river side factories.

The old abandoned factories in this neighborhood would be perfect for repurposing and revitalizing this section of the city.  There have been some attempts in the past that were met with short lived success but it seems difficult to get anything to stick.  I did see signs of renewed efforts as new housing appears to be available and other signs of growth.  I hope it succeeds.

Genesee Brewing Co is also in this area.

I arrived in the area a little after 6:00 AM and found easy free parking in the High Falls garage that sits off State Street and directly across from Frontier Field, home of the Rochester Red Wings triple A baseball team.  This is also the neighborhood that houses the head quarters of Eastman Kodak Co., the once dominant employer of the Rochester area and the reason I live here.  Things certainly have changed in the 30+ years since I moved here and I'm sure the decline of Kodak's presence in this neighborhood has something to do with its current state.  

Foot bridge across the Genesee River is very nice.

The pedestrian only bridge that crosses the Genesee River just north of the falls is the perfect place to setup for this week's photo.   I was a bit disappointed in the flow of water over the falls indicating that water levels are down.  I was also hoping for more morning sun on the buildings but even though the sun was in my eyes as I drove here and also shining brightly after I left, it remained behind broken clouds for most of my time on site.  The cloud cover, however, does add some drama to the shots and I made do.

Old factory building in landscape.

What I assumed was an abandoned building with an exterior fire escape caught my eye as an interesting photo subject.  I proceeded to take a couple shots, making sure I got the whole building in my frame.  Upon returning home and reviewing the pictures, I realized that a tighter cropping on the building emphasizing the staircase against the side of the building was a much more interesting photo than one that contained the entire building.

Old factory building in portrait.

I'm sharing both a portrait oriented crop of one shot and a landscape cropping of another and ask for your opinion on which you prefer.

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Not the fanciest stand but possibly the best ribs!

For the past couple of years I've been trying my hand at smoking barbeque ribs.  I bought a nice combination smoker grill a couple of summers ago and have made ribs a half dozen times or so.  When I heard about the Roc City Ribfest held on Memorial Day weekend in Genesee Valley Park, I decided it would be an event worth attending to see how well my ribs hold up against the pros. 

Doug enjoying some ribs.

Amy, Doug and I spent the early afternoon wandering the show grounds and sampling some of the ribs from the vendors on hand.  We purchased samplers from 2 national chains and 2 local establishments. We all agreed that the best ribs of those we tasted came from Bad to the Bone out of Williamson, NY.

One of the contestants preparing for an overnight cooking.

The weather was a bit cool but the sun was out and the sky was clear.  We eventually wandered into the area where the contestants camp out and had a nice chat with a couple from Rhode Island that were competing.  This is a weekend long event with multiple side contests before the big judging takes place on Sunday.  The gentleman we were talking with was preparing some pork butt for what he said would be 13+ hours of smoking to be judged Sunday afternoon.  His plan was to let the rub sit for several hours and throw it in the smoker around 10:00 PM for an all night cook. 

One of the many delicious looking desserts being turned in for judging.

As we were talking with him and his wife, a parade of fabulous looking desserts went by.  Evidently one of the side contests was for the best dessert where one of the ingredients had to be bacon!  This sounds a bit weird but the dishes that were being turned in for judging sure looked yummy.  I worked my way to the entry table and took some pictures as they were being presented.  Amy and I were both wondering what it would take to be a judge at one of these things!

Another yummy dessert.

Entrance to the event.

By mid afternoon the crowds had picked up.

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Every other year we clear everything off the deck and power wash the wood surface and apply a new coat of  water seal.  After a long day of performing the first half of the job I took my camera out in the yard for some evening shots to cover this week's blog.  I have a very nice close-up of a dandelion gone to seed that is back lit by the evening sun.  This was going to be my lead off shot for this week and some more flower shots as fill. 

After dark I remembered wanting to try some light drawing photography using a glo-stick. Amy and I had purchased some glow-sticks this past winter for a project that we never completed. Once we located them I decided it was now or never.  The night was very pleasant and best of all the deck was completely empty, offering a perfect place to play around.    To prepare I activated a stick and then attached it to a length of twine in order to allow for shots requiring swinging the light in an arc. 

I then setup the tripod and figured out a good location and exposure.  With a ten second delay on the camera I was able to start twirling the glow-stick with the attached twine in a circular motion.  By slowly spinning around while twirling the light, I attempted to generate a sphere of light.  The results were OK, but not as dramatic as I was hoping (the glow-sticks we have are pretty small and not too bright).

During one of my test shots, Doug came into the living room and turned on a light that resulted in ruining the exposure on the shot.  When I told him that I wanted the lights off he became curious as to what was going on and decided to join me.  We had a great time trying to draw shapes in the air and spell our names.  When I drew the heart using several passes, Doug didn't think it was going to turn out very good.  When we looked at the result on the camera's display we were both pleasantly surprised. 

This prompted further ideas, including the name spelling.  We ended the evening with Doug trying to combine the spinning circle with some extra painting to produce the face of a clock.  This took a couple of tries before he produced a nice clock face.  This was lot's of fun and having Doug join me made it all that much better.

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Our flowering trees; crabapple, purple plum and bradford pear

We've had an incredible week of weather here in Rochester resulting in a rapid blooming of the flowering trees that make up our landscaping.  We have three such trees that normally bloom over a 3-4 week period and they are usually done blooming by now.  The first to bloom is our purple plum tree and it historically blooms in early to mid April.  It was at about peak last weekend when we were at Highland Park.

Crabapple tree on Saturday morning. 

In a normal year the bradford pear tree will bloom about a week to 10 days after the purple plum.  With the extremely warm and sunny weather we had this week the bradford pear was close to peak by mid-week and was barely showing any buds last weekend.  On Wednesday evening, when I noticed the bradford pear in full bloom, I took a look at the crabapple tree and it was full of buds but none were open.  By Friday evening and Saturday morning the buds on the crabapple were more than 50% in bloom and this morning it is at full bloom.  So a 3-4 week blooming period for our flowering trees compressed to one gorgeous week in 2015.

Bee in flight while collecting pollen

When the crabapple tree is in bloom it attracts a large number of bees.  I have photographed them in the past but never with a high quality macro lens like the 105 mm lens I obtained last fall (see macro photography post).  After noticing the annual activity around the tree I removed my brand new 24-70mm f2.8 zoom lens and attached the macro lens in the hopes of capturing the busy insects in action.

Another bee busy at work.

I selected this weeks picture from among the many I took for both the positioning of the bee and the fact that it was sunlit and not in deep shadow.  I've including a couple of other interesting bee shots as well for you to enjoy.

Bees aren't the only ones enjoying the tree

While scanning the tree for busy bees that were poised to be easily photographed, I was reminded that bees were not the only flying creatures that enjoy nature's flowering plants.  I spent a few minutes following this butterfly around the tree trying to get a good angle of it while it was taking advantage of the blossoming tree.

This week also brought a new piece of equipment to my camera bag.  I finally stopped thinking about and finally purchased Nikon's flagship standard zoom, the AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED lens.  My photography friends, particularly those that shoot with Nikon cameras, will appreciate this news.  The non-closeup shots in this week's post were taken with the new lens, which was obtained on Friday evening from Rowe Photo here in Rochester.  I expect to feature the lens more in future postings.  Until then enjoy these images of the long awaited springtime conditions that this past week has provided.

Purple plum blossom on Monday

Another picture of the butterfly at work.

Crabapple on Saturday morning.  24-70 mm lens

Bradford pear on Friday. Taken with 24-70 mm lens.

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Magnolia blossoms

The first Saturday in May turned out to be a picture perfect spring day so Amy and I decided to visit Highland Park, the city's oldest park.  The park was designed by Frederick Olmsted and opened in 1909.  The park is home to the annual Lilac Festival that draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.

Magnolia tree.

Although the park may be famous for its lilac bushes, it is also home to dozens of other flowering trees and shrubs.  Some of these were in full bloom on Saturday and others, including the lilacs, were just beginning to show buds.
The next few weeks should offer wonderful views and fragrant scents should one decide to visit the park.  As for the Lilac Festival, I'm not too sure.

Will the lilacs be ready in a week?

The festival begins this coming weekend and runs for 10 days.  The forecast calls for warm and sunny weather so it is possible that very young buds I saw will be in full bloom before the festival ends.

Some of the magnolia trees were in full bloom and the fragrance in the air was fantastic.  Finding a good angle to photograph a complete tree and give the same sense of beauty in the photograph as was seen live proved to be a challenge.

 I ended up liking the close-up shots of blossoms much better than I do the shots of entire trees.

In hindsight I think a wide panoramic of the area containing the magnolia trees, showing all the trees at once would make for a nice image.  I may have to return and give that a try.  In the meantime I hope you enjoy these pictures and if you are in the Rochester area do yourself a favor and stop by the park this week before the festival starts and the crowds become overwhelming.

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