landscapes - Henry Powderly

So here it is, my first batch of taken with my new Nikon D5000 DSLR digital camera. I’m still learning how to use it, specifically how to tweak ISO, shutter speed and aperture to make photos better. It’s still over my head, but luckily I’ve been visiting Digital Photography School for tips, a great website for novice photographers such as myself.

For this first group I decide to take more photographs of the snowy winter scenery on my property. I experimented with landscapes from afar in addition to a few up-close macro shots. of the snow-laden branches and shrived red berries hanging on the vines.

There’s a very clean feeling I get from the photos this camera takes, they’re not as grainy as the ones from my point-and-shoot Canon. But as for a deeper analysis, I need to learn more before I can make one.

In the meantime, enjoy these photos. There are some great ones of the small barn on my property.

It is easy to debase Long Island. The sprawl, like blight, is consuming its beauty. The proliferation of strip malls is unnecessary, traffic is a mess no matter where you’re headed, taxes are high, arts are hard to find, young adults are absent, downtowns are dieing, and there isn’t a single jam session a saxophone player can run to when he wants to solo over All the Things You Are. But there is a lot of good too, including a great wine country, some wonderful restaurants, and natural beauties, mainly marine ones, that can lift you out of the vapid suburbia.

Not far from my home, a small lighthouse watches over the Long Island Sound. You can pretty much drive right up to the Old Field Lighthouse any time to check out the black iron watchtower on the sandy brick base. And behind it there is a small trail that leads you to a rocky shoreline on the Long Island Sound. From what I hear, it’s never packed, making it a wonderful, meditative spot to relax in for a while.

From a rock jetty you can see Port Jefferson’s power plant watching over the harbor while you throw smooth rocks into the water.

I like to visit places like these when Long Island’s wasteland makes me want to puke.