Croton Dam

According to Wikipedia:

The New Croton Dam, part of the New York City water supply system, stretches across the Croton River near Croton-on-Hudson, New York, about 22 miles (35 km) north of New York City. Construction began in 1892 and was completed in 1906. Designed by Alphonse Fteley (1837–1903), this masonry dam is 266 feet (81 m) broad at its base and 297 feet (91 m) high from base to crest. Its foundation extends 130 feet (40 m) below the bed of the river, and the dam contains 850,000 cubic yards (650,000 m3) of masonry. The engineers’ tablet mounted on the headhouse nearest the spillway lists the spillway length as 1,000 feet (300 m) and the total length of the dam and spillway combined as 2,188 feet (667 m). At the time of its completion, it was the tallest dam in the world. New Croton Dam impounds up to 19 billion US gallons (72,000,000 m3) of water, a small fraction of the New York City water system’s total storage capacity of 580 billion US gallons (2.2×109 m3).

Read More

A couple of eating establishments in and around Briarcliff Manor


I often carry around the Sony Nex 5N. In this case we were having lunch in a nearby Japanese restaurant (Yamafuji in Briarcliff Manor). The very colourful display in the window caught my attention as did the contrast with the rather plain, almost zen (not that I know much about zen) like wall and lantern to the left.
Read More

Croton Landing Park


The OssiningCrotononHudsonPatch website describes the Croton Landing Park as follows:

Croton Landing lies just past the yacht club on the Hudson River, and is home to a short walking trail, waterfront and a natural riverfront habitat full of native plants and animals. Educational material and environmentally-themed art also can be found. Large, flat paths are good for bikes and skateboards, its open spaces are great for picnics and sports and the scenery makes it a great place to stroll, relax and watch the sunset.

it’s a good place for walking the dog even if it can get somewhat windy at times. This breakwater creates a small inlet to the right with the Hudson River to the left.
Read More

New Hamburg, NY

St. Nicholas-on-the-Hudson church in New Hamburg, NY.  Formerly called Zion Memorial Chapel it is an historic Carpenter Gothic style Episcopal church in a picturesque location overlooking the Hudson River. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1987. To me the church seemed to have a somewhat “maritime” look to it. The kind of place you might come across in Moby Dick. Also something Scandinavian. I could see this overlooking a fjord in Norway.
Read More

Weekly picks – 11/12/2012


In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy I was sitting around the house (with no power) wondering what to do. Then it occurred to me that I had purchased a inexpensive macro lens (Canon 100mm F4 Macro SC) and hadn’t yet tried it. So I grabbed a couple of small figurines to see what it could do. This was the result. It did a great job of blurring the background and isolating the figure. However, the shot I liked the most (this one) had a second figure in the background – still blurred, but vaguely visible. The light was coming from a glass door to the left of the figure and the shot was hand held.

Read More