CtCameraEye.com

Even if the prediction for a aurora is good in your area it is up to the weather gods to help you out.

Tonight all the stars were coming together. A solar storm was in progress. The best one in years. The moon had set by 7:00pm.

Packed up the car with all the photo equipment, and found my perfect northern horizon to shoot at.

All was great…except the clouds rolled in!

Did that stop CtCameraEye? Nope. Before all of the clouds I managed to get a few nice shots of the setting moon and Venus from Hebron, Ct.

Maybe I will have more luck next time.

The Hartford Civic Center Collapse is one of the most memorable disasters that I have covered, and to think it was 34 years ago today.

It was before dawn when my father woke me saying that a “big building collapsed in Hartford”. Being a budding photojournalist I got my meager equipment ( a Nikon F camera, 2 lenses, 2 rolls of Tri-X black and white film and 1 roll of slide film) and was out the door before daylight.

What I found was a scene that was hard to describe. An erie calm, and silence in the area, except for the sound of payloaders going up and down the street. Debris everywhere, and everyone talking about the basketball game that had just finished several hours before.

It was later discovered that 4.8 inches of heavy wet snow that had fallen on it’s roof caused it to collapse at 4:18am.

Here are some images that I am showing for the first time out of my collection.

Remember, these are just a couple. I need some to show for the many years to come. Just to hook you, these are not the best ones. Stay tuned!

Here is a rare color slide image that I took, and hand processed back in 1978 of the roof collapse from an adjacent building. Back then, quite an accomplishment!

The first snow of 2012 brought out “Snow Lovers” of all kinds. I found these two trying to keep cold on a park bench this morning in Bushnell Park in Hartford, Ct.

The temperature finally dropped enough to form some nice ice crystals on my garage windows.

Here is what I harvested at 13 degrees! I love shooting ice crystals. The possibilities are infinate!

Here another image, but I thought I would invert it for a little change.

Go here to see what I shot last year http://www.ctcameraeye.com/?p=3457  or here   http://www.ctcameraeye.com/?p=3412

I have always felt someone was watching me as I drove through Pope Park in Hartford, Connecticut.

Now, CtCameraEye has the proof that a number of eyes have had the “Eye” on me!

Thanks to Real Art Ways, Pope Park has 77 trees with cartoon faces to watch what is going on.

Commissioned in 2009 Matthew Rodriguez, a native of Austin, Texas had the unique experience to paint the faces.

I have found a great way to see a lot of them is in the park at the corner of Pope Park Dr. and Hamilton Street. How many faces can you find?

CtCameraEye had his “Eye to the sky” today spotting a cloud formation that I had never seen before.

After a little research I found out it was. Here’s is Wikipedia’s definition:

A fallstreak hole, also known as a hole punch cloud, punch hole cloud, canal cloud or cloud hole, is a large circular gap that can appear in cirrocumulus or altocumulus clouds. Such holes are formed when the water temperature in the clouds is below freezing but the water has not frozen yet due to the lack of ice nucleation particles (see supercooled water). When a portion of the water does start to freeze it will set off a domino effect, due to the Bergeron process, causing the water vapor around it to freeze and fall to the earth as well. This leaves a large, often circular, hole in the cloud

I was in West Hartford when I first spotted it. It at first looked like a vortex cloud forming underneath it, but with a closer examination on the computer it was water vapor just freezing and falling, leaving a neat hole.

The hole quickly changed and within a minute or so this is what it looked like with a wide angle lens.

Mother Nature STILL amazes me!

Clear skies, and Happy New Year to all!

I had a chance to get a shot of a nice pairing of the 2% cresent moon and the planet Venus. The weather was cooperating and I had a nice location picked out in Hartford. I had been there before when there was a 3 planet conjunction a few years ago.

Tonight was a sucess combining the two of the with Hartford’s Colt Dome in the middle.

Here’s a closer image of just the moon and the Colt dome.

Concentrating on just the moon, here’s a better image of the earthshine. A 2 second exposure.

Finally here’s my weather pal Dan Amarante from FOXCT giving me some TV time this morning!

Ever hear of the Lob-Star or the Christmas Traptree?  Well, the people in York, Maine sure have.

OK, time to back up a little.

I had a few days off and I always wanted to see Maine’s Nubble Lighthouse all dressed up in it’s Christmas lights. So, I took a quick overnight trip up the coast to York, Maine, arriving just before sunset. I had timed it just right to catch the famous lighthouse in the golden light of the setting sun.

After checking into nearby hotel and preparing my camera gear for a nightime photo shoot it was back to Nubble Lighthouse.

With winds gusting at gale force, I managed to get this 20 second time exposure.

Usually I would say “great, got my shot”, but I was so busy concentrating on the lighthouse I nearly missed a great photo op right behind me.

Here’s a clue. What would people from Maine put on top of their Christmas tree? No, not a moose. OK, look below. It’s a “Lob-Star!

And what would be below the Lob-Star? A Trap Tree!

Here it is at night in all of it’s splendor!

Happy Holidays to everyone!

Since we here in Connecticut we could not see the Total Lunar Eclipse this year, so I set forth to find my own, Connecticut style!

Using all of my experience,  all the resources that know of, and a lot of luck, I managed to get a picture of the moon passing in front of an iconic Connecticut landmark.

Setting up my shooting location about 5 miles away with a 1800mm lens, I waited and hoped I had the right location to catch this eclipse.

Within a minute or two of it’s predicted showing, December’s Full Cold Moon showed itself eclipsing Simsbury’s Heublein Tower!

It’s that time of the year again, and with beautiful weather with us, it was a great night to check out the Festival of Silver Lights in Hubbard Park in Meriden, Connecticut.

A nice slow figure “8″ around the park showed off a list of figures in lights such as, bears, geese, turkeys, swans, and much more. A wonderful game to play with children of all ages as you make your way around.

Here are some of the images I took this year.

Follow this link to see 2010 Festival of Silver Lights.