High Water - Courtesy of Irene

Upstate New York and adjacent Western New England received an enormous amount of rain over the course of Tropical Storm Irene's brief visit. Major flooding of small streams and rivers occurred during and in the immediate aftermath of yesterday's storm.

Today, the major rivers, the Mohawk and Hudson, are cresting significantly above flood stage. My own home is in a voluntary evacuation area but far enough above the river so that I needn't worry. Some of my neighbors across the Hudson River in Waterford, however are not so lucky.

Here is a photo of the Waterford Harbor Visitor's Center parking lot from this morning, followed by a riverside view of the same location.

Here is the same scene in more normal times.

Here is another comparison, first from August, 2009 with the canal boat Day Peckinpaugh in the foreground and then from this morning.

And finally, a shot of the Mohawk River overrunning Delaware Avenue on Van Schaick Island in Cohoes, just a short walk from the scenes you see above. The shot is taken from North to South with the Mohawk River to the Right. The location of the cascade is just North of the open area between the rivers you can see on the Google Earth capture which shows the Mohawk River on the Left.

Current Lineup

Since I haven't been out much taking photographs since I returned from Orlando, I decided to update my equipment lineup.

Shown below are my two bodies, EOS 5D and 50D, EF L lenses 17-40, 24-70, 70-200 2.8, 400 5.6 and 1.4XII.  Using various combinations of the full frame and crop sensor bodies together with the 1.4X extender, I get focal lengths, or focal length equivalents, of 17mm through 448mm, 560mm, 640mm and 896mm.

Not shown is my 100mm macro lens which may, or may not, see much future use as the 24-70 close focuses to 15 inches which, at 70mm is enough for flower and foliage close ups.

taken with iPhone, Camera+, LED flash on

A Familiar View

Today's shot is a familiar one. Taken from the balcony of my hotel room. But this is the full view panorama taken with my iPhone and the 360 Panorama app. If you click the picture you'll get the full 1583x573 image. The weird size is due to the uneven edges which have to be cropped to fit a rectangular format.

Another Storm, Another Balcony, Another Camera

Central Florida is a really cool place to view thunderstorms. Here's another shot from another balcony, at a different location, taken with my iPhone 4 and the Camera+ app.

Unfortunately, this storm injured five employees and three guests at nearby Sea World, Orlando. I do recall hearing sirens about 10 to 15 minutes after taking this shot.

The three guests and two of the employees were hospitalized after a near-miss lightning strike. News reports indicate that all have since been released.

Orlando Sunup

Yesterday, I made the rookie mistake of taking my gear directly from the air conditioned room out to the humid balcony air to shoot the sunrise. Of course, the front element of the lens immediately fogged up. After a bit, I took a few shots just to demonstrate the effect. Here's one.

This morning, I put my gear in the bag out on the balcony about an hour and a half before the sun was due to come up. Ideally, I'd use a gallon freezer bag to seal everything from moisture until the gear warmed up, but I don't have any with me. In any case, it worked to a large extent. Here's one without yesterday's fog filter.

Orlando Sundown

Again from the balcony of my room. This time in the evening.

The amusement park you can see is a portion of the Downtown Disney area of Walt Disney World. http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/destinations/downtown-disney/

Orlando Day 2

After a day of meetings I retired to my room as a thunder storm approached on the horizon.

The storm approaches

Stormy background

Orlando

I'm spending the week at the Marriott Orlando World Center to wind up my responsibilities as a member of the Church Council (board of directors) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

I needed to pack light so I picked out what I think is a nice system to bring along. I've got the 5D (without battery grip), 24-70, 70-200, 1.4x and a 270EX flash.

I'm on the 27th floor and the vantage point is pretty nice. Here's a couple from the room. They want $14.95 a day here for internet so I'm tethering to my iPhone and will keep the quality of the pictures down a bit.

The scene at night is even nicer. I'll see what I can come up with over the course of the week. If I'm lucky, maybe a thunderstorm or two.