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.