I’m looking up at the sky. How many stars can I see in the night? Dozens? Hundreds? A thousand upon a thousand? My cell phone is screaming at me. An Amber Alert. Be on the lookout for a nine-year-old girl that may have been abducted in Lake George by someone in a white van, driving…
Read More90 Minutes of Moonlight
I’ve previously achieved breathtaking star trail photographs, and I’ve also captured solar and lunar eclipse photos. But my goal this year is to snag a “moon trail,” in which the moon’s travels through the sky are captured on one single frame of film. This is difficult. You’re asking a camera to stay focused on a…
Read MoreWhat’s Up in the Neighborhood, July 19 2025
Hi everybody, looks like it’s going to be a great day today, so take care of all your morning chores – which will make your afternoon a much more pleasant day! And one of those chores, shall we say, is checking out the blog posts and photos and ideas from my friends on the blogroll.…
Read MoreThe Congregation of Carissima
Sometimes you work on a project and you think there’s a goal in sight. And suddenly … without warning … you’re taking a different route. Robert Frost points to the other road and say, “Take this one, it’s less traveled.” I shall explain. Last month, during my Hamilton College 40th reunion, I took some of…
Read More“Sports Challenge” – the coolest sports game show of the 1970’s
Here’s the scenario. Three legends from a professional sports team go up against three legends from another professional sports team. And in the end, one team emerges victorious. With what method do they battle? Golf? Bowling? Lawn darts at 30 paces? Nah. We’re talking trivia here. Such was the concept of Sports Challenge, a weekly…
Read MoreCaption Time: So THAT’S how they change the signs.
Another candid photo from the Saratoga Race Course, and it actually gives me some insight as to how they operate the starting gate. Apparently each gate entrance has the number of the horse that will race out of it. But when horses are scratched, or you have one of those “combined” horses in the race…
Read MoreSo what is “nyuk, nyuk, nyuk” in Spanish?
I will admit it. I am a fan of the Three Stooges. Saw all the shorts. Saw all the feature-length films. Even saw a few shorts that featured solo Stooges (there’s a whole set of Columbia short films that just feature Shemp Howard). But as of yesterday … I had not seen the Three Stooges…
Read More“Tell the race track Johnny Wadd is here.”
Let me explain that blog post headline. My recent acquisition of a Meyer Optik Görlitz Orestegor 500mm f/5.6 telephoto lens has proven successful when paired with my Pentacon Six TL camera. And thanks to my girlfriend (the best girlfriend in the whole wide world), I now have an adapter that will make that Meyer Optik…
Read MoreThe Submission of a Fractured Coin of the Rebellion
Many years ago, I assembled a small collection of Civil War-era Albany-centric storefront tokens. These were issued by merchants in 1863 and 1864 when the government ran out of proper currency; these tokens were essentially custom-made scrip. One of the tokens I acquired was for Benjamin & Herrick, which operated a downtown grocery. One of…
Read MoreWhat’s Up in the Neighborhood, July 12 2025
Good morning, my wonderful blog readers. Hope you’ve got lots of fun things planned for this weekend, and I also hope the weather cooperates with your plans. I’m making my final cuts and considerations for the New York State Fair’s and Altamont Fair’s photography competitions, and after going zilch-for-four in the Iowa State Fair, I’m…
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Chuck The Writer 
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