Photo Of The Day: June 30 2008

After seeing the photos of the dolphins (and more and better ones taken yesterday are coming soon), a local horse came up to the fence to demand equal time, which I'm happy to give. For more pictures of animals, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: June 29, 2008

You may have heard of the Olafur Eliasson's new project, “The New York City Waterfalls, which just debuted in New York. As The New York Times reported, "The work consists of four scaffoldings, ranging between 90 and 120 feet tall, dotted along the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Governors Island waterfronts. Water will cascade from these scaffoldings every day, beginning most mornings at 7 and will go silent each night at 10. The waterfalls will be lighted after the sun sets and will draw their water from the East River." One place the water will fall will be against the Brooklyn Bridge. I don't have any shots yet of the falls, but I do have this close-up shot of the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge, which provide an interesting artistic design of its own. For more shots of New York City, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: June 28, 2008

You may have heard of our local area's latest claim to fame. It's been on ABC-TV, Fox, The Washington Post, and even WHO-TV in Des Moines. But The Associated Press stated it as well as anyone, so I'll just quote from their release: "The latest visitors to the New Jersey shore are doing what many tourists do: splashing around in the waves with the kids and feasting on seafood. Between 12 to 14 dolphins — including at least three calves — have been frolicking in the Shrewsbury and Navesink rivers for the past two weeks, the likely result of a wrong turn inland following schools of bait fish. The dolphins have been drawing crowds along the banks of both rivers, not to mention a flotilla of boats and kayaks. Wildlife officials and volunteers worry that the dolphins could be injured or killed by heavy boat traffic in the narrow waterways, particularly with July Fourth approaching. They're working on a plan to coax the dolphins out to the open waters of Sandy Hook Bay and then the ocean. The group is leading efforts to try to get the dolphins out of the river. If [thunderstorms] don't chase the dolphins away, a team of about 40 animal rescue and environmental officials from as far away as North Carolina and Massachusetts will try to shoo them out of the river next week." So yesterday I went out to look and sure enough, there they were. Here's a composite of four shots. The top left shot is a bit blurry, but it was the only one I got that showed Flipper's face. I have to laugh at the fact that these dolphins only about a mile from my house were more prominent than any I saw during my entire Miami shoot last month. For more pictures of the ocean and animals, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: June 27, 2008

For those of you on the East Coast, the next time you're driving up the New York State Thruway going North, slow down when you get to mile marker 81. You'll see the picturesque Perrine's Bridge on the right. Perrine's Bridge is a long and historic covered bridge, and the second oldest covered bridge in the entire state of New York. It was opened in 1835, and serviced horses, and then cars, until 1930, when it was closed to automobiles. Somehow, seeing this very rustic mode of transportation right along side a toll road where drivers routinely go 70 MPH or more is so interesting because of the juxtaposition of the past and present. For more pictures of the Hudson River Valley, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: June 26, 2008

There is more than one pond on Cape Cod called Dennis Pond. That's understandable, perhaps, given that there are 365 kettle ponds there, formed by glaciers a long time ago, and it's easier to come up with, say, 200 names and repeat some rather than create 365 unique names. Dennis Pond is not the most popular name for a pond on the Cape, however -- Long Pond, Great Pond and Round Pond win the award for the most ponds with a single name. But the one that's actually in Dennis is certainly a beautiful pond, as seen here. For more pictures of ponds on Cape Cod named Dennis or anything else, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: June 25, 2008

There's always something to find on the beach. And this collection was just sitting there when I came across it last year. For more beach and water shots from throughout North America, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: June 24, 2008

It's nice to see that I'm not the only one who's up at 5:20 A.M. to see the sun rise over the ocean. With the summer solstice now past us, I'll get to sleep a bit longer from now on to catch it. The bad news is that it means that the days are getting shorter. For more pictures of sunrises, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: June 23, 2008

Over the weekend I was up in the Berkshires for the 75th Anniversary celebration of Darrow School, a small boarding school on the New York/Massachusetts border. For its entire 75 year history, the school has combined rigorous classroom education with hands-on learning and a focus on the environment and sustainability. Its expansive 365 acre campus on the site of the first Shaker settlement in North America draws artists from all over the world for inspiration, and is the home for The School of Visual Arts summer program. Here's just one reason people keep coming, and coming back. For more pictures of the Berkshires, visit the Berkshire Bliss gallery at Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: June 22, 2008

In the midst of one of Coral Gables' residential neighborhoods is a special swimming place called the Venetian Pool. Perhaps the only swimming pool anywhere to be included in the National Register of Historic Places, the Venetian Pool is fed by underground artesian wells. Once a quarry pit, its only value was the limestone it produced for the construction in the early 1920s. In 1924, it was transformed into what it is today, where over one hundred thousand visitors a year come to visit. For more pictures of Coral Gables, look for a new gallery coming soon at Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: June 21, 2008

There's nothing like parking in the elevated garage when you take your bike to the beach. This stopover took place at Cold Storage Beach on Cape Cod. For more photos of Lower Cape Cod, , visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: June 20, 2008

Summer is the time to jam, and there's no better place to see jam made than at the Greenbriar Nature Center and Jam Kitchen in East Sandwich on Cape Cod, MA. I've been told this photograph is as pretty as a painting, and in fact, has been used as a subject for a watercolor. For more pictures of Upper Cape Cod, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: June 19, 2008

Vizcaya is a museum owned by Miami-Dade County and a serene and stunningly beautiful retreat in the heart of Miami. Built by agricultural industrialist James Deering in 1916, Vizcaya features a main house and ten acres of formal gardens. You can go there and get lost for hours. But when you find yourself at the part of Vizcaya pictured here, you'll be in a perfect place for reflection (pun intended). For more photos of Miami, look for a new gallery coming soon at Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: June 18, 2008

Harwichport, MA is a sweet town situated on Nantucket Bay on Cape Cod, and looks beautiful anytime -- day or night, summer or winter. But it looks particularly good at dusk when the glow of the lights competes with the fading daylight with a range of dotted boats in a small inlet on Lower County Road. For more pictures of Harwichport, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: June 17, 2008

Today, the sixth grade class at Highlands Elementary School graduates. For their annual gift to the school, they chose this shot of the school during the special time of the year when all the flowering trees are in their full glory. For more pictures of flowers, trees and New Jersey, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: June 16, 2008

Like most people, I have more than one watch. I have a nicer watch I use for more formal occasions, and I have a less expensive watch for casual wear. The strap to that casual watch broke Saturday, and it was so inexpensive that it wasn't worth fixing. But I wanted to have a watch with me as I'm rather compulsive about time. So I dug deep in an old drawer and found the first "real" watch I ever owned. It cost a small fortune in its day, and I recall being so excited by the new quartz technology of the time, which meant no winding, and a second hand that jumped from second to second rather than executing a full sweeping motion which had, until that point, been all you could get. The battery was dead and the crystal was scratchy, so I took it to a local jeweler who replaced the battery and put in a shiny new crystal. Sure enough, over two decades after I first acquired it, the old Seiko Quartz watch is working like a charm and has resumed its position as a contender for more casual wear. Here's how it looked Saturday after the repair. For more pictures of still lifes, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Guest Photo Of The Day: June 15, 2008

Today is Father's Day, so I'm breaking from the norm to share where my photographic talent came from. My father was never a professional photographer, but he spent enough time around cameras, working his entire life for Eastman Kodak. Among his other privileges at Kodak was the opportunity to test new cameras before they came out. That meant he had to take a lot of shots, but also do it rather invisibly, since Kodak didn't want consumers, or worse still, the competition, seeing an unreleased product before it came to market. So he always had a camera in his hand and knew when an opportunity for a good photo was brewing somewhere. Today's shot is the result of that awareness: he took it in Florida at the exact moment a great blue heron took off from its perch. And in those days, he was shooting film (he's since converted to digital -- Kodak, of course), so even though he had a generous film processing allowance, he couldn't just rely on a 6.5 FPS continuous shooting mode on an 8GB card to get his choice of his best digital picks like we can today. Instead, he had to wait, wait some more, and then get the shot at the absolute exact right time. You can see he nailed it perfectly, even adding the right amount of flash to ensure that the underside of the wings were optimally lit. I don't know who could top this shot, including me. Happy Father's Day, Dad, and thanks for the genes.

Photo Of The Day: June 14, 2008

Believe it or not, I'm still going through my range of Miami photos, discovering shots I had forgotten I had even taken. One of them was this shot of the Miami skyline. As I mentioned in an earlier post, there are innumerable angles and perspectives from which to view the city. This particular angle really showcases the color of Miami. For more pictures of Miami, look for a new Miami gallery coming soon at Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: June 13, 2008

With the recent heat wave blanketing (in more ways than one) the East coast, I thought a shot of snow and ice would help cool you off and remind you of the other evil we'll be complaining about in six months. This one is right at Sandy Hook bay, which as I type this is filled with swimmers and sailors and tourists eating dinner outdoors and drinking at the local tiki bars. For more pictures of snow and ice, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: June 12, 2008

One year ago today I shot a wedding here on the New Jersey Shore. I was up early and saw this first peek of the sunrise over the water, which made me think that it was sure to be a good marriage. Sure enough, the wedding went off without a hitch, and the couple is as much in love now as ever. For more pictures of sunrises over the New Jersey Shore, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: June 11, 2008

This is not a mushroom cloud from an atomic explosion. It's just a humongous cumulus cloud we passed over on a recent airline flight on the way home from a shoot. We were above it and riding smooth, but had we gone into it, we would have rock and rolled for sure. For more pictures of clouds and sky, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: June 10, 2008

There's nothing like a boat heading out first thing in the morning to do its day's work. There's something about the fact that the boaters are among the first people out in the day that has a hard-to-describe charm to it. Here in the Highlands on the Jersey Shore, I see boats heading out as early as 5:00 a.m. -- in all four seasons. Most of them are clammers bringing in the kinds of clams Highlands is famous for. This shot here was not taken here, but in Chatham, MA on Cape Cod. For more pictures of water, boats and the Cape, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: June 9, 2008

The white breasted nuthatch loves to land on the bark of a tree upside down. I'm not sure why -- the head then has to be twisted up which must cause some serious back pain. Perhaps there are chiropractor discounts for white breasted nuthatches. But whatever the case, almost any photo you see of a white breasted nuthatch has a similar design to this one, so to be fair, this isn't necessarily all that unique of a picture. But I thought it did capture the fleeting energy of the bird. For more photos of birds and other animals, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: June 8, 2008

They say Cape Cod can look good even in the rain. Well, whoever "they" are, they're right. For more photos of Cape Cod in all kinds of weather, see my new book which you can get here or here, or visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: June 7, 2008

Don't you just think of The Andrews Sisters when you see this photo? I wasn't even alive during their heyday, but the moment I took this, I knew that's how I'd title it. For more pictures of machines imitating people, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: June 6, 2008

Some of you may know that before the Beatles became successful, they had a drummer before Ringo Starr. That was Pete Best. To this day, Pete himself says he is not sure why he was sacked as their drummer. Some speculate it was because he was more of a heart throb to the teenage fans the Beatles were then courting than the other three Beatles and they wanted to quash the competition. Others speculate it was because he was not nearly as proficient a drummer as Ringo -- a point hard to argue. But it doesn't matter as much to Pete Best now. When The Beatles Anthology CD was released in the 1990s, it had a track on which Pete drummed, pulled up from the archives. Those royalties from that one track were enough to set Pete on a renewed career as a drummer with The Pete Best Band, where they perform tracks from the Beatles' Cavern Club days. For a 67 year old, you have to admit he looks pretty good. For more photos of musicians, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: June 5, 2008

My brother-in-law is a Ph.D marine scientist who does field research around the world. So he's familiar with Woods Hole, MA, where he has managed research projects in conjunction with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. So I knew just who to ask when I wondered which building this was in Woods Hole. He immediately recognized it as the old Candle House building. Built in 1836, it was built to store whale oil and make spermaceti candles. You can see this photo and learn more about it in my new book about Cape Cod for sale here or here. For more pictures of Cape Cod, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: June 4, 2008

The ocean looks good in any season, and one thing that makes it wonderful to look at is that it always looks just a little different. It's not often it has a perfectly blue color, but when it does, it's even that much prettier, as seen here. For more pictures of water, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: June 3, 2008

Last week, I was settling in to do some photo processing when I saw this wonderful view out my window of the skyline of Manhattan. It always looks a little different, and this particular day, the setting sun and dwindling light made for a nice combination of color, contrast, and openess. The obvious landmarks include the Empire State Building, the MetLife building, the Chrysler Building, and the Citicorp building. Harder to discern is the gold-topped New York Life building -- I'll show that in a future photo when the sun is illuminating that top to a brilliant shine. If your curiosity has overtaken you and can't wait until then, it's just at the bottom of the Empire State Building in the right 50% of the building's view from this perspective. For more pictures of New York City, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: June 2, 2008

This weekend was the 22nd annual Red Bank Jazz & Blues festival in nearby Red Bank, NJ. Three stages provided live jazz and blues music continuously, with the lead stage parked right at the river's edge under a rolling hill. That makes for perfect stadium seating -- people bring their blankets and chairs, and everyone can watch with no one's head in front of them. In the past, Washington Mutual has sponsored this event, but with cutbacks, they, well, cut back. So this year was sponsored by three entities: Foodtown, a local supermarket, Smoothie King, and Starbucks. Starbucks was giving out samples of their new Mint Mocha Chip Frappuccino®. In case you wonder what that is, Starbucks' web site says it is Classic chocolate and spearmint flavor combined with Starbucks coffees and milk, mocha sauce, Frappuccino® chips, blended with ice, and then topped with chocolate whipped cream and mocha sauce. It weighs in at almost 500 calories for a 16 ounce serving, so it's not something you'd want to have every day. Still, it was pretty tasty, and my sample cup looked so nice in the setting sun, I just had to take a shot of it. For more pictures of food, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: June 1, 2008

I'm not usually a big pancake eater -- usually once or twice a year is enough for me. But every so often I have a real craving for it. I'm not sure if it's the sugar, the carbohydrates, the sweetness from the maple syrup or just the carb crash I have when it's all over. But yesterday was one of those days, and here's how it looked on my plate. For more pictures of food, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.