RTY Photography Blog

NASA’s launch of the Minotaur 1 Rocket from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia as seen from the East Point Lighthouse in Heisleville, NJ.  The rocket carried 29 satellites into orbit. I spent a couple of hours with my friend and awesome photographer, Jack Fusco, to hopefully catch the launch. We got lucky thanks to the calculations by Jack as to where it would travel in the sky. We never had to move the tripods. It was my first time at the lighthouse, so I stayed a while to take some shots after the launch at 8:15 PM.  The moon was very bright and conditions to shoot the stars were not ideal.

My wife and I headed to the Cape May Zoo hoping to get a glimpse of the new baby giraffe. We got lucky. They only came out near us for a few short minutes, but were very accommodating. The little girl was born on September 2 weighing 150 pounds and stood 6 feet tall. The mom was a seven year old named Joanie, who came from the Bronx Zoo. The dad was a seventeen year old bull from Busch Gardens named Sterling.

I headed to Cape May to hopefully find some late migrating birds. I roamed through the woods for a couple of hours but only spotted a few swans and mallards. But it was such a nice day, I stayed for sunset. Cape May has one of the nicest beaches in New Jersey. It was a beautiful calm night with little wind. I had planned to stay late for some night photography, but the clouds rolled in.

I took a ride down to the Edwin B. Forsythe Wildlife Refuse in Oceanville, NJ. It’s pretty late in the season, but I still caught a few herons and egrets.

I was wide awake at 5:30 AM, so I got dressed and headed to the beach. The sunrise was behind the clouds, but it was a beautiful morning with a great sky. An hour later I was back home in bed sleeping like a baby.

Pretty cool … my Jordan Pond shot made it into the article “Maine After Dark” in this month’s Down East magazine. Click here for the Hi-Res image.

The weather was beautiful, the skies clear, and the foliage at peak, I couldn’t ask for more. These night images were taken at Lake Colby and Moody Pond in Saranac Lake, New York.

I spent three days up at Lake Placid to shoot the Fall colors with friend and photographer, Marco Crupi from Nada Mas Photography. The weather was just perfect and the foliage was at peak. We were on the go early and late with little sleep in between. The night shots will follow in my next post.

On Friday night at 11:27 PM, NASA’s “LADEE” (Luna Atmosphere Dust Environmental Explorer) was launched from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Most of the east coast could view the path across the beautiful clear sky. With little time, I raced down to Island Beach State Park, the closest dark area. Quickly set up my gear and within two minutes the rocket was speeding directly at me. It was quite an awesome sight. After the launch I stayed for another 180 exposures and stacked them for a star trail. As usual a few fox showed up to keep me company.

After passing the three remaining ferris wheel gondolas many times from behind the fence on the boardwalk, I wanted to get a few images before they are gone forever. On this night, the boardwalk was crowded, but the pier was deserted. I wonder what they plan to do with these cars.

End of the pier. The rest dropped into the ocean.

Under the pier.