Saturday, December 20, 2008

Peace on Earth…

Eddie & I want to wish everyone a

Joyous Holiday Season
and a
A Happy & Healthy 2009




As I wrote in my last post, we spent last week at Disney World. A holiday feature at the Disney Hollywood Studios is the Osmond Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights. The streets of the park backlot are festooned with a display of 5,000,000 lights. From dusk, until the park closes, the lights "dance" to holiday music as "snow" falls from the sky. It truely is Disney magic. Expand the post to see more of the display.






When I first heard about the display I thought it had something to do with Donny & Marie Osmond. It doesn't. The Osmond family is from Little Rock, Arkansas, and, according to a post on the Allears.net website, the family's display started with 1,000 lights in 1986 and by 1993 the display had grown to 3,000,000 lights. As could be expected, neighbors complained and Arkansas Supreme Court forced the Osmonds to dismantle the display. Disney and Kodak to the rescue. An expanded display is presented at Disney World every Christmas.

Happy Holidays to All!

We are just back from spending five days at the Fort Wilderness Campground at Disney World. If you read my blog at its inception last January, you know that the first photographs I published were of Fort Wilderness campsites decorated for Christmas. This year I was able to take photos of the decorations at night. The most spectacular, by far, was this site —


I can only imagine the time, effort and money that goes into creating a display like this. The couple who set it up are from Louisiana. They have been at the campground since the day after Thanksgiving and are not leaving until the day after New Years. In-between they seemed to spend much of their time keeping the display inflated and in working order.

Expand this post to see some more Fort Wilderness images. Our favorite is Minnie Mouse taking a bath.






Saturday, December 13, 2008

Another fine feathered friend…

We had another feathered visitor last week. This one, a male cardinal, was a bit shy and stayed under the shelter of the neighbor's orange tree.

Thanks to everyone who replied to my last post. The bird is, as many of you said, an Eastern Blue Bird. They no longer migrate to New York, which is why it was so unfamiliar. The only blue bird I am used to seeing is the Blue Jay. I like this little bird much better.

Tomorrow Eddie and I are taking our RV over to the Fort Wilderness Campground at Disney World for four nights. Last year, during Christmas week, we spent an afternoon at the Campground looking at the Christmas Decorations. They were pretty amazing, and I can't wait to see, and photograph, the decorations after dark! I'll be posting some of the photos next week.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Feathered friends return…


Last January, one of the first posts to this blog was about a bird that kept trying to get into our RV. All winter the bird (he or she?) would sit by our windows. At the time we thought it was looking for a friend in its relection.

This past week the bird came back — if not the same bird, then a look-a-like relative.

He or she spent a lot of time looking in the side mirror, probably wondering who the other bird was. And this time the bird brought a real live friend (or life-partner), because there were two of them. If anyone can tell me what type of bird it is I would be much appreciative. I've been trying to identify them, but haven't been able to come to a definitive conclusion.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Back to blogging…


I am back after not posting for over a month. I've been really busy with some family matters we had to attend to, as well as getting ourselves and our RV ready for winter in Florida. Usually, when we head south the the weather gets warmer by the mile, but not this year. It was colder when we stopped in Virginia on Saturday night than it was back home on Long Island. By the time we entered Florida on Monday morning it actually felt like we might actually be in the south, and I thought the moment was worth documenting. It is warmer down here, but it is still below normal for this time of the year!

The sunsets on the east coast of Florida are frequently spectacular and tonight was no exception. One evening soon I plan to take some sunset photos from the top of a nearby hill (yes, there are hills in our area of Central Florida), but this photo was taken from our patio just after sunset tonight.
Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. I'll be back with some new photos real soon.

Monday, October 20, 2008

New name…New address



You may have noticed that the title of the blog has been changed. A friend suggested that Linda's Lens would be a more descriptive title, and I agree. I was also able to change the blog address, which is now lindaslens.blogspot.com.

Northport Harbor Sunset…


A few photos taken at sunset two weeks ago. We were visiting friends who live on Bayview Avenue in Northport, and down by their dock the seagulls were everywhere. I tried to capture some good photos of the gulls, but most were a bit out of focus (actually, one is very ). I doubt that I will print them, but I did like the the feelings the photos conveyed.


Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Baby Chloe…


Taking photographs of babies can be very special — especially when there is a connection to the baby. Last month we got to meet our grand niece for the first time, and I spent a good part of the day clicking away. More photos in the expanded post.

Chloe and her mom…

…with Grandma Carol (Eddie's sister)

…and Grandpa Jim

…and one of her two Great Grandmas (Jim's mother)

This photo was just cute!

For anyone who want to see more photos of Chloe & family (which I am sure is just our family), you can visit www.digitalquinn.com/chloe.

Monday, September 22, 2008

On Sunday we had a booth at the West Islip Country Fair, our last venue this season. We will be heading for Florida in a little more than a month, and I hope to continue to sell my work to people who contact me through my website.

The West Islip Country Fair is a community event that has a long history, and it certainly brings out the crowds. Vendor setup was supposed to begin at 7:00 A.M., with the fair opeining at 11:00 A.M. When we arrived at 7:30 most of the vendors were already set up. They obviously knew something we didn't — which was that fair visitors arrive early. By 9:00 the crowds were beginning to arrive, and the aisles were packed for the rest of the day. My only regret was that West Islip was the same day as Cow Harbor in Northport, which had to I miss! Expand the post for more photos.

As always, it was because of Eddie's hard work that I had a booth. We were assisted in our setup by two West Islip High School students — volunteers who were earning service credit.

Our helpers were really were a big help!


A visitor to our booth during the heat of the day.


No pirates at West Islip, but they did have clowns.

Of the 300 vendors, at least half of them must have been selling decorations for Halloween. Across from us they had a two-part booth, half for Christmas and half for Halloween. By the mid-afternoon the Halloween side was almost empty. I can't image how many Halloween light posts they sold!

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Back to Northport Harbor…


A couple of weeks ago I took a series of photos at a charming house on Bayview Avenue in Northport. Last Thursday I made a return visit, this time in the early evening to catch sunset. As always, taking photographs at sunset is a crap-shoot. Sometimes the sunset is magnificent, and sometimes you hardly notice it. During my photo shoot sunset was in the fair to middling range, but I did get a few photos worth saving.






Monday, September 8, 2008

Wonderful statue…

I am spending a few day at the Harrisburg Area Community College in Harrisburg, PA. This is the final Life on Wheels Conference for 2008, and I am teaching my seminars on digital photography and blogging. This marvelous statue welcomes visitors to the C. Ted Lick Wildwood Center, the building where the conference is being held. I just had to take a photograph of the "artist."

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

LI Maritime Museum Seafood Festival…


I participated in my first two-day show at the LI Maritime Museum's Annual Seafood Festival in West Sayville. The weather was perfect and the crowds abundant. It was a long two days, and my stalwart husband spent the entire time with me. I literally couldn't have done it without him. In addition to doing all the heavy setup work, he knew just the right thing to say to break the ice with potential customers — customers I might have let walk away!

My next venture will be the West Islip Festival on September 21, and then I will close-up the tent for this season.

Expand this post for a closeup look at my display, some views of other exhibitors, and festival attendees.




A Seafood Festival is all about seafood.

A view from our booth in the early morning before the fair opened.



Across the way from our booth was a metal smith who spent the day working the crowds — mostly women! In another life he must have been a barker in a carnival.

The vendor next door sold homemade jams available for tasting. A very popular booth.


Pirates were everywhere, some of them very authentic.




At six o'clock on Sunday all the vendors were ready to go home…

…but a group of fair goers stayed to enjoy the last of the entertainment and early evening on the Great South Bay.