ApertureRing.com

The Mid Hudson Bridge (Franklin Delano Roosevelt Bridge) is an often used symbol of the Hudson Valley. This majestic suspension bridge connects Poughkeepsie and Highland New York. At the center of the bridge proudly hangs a large American flag. The bridge is illuminated at night by colored lights, which can be seen from drivers on route 9. The patterns of the lights are changed throughout the year with different themes.

Parallel to the bridge is a historic railroad bridge. The railroad bridge was recently converted to a Walkway Over the Hudson. Several years ago, during the restoration process I got the chance to go on the railroad bridge to take photographs. The opening of the new walkway was part of the celebrations of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s voyage up the Hudson River.

Another part of the celebrations was Bridge Music, a music project by a friend and mentor Joseph Bertolozzi. Bridge Music is a compilation of songs that were composed entirely of sounds produced by the bridge. With assistance from the bridge authority, he collected recordings from various parts of the bridge from the suspension cables to inside of the towers. After amassing a large library of sounds, he composed them into a number of distinct songs.

Last spring I stopped by Waryes Park, which is right at the base of the bridge. It was the first warm weekend and the ice had started to melt and there was a strong ice flow. On that day I captured these photographs of a tug boat pushing a barge up the river towards Albany.

This past weekend while my friends and family were digging out from Snowicane 2010 and hoping to get power back, I was out taking pictures of flowers at Plant Delights. Plant Delights is a Nursery in Raleigh, NC with a Juniper Level Botanic Gardens. Several times during the year the year they hold an open house, where anyone can tour their gardens and greenhouses.

These are some of the photos I took while walking around their immaculately maintained grounds.

These photographs are from my trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. After several weeks of cold and snow, we had a nice sunny and relatively warm weekend. Of course no trip to Myrtle Beach is complete without going to the beach and seeing the ocean. So before I headed back home I stopped by the beach to take some photographs.

As it was February there were not many people on the beach, although there were a lot of seagulls. After taking photographs  of the seagulls for about a half an hour the sun started to go down and I was able to capture these shots of a beautiful ocean sunset.

This summer E. Carrol Joyner Park was opened in Wake Forest, North Carolina. The park is close to where I work, so on nice days I enjoy eating my lunch there and taking a short stroll around the park.

There Several original structures stand on the grounds of the park, including the old barn and the log cabin featured in these shots. These structures have colorful red tin roofs and clay floors. The sunlight was perfect the day that I took these to capture these rich colors of the old barn and log cabin.