Moonrise over the Moodna Viaduct

The Moodna Viaduct in Salisbury Mills is one of my favorite locations to take pictures. Of course there's the tall railroad trestle, but there are also hiking trails nearby on Schunnemunk Mountain, the highest mountain in Orange County, N.Y.
Late Saturday afternoon I planned to do a short hike and then shoot the moon rising behind the viaduct. I took a different trail than I usually do and found a clearing with a nice view to the east, where I took the photograph below.



The houses in the foreground are in the shadow of the mountain. That's Storm King Mountain in the background at right. And the Hudson Highlands on the east side of the Hudson River are in the background at left.

The trail continued around the bottom of the mountain instead of climbing upward, so I decided to head back to the viaduct. When I got to the clearing again, I noticed the moon in the sky.



After that I started walking faster back to the trestle. Once I got to the field, I started taking pictures and regretting that I had left my tripod in the car.



After trying different angles and lenses, I made my back to the car and set up my tripod for more shots, like this one from the parking area.



As the moon rose higher, I walked by into the field to try different angles. The photograph below is a composite of two images, one exposed for the moon and a second, longer exposure for the rest of the scene.



I waited at this spot for a while, hoping for a train to pass on the trestle. After I gave up and started walking back to my car, the train appeared. I just had time to put my tripod down and take a shot with the wide angle lens on my camera.



Here's a slideshow of these and other photographs I've taken of the viaduct. Clicking on the square next to the "SHARE" button gives you a fullscreen view.


Moodna Viaduct - Images by Tom Bushey

My excellent fireworks adventure

My plan was to take pictures of the July 4th fireworks in Newburgh, New York, from the top of Mount Beacon. My plan didn't work.
I did hike to near the top of Mount Beacon, and I will do that hike again. But the trail was much steeper than I expected. Walking down that trail in the dark did not seem like a good idea.
Here's a picture of part of the trail and the view looking north from near the top:



The Mid-Hudson Bridge in Poughkeepsie is barely visible in the right photo.
After walking back down the mountain, and seeing a wonderful sunset in spots along the way, I decided to shoot the fireworks from the Beacon waterfront.
The sky and the water were beautiful even before the fireworks started. You can see the planet Venus in the clouds on the left side of the picture.


I must have bumped by tripod on the following picture, as you can see from the bright light at left, but I also captured a surprise in the frame.

Here's a slideshow of images from before, during and after the fireworks display. You can view the images larger by clicking on the icon under the bottom right corner of the photographs.



2010 Newburgh fireworks - Images by Tom Bushey