Which of today’s three magical evening <\/em>images do you like best? Please leave a comment and let us know why you made your choice. <\/p>\n Today is Wednesday 21 August 2024. I will be heading to St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson, Long Island, NY at 7:30am for “two for the price of one” right hand surgery. In addition to carpal tunnel release surgery, Dr. Puopolo will do trigger finger release surgery on the right thumb. Unable to get back to sleep on Sunday evening due to the numbness, tingling, and pain in my right hand, I realized that my right thumb was clicking. When I awoke I experienced pain at the base of my right thumb. As a veteran of about six different trigger fingers, I recognized the symptoms quite clearly. I called Dr. Pop’s office on Monday morning and he called me back soon afterwards. That is when I signed up for the double-header surgery. <\/p>\n Thanks for all the good wishes at the last blog post. Again, there is no guarantee when it comes to any surgery, but I am of course hoping for relief. I do have 100& faith in Dr. Poupolo who has twice before operated on me with outstanding results. <\/p>\n On Monday evening past, I traveled to Lawrence, Long Island, one of the Five Towns, with friend Anke Frohlich and friends\/clients Geri Georg and Marc Wortsman. We had all been generously invited to dinner at Prime Bistro, a Kosher, French steakhouse by Izzy Flamm, my B&H affiliate manager. We have been friends now for 13 years. His friend and associate, the very delightful, very sincere, very spiritual, and very funny Stuart Honickman joined us. Needless to say, the wine, the appetizers, the entr\u00e9es, and the conversation were all superb. A great time was had by all. Huge thanks to Izzy and to B&H for our wonderful meal. <\/p>\n The four photographers then headed to Nickerson Beach for a sunset photo session and I was thrilled that Izzy decided to join us as he had done in previous years. Just as we arrived at my AirBnB in Lido Beach, the skies opened up and it began to pour. I, however, was optimistic. The storm passed quickly so we made the 3-minute drive to the beach and headed out. There was a bright rainbow to the northeast. By the time we got out to the berm, an amazing yellow light lit up the eastern sky. The Atlantic Ocean was rendered in golden tones. As they had been doing every evening for a week, the large flocks of terns and skimmers repeatedly blasted off in all directions. Izzy was blown away. As we all were. It was a fabulous end to a great Monday afternoon. <\/p>\n Tuesday morning dawned cold and grey, a fitting end to my month long Nickerson Beach adventure. After a short morning session — we were all freezing, we headed back to the AirBnB to pack up. After dropping Geri off at LaGuardia, I dropped Anke off in Greenwich Village, and returned to Lido Beach for a nap. After I awoke, I packed up the car and drove to younger daughter Alissa’s home in Ronkonkoma where I will be staying for two weeks after the surgery. <\/p>\n This i-phone 15 image was created at about 7:45pm on the magical evening of 19 August 2024 at Nickerson Beach Park, Lido Beach, Long Island, NY. <\/p>\n The yellow light to the east was both glorious and ethereal. Even had I removed the 2X TC and zoomed out to 70mm, I could not have gotten nearly wide enough with my versatile 70-200 f\/2.8 II GM lens so I grabbed my I-Phone 15 from my new fanny pack (details soon) and went to work. <\/p>\n I got very lucky as the terns blasted off while I struggled a bit with my I-phone. I needed to crop a sliver off the top of this image as I had my thumb in front of the lens :-(.<\/p>\n This image was also created on the magical evening of 19 August 2024 at Nickerson Beach Park, Lido Beach, Long Island, NY. Standing at full height in six inches of water, I used the handheld Sony FE 70-200mm f\/2.8 GM OSS II lens<\/a> with the Sony FE 2x teleconverter<\/a> (at 198mm), and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera.<\/a>. The exposure was determined via Zebras with Exposure Compensation on the Thumb Dial. Multi metering +1.7 stops. AUTO ISO set ISO 3200: 1\/125 sec. at f\/5.6 (wide open) in Shutter Priority mode. AWB at 7:48:46pm on a stormy evening. <\/p>\n Tracking: Expand Spot AF\/C with Bird-Eye\/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy a high-res version.<\/p>\nWhat’s Up?<\/h3>\n
A Magical Evening on All Counts<\/h3>\n
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\n \n \n \n Image #1: Common Tern blast-off in front of the eastern sky
The Yellow Light<\/h3>\n
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\n \n \n \n Image #2: Great Black-backed Gull standing on berm after storm