05.19.2013 One flower and another….

Sorry.  I am just not as good at coming up with snappy titles as are most of my friends.  Every once in a while I think of a good one, but mostly…meh.  I should be writing science abstracts.

I went to High Ledges yesterday to check on the yellow lady’s slippers but they are still several days away from opening themselves to the world.  It was a nice hike….uphill both ways (yes, that is possible) so some good exercise anyway.  I stopped at the Podick Conservation Area in North Amherst looking for painted trilliums but they were actually a bit past.  The ticks, however, are going great guns and I took a few dozen along for the ride.  All clear now thank goodness.  Another good round of exercise there.  Finally, I visited my usually reliable Dean Brook area and there were plenty of painted trilliums about to open but the lady’s slippers were still in tight buds.  Seemed like a good bet for today.

OK, so enough of a build up.  Here is a painted trillium from this morning:and a not quite ready for prime time pink lady’s slipper:Oh yeah, please click the images to see them a bit larger.

It’s funny…yesterday I gathered ticks like fly paper in the tall grass at Podick.  Today I was rolling all over the ground in the pine woods getting these shots and not a tick to be found.  Go figure.

05.15.2013 Lesser Celandine

This invasive flower is not all that popular although my neighbor grows it as ground cover around her mailbox.  It is a nice yellow and is also known as a Fig Buttercup.  So as the yellow is quite nice, I decided to process it as a black and white image.   Photographed at the Fanny Stebbins Wildlife Refuge and most likely an escapee from a garden somewhere.

Please click to see it larger.

 

05.12.2013 Quabbin Gate 22 in living black and white…and color too.

After checking on the progress of the painted trillium and lady’s slippers at Dean Brook (not quite ready yet), I headed over to Gate 22 in New Salem.  I knew it was overcast but hoped that by the time I visited Hop Brook and hiked the rest of the way to the water the sky would have become a little more interesting.  That did not happen so I decided I’d try a long exposure to be converted to black and white.  Although the spring colors in the distance were attractive, the light was not favorable.  So here is Mount Russ in monochrome.On the way in I stopped at a cascade/waterfall that is found down in a small valley along the road.  It is one of the many Hop Brooks to be found in New England.  These spring greens work a little better in the forest than the others did in the open flat light.It was a good hike this morning and now, once I give Murphy his afternoon kibble, it is off to the wood pile to ready for winter’s inevitable, though months away, onslaught.

05.10.2013 Lawn Ornaments :-)

Flowers are job 1 in the spring for me.  We had a slow start this year and I haven’t posted many lately.  Here are two from this evening out in the yard just growing wild in our lawn.  This is why we will never have our lawn treated for that pesky non-grass stuff.  We are perfectly happy dead-heading our dandelions so the rest of the wildflowers will pretty up the yard.More flowers to come.

05.08.2013 Full Moon on the Rise

April’s full moon is known as the Full Pink Moon.  I decided to go up on Mount Pollux, a very short and undemanding 1 minute walk from the parking spot, for a fairly clear view according to The Photographer’s Ephemeris.   If you are not familiar with the software, it is a great resource for information regarding the sun’s and moon’s rising and setting times as well as location and stage of fullness.  Add a compass and you should know just where the moon will show up on the horizon and just when as well.  It worked.

I like this view rather than the images I made with the entire moon hanging in the sky.  There are wispy clouds catching the light from the sun’s twilight aiding in the “Pink” part of Full Pink Moon and looking especially nice with the deep blue of Blue Hour for a backdrop.

A lot of folks have become interested in night photography and are putting out some superb images but I haven’t done much evening or night photography.  I think I will try more if I can only stay awake after 9 p.m.

05.04.2013 Fog at Harvard Pond

I got up at 3:30 this morning with a plan to photograph the Eta Aquarids meteor shower but that didn’t work out.  Possibly I should have risen at 2, but there didn’t seem to be much activity although I did see one in my yard before leaving.  I probably just got to my chosen spot too late for a dark enough sky.  So on to plan B.

I’ve photographed Harvard Pond many times as I mentioned in a recent post.  Once I made an image with some nice colorful fog at sunrise and was hoping for that today.  It didn’t quite turn out as planned, but I think I did get a nice shot or two none the less.

When I first arrived there was some nice color in the sky above the tree line and the fog was rolling across the pond.  I posted a quick iPhone snap on Facebook but I think this image from the SLR works even better.

Please be sure to click the image for a larger view.

I still had hopes for some color to tint the fog but it takes a while for the sun to reach the top of the tree line and by then most of the color had dissipated.  I would have liked the rays to be a bit better defined but I am satisfied with my second shot just the same.One of the reasons I, and others as well, return to favorite spots is the variety of light and the way the environment changes with time.  It isn’t often you will see things looking just the same on return trips.  One of my favorite artists is Katsushika Hokusai who created many different views of Mount Fuji.  I have a few different subjects with this type series in mind.

05.01.2013 Painted Trillium in Monochrome

I said I’d post a color image next, but that was followed by a challenge by one Ms. Lottie who said flowers should be in color.  While I certainly can’t argue that the colors of flowers are beautiful, it is one of the reasons I photograph them, some just do look good with no color and processed so the shapes and textures are standing on their own.

So here are my entries into the category as suggested by good Sir H.

As always, please click for a larger view.I once had another photographer ask why would anyone convert a painted trillium to black and white.  They are gorgeous flowers with beautiful color, but their textures and wavy petals just show even better in grayscale.   That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.