09.29.2016 Early Morning View of Mount Monadnock from Enfield Lookout

Here’s another in my series of this composition.  Habits can be hard to break and this is one I doubt I shall ever do so.  Just too enjoyable.

09.21.2016 A moment in time

That I love spending time in the Quabbin watershed and park is quite apparent, I am sure. It is an odd peace one can find there considering the upheaval to peoples’ lives its creation forced upon them. Despite the history, beauty abounds in the place.  Time is such a challenging concept.  It never repeats itself and we ride its leading edge like birds soaring on a front. But there are moments when it stands still.

09.09.2016-Floral Friday Fern-leaved False Foxglove

How’s that for alliteration?  The hyphen saved me.  :-)

I photograph these annually in the Quabbin Park.  The first time I found them I climbed some rocks to get at the plant which wasn’t easy and even a bit risky.  There was someone there to catch me.  After all that I discovered more around the corner on some more manageable rocks and then, last year, found some on ground level.

Here you get a better look at the leaves and how the Fern-leaved False Foxglove-Aureolaria pedicularia got its name.  

09.08.2016 Quabbin Birch Clump and Star

We used to have a birch clump in our front yard, but it eventually had to be removed due to a few infestations. I have missed it ever since and, for that reason, always enjoy finding them elsewhere.  This one is located on Quabbin Hill and finally got my attention for a photograph back on August 28.

09.07.2016 Quabbin Water level comparison

I have mentioned our lack of rain and falling water levels.  Back on August 1st, the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority listed the Quabbin Reservoir to be at 87% capacity. Coincidentally, I made this image the same day.

That represents a drop of 13% or @53.5 billion gallons of the full capacity of 412 billion. More than a few bathtubsful.

This past weekend, on September 3, I went back and made another image.

This is the same location as my recent post emphasizing the sand bar’s connection to the shore. The MWRA has not posted the level recorded for Sept. 1 yet, but it would appear to be a significant change.  To date, as far as I have seen on the interweb, Boston itself has not implemented any water use restrictions although several of the outer towns do have some bans, either mandatory or voluntary. There are not too many lawns to be found in downtown Boston to be sure, but there could be other proposals.

This location is inside Gate 35 in Petersham, MA.

 

09.06.2016 North Light

The light at sunrise is not always all about the sun and clouds in the east.  Sidelighting can be quite lovely and exhibits a depth that is not as evident when looking directly at the light source. This view, seen on these pages many times, shows mist-filled valleys and overlapping hills that would be deeply shadowed when looking into the sunrise. The light at this angle hits the trees in the foreground enabling us to see greater detail in the shadows.

Shooting at perpendicular to the sun also allowed me to use a polarizer which brought out the cloud forms that would otherwise have been lost in the bright sky.

09.05.2016 Quabbin Sunrise

These are  the images of a silent and peaceful Sunday morning along the shoreline of Quabbin Park and at the opposite end of the reservoir seen in yesterday’s post. Maybe I should have switched them with the previous post but at least they are in chronological order although a day late in each case.

Waiting for the Sun

I’ve groused about some of what happens along the shoreline of Quabbin a few times.  I had to frame this next shot to eliminate the rock piles.  I have a friend who knocks them all down when he encounters some.  Although I dislike the stacks I would feel a bit mean for doing the same so do not.  I suppose I might if one were killing my composition. What I could not avoid was foot prints and had to spot heal someone’s bare foot print…healing a heel as well as some toes… in the sand at the lower right. Can’t complain about foot prints…I left a few of my own.

Here comes the Sun