From a local walnut grove
01.01.2021-2 It may be a new year but it’s still Fog Friday
This entry was posted in Black and White and tagged bare trees, Black and White photography, fog, foggy landscape, Hadley, landscape, Massachusetts, Moody Bridge Road, New England, walnut trees, western massachusetts, winter. Bookmark the permalink.
Stephen Gingold Nature Photography Blog 
Call it hibernal arboreal geometry.
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Or HAG, which were my mother’s initials. She hated that almost as much as her middle name…Violet.
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Some time ago I mentioned (was it to you?) the unfortunately named Ima Hogg, daughter of a Texas governor. Despite that name, she was a ” philanthropist, patron and collector of the arts, and one of the most respected women in Texas during the 20th century.” Did your mother ever consider legally dropping the Violet and changing whatever the A stood for to something else?
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Yes, it was I. No she didn’t. The ‘A’ was her last name before marriage and back then changing one’s name wasn’t very common.
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Interesting photo. So fortunate you are to have so many of these places in your locale, and so fortunate are we that you share them with us!
I’d venture to say this photo is an indication of the continued state of affairs for the beginning of 2021. Warm wishes for safety and peace to you and yours.
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2020 will linger for a while. We don’t seem any closer together as a nation of people.
Thanks for the wishes and they are repeated for you.
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Sad but true, the division still appears just as great in America and perhaps even more so. May you find peace, safety and happiness in this new year.
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For me it almost has a creepy feel to it, but I like it.
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A FB friend, and sometime blog visitor, said it was bleak and reflected her general outlook. I can see that although it was not intended that way. Happy New Year, Todd!
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I think that’s one of the many fascinating things about photography, and artwork in general, how very personal it can be, and how each of us can see it very differently through our own lens of life.
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Is this a Cowles plantation? A number of years ago, a local photographer exhibited at the Jones and we ended up buying a wonderful winter image taken from an angle. I hung it on the wall in my bedroom so it is the first thing I see every day and it still pleases me no end. I would love to get a similar shot from every season, spring, summer and fall. I’ll show it to you next we meet.
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It’s on Moody Bridge Road across from the entrance to the Conte preserve. I checked the Hadley property assessments and the address doesn’t show up but there is no listing there for Cowles.land management.
I have two shots from here, this (and several other compositions) and one during the summer that has lots of green. 🙂 One of these days I’ll be back out tot visit.
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Very Nice Steve! Really liked it!
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Thanks, Reed!
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I love the simple starkness of this.
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Thanks. Bare trees can be that way.
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It is lovely. The stillness of the composition reinforces the stillness of a foggy morning perfectly. I know that nature doesn’t really love a regiment of trees, but I can’t help admiring the calm rows.
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I would indeed rather these rows occurred naturally but the hand of man sometimes does afford a somewhat natural scene. If art is about expressing a feeling then I agree this does have that stillness about it which was my goal. Thanks, Melissa.
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Coming from a land of evergreens, I really miss them and the only evergreen trees I see around here are old tree plantations, with white pines standing in neat rows. Beneath them is an aromatic parkland with no undergrowth, much as I remember the forests out west in the Sierras. Ahhhh….
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It’s stark, startling, and stirring. I like that you chose not to have the dark tree in the exact center, though that would have worked well with this image too.
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Thanks for the four S’s. It is awfully close to center. My main goal was to have the entire row concealed behind it. I framed the edge to try for symmetry even though they are quite different from each other.
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This surprised me. Are walnuts trees grown there commercially? I’m thinking the answer has to be ‘yes,’ given the orchard-like appearance. It reminds me of all the towns named Walnut Grove I’ve known — California, Missouri, Iowa. It’s a wonderful image: peaceful, and soothing, perhaps because of the symmetry. I’d be happy walking through it.
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I don’t know who owns this and another similar grove in a different location, but I’d guess the trees are the product here rather than the nuts. It does seem more a nursery. Of course, our original forests here were full of walnut trees until they were blighted. And one of the early wood stains was derived from the outer covering of walnut shells.
Thanks!
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A traditional non-skid for boat decks was finely ground walnut shells. About a decade ago, I knew a guy who still used them.
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Fabulous!
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Thanks!!!
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Really, really interesting, Steve. The choice to go slightly off center works so well – there’s that well-trained eye in action! I love the way the trees all disappear behind the one in front, and the fog of course, and, well , everything.
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Ansel said good composition is knowing where to stand (ballpark quote). Sometimes I know what I am doing and sometimes it’s just dumb luck. I won’t say which was happening here. 🙂 Getting the trees lined up was conscious on my part. The rest…. 🙂
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Yes, I think that in the field, it’s almost always a combination of knowledge gained from experience and plain old luck, isn’t it? But then when it comes to processing, not much luck is involved and I like what you did with that, too.
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Processing is definitely a bunch of decisions and sensibilities. Thanks, Lynn.
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