09.27.2017 Defying imagination

The insect world is beyond imagination.  Natural selection has created so many different species that I don’t think human artists could even approach duplicating the feat. And, although describing is beyond my intention in this post, their lives are just as varied with strategies beyond anything we might dream up.

The White-marked Tussock Moth caterpillar (Orgyia leucostigma) that I found in Quabbin Park on August 26th is quite an example.This is one of the few cases where I posed an insect.  It was crawling on my camera bag and had to be removed so I could leave.  Naturally I placed it on a leaf and photographed. this cutie.Ain’t Nature grand?  🙂

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09.26.2017 A tree grows in Quabbin

I am not sure if Melissa was making the same connection to the old novel as I am here  with her title “A tree grows in Grayslake” . I am guessing she is.  🙂    Be sure to click through to see her latest painting.  She has found a lovely oak standing alone against a beautiful sky. Here in New England they are fewer and harder to find in a natural setting so we have to find other ways to create separation.

You may be shocked to discover that I have used fog to accomplish this.  😯I have been driving by this old Oak for years waiting for a scene like this.  When I set out on Sept. 17 in a thick fog spreading through Amherst, I was just hoping it would be the same in Quabbin Park by the time I got there. At first I thought it had thinned too much, but “upon further review” I think it is just as I wanted it.

Please click the image to see it larger and “separated”.  🙂

09.25.2017 Red-spotted Purple

Sometimes it just takes a bit of luck.  On this particular day, I was walking a path to Quabbin’s shoreline with landscapes on my mind.  On the way out, I was gifted this opportunity.  The butterfly spent a fair amount of time warming and opened and closed its wings often. The hardest part was standing back up after making the image.     🙂

09.24.2017 Quabbin Former Ponds

When the Goodnough Dike was put in place, the waters of the three branches of the Swift River became not so swift as, along with the Windsor Dam, it blocked the flow and created the Quabbin Reservoir.  Much was swallowed up as the waters rose.  Besides the lost towns of Enfield, Greenwich, Prescott and Dana, many landscape features disappeared below the surface including small brooks and ponds. One body had the  prescient name of Sunk Pond and is in the middle of this shot.  Morton Pond was to the right.I love the Quabbin Watershed and am happy to have it to explore and make images, but am always cognizant of the folks and other lives that were uprooted (yes, many trees too) in order for Eastern Massachusetts, mainly Boston, to have drinking, manufacturing, lawn and other use water.

09.23.2017 More Fog

No matter the weather, every morning starts a beautiful new day…some more than others, though.  🙂

09.22.2017 Heron on a snag

As promised, here is another shot of the preening heron a bit later as the fog began to dissipate..

09.21.2017 In a fog

Two of my happy places are Quabbin and in a fog (both physically and metaphysically).  On this particular day, I was making images of Quabbin Tower and trees in fog.After that I turned to photograph some other trees and while doing that felt like I was being watched.Later, as I was heading home, I passed a beaver pond along MA 9 in Ware and noticed a Great Blue Heron preening on an old tree snag. The Canon SX60 on a bean bag draped atop the car window provided the length needed for this. Although, every time a vehicle sped by it took a while for the car to settle down…much like from a boat’s wake.

There’s one more GBH shot from this date and spot that will appear at another time.