Posts in Category: still-life
December Tapestry
Mix of fallen leaves, Kennebunk Bridle Path, Kennebunk ME
No December snow yet here in southern Maine, and none in the forecast. The advantage of course is that we are getting to see the oak and other fall leaves weather and begin to decompose. 🙂 For some obscure reason this combination of leaves and grasses…the colors, the textures, the shapes…caught my eye and I circled around it for a few moments finding the angle. Yes, it would make a great jig-saw puzzle, but I find it attractive enough to grace any wall…or to make a wonderful screen saver image.
Sony HX90V in-camera HDR at 90mm equivalent field of view. Nominal exposure: 1/100th @ ISO 100 @ f5. Processed in Lightroom.
The Texture of Fall
Maple Leaf. Kennebunk Maine
Full Fall has finally come to southern Maine. We are not yet at peak color, but it looks now like we might make it by Columbus Day…which would put us right back on schedule 🙂 Both of my Point and Shoots are malfunctioning at the moment (I actually canceled a trip to Panama, at least in part, because my workhorse cameras have gone lame…one is in the shop and the other will go in this week) so I am shooting with my Sony Alpha NEX 5t. I had forgotten what a nice camera it is. It certainly captures all the subtle texture and delicate color of this fallen leaf (if delicate is a work you can use to describe red).
This is an in-camera HDR at 63mm equivalent field of view using the 16-50mm zoom on the NEX. Nominal exposure was 1/80th @ ISO 320 @ f5.6. Processed in Lightroom.
Harvest!
Farmer’s Market Stand, Common Ground Fair, Unity ME
The Common Ground Fair draws organic farmers and gardeners from all over New England. There are two Farmer’s Markets: one near the Pine Gate and one near the Rose Gate. I have always been attracted to the displays of color and texture in fresh fruits and vegetables put out for sale in open markets like this. Such a lot of goodness!
Sony HX90V in Superior Auto. Processed in Lightroom.
Masses of Wood Lilies
Wood Lilies, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, Maine
It was three years ago that I first found Wood Lilies growing on the Kennebunk Plains. I am certain they have been growing there for as long as there have sand-plains there…but I had not seen them. This year, though, is special. There are Wood Lilies everywhere on the plains…well, not everywhere, they tend to cluster in open clusters of 5 to 25 plants…but lilies in much higher numbers than I have seen before, by a factor of 10 at least. More clusters, and more flowers in each cluster. Not only that, but a much higher percentage of the plants are making double, and even triple blooms. In the past the vast majority of the plants hand only a single bloom, with a few doubles. This year at least half have multiple heads and at least a quarter of those are triples. I have even see a plant with 4 blooms, but they were not open simultaneously…or at least were not on the day I saw them. This shot is three plants, all triples, for 9 flowers in a single group. One Wood Lily is beautiful. Nine together is breathtaking. 🙂
Sony HX90V at 92mm equivalent field of view. 1/400th @ ISO 80 @ f5. Processed in Lightroom.
Winter Tide Line
Before yesterday’s rain, we had close to 3 feet of snow on the ground in Southern Maine. This is the tide line on our local beach. The sand has actually been thrown up over the edge of the snow field, so there is about a 2 foot overlap. An alternate title for this shot would be “Seaweed in the Snow.” 🙂 I like the blue of the crab-shell, and the detail of the seaweed. A found still life.
Sony NEX 3NL with 16-50mm zoom. 75mm equivalent macro. ISO 200 @ 1/500th @ f13. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
The Poinsettia that ate the kitchen :-)
So, I was looking through the manual for my Sony NEX 3NL the other day (I know, it diminishes my manliness to admit to looking at the instructions, but I am old enough not to care anymore…when I want to know something I do resort to the manuals!), when I came across the HDR Painting Mode.
What?
Yup, my new camera will automatically produce the over-the-top, over-cooked, surreal, badly done HDR effect…just set it and forget it 🙂 So of course I had to try it. I grabbed the camera and went in search of a suitable subect. It was 5 degrees outside (or something equally dire) so my search was limited to the insides of the house. I found this Poinsettia in the kitchen. I had seen it there before of course. It was there when I got back from my week in Florida, dominating the corner of the kitchen and blocking a good portion of the sliding glass door. As you might expect, it has a story. It was rescued from the Christmas church decorations when it’s time as a decoration was up, and brought home by a family we know. It outgrew their kitchen. They still have kids in the house and need the space, so my wife took it off their hands, rather than seeing it end it’s life at the local landfill. She is kind that way. And besides, our kids are now all exploring life elsewhere, and we do, presumably, have room for a giant Poinsettia in the kitchen.
So I put the camera on HDR Painting Effect and shot the Poinsettia. I tweaked the image somewhat in Snapseed, but this is basically what it looks like…over-the-top, over-cooked, surrealish paintingish. And automatic too! But it is, I think, kind of interesting for all that. I like the crazy mix of colors here (the blue milk carton really makes it), the patterns in the snow and ice left on the deck outside the window, and the texture of the faux-wood floor, and the angles of the chair. It might not work as a photograph…but as an image it maybe has something to say for itself. 🙂
Sony NEX 3NL with 16-50mm zoom. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
I do suppose I will wake one morning to find that it has completely swallowed that corner of the kitchen…but, all things considered, I can’t consign it to an ignoble death by landfill either. 🙂
(And now we return you to your regularly scheduled program of nature photos.)
Leaves on Thin Ice
I am not sure what I find so attractive about this shot? It is pretty simple. A scattering of rich brown leaves? A thin coat of ice over asphalt, showing some lacy patterning? The quality of the noon-day Virginia light?
Canon SX50HS. Program with – 1/3rd EV exposure compensation and iContrast. ISO 100 @ 1/200th @ f5.6. 210mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
Frost
As I mentioned in the past few days, the snow we got on Thursday was light and fluffy at the end, followed by colder temperatures and frost before dawn the next day. This combination created some unique effects…like this mixture of frost and snow crystals on the leaves of Beach Rose on the dunes behind the the beach at the mouth of the Mousam River. I love the color of the leaves in the early sun, and the range of textures in the snow and frost.
Samsung Smart Camera WB800F. ISO 100 @ 1/500th @ f3.5. 22.4mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014. Cropped slightly from the right and bottom for composition.
Bittersweet
Bittersweet must flower, but I can not honestly remember ever seeing the flowers. The fruit, on the other hand, is a feature of Thanksgiving and fall table arrangements and door wreaths. I don’t think it is a common plant anymore in Southern Maine: A victim of its own popularity. There used to be a massive stand of it on the Nature Conservancy’s East Point Preserve in Biddeford Pool, but they have aggressively bush-hogged it to the ground (I am not sure what the have against bittersweet…it is a native plant). These were still growing along the trail that leads back along the river toward the Pool.
I like a lot in this image. Shape and high contrast color, the way the light molds the fruit, of course, but also the texture of the dying leaves, and the out of focus accents of the fruit behind. And it is, really, a classic rule of thirds composition, with the added strong diagonals of the stems. Lots to like, in its own quiet still-lifey way.
Samsung Smart Camera WB800F in macro mode. Processed in Snapseed on the Nexus 7.
Wild Harvest
Wild grapes and crabapples along the boardwalk at Magee Marsh on the Lake Erie shore in OH, waiting for migrating birds to harvest them.
As an image it is all about form, color, and light. The apples and the gapes at the rule of thirds power-points anchor the otherwise somewhat chaotic composition. And I like the way the light wraps the round shape of the grapes and apples.
Samsung Smart Camera WB800F in macro mode. Processed in Snapseed on the Google Nexus 7.