Posts in Category: tree
8/12/2011: Portland Horse Chestnut
One of the consequences of doing a Pic 4 Today blog is that you are forced to seize every opportunity to pick up your camera and go find something to photograph. I was stranded in a hotel for the morning in a rather seedy section of Portland Oregon (my bad, I made the reservation)…and it took some determination to shut down the internet and get out there. As it happens there was a tiny cemetery across the street from the hotel with some huge old trees. I took a dozen or more exposures and went back to the hotel, transfered the images via Eye-Fi card to my Xoom, and processed a few in PhotoEnhance Pro HD and PicSay Pro.
I liked the texture and the light coming through the extra large leaves of the Horse Chestnut. Selective focus kept the strongest pattern sharp and Active D-Lighting gave me a good exposure for processing. I also liked the big ugly fruit.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 23mm equivalent field of view. f3.4 @ 1/320 @ ISO 320. Program with Active D-Lighting. Fruit at 410mm equivalent. f4 @ 1/320th @ ISO 160. Close Up mode.
Processed as above in PhotoEnhance Pro HD. Fruit in PicSay Pro.
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8/1/2011: High Summer on the Marsh
The other day I went out to do some landscapes at my pocket sanctuary along the Kennebunk Bridle Path where it runs through a corner of Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge property, and came back with over 70 shots of Odonata…dragonflies…which I whittled down to 27 keepers: An Afternoon Feast of Odonata.
I did, however, manage to get a few landscape shots. Like this one. One of my favorite views across the marsh. I love the weathered fence posts, and, though unconventional, the dead snag dividing the image somehow works for me, perhaps because it “cages” the clouds on one side of the frame.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 23mm equivalent field of view, f5.6 @ 1/800th @ ISO 160. Program with Active D-Lighting, –1/3 EV exposure compensation to be sure of the clouds.
Processed for Clarity and Sharpness in Lightroom.
7/30/2011: Bark Triptych
I am always fascinated by the patterns in tree bark and aging tree trunks. This set is from the nature trail at Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge headquarters. Each image was worth recording in its own right, but I think the contrast grouping them like this makes an interesting study. And I am interested in what you see, if you see anything, in the center panel?
Nikon Coolpix P500. The two outer pics are at 32mm equivalent field of view (Close UP mode) and the last one is at 176mm. ISO 180, 200, and 280.
Each image was processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness, and then the three images were assembled in PhotoShop Elements 9.
7/28/2011: Yellow Birch, Laudholm Farm
I really like Yellow Birch: the colors and textures of the trunks in any stage of growth. This is a relatively large specimen growing by the boardwalk at Laudholm Farm (Wells National Estuarine Research Center in Wells Maine). Here the contrast between the green fern fond, the smooth Popular sapling and the strong arch of the Yellow Birch root and trunk make (to my eye) an interesting composition. Mid-afternoon light was somewhat harsh, so I have emphasized the contrasts in the scene, and it’s underlying graphic design, by adjusting both Blackpoint and Contrast.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 68mm equivalent field of view, f4.7 @ 1/400th @ ISO 160. Program with Active D-Lighting.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity, Sharpness, and Contrast.
6/4/2011: Upper Pool at Emmon’s Preserve
I have posted quite a few shots over the past two and a half years from Emmon’s Preserve, a little Kennebunkport Land Trust property on the Batson River. The Batson, despite its name, is actually something between a brook and a river. In August it might only be a trickle between moss covered stones, but other times its pools are full and its falls and rapids are wild, it is never, however, what I would call a river, even at its fullest.
This, in particular, is a shot I have taken often…I like the sculpted wood of the fallen tree…but I particularly like the quality of the light in this one. The Nikon’s Active D-Lighting renders scenes like this in a strikingly natural way, and the 22.5mm equivalent lens opens the view wonderfully. I love the depth. This is an image that draws me in. I could look at it for a long time.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 22.5mm equivalent field of view, f3.4 @ 1/400th @ ISO 160. Program with Active-D Lighting (to extend dynamic range) and Vivid Image Optimization.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
5/8/2011: Cherry. Happy Sunday. Happy Mother’s Day!
When we bought our home in Kennebunk, 16 years ago, I went to the Dollar Store in Wells, and bought a few plants for the yard. I paid $1.00 for a little stick with a few roots, about 1/2 inch through at its thickest, more dead than alive, and brought it home and planted it near the stump of what had clearly been a very large pine tree. My wife made some attempt to keep it pruned over the years, but today the trunk is 14 inches through and it stands taller then the peak of the roof of our story-and-a-half home. Each year it throws more blossoms: delicate and beautiful. Each year I look at it and remember that hopeless stick I rescued from a pile at the Dollar Store…and marvel that it has turned into this majestic tree that showers us with blossoms as the Creator showers us with blessings. Since the height of its bloom is always around Mother’s Day, it serves as a celebration of our time in our home, and of the woman who makes it one, my wife Carol. Happy Mother’s Day.
And that is really all the Sunday thought I have…and all I need. Thank you God, for this life we live together, for our children, for our home, for the absolute blessing and miracle of Cherry blossoms from a half dead stick. Who would have believed?
Nikon Coolpix P500. Processed for clarity and sharpness in Lightroom.
Happy Sunday. Happy Mother’s Day.
4/25/2011: Maple Flowers
The Maples are red. Not the leaves this season, but the flowers. From a distance it is a subtle red that teases the eye, except where the maples mass, and then it can be quite striking. Even standing right under a tree the flowers are more a promise than a reality. Only when you get right in close do you see them for what they are…things of real beauty. These are wet with a heavy dew.
Nikon Coolpix P500 on macro, 1) 620mm equivalent field of view, f5.7 @ 1/200th @ ISO 160, 2) 115mm, f4.7 @ 1/200th @ ISO 160, and 3) 68mm, f4.7 @ 1/320th @ ISO 160. Program mode.
The three shots show the different effects of macro at various settings of the zoom, visible most clearly in the bokeh.
Processed for intensity and clarity in Lightroom. (The Nikon takes a very similar processing to my Canon SX20IS.)
4/21/2011: Light, line, texture and angle
I have actually attempted this shot several times over the past few years. I see it every time I go to Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge early in the morning…or at least some variation of it. This line of trees which are slowly slipping with the land under them, further down the steep cutting of the Merriland river. They are well rooted and the slant is all the landslide has achieved so far. But of course, it is as much about the light as the slant…the way the light, strikes down just here and illuminates the trunks, bring out both line (modeling) and the contrasting textures of the bark. I shot this twice, but this tighter crop using more of the zoom works better for me…and this is the best of my many tries over the years. I think that is a matter of the particular character of the early spring, early morning light of this particular day.
Canon SX20IS at 70mm equivalent field of view, f3.5 @ 1/100th @ ISO 160. Program Mode.
Processed for intensity and clarity in Lightroom, with special attention to the balance of highlight and shadow and a bit of color adjustment.
And, since someone else is probably already thinking it, this is an image that might work well in Black and White. So, with some judicious conversion in Lightroom, this is my attempt at the B&W version. I was surprised by the different B&W effects I could produce by altering the color temperature of the original.
4/16/2011: Miniature Mountains, Forests, in a Stump
On my photo walk last Saturday, spring just was not happening all that much, but I found a brave display of moss and lichen along a new trail through a little patch of public use land donated to the town recently. This is a rather small stump, in the scale of things, but well decorated. In the light of an early spring morning it builds possibilities in the mind. Kind of an alternative scenery for Saturday.
Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent and super-macro. F7.1 @ 1/30th @ ISO 80. I used Program Shift to select the smaller aperture for added depth of field.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity and clarity (see Lightroom Processing page above).
4/14/2011: Catkins, Flowers, and Leaf buds.
Spring is slowly unfolding here in Southern Maine. Catkins are hanging and at least a few trees are in flower. New leaves are just emerging. Nothing showy mind you. We are still weeks from dog-woods and the ornamental cherries in front yards, but a few of the most hardy natives have begun to think about reproduction.
This is a tel-macro shot, at the limits of its depth of field, but I like the colors in the catkin and the form of the flowers and was determined to frame them both. The composition is pretty classic at that. The branches in the back were just far enough away to be pleasingly out of focus. It will actually benefit from a lager view.
Canon SX20IS at 300mm equivalent field of view, f5 @ 1/320th @ ISO 160.
Processed for intensity and clarity in Lightroom.