Posts in Category: water
Rapid run
Batson River, Emmon’s Preserve, Kennebunkport, Maine, April 2025 — Relatively high water on the Batson River (more of a brook really) in Emmon’s Preserve (Kennebunkport Land Trust). Still no leaves on the trees so this is just about as bright as this stretch of water gets. Sony a5100 with Sony 10-18 f4 at 15mm equivalent. Shutter Preferred at 1/40th. Processed in Photomator.
Maine! Tumble
A little tumble of water in the Mousam River at Roger’s Pond Park. I was out looking for Eagles, which have begun to hunt the river at the park again as fall comes on, but I also wanted to experiment with some moving water. Sony a6700 with the Tamron 50-400 Di iii VC zoom at 384mm equivalent. Program mode with my macro modifications…program shift to f29 and 1/20th for the silky water effect. Hand held. Processed in Photomator.
Maine Landscape
Batson River, Emmon’s Preserve, Kennebunkport Land Trust. Spring spate. Shutter mode with LiveND. OM System OM-1 with M.Zuiko 12-45 Pro zoom at 24mm equivalent. Processed in Photomator.
Falling water…
Falls on the Batson River at Emmon’s Preserve. The Batson River is more of a large brook for most of its run, only achieving anything like river size in its last few miles to the ocean, and then not by most river standards. When the water is high there is a nice tumble down a series of ledges between two deep pools in Emmon’s Preserve (Kennebunkport Land Trust). This is a close up of one of the tumbles…using in-camera HDR, and program shift for a slow shutter speed. Sony Rx10iv at 60mm equivalent. HDR with program shift and -1EV exposure compensation (to protect the highlights). Nominal exposure ISO 100 @ f16 @ 1/6th.
Ice wonder
Crossing the bridge over the Mousam River here in Kennebunk yesterday on my walk, I looked downriver for Eagles, as I generally do, only to spot this amazing ice formation on a branch extending out over the rapids below the dam. The tallest columns here are close to 3 feet long. I will admit that I do not understand the physics of how something like this forms…and my imagination is simply humbled in presence of wonder. There are rough stone steps from Rotary Park by the bridge down to the river’s edge, and I went down to explore more of the ice formations at close range, but this shot is my initial view from the bridge. (I will share at least a few more ice sculptures in the coming days.) Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. HDR mode. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Ice in the stream…
I went out on a cold January morning to see what I could see before the promised snow the following day. It was a perfect day for ice sculptures to form in the spray and splash of rapidly moving water. I found this in the outflow of one of the little ponds along Rt. 9. I am always amazed at the shapes water can get into. Sony RX10iv at 140mm equivalent. In-camera HDR. Processed in Polarr.
Synchronized Feeding. Happy Sunday!
It is a long way from the parking at San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge to where the birds are, or that is certainly how it seemed yesterday. I think it was a matter more of tides than anything. When I got there the mud was covered with water. By the time I had walked 3 miles in, the tide had receded enough to show some mud banks and the birds were feeding in the shallow water along the edges. I saw this group of American Avocets when I was already ready to turn around, from a quarter of a mile up the berm between the road and Tolay Creek and walked down to them. Glad I did. 🙂
There is nothing so graceful as a group of Avocets feeding. It is as close to ballet as birds get. The trick is to shoot a lot of random shots of the group and sort for the most graceful when you get home. Or at least that is what works for me.
Sony HX400V at 2400mm equivalent field of view (1200 optical plus 2x Perfect Image zoom). ISO 80 @ 1/500th @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro tablet.
And for the Sunday Thought: I went to three recommended birding spots along the north end of San Francisco Bay and up the Sonoma Valley yesterday, and most of what I did was a long walk with not much happening. Yet, when I got back to the hotel I found that I had taken over 400 exposures. I processed 98 of them, and got a surprising number, and a surprising variety, of satisfying images out of the morning: Birds big and small, wildflowers, dragonflies (and Flame Skimmers at that!), some interesting architecture and artifacts, landscapes, ripe grapes in a vineyard just touched by fall, and the amazing red curly bark of the Madrone trees. Undoubtedly you will see some of them over the next few days 🙂 Such wealth from a morning when it seemed, most to time, like nothing was happening.
Sometimes the wonder is in the words of the song, and sometimes it is in the punctuation. Sometimes it flows over you like a stream, moment to moment, hour after hour…and sometimes it punctuates the flow of time like rocks in a stream give shape and curl and churn to the water to delight the ear and eye. Wonder is wonder either way. Looking back on it, I had a wonderful morning, quite literally filled with wonderful moments, but while it was happening I was, perhaps too caught up in the many steps between those moments, in moving myself from one to the next. It happens.
Only when I got back to the hotel and actually, as they say (not perhaps really meaning it as literally as I do here) counted my blessings as I imported and processed images did I realize how full the morning was. Wonderful.
Something to give thanks for on a Sunday morning!
Falls on the Batson. Happy Sunday!
I went to Emmons Preserve, and down the trail to the falls on the Batson River in particular, to look for Ebony Jewelwings…the darting, dancing, electric sometimes blue, sometimes metalic green, set-winged Damselflies that prefer rapid water…but of course the rapid waters have their own attraction. The place is beautiful…almost other-worldly…elven…with the still shadowed pools connected by falling runs of peat-brown water, the moss and rocks, the dappled light through the covering trees…a feast for the senses. I try, again and again, to capture it…but the true essence of the place is very difficult to catch.
This is a three exposure in-camera HDR with the exposures separated by 6 EV, with the Sony NEX 5T and the ZEISS Touit 12mm f2.8. I put the camera right down at water level and only inches from the falling water. Nominal exposure, as determined by the Program, was ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/60th. The file was further processed for HDR effect in Snapseed on my tablet. And it is getting there. It is satisfyingly close to the visual impression…or at least to the emotional impression…of the place.
And for the Sunday Thought: there are lots of places, like the falls on the Batson River, that have such a rich emotional impact…such a rich spiritual impact…that any attempt at photography is bound to fall short. That does not, and should not, keep us from trying. We reach, and in reaching, pay homage to the creative spirit of love that shapes both the beauty of the world, and our sense of beauty. Like the Ebony Jewelwings, we dance…our intention dances above the falling water of creation…and we take pleasure in the dance…as we were made to do. Such beauty can not be caught and held…but it can be pointed to…celebrated in the beautiful gesture of the attempt.
Wet Hibiscus
Isn’t that the name of a move? No? It should be (or maybe a band).
Anyway, every yearly late February/early March trip to San Diego, I go a little crazy with the flowers. Bogenvelia, Bird of Paridise, Hibiscus, Pepper Tree, and all the annuals planted around buildings! I mean! Perhaps I can be forgiven since at home I am enduring the next to last month of winter (which, to be honest, has its own charms): it has been along time since I saw flowers in any quantity, and it is still weeks away from the first crocus in the yard (sometime after the feet of snow and ice melts). Flowers in February are, so to speak, a sight for sore eyes. At least for me.
In 11 years, it has only once before been totally rainy during a San Diego Birding Festival, but this is a strong second. California certainly needs the rain, and I will not begrudge them a drop. I just took my umbrella out yesterday morning for some wet flower shots. This Hibiscus is growing on the grounds of the Comfort Inn where I am staying. I mean, is that red or what? (And you can count on Bird of Paradise to follow!)
Sony NEX 3NL with 16-50mm zoom. Macro Mode. ISO 320 @ 1/160th @ f5. 45mm equivalent. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
So wild the sea!
Yesterday, I took my, by now, traditional Sunday Photo and Snowy Owl prowl up along the coast as far as Biddeford Pool. I only found one owl, and never got close enough for a photo, but when I got to Fortunes Rocks, the sea was so amazingly wild that I had to park and take a series of photos. A stormy sea is not an easy thing to catch in an image. You can not capture the wind-in-your-teeth feeling, or the sound…and certainly not the emotional thrill, the primal surge of adrenaline, that always straightens our spines even as it sends shivers up and down, when we stand on the edge (the safe edge most often) of disaster. Still, the waves from Saturday’s storm passing offshore were as big as I have seen along this coast, a strong off-shore wind was blowing the tops back into plumes, and the sun was just at the angle to bring out the green highlights in the water as it rose. Altogether impressive.
Samsung Smart Camera WB800F. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014. Collages assembled in PixlrExpress.
