Posts in Category: clouds
Maine! Prior to Lee
As Lee churns up the Atlantic, it is producing some interesting weather and some great skies. This was the day before yesterday, looking south and and a bit west down the coast. Olympus OMD EM5Miii with the 12-45mm Pro zoom at 24mm equivalent. In camera HDR. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. Nominal exposure ISO 200 @ f11 @ 1/500th.
Maine! Meadow Marsh
One of my favorite local views. This is along the Bridle Path inland from Rt. 9. Testing HDR on the new to me OMD E-M5iii with the 12-45mm zoom at 24mm equivalent. The in-camera HDR mode (in the Scene Modes) seems to produce a nice understated effect. This particular scene can be hard because of the dark pines and maples this time of year, but I am happy with this. 🙂 Good thing. Processed in Pixelmator Pro.
Beach Roses in the view
The beach roses (Rugosa Rose) are in bloom in southern Maine. Beach Rose is an invasive species, originally from the Asia, that was imported and planted to stabilize dunes all along the Atlantic coast. You see it everywhere through most of the summer here in Maine. The flowers develop into Rose Hips…and are made, not so much in Maine, but in other Atlantic states, into a jam or jelly. They do make a great foreground for the skies of June…or this June at any rate. We have had a lot of these days lately. iPhone SE with Sirui 18mm lens. Auto with intelligent HDR turned on. Processed in Apple Photos.
Flood
We had a lot of rain with this last storm. The neighbor’s yard had a small pond in it, which I have not seen in at least 10 years, the pond along Route 9 south of Brown Street was over its banks, which I have never seen before, and, as you see from the photo, the Branch Brook Marsh right on the Wells Town line was completely under water…and though I don’t have a photo of the other side of the road, it was completely flooded as well, as far as you could see out toward the sea. That is a lot of water. In this shot, which is a short sweep panorama with the iPhone SE and the Sirui 18mm ultra-wide lens, if you did not know better you would think you were looking at a lake. The water is only inches, a foot at most, deep over the matted grasses of the marsh. Apple Camera app with Smart HDR engaged. Processed in Apple Photos.
Autumn over marsh
If you stand on the bench at the Webhannet Marsh overlook at Laudholm Farms, in the fall, you can see over the reeds to the border of trees in their full autumn splendor. Add a spectacular October sky and there you go! iPhone SE with Sirui 18mm ultra-wide lens. Apple Camera app with Smart HDR engaged. Processed in Apple Photos.
Laudholm Bog Panorama
What a day! The best that fall 2021 has to offer. Great sky, some color in the trees, and the open expanse of the remnant bog at Laudholm Farms in Wells, Maine, USA. This is a “sweep panorama” with the iPhone SE and the Sirui 18mm ultra-wide lens. A lotta pixels in there! Apple Camera app. Processed in Apple Photos.
getting surreal at Laudholm Farms
As I have said a few times before, it is being a very strange fall here in southern Maine. Still no frost in the third week of October, and the trees are struggling with the change…exposed trees, alone in the field, or on the edge of the forest are turning late and we are not getting the reds of a normal year…and inside the forest many leaves are just turning brown and falling. Still you find scenes like this one…taken into the sun as patches of sun and shadow raced across the field, spotlighting the colors. The sky was so intense I had to tone it down to keep the image from looking too surreal. iPhone SE with Sirui 18mm ultra-wide lens. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Best of autumn in Kennebunk
Of course, this time of year, I have my eye out for great autumn shots…places where the color is at its best and well displayed. I was in the passenger seat of our car (a rare position for me to be) when we crossed the marsh at the edge of Kennebunk Lower Village, in leaf-peeper traffic at its best (or worst), and glimpsed this scene out the widow as we passed. It was overcast with a dull grey sky, so I could let the scene pass, but I would remember. I immediately began to plot how to get there safely on Indigenous People/Columbus Day Monday, when better skies were predicted, on my eTrike, without getting myself run over by a leaf peeper. By 11am the next morning the sky was promising and I got the trike out and took my chances…going the long way around to approach from the right side of the road, and avoid as much traffic as I could…as well as the stretch of horrible trike road on Rt. 9 coming into Lower Village. When I got there I found that there was enough of a shoulder on the bridge over the marsh so I could safely park my trike for the photos. I took many views of this with slightly different compositions, and picked this one as the best of the non-panoramic set. I might post the panorama another day. Anyway. This is a classic southern Maine autumn landscape. iPhone SE with Sirui 18mm ultra-wide lens. Apple Camera app with Smart HDR engaged. Processed in Apple Photos.
Nature Phonography: All contrails lead to Portland
The atmosphere yesterday must have been ideal for the formation of contrails. This was taken from our local beach at the mouth of the Mousam River, and all those contrails point to Portland, Maine, away there, not so far, over the horizon. I know some landscape photographers hate contrails, and I know all about the chemtrails conspiracy theory (or as much as I want to know…I got educated by (or at least “due to”) folks who commented on past contrail containing landscapes). But sometimes the “flaws” in a photo are actually what the photo is about. Case in point. iPhone SE with Sirui 18mm wide angle lens. Standard Apple Camera app. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Wood Island Light
Wood Island Light guards the entrance to Saco Bay and the Saco River. This shot is from the East Point Sanctuary in Biddeford Pool where I was looking for Snowy Owls just before our Nor-easter. No owls, but a classic winter’s day photograph of the light. Sony Rx10iv at 24mm equivalent. Program mode with auto HDR. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. Nominal exposure: ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/500th.