Posts in Category: abstract
Color Pocket
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Continuing the theme of autumn color…which will very likely continue well into October :)…here is a little pocket of color along the edge of a pool were a small brook enters Old Falls Pond on the Mousam River. One of my readers informed me yesterday that the trees along the water’s edge are more susceptible to an early turn because the wood is saturated with water. Certainly that and the fact that cold air pools along edges and in little coves like this, accounts for much of the early color we are seeing in Southern Maine. I like the contrast here between the layers. Peat-brown water, green vegetation, golden cattails, and the greens, reds, and oranges of the small saplings.
Sony HX400V at 24mm equivalent field of view. In-camera HDR. Nominal exposure ISO 80 @ 1/250th @ f5. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Fall Impression
Autumn in New England is full of these spontaneous tapestries…accidental abstracts. These trees were across Day Brook Pond from each other, clearly effected by their position on the shore, where I have to assume the pond was just wide enough to catch and hold a pocket of colder air. Moderate tele on the zoom to compress, and Program Shift to deepen the field, puts the color in the same plain of focus, and framing the image adds the intention which lifts this from accident to art. 🙂 Okay, so that is a bit over-the-top, but fall color always brings out the poet in me.
Sony HX400V at 122mm equivalent field of view. Nominal exposure: ISO 80 @ 1/125th @ f6.3. In-camera HDR. Processed in Lighroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Milkweed!
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I know it seems odd, but I have been waiting patiently for the Milkweek pods to burst. There were great fields of them at the Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farm. They have, as of yesterday, only preserved one small section below the house. The rest have been mowed before the pods could burst. It will be another week before they all ripe and ready for release, but I captured this early pod, just in case they get the mower down there in the next few days. I love the fine silky fibers and the way they catch the light. The seeds themselves have an interesting shape and texture, and the wind is always making new patterns. What is not to love?
Sony HX400V at 55mm equivalent field of view. Macro. ISO 80 @ 1/400th @ f7.1. I used Program Shift for greater depth of field. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Madrone Curls
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I love the bark of Madrone. I only get to see it when visiting California, but it is always a treat. It is such an unlikely bark for any tree to have. I can’t believe it is actually very functional, but there it is.
Sony HX400V at 38mm equivalent field of view. Macro. ISO 80 @ 1/60th @ f4.5. Program shift for greater depth of field. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro tablet.
Sunflowers in the Sun
These giant Sunflowers are from the garden at Laudholm Farm a few days ago. As I mentioned earlier this week, sunflowers in Maine rarely get the chance to go to seed. Our growing season is just too shot. If the frost holds off another month, these might make it. 🙂
Sony HX400V at 565mm equivalent field of view. ISO 80 @ 1/640th @ f5.6. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 2 tablet.
Morning Glory
I went to the kitchen yesterday morning for my tea, and was confronted by this in the backyard. Glory! I ran for the camera and snuck out on the back deck, still in my bathrobe, to catch a few shots. It was just the right combination of color, mist, and sun to make magic…to strike glory in the backyard. 🙂
Sony HX400V. In-camera HDR. Processed in Adobe Express on my new Surface Pro tablet.
The Blue Beyond. Happy Sunday!
A week ago today in was still in Tucson for the Tucson Birding Festival and, since it was the last day of the festival and we were both tired out, my colleague and I made no plans to go out before the show hours. Still I walked along the river behind the hotel and, when the chance occurred, borrowed the car for a short drive to a city park that one of the locals had recommend. There was nothing much happening at the park…it was nice as parks go, but the promised birds were simply not there. There were of course Mallards, tamed by the daily proximity to the park patrons, and as I walked by one (you practically had to shoo them out of the path) I looked down into this amazing window of blue on the wing. Zoom. Snap.
Sony HX400V at about 900mm equivalent field of view. ISO 200 @ 1/250th @ f5.6. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
And for the Sunday Thought. For me the patterns of color in bird plumage, and the structure of the feathers themselves, will always be testimony to the actions of a loving creator. I simply can not believe that any sequence of random mutations could have resulted in anything as intricate and beautiful as the feathers on a Mallard duck. I can not conceive of any evolutionary advantage to the contrasting patch of blue fire that flashes when the wings are held just so…that glimpse of the pure blue beyond. Personally I find it that I am forced to consider the possibility of an intelligence behind the design…a loving intent expressing itself in feather and color…in the living being of the duck under foot. I take our ability to see and appreciate such pattern and such intent as central to who we are and to the nature of the universe we live in. It was exactly at the moment when I came to that conclusion I my life, that the Creator broke in in Jesus Christ and demanded that I consider his claims to be that intelligence, that person…the one who spoke the love in the blue beyond the structure of the universe. Honestly I resisted the idea, but when he offered me, in the simple act of opening myself to belief, whatever proof I might want, I surrendered, and he has been proving the truth of a life of faith ever since…one day at a time…speaking in every second in every circumstance…in every encounter…in the blue beyond the beautiful feathers of an apparently random semi-tame duck on a pond in Tucson AZ on a Sunday morning in August. And I have every reason to believe he will prove himself again today. And I an confident he will do the same for you if you can open yourself to believe. His love is always there, speaking in the blue beyond. Happy Sunday!
Beach Heather
For some reason I have found Beach Heather very difficult to photograph. It is a scraggly plant at the best of times, attractive from the near distance as a purple haze at the edge of the dunes and marsh…an effect that is next to impossible to capture…or attractive very close up for its tiny flowers and lovely color…which can also be very hard to photograph since the slender stems keep the plant moving in the most gentle breeze. And between those extremes it has little to recommend it. Scraggle at the sandy edges. 🙂
This shot with its one sharp blossom surrounded by a net of unfocused color is as close as I have come. If you are not familiar with Heather, that flower is truly tiny…less than a centimeter across. Sony HX400V. 85mm equivalent macro. ISO 80 @ 1/400th @ f4. Superior Auto. Processed in Handy Photo on my tablet.
Nasturtium: Happy Sunday!
Just walking around the yard with a new camera I could not resist this fresh Nasturtium with its amazing internal architecture and the two drops of water left from the rain of the night before. And the color of course.
Sony HX400V. 60mm macro equivalent. ISO 80 @ 1/100th @ f3.5. Superior Auto. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
And for the Sunday Thought: I am playing with a new camera. I was about to spend $1500 on two lenses, either one of which would have been more expensive than any single photographic implement I have ever bought before, and which would have brought my field kit to two bodies and three lenses…three bodies and three lenses for maximum flexibility. It is all the most compact gear I could find: what they are calling mirror-less compact system cameras, but it was still approaching 15 pounds of equipment in at least two camera bags. And I thought: “Whoa! This is just not who I am!” I love photography, but honestly, for what I do…mostly blogging and posting on Facebook and Google+…15 pounds and $2500 worth of gear is simply way more than I need (or want to carry on a regular basis). And then too, I think of myself as an evangelist for wildlife and nature, and wildlife and nature photography…I would like to see lots more people learning to celebrate the wonder of God’s creation with a camera in hand…and that kind of equipment is a barrier for many of the people who could most benefit from a close look at nature. It becomes too easy for others to say, “Yeah, of course your pics are great. You got all that expensive stuff!” Or, perhaps, “Me, I am not even going to try if I have to spend that much, and carry all that stuff.” I do want to be the everyman’s (and everywoman’s) champion of wildlife and nature photography. It is my niche, and honestly, I had fallen out of it. 🙂
So I canceled the order for the two lenses (though they are undoubtedly the best lenses I have ever used), and went back to using my Canon SX50HS superzoom…just to see if I could still enjoy it after my months in the “real camera” camp. And I found that I could. I have always said the best camera to have is the one you have with you when you see the picture. Still, the Canon is aging and due for an update. It lacks many of the refinements of the past two years, so I did a few day’s research, and bought another under $500 superzoom (which I actually got from Amazon Warehouse Deals for about $350). One camera, the Sony HX400V, to, hopefully, replace three bodies and three lenses. That is a lot to ask, more now that I know exactly what the larger cameras can do, and I know there will be compromises. But then I always knew there were compromises with superzooms.
I am still in the pixel peeping stage of new camera ownership…looking for the flaws in every image while I learn what the new camera can (and can’t) do. I am not certain if the Sony is the superzoom I will end up using, but I am already sure that I have refound my niche. Which is the same as saying I have returned to myself…to that person who most fully expresses my spirit, that bit of the one creative spirit the Creator has gifted me with. And this is good. I will get over peeping at pixels, and go back to simply enjoying and celebrating wonder with a camera. Like the amazing beautiful internal architecture of
nasturtiums.
Ruined Beauty
The Rose is blown and by. And yet still beautiful. A wreck of a Rose. And yet it still draws the eye and awakes the soul. Okay, so maybe that last is a bit over the top :-), but I certainly see an attraction. Form, color, texture. And a hint of nostalgia to knit it all together emotionally. This is from our yard yesterday morning after a day of thunderstorms.
Canon SX50HS. 24mm plus 1.5x Digital tel-extenter for a super-macro. ISO 100 @ 1/160th @ f4. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet. Obtrusive power-lines in the upper right corner retouched out using the eraser tool in Handy Photo.