Posts in Category: abstract
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.
Smileworthy!
I am not sure why, and I am not sure I can even figure out why…but this image makes me smile. It just does. It ought to have one of those clever, inspirational, aspirational slogans on the bottom and be sold as a poster. I can see it on a dorm room wall. “Take the higher view.” or “Things always look better from the top.” or “Stand on a Buttercup and the whole world similes with you.” Or something like that. If you have a better idea, let me know.
So I just looked to see if this bug happens to be in Kenn Kaufman’s excellent Field Guide to the Nature of New England, my go to reference for a quick ID, and unless I am much mistaken, this little bug is actually a Firefly! And now I am really smiling! Firefly on a Buttercup in the afternoon sun…what could be better than that!
The image is from a late afternoon Sunday dragonfly prowl at the meadows at Emmons Preserve. I found few dragonflies (though one new one for me), but this image makes the whole trip worthwhile. Again, I don’t know why, but it does!
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
Tulip Macro
I have the ZEISS Touit 50mm macro for my Sony NEX 3NL to try out for a few weeks. I have missed true macro ability with the kit 16-50mm zoom. This shot is just messing around in the yard yesterday. How close can I go? I used the “background defocus” tool in Superior Auto to get a smaller aperture and more depth of field, but that pushed the ISO up higher than I would have liked. Still, not bad for a hand-held, natural light shot.
Sony NEX 3NL with ZEISS Touit 50mm macro. f11 @ ISO 1600 @ 1/500th. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
Maple Blossom Special
It is time for my yearly Maple Blossom post. I suspect that there are still a lot of people who do not realize that the Sugar Maple, our common Maple here in New England, actually blossoms, let alone that the flowers are so delicate and so beautiful. Mostly the flowers are a just a red tinge at the branch ends high overhead. It takes a fairly long telephoto to bring them close enough to appreciate. They do, of course, fall from the trees, and you do see them in the grass and on the moss underneath, but mostly the filaments are tangled and wilted by then…they have lost their glory.
This shot, processed for HDR effect, captures the luminescent red of the flowers against a gray spring sky. Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent plus 2x digital extender for 1200mm equivalent field of view. 1/800th @ ISO 320 @ f6.7. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
Spider Web in the Morning: Happy Sunday!
A week ago I was in Arcata California. This is from Saturday morning there, after a night of gentle rain and a misty dawn. The spider webs at Arcata Marsh Nature Center were spectacularly jeweled and drapped the bushes in webs of refracted light. I could not resist framing a few with the long end of the 600mm equivalent zoom on the Olympus OM-D E-M10, and then, this morning, collaging three into this composite image.
And for the Sunday Thought: It seems like it ought to be something about transcience and fragile beauty…considering both the fragility of the webs and how temporary the jeweling of the moisture is. These webs, if they survive the morning, will be next to invisible once the moisture drys off the strands. They will go back to being the efficient insect traps they were intended to be.
But I am not feeling either transient or fragile (relatively speaking) this morning. That Saturday I was. I was suffering my first real experience of the full discomfort of acid reflux, and thought I might be having a heart attack…and I was certainly feeling my vunerabiliy, and every moment of my age. I felt like one of those webs…my moments of life like the beads of moisture hung suspended on a fragile web of being. I am considerably better now. Once I figured out what was happening to me, and started on Prilosec OTC and Zantac, the effects began to moderate, and and have receeded to memory now (though I do have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow morning just for reasurrance). I have lost the fragile, suspended feeling.
Now, when I look at these webs I see strength…astounding strength. I see a miracle of engineering in the service of life that comes close to defying the laws of physics. I see beauty in the way the light is collected, focused, in each bead of moisture…how together they turn the dim light of the misty morning into something to wonder at. And I am perfectly willing to see my life as one of those webs…my precious moments strung on a intricate network of intelligence, each strand the ample strength of a faith in the living God. Come breeze and blow. Come sun and dry. You can not erase the wonder of the misty dawn, caught in dew on a spider’s web. You can not erase me. Not because of who I am, but because of who God is! It is good to be alive today. Sunday. Happy Sunday!
The Crocus of Spring
After our long hard Southern Maine winter, I almost missed the first Crocus. The snow was barely off the Crocus patch when I left for two weeks in Texas and California. I came back to find the Crocus beginning to fade. There is still one brave plant in full bloom, so, of course, I had to photograph it!
Sony NEX 3NL with 16-50mm zoom. Macro (Intelligent Auto Plus) @ 75mm equivalent plus 2x Perfect Image Zoom for 150mm equivalent field of view. In intelligent Auto, you can fine tune the settings. I used the “background defocus” tool to shift the exposure for the greatest possible depth of field. f29 @ 1/160th @ ISO 800. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
Going-on Easter Cactus
We have a Christmas Cactus that blooms faithfully every Christmas season. It has a second bloom, generally close enough to Easter to call it our Easter Cactus as well. 🙂 For some reason it has started it’s second bloom early this year. There are a few buds, and even one open flower already.
As it happens, I just got a set of “macro attachment lenses” for my Sony 16-50mm zoom lens. The 16-50 focuses relatively close, but it is certainly no macro. Screw-on macro attachment lenses are cheap…$16 for set of 4 from Vivitar in their own little protective pouch…and I thought it was worth trying them out. They actually work amazingly well! This was taken with the +10 diopter attachment lens at 50mm equivalent from about 2 inches away. And, it was taken hand held at ISO 3200. Not too shabby! At macro distances the Sony was able to auto focus with the attachment lens in place, even in this low light. This little set of attachments, or at least the lens I end up using most, are definitely going to become part of my regular field kit!
Sony NEX 3NL with 16-50mm zoom. ISO 3200 @ 1/60th @ f5.6. Processed in Handy Photo on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
Abstract of Paradise
Bird of Paradise flower that is. One of the treats of my yearly San Diego trip is always the Bird of Paradise plants in full bloom. They are just so outrageously vivid. I like the flower, and I like the individual parts of the flower. This close-up turns the contrasting colors and shapes into an abstract composition.
Sony NEX 3NL with 16-50mm zoom. Macro mode. ISO 200 @ 1/200th @ f7.1. 75mm equivalent. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014. Cropped for composition.
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.
Icy Needles
We had just enough freezing rain yesterday to say so. Actually it rained on top of our snow for several hours, and just a short drive north of us there was significant ice build-up, but Kennebunk, or at least Brown Street, missed the worst of it. Rather than a solid sheath of ice, we had a granular coating, probably retaining the structure of the snow chystals, and clear frozen drops at the ends of things, like these pine needles. Icy needles. 🙂
Sony NEX 3NL with 16-50mm zoom. Macro mode at 75x equivalent. 2x Clear Image zoom. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.