Posts in Category: forest
Early Fall
As I mentioned elsewhere yesterday, the first touch of Autumn color in our area is often seen at the ponds along Rt 9 that feed Back Creek. The cold deep water, the narrow opening of the ponds, and the exposure of the trees along the edge serve somehow to amplify the seasonal change. This is a three exposure HDR, handled automatically by the Samsung Smart Camera WB800F’s Rich Tone mode. And here is matter for Rich Tone if ever there were such 🙂
I glimpsed this particular view of the pond, not my usual head-on shot, as I was slowing the scooter down to stop, and walked back along the road to catch it.
Processed in Snapseed on the Nexus 7.
Opening in the forest.
On my Sunday morning photoprowl, I discovered that the folks at the Kennebunkport Land Trust have installed all new signage at Emmon’s Preserve. The new trail maps alerted me to sections of the Preserve I never suspected existed, and trails I had, obviously, never walked. Well, there is a fix for that! 🙂
I picked a new trail, largely because it included what was labeled on the map as “the Batson River Bridge.” I like rivers and I like bridges. And the bridge was impressive: A long arch of shaped aluminum, very modern and very efficient, and just wide enough for two hikers to pass abreast. The trail on the other side of the Batson is called “The Learning Trail” and is a cooperative effort of the Land Trust and the Alternative Education Program at Kennebunk High School. It is a great trail, with lots of interpretative sings and its own website, which you can access via QR codes on each of the signs. How great is that!
This is the view down a little brook, complete with its own boardwalk, that makes an opening in the forest canopy about half way around the loop of trail. It is a vertical sweep panorama taken with the Samsung Smart Camera WB250F. I love the effect! Processed in Snapseed on the Nexus 7.
Fall is coming…
The leaves that are falling now, in mid-September, are that dull brown of leaves that have died of simple old-age. The brilliance of frost killed leaves is still several weeks away. Still a little scene like this is a clear reminder that the summer is about to go out in its usual New England blaze of glory. That is a little of what I have captured here, but of course the image is really about the play of light over the various textures and the reflected patterns in the moving water. 🙂
Samsung Smart Camera WB250F in Rich Tone mode (in-camera HDR). Processed in Snapseed on the Nexus 7.
Flower and Moth from a German Forest
I don’t know the name of this wildflower from the German Forest at the edge of Bavaria, or of the tiny moth. I will research them more when I get home to a stable internet connection. Both are attractive and the combination is even more so. Or that is what I think 🙂
Samsung Smart Camera WB250F in macro mode. Processed in PicSay Pro on the Samsung Galaxy S4.
Water’s Way
I return frequently to the little stretch of the Batson River protected by the Kennebunkport Land Trust as Emmons Preserve. It is a peaceful spot where the sound of the water descending over rock ledges soothes the soul and let’s the spirit surface. Or so it does for me.
This is an in-camera HDR from the Samsung Smart Camera WB750F. Since the camera has no flip out LCD I had to hold the camera low and shoot blind. It required some trial and error, but the stream, though running musically, was not going anywhere, and I had time. 🙂
Processed on the 2013 Nexus 7 in PicSay Pro.
Forest for the trees…
This is a vertical sweep panorama. I was looking at the dead pine in the center background and the image builds itself around that, but the most interesting thing to me is the distortions introduced in the surrounding trees by the sweep process. It is a bendy world the sweep panorama mode captures 🙂 The only difficulty in this kind of vertical sweep is getting your head back far enough without falling over.
This is at Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge on the trail at the headquarters.
Samsung Smart Camera WB250F. Processed in PicSay Pro on the Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone.
Pool in the woods
The Batson River makes a long loop through Emmons Preserve, with many pools, overhanging rock ledges, tumbling falls, and gentle stretches of water reflecting trees. It is really an amazingly varied stretch of river considering it can’t be more than a quarter mile of it included in the Preserve. This is one of the far pools, beyond the main, and most visited, section of the trail. The river splits here, with the main channel rushing through a narrow gap between standing stones, and a smaller side channel feeding this still pool. I love the play of light here, and the ripples leading out to the still water with its reflections and lily pads. Perhaps because of the depth and the odd angle, it has a kind of abstract feeling to it.
Samsung Smart Camera WB250F in Rich Tone (HDR) mode. Processed in PicSay Pro on the Samsung Galaxy S4. Auto Enhance by Google+ Photos.
Trees by threes
This trio of popular trees along the Kennebunk Bridle Path caught my eye one day as I passed. I like the lichen on the bark, and the pattern the three make against the greenery. The 24mm equivalent lens provides the depth of field to shot close in to the front tree, and yet have the others in relative focus as well. It is all about composition, really.
Samsung Smart Camera WB250F. Program. -1/3EV exposure compensation. 24mm equivalent field of view. f3.2 @ 1/60th @ ISO 100. Processed on the Samsung Galaxy S4 in PicSay Pro.
The tallness of birches.
Panoramas are difficult at the best of times to display on a computer monitor or screen…just not enough real estate…and vertical panoramas are especially cramped. Still, when faced with a tall tree, what do you do? This is a vertical sweep panorama of an impressive pair of intertwined Paper Birch trees at Laudholm Farm and Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve. It is along the boardwalk through the wet forest behind the dunes and the marsh. The panorama certainly does not do the trees justice, but it captures the tall grace of them better than a normal shot ever could.
Samsung WB250F in Panorama Mode. Processed in PicSay Pro on the Samsung Galaxy S4. (If you have never used “sweep panorama” on a camera, it is actually very impressive. Unlike a normal panorama, which is several “flat” images stitched together, a sweep panorama is “painted” onto the sensor one thin line at a time as you move the camera. It produces a unique and interesting effect. And it dead easy!)
Burr Oak Forest on the Prairie
As I mentioned yesterday, all the trees you see on the “tops” of the drift prairie of North Dakota are plantings…installed by human hands as wind-brakes around dwellings and homesteads. What native trees there are are mostly cottonwoods and ash, deep in the river valleys, where the periodic prairie wildfires could not get to them, and where water was reliable all year. The exception is the Burr Oak and Ash forests that grow along the ridge of the Missouri Coteau, the glacial moraine that marks the edge of the ice advance. This is Hawk’s Nest Ridge, southwest of Carrington. It is on private land, but it draws people from hundreds of miles around, to hike and camp in the one of the only real forests in the state. These days most people call the landowners to get permission. Generations of some North Dakota families have camped and hunted on Hawk’s Nest.
And I can understand why. Even for an easterner like me, well acquainted with forest, the Burr Oak forest of Hawk’s Nest is a place of wonder.
Under the bright prairie sun, it is not an easy forest to photograph. Even my in-camera HDR left the highlights overexposed, so this is a traditional 3 exposure HDR assembled and tone mapped in Dynamic Photo HDR and processed in Lightroom.
Canon SX50HS. 24mm equivalent.