Posts in Category: hdr
October Light in the Forest
Laudholm Farm, Wells ME
Yesterday was one of those clear-blue-sky October days in Southern Maine, just past peak foliage color, when the forest is full of drifting leaves and everything is hopping and popping. Birds and beasts are busy with the final collections for winter. The slant of the sun, and the trees dropping leaves already, bare limbs showing at the tips…there is a feeling of rush…not panic yet…but an unusual concentration, a compression of life that promises to get the most from this day. And, of course, it is all so beautiful!
This is a boardwalk at the Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farm in Wells Maine, just down the road from us. I think it catches the feeling pretty well.
Sony HX400V. In-camera HDR at 24mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Mt. Agamenticus Fall
Presidential Range from Mt. Agamenticus
Mount Agamenticus is the tallest mountain (well, really more of a hill, if you have ever seen a real mountain) in Southern Maine. It is only 692 feet, but it is so close to the coast and sea level that can seem much taller. It is the center of a unique Conservation Area…a coalition of state, federal, county, town, and private land owners and managers to protect the largest track of unbroken coastal forest between Acadia National Park in Maine and the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. The old ski lodge on the summit now houses a learning center and a conservation center. Trail development is on-going, and Mt. A has become a major resource for those studying the ecology of coastal forests. It has the one of the largest concentrations of vernal pools, including several floating kettle bogs, in the US, and supports endangered species that depend of wet springs. Yesterday, as we near the peak of fall foliage in Southern Maine, there were 30 or more cars in the parking at the trail head at the foot of the mountain, and another 40 or more in the parking at the summit. This is on a Friday morning. Clearly it is a popular destination for recreation in Southern Maine.
Many of those people, like me, had driven up to see the foliage. Like I say, not quite peak, but this is a good demonstration of a point I made a few days ago. Our mixed forest in Maine runs heavily to Oak and Pine, with Maples, for the most part, scattered thinly. We don’t get the solid hillsides of color they get in Vermont. In the image above, those are the Presidential Range mountains in New Hampshire on the horizon.
This is a moderate telephoto shot: about 130mm equivalent field of view, to compress the bands of color and bring the mountains closer. It is also an in-camera HDR. Sony HX400V. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
A river runs through Maine too…
Mousam River at Roger’s Pond
Several, of course, but if you get the movie reference, this is one of the more popular fly fishing rivers and fly fishing spots in Southern Maine. It is the Mousam River at Roger’s Pond. There are fly fishermen here while the river is a narrow channel running through sheet ice, and they will be here until the snow blocks access to the stream. This shot combines the best of what the river and autumn in Maine have to offer.
It was not an easy shot. The sun on the water behind the fisherman made a conventional exposure impossible, and the motion of the fishermen made HDR problematic. I tried several shots to get this one in-camera HDR treatment. Even then it took more than my standard Lightroom processing. 55mm equivalent flied of view. Sony HX400V. Pretty much a classic: right off the cover of the Orvis catalog. 🙂
The way fall is supposed to be…
Old Falls Pond on the Mousam River
“Maine: the way life is supposed to be.” State motto. 🙂 Or at least what it says on the welcome sign on I95 when you cross the Kittery Bridge from New Hampshire. I have been waiting all fall so far for a sky like this over the foliage. Sky the way it is supposed to be. Fall the way it is supposed to be. I stood by this lake, Old Falls Pond on the Mousam River, for over an hour waiting for a spot of sunlight to break through and light the foliage, but I had to settle, in the end, for indirect light. Still, pretty good! And the sky is not devoid of interest. 😉
Sony HX400V at 24mm equivalent. In-camera HDR with the level set to 6 EV and -2/3rd EV exposure compensation. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
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.
Nubble Light
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Yesterday I rode my bike to the beach early, and the sky was so beautiful that I decided to ride my scooter to Nubble Light, 20 miles down the coast, to see if I could get some good shots. It was my longest scooter ride to date, and quite an adventure as I had to ride through both Wells and Ogunquet in September Sunday morning traffic. 🙂
I made it to Nubble by 10am. I only had to go around the parking lot twice to find a slot for my scooter. A lot of other people had the same September Sunday morning idea I had. And, of course, the sky behind the light was clear. 🙁 There were great clouds inland, and I got some shots of the the bay to the north that are memorable, but the Light itself was pretty stark and backlit to boot. I climbed around on the rocks and looked for interesting angles that did not include too many tourists for an hour or so, then went back to my scooter. I ate my banana. I actually had my helmet on and was ready to board when I happened to turn back for one more look at the Light. Wooo. Where did that nice cloud come from? I realized that the cloud cover inland was moving really fast…really fast…and while I had been eating my banana the leading edge had swung behind the light. I also noticed that the angle of the sun had improved so that the I now had light on one of the inner faces of the building. Excellent! Much to the dismay of the circling tourists in unparked cars, I took my helmet back off, and spent another hour retracing my steps, finding all the angles again…but this time with clouds! 🙂 This shot is from down at the water’s edge.
Sony HX400V at 24mm equivalent field of view. In-camera HDR. Nominal exposure: ISO 80 @ 1/800th @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
For more shots of Nubble from this trip, check out the Photoprowl piece.
Bales in Afternoon Light
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Yesterday afternoon it was too nice to sit inside, but not particularly good photographic light. There was a heat haze in the air, especially out over the ocean, that dulled the horizon. I took the scooter up the coast to Biddeford Pool and East Point Sanctuary, but didn’t really find anything of interest. I passed this field in the process of being hayed on the way out, and stopped for the more interesting light on the way back. Of course there are thousands of images of these kinds of round bales in the collective photographic archive already, but, still, you (or at least I) have to take a few each year. 🙂
Sony HX400V. In-camera HDR. Nominal exposure: ISO 80 @ 1/500th @ f5.6. 64mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Lighroom on my Surface Pro 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.
Thunder to the North
We had odd weather yesterday. Thunderstorms moved through. What they call isolated thunderstorms. I am standing here at our local beach by Back Creek in bright clear weather watching a storm over Biddeford 7 miles north. High drama.
This is an in-camera HDR from the Sony HX400V. Processed with various graduated filter effects in Handy Photo on my tablet. The Snapseed HDR version is more dramatic but shows too many artifacts. This is more like a just slightly heightened version of what came from the camera. A, I hope, relatively natural but still impressive HDR.
Smith’s Preserve
I have been exploring the local Land Trust/Conservancy properties in Kennebunk and Kennebunkport this month. This week I visited Smith’s Preserve in Kennebunkport. It is the largest Preserve in the Kennebunkport Land Conservancy and has a number of well developed trails. If the day I visited was typical, it is popular with mountain bikers. There is a small stream, some marshy areas, and, as far as I got, some shady second growth forest with large exposed bolders and rock ledges. It makes a change from our typical Coastal sand plain forest.
I took a number of in-camera HDRs, trying to catch the atmosphere. Here I like the slight rise from the trail, the lay of the rocks and ledges and the dappling of the light and shadow. Sony Alpha NEX 5T with ZEISS Touit 12mm f2.8. Processed for HDR effect in Snapseed on my tablet.