Posts in Category: landscape
Celebrating the season
Another landscape to celebrate the season of fall foliage. This one is the Kennebunk River at the Walsh Preserve (Arundel Land Conservancy) off river road in Kennebunk (or Arundel perhaps 🙂 The preserve is just a narrow strip between residential properties on the road and on the river, but provides rare access to the river and a couple of restful benches for contemplation. Sony a6500 with the ultra wide lens combo (16mm f2.8 plus ultra wide converter for an equivalent focal length of 18mm). Program mode with HDR. Nominal exposure: ISO 100 @ f8 @ 1/250th. -1EV to hold the sky, program shift for greater depth of field. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
A little fall pond action…
I don’t often feature a landscape for my Pic of the day, but if I am going to, it is most likely in the fall. Autumn in Maine is always (almost) an amazing show of defiance to the coming winter, or homage to the passing summer…and always worth celebrating. This is a favorite spot for fall photos (any season actually)…a little pond along Rt. 9 just north of the Wells Town border, caught here just pack peek color and under an interesting sky. Sony a6500 with the 18mm ultra-wide combo lens set. Program with auto HDR. Nominal exposure: ISO 100 @ f13 @ 1/60th. -1EV to hold the sky. Program shift for depth of field. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Running ahead of the storm
Mousam River at Rt. 9 in Kennebunk, Maine, USA. — I was out for an exercise and pick-up-my-prescriptions ride on my ebike, running ahead of the storm front that came through, and I had to stop on the Rt. 9 bridge over the Mousam River to capture the scene. Powerful sky 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 24mm equivalent. Program mode with Auto HDR. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Variation on a theme of fall
I posted a very similar photo a few days ago…or a photo taken at the this same spot at any rate. Sunny day vs cloudy day and two days later in the change of leaves, and taken with a different lens…the 24mm wide angle on my Sony Rx10iv vs the 18mm ultrawide equivalent mounted on a Sony a6500. Inch sensor vs APS-C, but that difference is not apparent. Mostly though it is just a difference in the moods of autumn. We had our bright crisp days last week. This week we have cloudy with intermittent rain. We need the rain. Both moods are autumn. Both are beautiful in their own way. Sony a6500 and 18mm ultrawide, as above. Program mode with HDR. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. And the pond is along Rt. 9 in Kennebunk, Maine just above the Wells Town Line.
Fallish
We have lost the sun this week as we move deeper into fall. We need the rain, so I am trying hard not to begrudge the light 🙂 You can see the sea mist coming up and inland at the end of this marshy isle where a little stream flows through. Highly atmospheric. Fallish indeed. Sony a6500 with 18mm equivalent ultrawide combo. HDR. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Beach Rose Pond
This little pond is right on Route 9 between Brown Street and the Kennebunk/Wells town line. The beauty of this view stopped me on my eBike as I rode by yesterday. Sony Rx10iv at 24mm equivalent. HDR mode. I used Program Shift to select a small aperture for increased depth of field and selective focus on the roses. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Wild Iris
The Wild Iris, also called the Blue Flag Iris, is one of the most beautiful and widespread wildflowers of late spring / early summer in North America. I wait patiently for this reliable clump, a the edge of a pond along one of our local roads, to bloom each year. Generally I can catch them on at least one sunny day, but this year they were in full bloom on the first of day of several days of overcast and rain. Still beautiful. I used Program Shift to select f16 for this shot…to increase depth of field, and selectively focused on the closest Iris. Though I say that, I was also using HDR mode to help keep detail in the cloudy sky…so, while the recorded aperture is indeed f16, at a shutter speed of 1/20th of a second (ISO 100 and an exposure bias of -1 (again for detail in the clouds)…some of the individual exposures for the HDR will have varied one or more of those settings. At any rate, I was pleased with the results. I try to avoid anything under f5.6 in general shooting, as the Sony lens is sharpest near wide open, but this, I think, worked. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Sky over the Kennebunk Plains
Yesterday they promised heavy thunderstorms with big hail in the afternoon, and when it did not materialize I headed out on my ebike to look for sky. In the coastal plain of York County, that means either the beach or the Kennebunk Plains. The Kennebunk Plains, as I have mentioned in the past, is a sand plain…one of the few undeveloped habitats of its kind in New England. It was kept open in the past by wildfire…and is now maintained by controlled burns. The Nature Conservancy owns part of it and the whole of it is managed as a Wildlife Management Area by the state…to protect several endangered birds, reptiles, and flowers. And because it is open, you get to see the sky in all its glory. This is a “sweep panorama” from the Sony a6500 with my ultra wide lens set up. Sweep panorama is a mode that allows you to swing the camera around the horizon and take one long continuous photo…the camera actually takes dozens of individual photos and stitches them together in-camera. This is about 180 degrees of land and sky. I held the camera in portrait mode, vertically, to take in more sky. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos for an HDR effect.
Fatima
Looking from the hill where the faithful believe the angle of peace appeared across the little valley to the Basilica at the site of the apparition of Mary in Fatima. The Hungarian Pilgrim way runs from there to here. The Basilica is just to the right of the trees on the left. Sony a5100 in-camera HDR. 16mm prime with UWA converter for an 18mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Polarr.
Maine Winter Morning
The neighborhood, Kennebunk Maine
Yesterday was one of the most visually beautiful days I have ever experienced in Southern Maine. We had 3 feet of snow on the ground, and another 6 inches fell over-night…wet, clingy snow that stuck where it first touched, so every tree and bush had its frosting of snow. Unfortunately that meant that the snow in our drive was a mix of snow and not quite frozen water…heavy to lift in the shovel, and a real chore for the snowblower. My first project was to get the drive cleared and the cars out, but then I took a walk around the neighborhood to enjoy the beauty. My neighbor was out with his snowblower and saw me walking by. “Beautiful,” he said, “but a pain in the butt.” “Beautiful,” I said, “but a pain in the lower back.” Certainly beautiful though. By noon the sun was coming out, there was some blue in the sky, and the scenery went from beautiful to spectacular. If you follow my “For the love of landscape…” on Facebook or Google+, you will see some of the images from a drive I took in the afternoon…or maybe I will have one left to share here tomorrow. 🙂
Sony Rx10iii in-camera HDRs. Processed in Polarr on my iPad Pro. Assembled in Framemagic. These shots were taken early, about an hour after first light.