Posts in Category: marsh
Snowshoe Vistas
Snowshoeing at Rachel Carson NWR
Yesterday the temperature crept up into the 20s and the sun peaked out, so after a good long rest when I finished blowing the 4 inches of fresh snow out of the drive, after lunch, Carol and I decided to go snowshoeing at Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge Headquarters. The loop trail there is just about the right length for snowshoeing novices…and popular enough with snowshoers that you practically never have to break trail. We have something in neighborhood of 4-5 feet of snow on the ground, where it has not drifted, so the woods and marsh have a totally unique aspect. The Merriland River, which runs along one side of the trail, and Branch Brook, which bounds another side and meets the Merriland, are both tidal rivers this close to the sea, so the river ice, which is at least 3 feet thick at points, is fractured by rise and fall and stained by the mixture of fresh peaty waters and salty sea waters.
These are 4 in-camera HDRs. Sony HX400V. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet, and assembled in Phototastic.
Frozen
Rachel Carson NWR
From the hot and humid rainforest of Honduras to the cold and frozen mixed temperate forest and marsh of Maine! Quite a contrast. After two days when my exercise was snowblowing the drive, I got out my new snowshoes yesterday for a trip (slog) around the trail at the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge headquarters. It was 10 degrees when I left home, and only 14 degrees two hours later when I returned. With wind in the forest of Rachel Carson, and especially out on the platforms over the marsh, it was indeed frigid…but I enjoyed being out in the deep woods in the snow (3 feet or more in spots) just as much as I anticipated. Others on snowshoes had gone before me…so I did not even have to break trail. This is the loop in Branch Brook before it joins the Merriland River to become the Little River for its last run to the sea.
I was experimenting with the Snow mode on the Sony HX400V, and I am pretty much pleased with the results. I could get more texture in the snow by underexposing and using HDR…but the tones and color temperature in the Snow mode shots are excellent. Just as it looks to the naked eye. 🙂 Frozen.
24mm equivalent field of view. ISO 80 @ 1/2000 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
The Wide View. Happy Sunday!
Parker River NWR, south end looking north north-west.
This is a portrait orientation Sweep Panorama from the Sony HX400V. Is is about 120 degrees of sweep, from just south of west to just east of north. Winter light on the marsh and snow squalls under those clouds as they come in. Patchy sun highlights the foreground while the tree line is still in shadow. And the massive clouds over all. Not a compelling image…but pleasant, and rewarding.
Sweep Panoramas, especially the more natural looking panoramas taken with the camera held vertically during the sweep, provide, still within the frame, something very close to the naked eye view of the world. We are used to looking at photos that range from normal wide angle to tight telephotos…photos that approximate our “focused area of attention”…photos that frame just as much of the world as we generally pay attention to. In a sense, every photographer offers a digest of the world…with the focus…the area of interest…preselected for us as something worth looking at. A portrait Sweep Panorama like this one challenges our photographic senses. We don’t know quite what to make of it. Where are we supposed to look? And that is the whole point. Sometimes there is interest in looking at the whole thing…the sweep of the landscape…the play of light across the land under, as in this case, a dramatic sky. Sometimes the attention needs a wider focus…sometimes there is reward in a wider view.
We tend to go through our spiritual lives in the same way…recording a digest of the high points…paying attention to what has obvious interest and meaning…when all the time the sweep of the spirit through our lives is like the sun playing across the landscape under a dramatic sky. There is reward in pulling back to enjoy the wider view. And challenge. We are such focused creatures. When the view becomes too wide we struggle to make sense of it…but it is, I think, worth the extra effort. It returns us to our point of true perspective, where we are, relatively speaking, pretty small in the grand landscape. This is good. Humbling, but good. God would not have given us eyes to see the wider view if God did not intend us to use them. Yes, we are in our focused attention…but yes we are also in the sweep of life around us. It is good to be reminded. I think. Happy Sunday!
Shadows in the snow…
Kennebunk Bridle Path, Kennebunk ME
Even though it was still only 12 degrees at 2 in the afternoon, I had to get out yesterday. After looking, unsuccessfully, for the Snowy Owl at the beach again, I decided to experiment with some snowscape HDR, using more aggressive settings on the Sony HX400V than my normal HDR settings. I like to capture the texture of the snow, while keeping both shadows and highlights looking natural. Not an easy task for a digital sensor, especially one as small as the sensor in the HX400V. I set the Exposure Compensation to -1 to keep the sun on the snow from burning out, and then set the in camera HDR to level 6 to bring the shadows back into range. It worked fairly well. I had to lighten the overall image in Lightroom, but I am happy with the results. On the other hand, Auto HDR and -1/3 EV did almost as well. 🙂
Sony HX400V at 52mm equivalent field of view. Nominal exposure: 1/800th @ f6.3 @ ISO 80. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet. (I used TouchRetouch to remove a small branch that intruded into the lower left part of the frame.)
November Light. Happy Sunday!
November Light
The season between leaf fall and snow fall in southern Maine is not the most attractive of seasons. The weather is often raw, even on sunny days, the birds are silent or already absent, and there is little to attract the eye…little, at least in the landscape, it sometimes seems, to keep the spirits up. And it is hunting season, so the woods are not safe. As it happens I miss most of it. I have a festival in New Jersey in late October, and two in November…in Texas and New Mexico. I am only home like 9 days between mid-October and Thanksgiving. The one redeeming feature of the season is the light. It is not the warmth, though we are thankful for the sun these days, but the angle as the sun drops lower in our Maine sky. Mid-day light in November is the equivalent of early evening light in July. The shadows never do get short. They remain long, molding all they touch. Though the landscape attempts to deny it, the light is even just about the same color as a mid-summer evening.
And yet it is unique. There is no mistaking November light across the landscape for the light of any other season.
I suppose, in a way, my whole life is in just such a season. I had a heart attack in April and I retired in July, but I am still active with ZEISS on the festival circuit. I have made some moves toward the next phase of my life, putting out feelers, making tentative plans, but I am mostly coasting, enjoying this interval when there is nothing much happening, this time between. Trying to find enough in the slant of the light across the landscape to keep my spirits up while I settle into my winter…trying to imagine a winter that I might enjoy. No worries really. As long as I can appreciate the light of November, I think December and January will pretty much, spiritually, take care of themselves.
Sony HX400V in camera HDRs. Processed in Lightroom. Assembled in Phototastic. On my Lenovo Miix 2 tablet.
Great-tailed Grackle
Great-tailed Grackle
The sound of South Texas, for any bird watcher, has to be the Great-tailed and Common Grackle flocks that congregate on the wires in the towns along the Rio Grande every evening. It is so exotic, at least to ears tuned to more eastern and northern bird sounds. I will admit that I don’t find grackles in great numbers all that attractive. However, in small groups, deeper into true Grackle habitat as you see them here at Estro Llano Grande World Birding Center south of Weslaco Texas, they are…well, at least entertaining if not attractive. 🙂 This is a typical display posture for the Great-tailed Grackle.
Sony HX400V at 1200mm equivalent field of view. Shutter preferred. 1/640th @ ISO 1000 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom on my Windows tablet.
Classic Greater Yellowlegs
Greater Yellowlegs
Sometimes it is hard to tell a Greater from a Lesser Yelowlegs. Not so here. These are classic Greaters with the bill showing clearly a third again as long as the head. I found these three feeding avidly in the pools along the Kennebunk Bridle Path, where we always get a few stopping over during migration.
Sony HX400V at 1200mm equivalent fielf of view. Shutter preferred. 1/500th @ ISO 500 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom on my Lenovo Miix 2 11 tablet.
Wide on the Little for Wednesday
Sweep panorama near the mouth of the Little River on Laudholm Beach
On Sunday my photoprowl featured heavy skies over the October landscape. This is a sweep panorama taken just back from the mouth of the Little River where it crosses Laudholm Beach. I like these tall/wide shots, taken with the camera in portrait orientation. Of course this shot is all about the lowering sky, the sweep of the sand, and the curve of the water. The hint of color in the distant trees is an added highlight.
Sony HX400V. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
October Marsh
Little River Marsh, Laudholm Farm, Wells ME
When October sends a gloomy day…you take gloomy day pictures. There is still a beauty to be had. The sky broods. The colors burn like late embers. I seem to be stuck in cliche mode, but you get the gist. This is from the observation deck on the boradwalk trail at the Well National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farm in Wells, Maine.
Sony HX400V in-camera HDR. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Snowy Egret
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It is rare in Maine to get this close to a Snowy Egret. I have photographed them close in Florida at places like the Ritch Grissom Memorial Wetlands at Viera and Merritt Island NWR many times. It is easy. In Maine, though, they are generally way out in the marsh, well away from any path I can walk. On Monday, I came upon a group of Snowys feeding in the marsh pools right off the observation deck on the forest boardwalk at the Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farm in Wells. Such a treat! (And while I was photographing the Egrets, a group of 15 Whimbrels flew in just beyond them!)
Sony HX400V at 2400mm equivalent field of view (1200mm optical plus 2x Clear Image Zoom). ISO 80 @ 1/640th @ f6.3. Program with -1EV exposure compensation. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.