Posts in Category: marsh
6/5/2001: White Rugosa Rose, Happy Sunday!
Beach Rose, or Rosa Rugosa, is common along coast of New England, and especially on the dunes of southern Maine. It is not native. It was introduced for dune control and sea-side landscaping from Asia, where it is 
native to coasts of northern China, Korea, Japan, and southern Siberia. Rose Hip Jelly, a regional specialty, is made from the hips or pips (fruit) of the Beach Rose. Like many other introduced plants, it has been a mixed blessing…it certainly holds the dunes down and makes a bold show in lawns and boarders, but where it grows wild it has almost completely displaced native dune grasses and wildflowers.
Mostly you see the red variety. The white is a cultivar, and through I found it growing wild along the abandoned Bridle Path in Kennebunk, it almost certainly escaped from someone’s garden, or perhaps there was once a house along the Path just there, as there is evidence of ditching and draining and possible cultivation in the marsh near-by, and several other introduced ornamentals (including Hawthorn and Japanese Barberry) on the Bridle Path within sight of the patch of white roses.
The big showy white petals do, as I see it, very interesting things with light 
Nikon Coolpix P500 in Close Up Scene mode (assisted macro). Both main shots at f8 @ 1/800th @ ISO 160.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
And, for the Sunday thought…
If, as I strongly suspect, what we have along the Bridle Path just there, where the white Rugosa Rose blooms, are the remnants of someone’s gardening efforts from the last century (or even the one before…there is a particularly Victorian aspect to the mix of plants) it just goes to show how much power there is in the human intention…the power to alter the landscape for generations…well beyond the lifetime of the particular person of intent. And, of course, the problem status of the Rugosa Rose on New England dunes testifies to our inability to completely foresee the consequences of our intentions. We, as children of the creator, have, indeed a measure of the creator’s power…certainly enough to create our own versions of Eden where ever we go…but as creatures of time, who lack, while we are here on this earth, the eternal perspective, we can not see far enough ahead to know what exactly we do.
I am, to be honest, of two minds about this. One part of me recommends caution…that we ought, given our limitations, to take a “hands off” stance…to leave nature to her own devices, and not meddle with the landscape.
But part of me feels that managing the ever changing landscape is what we are here to do…that in fact…we will always be gardeners in the Eden the creator is creating…and that is right that we exercise our little bit of creativity in the moment…every moment…to tend and expand the landscape of creation. If the Rugosa Rose has run beyond any intention, it will require creative intent on the part of the children of the creator reign it in.
Too often, I think, we set man and nature against each other. Man made is unnatural. A garden is not nature. Too often, I think, we forget that man is part of nature…that our creative intent is force of nature as sure as wind and sun and rain. It is, as I see it, only by remembering that all the time, and passing it generation to generation, that we can overcome the limitations of our time-bound perspectives. We are children of the creator, charged with creation in the moment. If the Rugosa Rose is a problem, we need to get creative about it. In this moment.
Or that’s what I think this Sunday morning.
Happy Sunday. Enjoy what the light does with the petals of the White Rugosa Rose!
5/29/2011: Rhodora
Happy Sunday!
Ralph Waldo Emerson. 1803–1882
The Rhodora
On Being Asked Whence Is the Flower
IN May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes,
I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods,
Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook,
To please the desert and the sluggish brook.
The purple petals, fallen in the pool,
Made the black water with their beauty gay;
Here might the red-bird come his plumes to cool,
And court the flower that cheapens his array.
Rhodora! if the sages ask thee why
This charm is wasted on the earth and sky,
Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing,
Then Beauty is its own excuse for being:
Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose!
I never thought to ask, I never knew:
But, in my simple ignorance, suppose
The self-same Power that brought me there brought you.
I could not have said it better myself! 🙂 And there is even a Sunday thought in there. I have been photographing Rhodora every spring for years and this is the first time I have come across this poem.
The Rhodora, just a few scattered plants, was in bloom along the edge of a little marshy pond near my home in Kennebunk. If we ever get another sunny day (which is in some doubt in southern Maine this year) I want to go to Saco Heath, about 15 miles from here where it blooms in mass.
For now, these few will do! As I am sure Ralph Waldo would agree.
Nikon Coolpix P500 1) 32mm (Close Up mode for macro), f5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 160, 2) 32mm (Close Up mode for Macro) f5 @ 1/800th @ ISO 160.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
5/7/2011: Vaill Point HDR
One of the tricks made possible by the speed of the Back-illuminated CMOS sensor of the Nikon Coolpix P500 is in-camera HDR. The camera takes 3 or more shots when you press the shutter release and then combines them into a single image with extended range. I don’t actually like the results straight out of camera, but then I also postprocess my Photomatix HDRs in Lightroom when I have done all I can do in Photomatix. With judicious Lightroom processing, and a suitable scene, the Nikon HDR effect is actually pretty good, and it is far easier than shooting three exposures and combining them in Photomatix after the fact.
This shot is from the observation deck at Vaill Point Park (Sanctuary) near St. Augustine Florida. As you see, the HDR mode opens the shadows while maintaining the intensity of the greens and the blue of the sky. This is not an easy shot, exposure wise. I intend to experiment more with in-camera HDR when I find appropriate scenes.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 23mm equivalent field of view, nominally f3.4 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 160. Backlight HDR mode.
Processed for levels, intensity, and clarity in Lightroom.
4/22/2011: Bridle Path, new eyes
I am trying out a new camera…bought primarily to increase my reach and chances with birds in flight…but it has to work, of course, for my bread-and-butter landscapes. This is from the first outing with the camera, late in the day yesterday (after UPS finally delivered it :). Having a new camera is like having new eyes…you have to see everything again…even if you have seen it, and even photographed it…many times before.
This is at 24mm equivalent field of view. The 24mm end of the zoom is by far the widest lens I have yet owned and I am interested in what it can do…what it does do…when pointed at the world.
There will be lots of learning over the next few weeks!
Fujifilm HS20 EXR at 24mm equivalent field of view, f3.6 @ 1/450th @ ISO 100. Landscape Mode.
Processed for intensity and clarity in Lightroom (a new camera also means refining my Lightroom routine…the Fuji requires significantly different processing than the Canon did…still learning).
4/18/2011: Phragmites and Bokeh
Back when I used to think of Phragmites as an invasive weed, destroying our wetlands, I could not see its beauty. Now that I know that most Phragmites in Maine (and much of it elsewhere) are actually a native species, and that what is spoiling our wetlands is our own land use practices and chemical agriculture with spread of Phragmites just an optimistic symptom of the problem, not its cause…I can begin to appreciate the reed (not weed). It certainly has its beauty, as here, with a single weathered fond caught against the forest bokeh behind.
Shot at a 560mm equivalent field of view to isolate the reed and send the trees behind well out of focus.
Canon SX20IS, f5.7 @ 1/500th @ ISO 160.
Processed for intensity and clarity in Lightroom. Cropped slightly for composition.
4/17/2011: Where the Merriland meets the Little
Happy Sunday! I spent an hour yesterday morning at Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge headquarters area, walking the little nature trail through the woods down to the Little River and the Merriland, as the sun was trying to warm a cold early spring day. There is little sign of spring at Rachel Carson beyond the light, the first hard leaf buds, and the earliest signs the intention to blossom on the Hobblebush.
This is where the Merriland River, in the foreground, meets the Little River, on the left. It is a 4 shot panorama and really needs to be seen as large as your monitor will allow. It is, in fact, considerably wider than you would be likely to take in at one view. By relaxing your attention and, so to speak, stepping back behind your eyes, you would be able to see this sweep, but generally our attention is more focused and we would only see this as a series of impressions. I like the way the early light is playing across the marsh and bringing up the blues in the water, when there are none in the sky.
Canon SX20IS, four 28mm equivalent fields of view, stitched using the Panorama tool in Photomerge within PhotoShop Elements 9, and processed for intensity and clarity in Lightroom. Average exposure was in the f4 @ 1/160th @ ISO 80 range. Landscape mode.
And,for Sunday…I think about that focused attention we bring to bear on the world around us, limiting our natural 180º plus, to between 15º of truly focused attention, and 60º-90º of operational attention. We call the rest peripheral. And yet, we could all benefit, I suspect, from the habit, say, once or twice a day, of stepping back behind our eyes, relaxing, and taking in the full width of our vision. It is certainly so in spiritual things. One of the most profound insights of any spiritual journey is just how focused on our limited view of things we all are, and what a change it makes to step back and look out of larger eyes than our own. Doing so does not diminish in any way the particular that is the focus of our attention…it just puts it in perspective. What is my own salvation, precious as it is, in comparison to the salvation of mankind and the redemption of creation? There is a kind of prayer that seeks that experience…not petition (necessary focused on the particular)…but a reverent approach to unity through love that is sometimes called meditation. Unfocused attention, while I would not argue that it is the highest form of vision, or of prayer, is undoubtedly good for us.
Which is maybe why every photographer needs to experiment with panoramas once in a while. 🙂
4/11/2011: Last of Winter HDR
Hard to believe this was only a week ago here in Maine, after what I sincerely hope was the last snow of the season. This is a nothing shot…just a little moderate-telephoto crop of the landscape…but I like it. I like the bare branches against the sky, the clouds, the water and the leading line of melt in the foreground…I like the balance and the detail.
Canon SX20IS at 75mm equivalent field of view, three shots bracketed around –2/3rds EV, blended and tone-mapped in Photomatix Pro, processed for intensity and clarity in Lightroom.
I did shoot this as a standard Landscape Mode image just for comparison. All the HDR did was to bring up the relative brightness of the mid-tones in the trees, giving them more dimension, and bring out the green of the conifers. I might, with careful levels work and some masking, have been able to achieve these same results working with the single exposure. 🙂
3/30/2011: Avocet Elegance, Wings on Wednesday
For Wings on Wednesday we have the the American Avocet, one of the most elegant of birds. It stands, often on one leg, with its classic coloring and long upturned bill…it feeds by sweeping that bill horizontally through shallow water (see video below)…altogether elegant.
This bird is at Famosa Slough in San Diego California.
Canon SD4000IS behind the new 15-56x Vario eyepiece on the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL spotting scope for the equivalent field of view of approximately a 3000mm lens. 1/500 @ ISO 125, f8.5 effective.
Processed for clarity and sharpness in Lightroom.
And the video. Also taken with the Canon through the spotting scope.
3/27/2011: Spring Snow Morning
Happy Sunday!
Before the season slips behind us and is forgotten…here is a shot from just a week ago, when we woke to fresh spring snow. We might yet see another storm. We have had snow in April within my memory of this place…quite a few times at that. This snow was typical of spring, with big furry flakes, but exaggerated enough to be interesting, as chronicled on 3/20 and 21.
This is Back Creek where it crosses Route 9 just before the end of Brown Street, and is always a pleasant view, even here where the snow is doing its best to obscure it. I actually took the shot out the window of the car, keeping the camera dry. Moderate telephoto zoom framed the little curve in the creek and the gap in the trees, and emphasized the falling snow.
Canon SX20IS at 60mm equivalent field of view, f4.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 400. Sports Mode to catch the falling flakes in mid-air.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity and clarity.
When picking a shot for Sunday, I always look for something that speaks, however faintly, to the spiritual side of things. I am a firm believer that the spiritual is in everything…that it underpins everything and every moment…and that we can (and should) see it wherever we look. I am not talking about a Platonic reality here, where the eternal cast a shadow that is the temporal reality we experience, but a world of experience that is, moment by moment, and second by second, the living expression of the creative spirit of all. This instance of spring snow is a single character in a single word in a single sentence of one paragraph of a chapter of one volume of the endless story that is being told. It is being spoken. Here I have written that character down, caught it in a pictograph, and it has meaning beyond me, only because we are all part of that same story being told. Spring Snow Morning. From my piece of the story…now into yours.
3/23/2011: Mousam HDR
This is a section of yesterday’s panorama taken at the mouth of the Mousam River behind Parson’s Beach in Kennebunk Maine…not literally a section as in one of the three stitched images…but a section as in a piece of the same view. This time it has received the HDR treatment. For a scene with this kind of sky drama already happening, about the only thing HDR adds (the way I use it) is a bit of detail enhancement in the foreground, some extra detail in the cloud cover, and greens you can see. In a normally exposed image of this scene, the greens would be going toward black (or the sky would be pale and lifeless), especially the evergreens in the distance. They might hold a bit of green, but HDR brings them back up to normal visual levels while preserving the cloud detail.
Canon SX20IS. Three bracketed exposures centered around –2/3EV, assembled and tone-mapped in Photomatix Pro and processed for intensity and clarity in Lightroom.