Posts in Category: Pic of the Day
Cape Porpoise Chowder House: Happy Sunday!
Cape Porpoise Harbor, Cape Porpoise Maine
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus.
I went out yesterday in search of falling water and fallen leaves. I wanted to photograph the small falls along the Batson River in Emmon’s Preserve with the autumn accumulation of leaves covering the rocks and lining the water channels. I did that, and some of the pics will be featured in today’s Love of landscape (on Facebook and Google+). However, since I was out that way, and the sun was breaking through high clouds in interesting ways, I decided to swing out to Cape Porpoise to see how the harbor looked. I knew it might be chancy getting a parking place on the Cape on a Saturday morning, but slid into the last place in the public parking. The cloud bank off-shore was blocking direct sun on the harbor, but since I was parked I decided to wait it out. I could see sun on the point to the south, and on the water behind the lighthouse, and I knew it was only a matter of time before the clouds slid far enough out to sea for the harbor and the foliage behind it to be in full sun.
When the couple in the corner of the image brought their cups of chowder out on the deck that just about decided it, but then the sun finally broke though and I hustled over to get this shot. Okay! Then I did go into the Chowder House for my bowl, brought it out to the deck, and sat and enjoyed the play of the light over the water, the boats, the village and the autumn colors behind.
While I was eating and watching, a group of three people joined me on the deck. Two were sporting cameras. I overheard the third say, “It is so pretty. Thank you for forcing me to play tourist in my own town today. I never get out here.” I assume she was showing off the sights to weekend visitors in her home. And I thought, there it is. We need to play tourist in our own towns. We need to visit the lighthouse and the harbor at Cape Porpoise often. We need to sit in the autumn sun (or summer, or spring) on the deck of the Chowder House, eating some of the best clam chowder I have ever had, and enjoying the play of light on the harbor and the village. We need to turn a generous eye on the places where we live…as though they were new to us…as though we were just visiting. What wonders we might find.
I have had the privilege these past few years to do just that. To be out as often as I like and really enjoy the place where I live. To play tourist in my own town…and to share much of what I find with a growing group of friends. When you turn a generous eye on the place where you live you find that it is, indeed, full of light…full of wonder…full of joy. What a gift! What a God! Happy Sunday!
Full Stretch!
Great Blue Heron, Back Creek Marsh, Kennebunk ME
I went to Rachel Carson NWR headquarters yesterday afternoon, after the rains passed, but while there was still drama in the sky. It was lovely. The fall foliage is just about at peak, and the colors as patches of sun crossed the forest and marsh, were warm and inviting. On the way back I stopped at our local semi-private beach, and Back Creek Marsh which is behind the dunes. When I parked, there were two Great Blue Herons hunting the marsh…one on either side of the access road…one backlit and one full-lit by the low afternoon sun. I took a bunch of pictures and then a young friend walked up and we got talking. When I turned, by chance, to Heron on the sunny side of the road, it had worked its way much closer and I shot off another series of exposures. I had the camera to my eye when the Heron decided to raise its wings…and then to strike this pose. I am not sure what it was doing. It would be impossible to strike from this position, and the wings are not shading the water for better vision through the surface, as they would be if this were a Reddish Egret umbrella fishing for instance. The Heron held the pose for several seconds and then relaxed. Who knows?
Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. 1/400th @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed and cropped slightly for composition in Lightroom.
Young and restless…
Immature Cedar Waxwing. Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farms, Wells ME
I mentioned yesterday that migration is happening right now in Southern Maine. Among the birds moving yesterday when I visited the Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farms in Wells Maine was a flock of immature Cedar Waxwings…no adults…only this year’s juveniles. They were all around me at one point…buried in the bushes and sitting out on higher branches of the trees. This specimen was showing off his new crest…I am not sure why. It gives him a young-and-restless look, which, translated to behavior, pretty much defined the flock. First migration, and none of them sure of what they were doing or where they were going…just responding to the irresistible urge to be moving…a restless urge to head south.
Nikon P610 at 1325mm equivalent. 1/250th @ ISO 100 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom. Not an easy shot with the bird tucked back so deeply in the bush. I am always amazed when the Nikon P series pulls something like this off. 🙂
Migration! (it happens)
Yellow-rumped Warbler, Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, ME
I am soooo happy to have a superzoom camera back in my hands. I decided to buy a Nikon P610 as a back-up superzoom, and to tide me over while my P900 is in repair. Never again to I want to be in the position of canceling a major photo trip because my cameras are in the shop! And I certainly do not want to be anywhere photogenic and have my only camera break. Things happen.
Migration is happening right now in Maine. It seems late, but warblers, Blue Jays, and Cedar Waxwings are passing through in great numbers this week…along with assorted others. This specimen was along the shores of Day Brook Pond on the Kennebunk Wildlife Management Area…one of a small flock of warblers foraging in this pine.
Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. 1/400th @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed and cropped slightly for scale in Lightroom.
Fall Fog!
Fernald Brook Pond, Kennebunk ME
Yesterday, after posting my pics, but before breakfast, I looked out the window at the new day to find that the fall colors were muted by fog. Great stuff! I grabbed my camera and drove down to the ponds along Route 9. Of course, by the time I got half way there it was raining hard enough to have to turn the wipers on. I reached the pond during a lull in the rain and did my best to keep the camera under the overhang of my hat. If l leaned forward from the waist and used the flip up LCD, I could keep it fairly dry. I love the muted colors of the trees in the fog and the way it thickens with distance, turning everything indistinct. Add the floating leaves and a few circles from falling rain, and it makes a classic autumn scene.
In-camera HDR. Sony Alpha NEX 5t. 16-50mm at 24mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Lightroom.
Blue-green Cricket Hunter (?) Wasp
Blue-green Cricket Hunter Wasp? Laudholm Farms, Wells ME
I believe this amazing creature, only a little over a half inch long, might be a Blue-green Cricket Hunter Wasp. It could also be a Blue-green Mud Wasp. I have not been able to find any images via a Google search that have the white spot between the wings or the white section in the particularly long antenna. If it is not one of the species mentioned above, it is certainly a close relative. I found it while photographing Bittersweet at the Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farms a few days ago. This is a collage of three shots.
Sony Alpha NEX 5T with 16-50mm zoom @ 140mm equivalent field of view (2x Clear Image Zoom). Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Off Mount Agamenticus. Happy Columbus Day!
Mount Agamenticus facing north.
Mount Agamenticus, at a majestic 692 feet, would be barely a hill anywhere but on the southern coastal plain of Maine. In fact, it would take 5 Mt. As, stacked, to meet the British standard for a mountain, and Britain is not known for its tall mountains. Still, sitting where it is, with its far flung toes in the sea on one side, and the relative flat of the coastal plain all around it, it provides impressive views. On a clear day you can see Boston to the south, the coast from the Isles of Sholes off Portsmouth New Hampshire as far north as Cape Elizabeth, and the Presidential Range, including Mt. Washington, far to the north and west. I, along with several hundred other folks, was inspired to brave Route 1 Columbus Day weekend traffic and the twisty drive up the mountain to see what fall was looking like from Mt. A. When I left the mountain at about 11, there were cars circling the parking lot looking for a space. Two things to note in the sweep panorama above. 1) we do not have a lot of maples in Maine, and therefore not a lot of color, compared to, say, Vermont, and 2) southern Maine, the most populated area of the state, anywhere in-land from the coast, looks pretty much like unbroken forest as far as the eye can see. It is almost, even on Columbus Day, as though Columbus had never sailed…or that is the way it looks from the majestic heights of Mount Agamenticus (ignoring, of course, the parking lot). 🙂
Sony Alpha NEX 5t with 16-50mm zoom. Sweep panorama. Processed in Lightroom.
Fall Fatigue? Happy Sunday!
Along Route 9 in Kennebunk ME
“If your eye is generous then your whole being is full of light.” Jesus
Are you getting tired of fall color yet? Buck up! In Maine we have two fall color seasons. Right now the color is mostly maple and a little birch. Just about when the last maple leaves fall to the ground, the oaks will turn a brief red, and than shade to deep cooper. We have weeks to go 🙂 This is a favorite stop for photography. While I was there, for 10 minutes on a Saturday morning, at least 3 other cars stopped. They did not all have out of state plates either. This pond is not on the main route through southern Maine. You have to know it is there, or have taken the scenic route to Kennebunkport from Wells. Once you see it during any decent fall, though, you will very likely be back for more! I check back often (it is only a few miles from the front door) just to see the changes in color day to day and what the sky is doing. What is happening here is a narrow front passing through, pushing out a film of cloud ahead of it. I like this scene best with clouds in the sky to balance the landscape. I have toyed with the placement of that single tall pine on the right. For this shot, I angled the camera up to get the full height in…sometimes I keep the shot level and lop the top of the pine off…that keeps the angles more natural…but then you have to deal with the truncated pine. Dilemma. The color is the star of the show anyway. I will probably go back a few more times this week, so you may see other pine variations…and certainly the color will change, as trees loose their leaves and others turn. And I can always hope for new skies.
The generous eye…the eye that sees the light and beauty…the spirit…in everything and everyone, can look at the same scene day after day and always find something new. No such thing as fall fatigue. You can never have too much fall color, anymore than you can have too much beauty. We are full of light in the way a bucket under a flowing tap is full, water splashing over the edge and always making room for more. If I catch a splash and share it in this image…well, that is just what I do. That is generosity in my eye. Praise be to the Creator, the one light, infinitely generous. Happy Sunday!
Close in with a Saffron-winged Meadowhawk
Saffron-winged Meadowhawk. Fernald Brook Pond, Kennebunk ME
In the cooler weather of fall the Meadowhawks are spending more time in sitting in the sun during the day…soaking up heat. They are more approachable this time of year. This shot was taken at 48mm equivalent field of view from about 6 inches. And even then the bug did not fly. It was still there when I left. It is a Saffron-winged Meadowhawk, a species I had never seen in Maine (or anywhere else) until this summer…and this summer they are everywhere I go. It was, in fact, one of two dragonflies I photographed in a few days in the thumb of Michigan. Everywhere!
Sony HX90V. 1/320th @ ISO 80 @ f4.5. Processed and cropped slightly for scale in Lightroom.
Reflected Glory
Fernald Brook Pond, Route 9, Kennebunk ME
If I live to be a hundred (and we stay in Maine) I imagine I will still be visiting this pond every fall to see what the color looks like in reflection. Sheltered as the pond is, it has to be blowing a gale before anything disturbs the mirror of the surface. This still autumn afternoon the trees are, if anything, even more brilliant in the polarized reflection in the pond.
Sony Alpha NEX 5t in-camera HDR. Nominal exposure 1/200th @ ISO 100 @ f9. Processed in Lightroom.