Posts in Category: river
Crow at the river.
American Crow, Mousam River, Kennebunk ME
I was chasing a Kingfisher along the Mousam River at Roger’s Pond when this Crow lit on the rocks in the stream and spent a few moments chasing bugs among the stones. Crows are so common, and have such questionable habits, that they get very little respect among birders. You find them everywhere…anywhere actually where they might pick up a bit of scavenge. But they are, when well seen…if not outright beautiful…at least very handsome birds. This one, in the full sun, with the light on the water behind it, certainly makes a striking portrait.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/125th @ ISO 720 @ f6.5. Processed in Topaz Denoise and Lightroom.
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. 🙂
Falls on the Batson. Happy Sunday!
I went to Emmons Preserve, and down the trail to the falls on the Batson River in particular, to look for Ebony Jewelwings…the darting, dancing, electric sometimes blue, sometimes metalic green, set-winged Damselflies that prefer rapid water…but of course the rapid waters have their own attraction. The place is beautiful…almost other-worldly…elven…with the still shadowed pools connected by falling runs of peat-brown water, the moss and rocks, the dappled light through the covering trees…a feast for the senses. I try, again and again, to capture it…but the true essence of the place is very difficult to catch.
This is a three exposure in-camera HDR with the exposures separated by 6 EV, with the Sony NEX 5T and the ZEISS Touit 12mm f2.8. I put the camera right down at water level and only inches from the falling water. Nominal exposure, as determined by the Program, was ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/60th. The file was further processed for HDR effect in Snapseed on my tablet. And it is getting there. It is satisfyingly close to the visual impression…or at least to the emotional impression…of the place.
And for the Sunday Thought: there are lots of places, like the falls on the Batson River, that have such a rich emotional impact…such a rich spiritual impact…that any attempt at photography is bound to fall short. That does not, and should not, keep us from trying. We reach, and in reaching, pay homage to the creative spirit of love that shapes both the beauty of the world, and our sense of beauty. Like the Ebony Jewelwings, we dance…our intention dances above the falling water of creation…and we take pleasure in the dance…as we were made to do. Such beauty can not be caught and held…but it can be pointed to…celebrated in the beautiful gesture of the attempt.
Emmons Preserve HDR
As I have said before, the stream-side forest at Emmons Preserve in Kennebunkport is one of the most challenging photographic subjects I have ever encountered. The range of light and shadow, the moving water with its own bright highlights, and the blue sky behind the trees…it is simply too much for conventional photographic methods.
My new Sony NEX 5T has a very sophisticated HDR program built in. It will take three exposures and combine them, but you can also set the difference between exposures and control the center point of the three using EV compensation. It is also very fast…so fast you do not need a tripod. This is an in-camera HDR with 6 EV between exposures, centered on minus 1 EV. I then gave it additional HDR processing in Snapseed on my tablet. And for all that it looks like nothing special. It looks like the scene looked to the naked eye. But, of course, that was my goal. I wanted to faithfully capture the ambiance of the stream-side forest, with its full range of light and shadow, realistic highlights and accurate color in the water, and blue sky behind the trees. I like it.
Camera and processing as above. ZEISS Touit 12mm f2.8.
Winter Abstract
After shoveling most of the day (or maybe it only seemed like “most of the day”) yesterday, I had to brave the still snowy roads to take at least a few photos. The light was already failing, and it was, to be honest, a pretty dull day, despite the fresh snow. I ended up at Roger’s Pond, one of my dragonfly haunts in summer, and one of the few places with public access to the shores of the Mousam River…therefore a great favorite with fishermen. It was pretty dull there too, but I did isolate this little fragment of color, form, and texture. A winter abstract.
Samsung Smart Camera WB800F in Smart Auto. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014. There were several out of focus bare wands in the lower right which were distracting enough so that I opened the image in Photo Editor, also on the Note, and cloned them out. The Note’s pen is very handy for such detail work, and Photo Editor, despite its somewhat lack-luster name, is an amazingly capable photo editor, with the most comprehensive set of tools on the Android platform 🙂 It can not match Snapseed for intuitive effects, but I often resort to it for fine tuning.
Currier and Ives
No. This is not my house. But it such a classic view that I could not resist framing it. So Currier. So Ives. So Currier and Ives. Actually, a little wiki research this morning informs me that Currier and Ives were only the print makers. The New England winter scenes I associate with the name were actually drawn and painted by George H. Durrie, and in the mid to late 1800s, the Currier and Ives catalog of hand colored Lithographs included everything from scenic landscapes to hunting scenes, portraits of prominent Americans, renderings of important moments in American history, and even political cartoons. Anything and everything that the aspiring American housewife of the period might want to hang on the living room wall. Their speciality was sentiment.
And this is certainly a sentimental scene. It has that “over the river and through the wood” look (and quite literally at that :-). It speaks of Thanksgivings and Christmases in simpler times. It is, in fact, more like an idealized painting than a photograph…though I assure you the scene is very real.
Samsung Smart Camera WB800F in Smart Auto. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 using the HDR Scene filter, Ambiance, Shadow, Sharpen, and Structure. It was cropped from the top for composition.
A Day along Back Creek
This is an 180 degree plus sweep panorama from the shores of Back Creek where it meets the Mousam River, a few hundred yards from where the Mousam meets the sea. As you can see, I was there digiscoping, but I got distracted by the sky. 🙂 I never really get tired of watching the camera paint the image one line at a time as I sweep the camera around. There is a technological magic to it, and I can not argue with the results!
Samsung Smart Camera WB250F in Panorama mode. Processed in Snapseed, on the Google Nexus 7 2013. (You really should see it full sized…click on the image to enlarge it to the width of your screen.)
Last Rose of Summer
I went down to the beach yesterday to see if there were any birds around to digiscope, and got honestly and seriously distracted by the amazing sky 🙂 And it was cold at the beach! Not jacket cold, but chill enough in the wind so that I was not truly comfortable in my shirt, birding vest, and shorts. Fall is coming on way too fast.
As I say, I could not resist the sky, and there were just a few Beach Roses blooming very late right in front of one of my favorite views. Okay! Pic-op.
I used the Samsung Smart Camera’s in-camera HDR mode (Rich Tone), and then processed the image for maximum impact in Snapseed on the Nexus 7 v.2. Snapseed has matured since I last tried it. It now works with full resolution files. I like several of the editing features: Ambience and Structure in particular, and I like the slide to adjust metaphor. It is as close to Lightroom as Android is likely to get 🙂
And for this image I got the effect I was after. The last rose of summer, with fall coming on too fast!
Water’s Way
I return frequently to the little stretch of the Batson River protected by the Kennebunkport Land Trust as Emmons Preserve. It is a peaceful spot where the sound of the water descending over rock ledges soothes the soul and let’s the spirit surface. Or so it does for me.
This is an in-camera HDR from the Samsung Smart Camera WB750F. Since the camera has no flip out LCD I had to hold the camera low and shoot blind. It required some trial and error, but the stream, though running musically, was not going anywhere, and I had time. 🙂
Processed on the 2013 Nexus 7 in PicSay Pro.
Pool in the woods
The Batson River makes a long loop through Emmons Preserve, with many pools, overhanging rock ledges, tumbling falls, and gentle stretches of water reflecting trees. It is really an amazingly varied stretch of river considering it can’t be more than a quarter mile of it included in the Preserve. This is one of the far pools, beyond the main, and most visited, section of the trail. The river splits here, with the main channel rushing through a narrow gap between standing stones, and a smaller side channel feeding this still pool. I love the play of light here, and the ripples leading out to the still water with its reflections and lily pads. Perhaps because of the depth and the odd angle, it has a kind of abstract feeling to it.
Samsung Smart Camera WB250F in Rich Tone (HDR) mode. Processed in PicSay Pro on the Samsung Galaxy S4. Auto Enhance by Google+ Photos.