Posts in Category: autumn
October Sky, Laudholm Farm
Laudholm Farm, Wells ME
This is not the first time I have shot this view, and it almost certainly will not be the last. 🙂 It is such a classic that the University of New Hampshire Panorama Project has put a panorama post on the spot, though this shot is from nearer ground level.
It is an in-camera HDR, and I used Program Shift to get a smaller aperture and greater depth of field, even on this day of subdued October light. Sony HX400V at 24mm equivalent. ISO 80 @ 1/500th @ f5.6. Processed in Lightroom on Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Warbler of Autumn
Yellow-rumped Warbler
We do have other Warblers in Southern Maine during migration, but this year we are seeing huge numbers of Yellow-rumped Warblers coming through. I am not sure how that will play out nationally, but I suspect it was a super year for Yellow-rumps on the breeding grounds north of us. 🙂 This specimen was along the Timber Island Trail at Rachel Carson NWR last Monday, being cooperative as only a migrating Yellow-rump can.
Sony HX400V at 1200mm equivalent field of view. Shutter preferred. 1/640th @ ISO 125 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
October Light in the Forest
Laudholm Farm, Wells ME
Yesterday was one of those clear-blue-sky October days in Southern Maine, just past peak foliage color, when the forest is full of drifting leaves and everything is hopping and popping. Birds and beasts are busy with the final collections for winter. The slant of the sun, and the trees dropping leaves already, bare limbs showing at the tips…there is a feeling of rush…not panic yet…but an unusual concentration, a compression of life that promises to get the most from this day. And, of course, it is all so beautiful!
This is a boardwalk at the Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farm in Wells Maine, just down the road from us. I think it catches the feeling pretty well.
Sony HX400V. In-camera HDR at 24mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Intimacy thy name is Chipmunk! Happy Sunday.
Chipmunk. Kennebunk Bridle Trail.
The prediction yesterday was for clouds pretty much all day, and it was indeed a dark and gloomy fall day in Southern Maine, and chilly with it…until it started to rain. They had not predicted the rain. But then, about 3PM, the rain stopped and the clouds broke and the low afternoon sun of an October day in Maine lit up the wet foliage in the back yard, and I grabbed the camera and headed for the Kennebunk Bridle Path. And it was glorious. There were birds…not only the abundant Yellow-rumped Warblers that are passing through on their way south, but a Great Egret relatively close, feeding and striking striking pose after striking pose. Such a treat. And the Chipmunks in the wooded area along the Bridle Path beyond the marsh on the east side of Route 9 were apparently making up for lost time. Like kids finally let out after a rainy inside day, they were everywhere, scampering, filling the woods with their sharp challenge calls. I caught this one fully exposed, in good light, with the interesting colors of fall behind it, out on a limb and determined to drive me away before he abandoned his perch. I took well over 100 exposures, from all angles, of this fellow as I slowly worked my way closer. 🙂 I even took a break to photograph a challenging Grey Squirrel across the Path, high up in a tree, also, as it happened, in a spot of sun…and the chipmunk was still there when I turned back. That is cooperative! I finally walked on and left him to his perch in peace. There were other chipmunks to photograph, warblers, and the whole wet marsh and fall foliage ambiance under an interesting sky in the late afternoon October light. It was glorious!
I felt like a chipmunk, let out after a long day of rain…making up for lost time!
Now I am certain, the Chipmunks and Egrets and Warblers felt the same elation…the undeniable positive energy of the afternoon…I do not think I am reading too much into their behavior…but I suspect they did not feel the thanksgiving that flooded me. Maybe they did? I know I did. It was so good to be alive for such an hour…and so good to be aware of how good it was. What do people do with such thankfulness if they do not believe in God…the creator God who loves, who loved such a glorious afternoon into being? I sometimes think that is our part…our particular notes in the symphony of the day…we are the instrument of praise…our voice proclaims the good…highlights the grace…exalts the giver…gives thanks for all that lives…for all that enjoys the intimate pleasure, the raw exhilaration, of being alive in Southern Maine on an October afternoon after rain.
Can you see that in the Chipmunk’s eye?
Happy Sunday!
Sony HX400V at 2400mm equivalent field of view. Shutter preferred. 1/640th @ ISO 640 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Mt. Agamenticus Fall
Presidential Range from Mt. Agamenticus
Mount Agamenticus is the tallest mountain (well, really more of a hill, if you have ever seen a real mountain) in Southern Maine. It is only 692 feet, but it is so close to the coast and sea level that can seem much taller. It is the center of a unique Conservation Area…a coalition of state, federal, county, town, and private land owners and managers to protect the largest track of unbroken coastal forest between Acadia National Park in Maine and the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. The old ski lodge on the summit now houses a learning center and a conservation center. Trail development is on-going, and Mt. A has become a major resource for those studying the ecology of coastal forests. It has the one of the largest concentrations of vernal pools, including several floating kettle bogs, in the US, and supports endangered species that depend of wet springs. Yesterday, as we near the peak of fall foliage in Southern Maine, there were 30 or more cars in the parking at the trail head at the foot of the mountain, and another 40 or more in the parking at the summit. This is on a Friday morning. Clearly it is a popular destination for recreation in Southern Maine.
Many of those people, like me, had driven up to see the foliage. Like I say, not quite peak, but this is a good demonstration of a point I made a few days ago. Our mixed forest in Maine runs heavily to Oak and Pine, with Maples, for the most part, scattered thinly. We don’t get the solid hillsides of color they get in Vermont. In the image above, those are the Presidential Range mountains in New Hampshire on the horizon.
This is a moderate telephoto shot: about 130mm equivalent field of view, to compress the bands of color and bring the mountains closer. It is also an in-camera HDR. Sony HX400V. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
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. 🙂
The way fall is supposed to be…
Old Falls Pond on the Mousam River
“Maine: the way life is supposed to be.” State motto. 🙂 Or at least what it says on the welcome sign on I95 when you cross the Kittery Bridge from New Hampshire. I have been waiting all fall so far for a sky like this over the foliage. Sky the way it is supposed to be. Fall the way it is supposed to be. I stood by this lake, Old Falls Pond on the Mousam River, for over an hour waiting for a spot of sunlight to break through and light the foliage, but I had to settle, in the end, for indirect light. Still, pretty good! And the sky is not devoid of interest. 😉
Sony HX400V at 24mm equivalent. In-camera HDR with the level set to 6 EV and -2/3rd EV exposure compensation. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
October Drama
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Yesterday was a dreary day, just on the edge of rain when it was not raining, and today we are promised thundershowers until mid-afternoon…but this is typical Maine fall weather…and not without its drama. Wonderful skies for a few moments here and there as the front passed over us. I kept my weather eye on all morning, and took the camera out when it seemed there might be something special in the offing. It is wonderful not having to watch the clock and work my photography around real work. Photography and writing are my real work now 🙂
This is the view back to Route 9 from the Kennebunk Bridle Path…which, again, I have photographed in all seasons and all weathers. I love the weathered posts, and the tree line, and, often, the sky. This is a more static composition than I favor…with the horizon too close to the middle…but I find that I can not sacrifice anything at the top or bottom. The shadow of the post needs room at the bottom, and that patch of blue sky at the top is essential. I will have to trust to the detailed cloud-scape to provide dramatic tension. I think it works.
Sony HX400V at 24mm equivalent field of view. In camera HDR. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Painted Lady Backside
Common Buckeye in an uncommon pose.
A birding couple I met on the beach on Saturday told me about Timber Point and Timber Island trail at Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge. They were up for the day from Massachusetts, chasing eBird reports of birds of interest. I live practically next door to Rachel Carson Headquarters, and I had never heard of Timberpoint or Timber Island. A little research turned up the facts. It is a new trail and a new property for the NWR system, acquired after a locally organized fund-raising drive that covered the $2 million plus purchase price. It is a point of rocky upland and mixed forest extending out along the ocean side of the Little River across from Goose Rocks Beach and south of Fortunes Rocks. At low tide you can walk out to Timber Island. Local volunteers, along with the Civilian and Youth Construction Corps, built trails and boardwalks as needed and one raised deck overlook, and installed a Tide Clock near the head of the passage to the Island. It is altogether a wonderful spot and one that I will add to my regular round of photoprowls. It was dead high tide when I was there yesterday of course, but I plan to get back there the first sunny day we have at low tide.
There were lots of the typical birds of the Maine fall: Yellow-rumped Warblers, White-crowned Sparrow, Song Sparrows, Lincoln’s Sparrow, Brown Tree-creeper, Rufus-sided Towhee, Blue Jays, etc…as well as hundreds of chipmunks busy gathering acorns…and 5 species of butterfly: Cabbage White, Clouded Sulphur, Red Admiral, Painted Lady (pictured here in an uncommon pose), and Monarch. I will post an extended Photoprowls piece later today.
I like this backlighted pose of the Lady…which is good since every effort to get on the sun side of the bug lead to its moving deeper into the brush off the trail.
Sony HX400V at 1200mm equivalent field of view. Shutter preferred. 1/640th @ ISO 320 @ f6.3. Processed and cropped slightly in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Inquiring Yellow-rump
Why?
Why? Pure anthropomorphism of course (and proud of it!). No, not really. But if a bird could frame the question, this one certainly is. This specimen was part of the flood of Yellow-rumped Warblers on their way south the second half of last week. For days they were everywhere within a mile of the coast. I am headed for Cape May, New Jersey, and the Autumn Bird Show the end of the month. I generally catch the height of the Yellow-rumped migration there…but it looks like it might have passed early this year. Time will tell. Yesterday, after a day of rain, the wind set in from the south-west, and there were no Yellow-rumps in the trees along the Bridle Path. Why indeed! 🙂
Sony HX400V at 1200mm equivalent field of view. Cropped slightly. ISO 400 @ 1/640th @ f6.3. -1/3 EV exposure compensation. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.