Monthly Archives: October 2011
10/21/2011: Beach in Shadow
I am on the west coast for a few days doing a workshop for Sea and Sage Audubon so the timing of my posts will be a little strange.
This is my favorite home beach in Kennebunk, one of those days with amazing clouds recently, but without direct sun. It was somewhat of an exposure and processing challenge as I wanted at least a hint of green in the lawns and trees around the house on Lord’s Point, without sacrificing the drama of the sky. – 1/3 EV exposure compensation, then, for the clouds and sky…but that left the beach and especially the area around the house too dark. Fill Light in Lightroom brought that area up better, and, with a bit of added contrast, makes for just about the effect I was after.
Canon SX40HS at 24mm equivalent field of view, f4 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 100. Program with iContrast.
Processed for Intensity and Sharpness in Lightroom, with additional processing as above. Cropped for composition.
10/20/2011: Along the Bridle Path
As I have mentioned several times in the past, the Kennebubk Bridle Path, and old trolly route from Kennebunk to Kennebunkport, now a protected nature preserve through a group of Federal Agencies and local conservation groups, is one of my favorite area spots for birding, butterflying, dragonflying, and photography.
This is the view across the little corner of marsh between the Path and route 9. I love the aging fence posts.
Canon SX40HS at 24mm equivalent field of view. f4.5 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 200. Program with iContrast.
Processed in Lightroom for Intensity and Sharpess.
10/19/2011: Incoming Tide, Back Creek
The swirl of the incoming tide forcing its way under the Back Creek bridge breaks the pattern of wind waves to give the foreground of this watery landscape interest. One of the highest tides I have seen here. And of course the sky and a great set of clouds builds the landscape up and out from the trees along the rule of thirds horizon. The fact that there is no direct sun on the foreground eases the exposure problem with the sky. Normally I would not have centered the clump of taller trees, but, with the tide swirls leading back, it works for me in this shot.
Canon SX40HS at 24mm equivalent field of view, f4.5 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 200. Program with iContrast and –1/3 EV exposure compensation.
Processed for Intensity and Sharpness in Lightroom.
10/18/2011: Wind Writing in the Sand
Take a windy day and a fine stiff blade of beach grass (or two), laying close to the surface of the sand and you get wind writing, vaguely oriental, certainly recording a message of mysterious importance.
One of the things I love about advanced Point and Shoot cameras is the spontaneity. See the image. Zoom and frame the image. Capture the image. Just that fast. It puts the grab in grab shots…but with enough quality to make for serious photography. And you are ready for anything, just about always. Even wind writing in the sand.
For this shot I zoomed the Canon SX40HS out to about 138mm equivalent field of view and shot from a standing position at the exposure Program and iContrast provided: f4.5 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 100.
Processed in Lightroom for Intensity and Sharpness.
10/17/2011: Again the Water Meadow
This is one of my favorite views along the Kennebunk Bridle Path. Yesterday was the highest tide I have seen this year and the meadow was brim full…standing water under much of the grass…shore birds taking refuge in the highest pools. Fall foliage is just about past, but there is still a touch of color. But of course it is the sky and the reflection in the stream that makes the image.
Canon SX40HS at 24mm equivalent field of view, f4 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 160. Program with iContrast. –1/3 EV exposure compensation.
Processed in Lightroom for Intensity and Sharpness.
10/16/2011: Goodbye to Fall Foliage
I was tempted to call this post “Goodbye to Fall” but that would not be accurate. We have weeks, maybe months, of fall ahead of us in this long slow slide to winter. Rain and wind have pretty well put out the fire of fall in Southern Maine this past week, and there are more leaves on the ground than on the trees. Still the trees will be bare a good long time before they are loaded with snow. We might even have an Indian Summer in between. So this is just goodbye to fall foliage…the brief weeks of stunning color here in New England.
Canon SX40HS at about 155mm equivalent field of view, f4.5 @ 1/80th @ ISO 200. Program with iContrast and Vivid set in My Color.
Processed in Lightroom for Intensity and Sharpness.
And for the Sunday thought. Maybe is just the hang-over from a week of intense meetings and late nights, but I can feel my mind shifting out of summer gear today, settling in to the more studious mode of fall and winter, turning inward. I feel the need of a fire in the fireplace. We don’t actually have a fireplace of course, but I still feel the need to huddle down to warmth and light, inside, and think deep thoughts. The thoughts of summer are all external, bright days and doing, life so fast and vital you can barely catch it, and never catch enough. The thoughts of fall and winter are internal. The days may be as bright and as full, and I may be outside just as much, but I become more alive than the world outside. I take my life out to experience fall and winter. Summer just breaks in and overwhelms me. And I am ready for fall…ready even for winter.
In my job fall and winter are busy seasons. Over the next month I will experience fall at least 4 times more in trips to the south and west, and even at the depth of winter in New England, I will be taking brief vacations into the shallows of what passes for winter in Florida and other points south. So it is more a thing of the mind and spirit, this inward turning. But I recognize the beginnings of it today, here in Southern Maine. It might be goodbye to the flame of fall foliage, but it is hello to the mind of fall.
10/15/2011: Simple
The Carl Zeiss Sports Optics offices are in an industrial park just off 295 in Chester, Virginia south of Richmond. It is a nice park, with lots of well landscaped catchment ponds and fountains, small groves of trees and well shaded walks. Flowers are everywhere you could plant flowers. All in all, a nice place for offices if you have to be in an industrial park. Many of the ponds are planted with decorative reeds and grasses. This is a simple shot of the seed head of a decorative grass, framed against the surface of the pond with a longish zoom. I like the lines and the colors. I like the bokeh…enhanced by sparkles of sun on surface of the water. Elegant. Simple.
Canon SX40HS at about 570mm equivalent field of view. f5.8 @ 1/160th @ ISO 400. Program with iContrast.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
10/14/2011: Mousam run in Fall Foliage
This is the run of the Mousam above Old Falls at this year’s leaf-peak this past Monday. Gotta celebrate it while it is here. By the time I get back to Maine on Sunday, this show will have packed its tents and moved on south.
Shots like this, if you are not going to get very wet and muddy, require the flip out LCD on some of today’s superzoom and advanced P&S cameras, so you can hold the camera right down on the ground to frame. I will never willingly buy another camera for my landscape efforts that does not have a good articulated LCD. For one thing I am well past the age when it is easy to get up, once you get down in the mud. 🙂
Canon SX40HS at 24mm equivalent field of view. f4 @ 1/400th @ ISO 160. Program with iContrast (dynamic range enhancement).
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
10/13/2011: Reflections of Fall
I was taken with the way the little wind waves distorted the reflections of the fall foliage in the corner of this small pond and attempted to capture it several times. It was a natural abstract. Auto focus was tricky but it locked on the reflection if I caught a still moment. I also shot a short video clip which captures more of what the eye would see…and makes it less of an abstract.
Canon SX40HS at 112mm equivalent field of view, f4.5 @ 1/60th @ ISO 200. Program with iContrast.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
The video is just as it came from the camera (and as processed by YouTube on upload). The sound is a mixture of wind and cars on the road behind me. You might want to mute it.
10/12/2011: Old Falls Pond, West Kennebunk ME
I have quite a few images of this pond, mostly in the fall when it really comes to life. I would have preferred some clouds in the sky…but I took this on my last day home before a week away, and by the time I see it again, the leaves may be completely off the trees. We shall see, but for now this is my Old Falls Pond pic of the year. The UFO above the tree line on the left is actually, if you look closely, a leaf.
Canon SX40HS at 24mm equivalent field of view. f7.1 @ 1/160th @ ISO 125. Program with program shift for the smaller aperture, and iContrast.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.