Monthly Archives: September 2015
Harvey Ried on Banjo
Harvey Ried. Punkinfiddle Festival, Laudholm Farms, Wells ME
The yearly Punkinfiddle Festival at Laudholm Farms in Wells Maine is a celebration of harvest and folk music, and a fund-raiser for the Wells National Estuarine Research Center. Lots of kids activities. And music on the porch of the Education Building. This is Harvey Ried, a well known local musician with several albums and several books of Autoharp and Banjo instruction. He and his wife, Joyce Anderson, play a variety of folk and old-time music on the fiddle (Joyce), guitar, autoharp, and banjo (Havey).
Sony HX90V in Superior Auto. Processed in Lightroom.
Monarch in Asters
Monarch, East Point, Biddeford Pool, Maine
East Point in Biddeford Pool Maine forms one boundary where the Saco River (or perhaps more exactly, Saco Bay) meets the open Atlantic. It is directly across a narrow channel from Wood Island and Wood Island Light. Perhaps because it sticks out into the ocean a ways and has some interesting vegetation, it is always a good spot to find butterflies, and Monarchs in the fall in particular. This seems to be a particularly large specimen, caught foraging among the New England Asters growing along the edge and in the under-story of a large stand of wild rose and other plants. From the overall brightness of the bug I am tempted to say it is freshly emerged, but in this close view you can see some wear on the wings…which might make it a migrant from further north.
Sony HX90V at 1440mm equivalent field of view (using 2x Clear Image Zoom). 1/250th @ ISO 320 @ f6.4. Processed in Lightroom.
Harvest!
Farmer’s Market Stand, Common Ground Fair, Unity ME
The Common Ground Fair draws organic farmers and gardeners from all over New England. There are two Farmer’s Markets: one near the Pine Gate and one near the Rose Gate. I have always been attracted to the displays of color and texture in fresh fruits and vegetables put out for sale in open markets like this. Such a lot of goodness!
Sony HX90V in Superior Auto. Processed in Lightroom.
Supermoon / Blood Moon
Blood Moon/Supermoon. Kennebunk ME
Last night there was a huge fellowship of moon watchers…people all over the world stood outside (or went to the beach for the dark sky as we did) to watch a fairly unique supermoon eclipse of the moon…a Blood Moon. Today social media is flooded with photos taken from around the globe. The moon probably had better viewing ratings than the Superbowl last night!
This is my shot. Nikon P900 at about 1800mm equivalent field of view. 1/6th second at ISO 1600 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom.
Bonus collage:
Blood Moon eclipse. Kennebunk Maine
Working Iron. Happy Sunday!
Blacksmith working iron, Common Ground Fair, Unity ME
When I see a wrought iron fence or baluster, still standing from the 18th and early 19th century, I don’t really think that each twist and curve, each leaf shape, had to be hand forged from iron in fire, with a hammer on an anvil…but, of course, it was so. I suppose today they are machine twisted and laser cut, laid out and sheet welded…done in a matter of moments, but traditional wrought iron was an art embedded in a craft, and each individual piece of the pattern took time and care to form. A four foot section of railing would have taken one craftsman blacksmith a full day to forge.
These shots are from the blacksmithing demonstration at the Common Ground Fair in Unity Maine. As I mentioned yesterday, The Common Ground Fair features demonstrations of a variety of folk and primitive arts and crafts. The Blacksmith shed is one of the most popular. In a small rough wood-shingled building, about 16×12, two blacksmiths, two anvils, and 2 furnaces work continuously all day long. One side of the building is open from head height on a 10 year old to just above my eye-level, and the crowd is 5 people deep on the 16 foot side all the time. The Blacksmiths keep up a running commentary on what they are doing as they work, and layer in a good dose of history and blacksmithing theory as they go. It is fascinating. I could have stood there all day…and I suspect there were some 10 year old boys who did.
This is another effort to fulfill my commitment to you and to myself to look for the beauty and inspiration…the spirit…in humans and the human condition as well as in nature. The Generous Eye has to see the spirit in our fellows or it is not generous at all. It is not hard to see the beauty and the creative spirit at work in a traditional craftsman or woman…in an artist or an artisan who shapes raw materials into something both beautiful and useful…beautiful in its usefulness…or useful in its beauty. Our trouble today is that we are, too often, separated from the process that makes the things we use, and the things we enjoy. We forget too easily the human labor…the beautiful work…the creative energy…the spirit of creation…the living breathing souls…that are behind every little thing we surround ourselves with…from cars to cameras to tea kettles and toilet paper. Some of us buy a few “hand made” things to remind ourselves, or go once a year to the Common Ground Fair, and some of us maintain a hobby that allows us to work with our own hands. We do try to keep the Eye Generous so that we can see the spirit in all we are and all we do.
Personally I am thankful for events like The Common Ground Fair, or the PunkinFiddle festival yesterday at Laudholm Farms, for the reminder of the dignity and beauty of human labor. No one participates more directly in the creative action of God than the human artist and artisan. It is good that we remember that! It is even better when that spirit informs our own labor. Happy Sunday.
Sony HX90V in Hand-held Twilight Mode.
Common Ground Fair
In the Maine Fiddle Camp tent, Common Ground Fair, Unity Maine
A few weeks ago, in a The Generous Eye post, I made a commitment to myself (and to my followers) to take more pictures of people…to look for beauty and inspiration in human faces and forms. I spent the day at the Common Ground Fair in Unity Maine…the Maine Organic Farmers Association fair…and had an opportunity to put my commitment into practice. It is not easy for me. It does not come natural to point a camera at a stranger…right out in public…but it something that I want to work at. The Common Ground Fair draws an interesting crowd. Hippies, want-to-be-hippies, former hippies, and back-to-the-landers from infant to senior citizen…and quite a number of family farmers who have converted to organic at least in part as a way of keeping the family farm alive and in the family. They have Ox pulls, sheep-dog trials, herbal and holistic medicine lectures, a building full of rabbits and another of chickens, folk and primitive arts demonstrations, at least 3 stages of folk and ethnic music, a large area of alternative energy and green-building displays, a food court with a huge variety of healthy food, two farmer’s markets, a fleece market, etc, etc. I captured this moment in the tent sponsored by the Maine Fiddle Camp. Friday was the first day of the fair, but already this one was wearing out.
Sony HX90V in Superior Auto mode at 95mm equivalent field of view. 1/100th @ ISO 80 @ f5. Processed and cropped for composition in Lightroom.
Autumn Geese
Canada Geese, Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, Maine
We are only just now getting the first of the colors of fall. It is a good two weeks late. We should be at peak in northern Maine and only 3 weeks from peak here in Southern Maine. There is just enough color along the edge of Day Brook Pond to set these Canada Geese, part of a flock of about 50 birds that had settled out on the pond, floating in color. I worked my way down to the pond edge through the pines and birches to an opening that gave me clear shots, and worked this patch of color as the Geese shuffled back and forth at the end of the pond.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 180 @ f6.5. Processed and cropped slightly for composition in Lightroom.
Milkweed Time
Milkweed. Laudholm Farm, Wells ME
It is Milkweed season. As I mentioned yesterday, the Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farms in Wells Maine was one of the first facilities in our area to devote significant amounts of meadow to milkweed in an effort to ensure the survival of the Monarch Butterfly. On my last visit the Milkweed pods were getting ripe and popping…releasing seeds and the silky parachutes that carry them to new fields. This is a panel of 4 images which catches some of the wonder of that release. The wind was blowing and tugging the seeds and silk away from the plants.
Sony HX90V at various focal lengths for framing. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Monarch on the edge of fall
Monarch Butterfly. Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farms, Wells ME
Laudholm Farms was one of the first places in the area to devote significant amounts of their meadow land to milkweed, and, consequently, it is one of the easiest places to see Monarch butterflies. This year has not been a great year for Monarchs, if you go by the number I have see at Laudholm and elsewhere around my patch, but I did find this large specimen working the Goldenrod in the meadows below and left of the farm buildings. It seems late to me…this image was captured just a few days before the equinox…but perhaps it is a migrant from further north fueling up for the flight south.
Sony HX90V at 720mm equivalent field of view. 1/400th @ ISO 80 @ f6.4. Processed and cropped for scale and composition in Lightroom.
Steampunk Express
Giant Red-legged Grasshopper, Laudholm Farm, Wells ME
Who knew there were so many species of grasshoppers? I certainly did not until this morning when I attempted to identify this very steampunk bug. (According to the Kaufman Guide, there are 630 species of grasshoppers and crickets in North America.) I think it might be a very big Red-legged Grasshopper, but it also might be a Two-stripped Grasshopper…or not. It was among the bigger grasshoppers I have seen…at least 3 inches long. There were too…this one with the bright reg legs and another very similar but without the bright red legs. Male and female? I just don’t know my Grasshoppers well enough.
Whatever it is, as a study in living architecture, it is spectacular. (Or that is what I think.) Steampunk for sure!
Sony HX90V at 720mm equivalent. 1/500th @ ISO 80 @ f6.4. Processed and cropped for scale in Lightroom.