Photographs by Frank

24 July 2021

One Hour, Two Species

Filed under: Monadnock Region,Odontates,Summer,Wildlife — Tags: dragonflies — Frank @ 11:01 PM

This evening, I spent about an hour in the field at the Cilley Family Forest in Greenfield looking for odes. This piece of conserved land was once part of Joan’s cousin Stevie’s dairy farm. The temperature was in the mid-70s F and the skies were clear.

The land, which runs along the Contoocook River is mostly wooded but there is also a large field that gets nice late afternoon/evening light and often has good odeing. I arrived at about 6:30 and headed back to the truck about 7:30 as I had lost the light on the field.

I saw only two species of dragonflies and no damselflies. There were small numbers (maybe a half dozen or so) of female widow skimmers and similar numbers of Halloween skimmers (of both sexes).

Widow Skimmer (female)

Halloween Pennant (male)

Halloween Pennant (imm. male or female)

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17 July 2021

Afternoon Odes

Filed under: Monadnock Region,Odontates,Summer,Wildlife — Tags: damselflies, dragonflies — Frank @ 11:00 PM

I had a few ‘free’ hours on Thursday afternoon. I used them to take a walk down the road on the Harris Center’s property near our house. The temperature was in the low 80s F and the humidity high. The skies were mostly clear.

We had a long rainy spell; about 12 inches of rain over two weeks. Thus, I was not expecting an over abundance of odes. My expectations were met. There were odes out and about just not in large numbers.

In the two hours I was out, I saw three or four frosted whitefaces. These were the most common ode present. For all of the rest of the species I photographed, I saw only single individuals. I also saw (but did not photograph) a lone male calico pennant.

Most surprisingly, was the absence of ebony jewelwings . The stream draining the beaver swamp just downstream from the culverts is usually a reliable place to find this species in mid-summer. None were present on this trip.

Frosted Whiteface (female)

Familiar Bluet (male)

Chalk-fronted Corporal (male)

ID Needed

Emerald Spreadwing (female)

Variable Dancer (male)

Variable Dancer (female)

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12 July 2021

Barns, Flags, Vanes, Etc.

Filed under: architecture,Landscapes,Summer — Frank @ 8:30 PM

I had business in Newport (NH) today. I headed north via Hillsborough, Windsor, Washington, and Goshen. My return route took me through Unity, Lempster, Marlow and Stoddard.

Although the light was drab and it rained lightly on and off the entire trip, I made photographs on both legs of the trip.

Barn with Flag (Windsor, NH)

Sugarhouse with Flag (Windsor, NH)

Barn with Flag (Goshen, NH)

Barn (Newport, NH)

Shed (Unity, NH)

Firehouse Vane (Unity, NH)

Bandstand Vane & Swallow (Unity, NH)

Bandstand Bunting (Unity, NH)

Polaris and Santa (Unity, NH)

Schoolhouse (Lempster, NH)

Schoolhouse Interior (Lempster, NH)

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7 July 2021

Wednesday Olio

Filed under: Landscapes,Monadnock Region,Summer — Frank @ 11:00 PM

I have had my eye on the barn with the flag painted on it for sometime. However, there has been a large RV parked next to the barn for months.

Yesterday, as we drove back from dropping off our little camper for service, I noticed that the RV was gone but I did not have a camera with me. This afternoon, I headed back with the camera to make the photograph I had in my head for months.

The rest of the photos in this set were also made this afternoon and evening as I wended my way though life.

Barn Flag

Day Lily

Grass Seed Head

Flower Shop

Semaphore

Still-life in Window Light

Untitled

A Man and His Dog

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5 July 2021

Yard Odes

Filed under: Monadnock Region,Odontates,Summer,The "New" Yard & Environs,Wildlife — Tags: damselflies, dragonflies — Frank @ 10:00 PM

Late this afternoon, I spent two hours roaming the yard looking for odes. It was mostly sunny and the temperature was in the low 70s. I was interested to see what odes would be out and about after a number of cool, rainy days.

I headed back inside a few minutes before seven. I had lost the light at ground level and the mosquitoes were making their evening appearance.

The number of odes were small but their was a nice variety of species present. The most common dragonfly present was the spangled skimmer. I saw roughly half a dozen individuals; all female. The most common damselfly was had a metallic green abdomen. They were reminiscent of the sprites, but I don’t think that that is what they are. Again, I saw roughly a half dozen. For all of the other species, I saw only single individuals.

Spangled Skimmer (female)

Eastern Pondhawk (imm. male)

Butterfly (ID Needed)

Damselfly (ID Needed)

Calico Pennant (female)

Calico Pennant (female) with Mites

Damselfly (ID Needed)

Spreadwing

Damselfly (ID Needed) with Prey

Comments (3)

4 July 2021

Grange Print Sale

Filed under: Salted-paper Prints — Frank @ 12:00 AM

Using one’s talents to do good in the world is always a good idea.

A few weeks ago, I approached my friends at the Antrim Grange offering to sell salted-paper prints of three photos to aid in their fundraising towards a renovation of their very old building. The details of this offer can be found here.

As part of the “kickoff” for this effort, we sent a press release to the local papers. The Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in Peterborough picked up on this and a very nice article appeared in Thursday’s paper. A scanned copy of the article (as a pdf file) can be found here.

I guess that this counts against my proverbial fifteen minute of fame!

Comments (1)

29 June 2021

Gregg Lake Loons 2021 – Update

Filed under: Birds,Summer,Wildlife — Tags: Loons, wildlife — Frank @ 1:00 AM

Today was hot (90 deg. F plus) and humid. Late this afternoon, I headed down to the lake to see if I could photograph the loons on Gregg Lake. The chicks are about three weeks old.

The loon family moved out the the main part of the lake when the chicks were only two or three days old. This makes photographing them much more difficult as they have a large area in which to roam. Shore-based photography was not going to work. I needed to use a kayak and Big Bertha is too unwieldly to use while afloat.

Instead, I headed out my 300 mm lens and both a 1.4x and a 1.7x teleconverter. I am able to hand-hold the camera with the 300 mm lens attached. Big Bertha requires a tripod.

The converters gives me roughly 400 mm and 500 mm of magnification, respectively. This turned out to be plenty. I used the 1.4x converter for most of the photos but did try out the 1.7x near the end of my outing just to see how it would work.

Adjusting the ISO so that I could keep the shutter speed at or above 1/1000 second allowed me to get adequately sharp photographs while hand-holding the camera in a bobbing kayak.

The loons are not bothered by the presence of the kayak but I tried to keep my distance and did not approach them closer than roughly 150 feet. For the most part an adult and the two chicks just hung out in one area and the adult spent some time fishing.. Thrice the adult brought a small fish to the chicks but I did not get a good photograph of feeding behavior today. The chicks spent significant amounts of time with their heads in the water as the adults do when fishing, but I only saw two or three short dives by the chicks,

Eventually the adult made a series of calls and the family headed off around the edge of the lake at a decent clip. I followed them for a bit but then thought better of chasing them as they moved along so I headed to camp. The loons eventually headed out into the middle of the lake.

As I headed back across the lake on the way home, I encountered the adult and two chicks again and watched as the second adult met up with them. By then it was almost 7:30, so I did not watch them for long before continuing on home.

Adult and Two Chicks

Two Chicks #1

Two Chicks #2

Adult and One Chick #1

Adult Loon

Adult and One Chick #2

Two Adults and Two Chicks

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19 June 2021

Another Friday Night at the Races

Filed under: Uncategorized — Frank @ 11:45 PM

Last Friday night, I tried my hand at photographing the stock car races in Claremont, NH (see this post for the details). That evening was rain-shortened and my ticket was good again for last nights racing.

Thus, yesterday, I headed out early, paid the difference in admission between the grandstand ticket and a paddock pass and wandered among the racers for a long afternoon/evening.

I left the house about 4:15 PM and got to the track just as practice laps began at 5:30. The racing lasted until 11:30 and I got home just before 1 AM… not something this geezer could do every Friday night!

I was hoping to get some behind-the-scenes photos of my neighbors preparing to race. However, they did not race last evening. So I wandered the pits for a while and rediscovered that I am not very adept at photographing people… especially people who are working hard to get ready to race. After awhile, I turned my attention to the action on the track.

Tools of The Trade

Drivers Meeting

Modifieds

Friday Evening Traffic

Wrong Side Up (the driver walked away)

Restart

Race Action

Close Quarters (Sparks Fly)

Goin' Sideways

Aftermath

On The Line

Door Handle to Door Handle, Literally

Warning… photographer talk ahead!

Photographing fast moving objects in poor light is “interesting”. Early on, with the sun still out, life was fairly easy. As the evening wore on, I ventured into ISO territory that I had not visited before in attempt to keep a shutter speed fast enough to freeze the motion of a race car.

I also discovered that I have a gap in my lens choices when it comes to this sort of photography. The long end of my 16-80 mm zoom is a bit short and my 300 mm lens is often a bit long. (I certainly did not need the telelconverter I brought along for the 300.)

I also used “burst mode” exclusively. Burst mode allows one to take multiple frames in very rapid succession something like 10 frame per second for my camera. I very rarely use this mode in my usual practice. When I do it is only for short times and generally in the “low speed mode that my camera has. Last night I used the high speed mode for the majority of evening.

The result…I made a total of 4002 exposures and almost filled a 128 GB card! Terra incognita for me. Sorting though all of those files was a major pain and I bet that I missed a few interesting frames in doing so… one of the downsides of burst mode! I ended up processing about 100 frames total. Aren’t you glad I am showing only a dozen here!?

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On The Way Home, Redux

Filed under: Landscapes,Summer — Tags: Infrared (IR) — Frank @ 11:00 PM

Wednesday morning I met my friend Bill in Keene for coffee and then I had lunch with my friend Al, also in Keene. I took an indirect route home via Sullivan, Marlow and Stoddard.

Of course I made a few photographs on the way.

Odd Fellows Hall (Marlow, NH)

Gazebo (Marlow, NH)

Town Hall (Marlow, NH)

A Fine Summer Afternoon (color)

A Fine Summer Afternoon (IR)

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14 June 2021

Hardware (Anthotype Photograms)

Filed under: Alternative Processes,Anthotype — Frank @ 10:30 PM

Saturday evening, I sat down with my jar of ‘stuff’ for making photograms and played with patterns. Early Sunday morning, I set up some photograms based on my ‘play’ the evening and headed for Brattleboro. Shortly after I returned home in the middle of the afternoon I processed the now well exposed anthotype paper.

i-8x10

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