Photographs by Frank

The beginning of the new semester and the weather have conspired to limit the making of new photographs.  However, I have not been completely in active photographically.

A few weeks ago, I had photographs and a short essay published in the Bridgewater Review (a twice yearly publication that highlights faculty work). The folks at the review seem to be a bit behind in updating their website, so here is a tear sheet in pdf format.

Yesterday, I opened an exhibit of roughly thirty photographs at the Tuttle Library in Antrim. There are a mix of color and black and white of all sizes — 5″ x 7″ to 20″ x 24″. Most are of NH subjects with a bit of the rest of New England thrown in. The exhibit will hand until the 24th of February.

Coming up in March, will be the first showing of my Life Cycle of Dragonflies and Damselflies exhibit. The photographs will be up from the 19th of March to 13th of April in the third floor exhibit space in the Maxwell Library at Bridgewater State. An artist’s talk will take place from 12:30 to 1:30 on the 21st of March (here is the announcement).

I have another showing of this exhibit arranged for the gallery at the Northeast Regional Office of the US Fish and Wildlife Service in Hadley, MA but don’t hold your breath as it is scheduled for November and December 2014!

We had rain and freezing rain overnight and this morning.  By early afternoon the rain had stopped, the temperature was in the upper thirties and there was a bit of fog about.  I went for a walk down “down back” of our property and spent an enjoyable couple of hours studying (and photographing) beaver swamps and a small stream that connects them.

As I arrived at the swamp, I perturbed a bird of prey who made much noise for about ten minutes before deciding that I was not going to leave and heading off. Awhile later, I also watched a woodpecker up high in a distant snag for about five minutes. Both were too far away to photograph and I left my binoculars in the house so I can not be more specific about the identifications. As I photographed, I was serenaded by a number of small birds that were high in the conifers overhead.  All in all a great way to end another year!

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I enjoyed the baseball game last week so much that I went back again on Tuesday.

I headed over to Keene early figuring that I would get some shots during batting practice. I arrived about 5:30, to find that it was country music night. There was a concert going on and any one with a cowboy hat on got into the game for free.

I, of course, was wearing my standard “photography hat” which looked cowboy enough to get me in for free! Well, it is a Stetson and I did buy it in Montana!!!

I took up my “usual” position on the third base side of the visitors (the Newport Gulls, on this occasion) dugout with the goal of getting photographs of the action other than the pitchers and batters… that is, the less predictable and therefore harder stuff… such as base running and fielding.

I was only partially successful. It is tough when you don’t really know where the best action will be… first base, second, infield, outfield? Much more practice is needed!  I’ll have to wait mostly until next season as the regular season ends August 1. However, post-season play is quite likely as the Swamp Bats are currently leading their division. So, maybe I can get to a few more games!

Anyway, here are the “keepers”:

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My position at the end of the visitors dugout was also good for getting nice portraits of the visiting team. Coaches and players would lean against the dugout, not more that three or four feet from me, and watch the action on the field; I got a lot of profiles!

And here they are:

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(A note to the players in these photographs… sorry but I have been unable to match faces with names!)

A couple of weeks ago Joan and I discovered a new (to us anyway) route from our house to Willard Pond — all trails, no bushwacking — takes all of the challenge out of it! The hike is a nice 5-6 mile (roughly estimated) loop and includes the top of Goodhue Hill as an additional highlight (in addition to Willard Pond itself).

On our first trip along this route we encountered a scarlet tanager in the woods as we approached Willard Pond and a juvenile beaver which swam within inches of  our feet as we sat on the shore of the pond. (I did not have my camera along on this foray, so no photos… the sound of the camera would have most definitely scared the beaver into a dive anyway.)

Last Tuesday, we took some friends who were visiting on this hike. As we were walking though the woods we encountered a number of red efts (although not nearly as many as we saw on our first excursion) and a couple of wood frogs.

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The zoological highlight though was a dragonfly, specifically a female Kennedy’s Emerald. This was a first for both me as well as my friend Kevin (who has much more experience with, as well as a professional interest, in odonates). According to my reading this is a fairly rare species (it is listed as endangered in MA; I’m not  sure about NH) and that southern NH may be near the southern limit of its range.

We first noticed this individual struggling in the water of the Mill Pond near Willard Pond (see the first photo below) and spent some time debating if it was in trouble or it it was ovipositing. After deciding the former, Kevin rescued the critter with a stick and placed her on a nearby maple branch. I was able to get some photos with my macro lens since she wasn’t going anywhere until her wings dried out.

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Wings Neck Light is a decommissioned lighthouse on Buzzards Bay in the village of Pocasset, MA; it  is now privately owned and run as a vacation rental property. One of the members of the Stony Brook Camera Club, to which I belong, is acquainted with the owner and obtained access to the grounds for us one recent late afternoon.

As one might expect for November, is was blustery and cool along the water but not unbearable. The light as the sun was setting was good… not great… just good.

Here are half a dozen shots from the outing:

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Each spring, the town of East Bridgewater, MA holds “Calvin Harlow Day” in honor of Sgt. Calvin Francis Harlow, 29th Mass Volunteers, Infantry Co. C, a local Civil War hero. As part of the festivities, the 22nd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, a group of Civil War reenactors holds an encampment and skirmishes with a rebel unit at the Sachem Rock Farm.

I have attended this event for the past three or four years and made photos of the action without much forethought. This past May, I went again with a specific goal in mind. I wanted to take candid black and white portraits of the reenactors. I approached the task as a wildlife photographer would… big surprise! I mounted my 70-300 mm lens on the camera and stalked the soldiers!

In making these images I paid careful attention to the light and to the backgrounds. It was a bright sunny day with way too much contrast for good photography.  Fortunately, there are a number of trees around and waiting for folks to move into open shade was not too hard.

As you might expect there are plenty of people, both spectators and participants, milling around at an event like this. Thus the hard part was getting “clean” backgrounds. The key was finding angles that would eliminate distractions in the background.  Getting soft, out of focus, backgrounds is relatively easy… the long lens pretty much takes care of that.

All but one of these photographs, were “candid”, I did not ask the subject to pose and in most cases, I doubt that the subject even knew I snapped the shutter. (I am not going to say which portrait was posed!)

Here are the photos; comments appreciated as always:

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