Autumn « Photographs by Frank

9 October 2021

River of No Return/Frank Church Wilderness Raft Trip

Filed under: Autumn,Landscapes,Road Trips — Tags: landscapes — Frank @ 10:34 PM

Joan and I returned from a month long road trip yesterday (Friday) afternoon. We left two days after Labor Day and made more-or-less a beeline for Salmon, Idaho.

We made overnight stops in western New York, Ohio, Iowa, Minnesota, Wyoming and central Montana. The last day of the outbound leg, we made a brief stop at Joan’s brothers house in western Montana to drop off our camper before proceeding to meet the folks we would be rafting with in Salmon.

The river we ran is the main stem of the Salmon River. This stretch of the river is also sometimes called the River of No Return* and runs through the Frank Church Wilderness which is the largest wilderness area in the lower forty eight states. We were on the river for six days/five nights. The boats were oared rubber rafts and inflatable kayaks.

Our truck was shuttled to the takeout and after we got off the river, we headed back to Hamilton, MT where we had left the camper. We spent a few days visiting Joan’s brother and sister-in-law before beginning our meander back east. (More on rest of of the trip in subsequent posts.)

Of course, I made a few photographs along the way!

The first batch shown below are photos I made while we were in camp… usually before breakfast or in the late afternoon/early evening before dinner. They were made with my main (dSLR) camera.

The second batch of photos are those made during the day (either at lunch stops or while on the river) using a small fixed (wide angle) lens camera.

As the regulars know, my landscape work in mostly black and white and thus the large majority of these photos are of that ilk.

However, I have snuck a few (three, to be exact) color photos in at the end of the first batch. Not even I would try to photograph a rainbow in black and white!!! As for the last photo (made early on our last morning on the river), the sky was just to luscious in color to convert.

So without further ado…

Batch 1 —

Salmon River Trip #1

Salmon River Trip #2

Salmon River Trip #3

Salmon River Trip #4

Salmon River Trip #5

Salmon River Trip #6

Salmon River Trip #7

Salmon River Trip #8

Salmon River Trip #9

Salmon River Trip #10

Salmon River Trip #11

Salmon River Trip #12

Salmon River Trip #13

Salmon River Trip #14

Salmon River Trip #15

Batch 2 —

Salmon River Trip #16

Salmon River Trip #17

Salmon River Trip #18

Salmon River Trip #19

Salmon River Trip #20

Salmon River Trip #21

Salmon River Trip #22

Salmon River Trip #23

Salmon River Trip #24

Salmon River Trip #25

Salmon River Trip #26

Salmon River Trip #27

Salmon River Trip #28

Salmon River Trip #29

* This name is not as bad as it sounds. Early settlers (ranchers and miners, in the main) would build boats in Salmon (and up river) and then float the river to their camps. Upon arrival the boats would be dismantled and the (valuable) lumber used for other projects. Thus, is was boats that did not return not people.

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28 October 2020

A Study in Yellow and Rust

Filed under: Autumn,Landscapes — Frank @ 1:00 PM

Yesterday, I took a walk on our Patten Hill property. The skies were gray and the light flat and boring… not ideal for photographing the landscape. Thus, I focused my attention and camera on some man-made details.

Although many school buses must be feeling abandoned and lonely these days, their sense of abandonment doesn’t hold a candle to the school bus we “inherited” when we bought the property roughly twenty years ago.

The last three photos are of the Pump and Circumstances pumphouse on a small lot adjacent to ours. Pump and Circumstances is a very, very small company that supplies water to the seasonal cabins on White Birch Point.

Ye Olde School Bus

Study in Yellow and Rust #1

Study in Yellow and Rust #2

Study in Yellow and Rust #3

Study in Yellow and Rust #4

Study in Yellow and Rust #5

Study in Yellow and Rust #6

Study in Yellow and Rust #7

Pumphouse Window

Pumphouse Detail #1

Pumphouse Detail #2

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27 October 2020

Mother Nature’s New Carpet

Filed under: Autumn,Landscapes,Monadnock Region — Tags: landscapes — Frank @ 6:00 PM

Every autumn Mother Nature provides the woods with a new carpet. It is always the same composition but never the same pattern.

On my walk a few days ago, I was attracted to patches of dappled sunlight on the roadside.

Mother Nature's New Carpet #1

Mother Nature's New Carpet #2

Mother Nature's New Carpet #3

Mother Nature's New Carpet #4

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Obie’s Maple Leaves

Filed under: Autumn,Monadnock Region — Frank @ 5:00 PM

With apologies to Arlo, Alice and her restaurant…

Yes sir, Officer Obie, I can not tell a lie… I put those maple leaves on that granite stone.

Opie's Maple Leaf #1

Opie's Maple Leaf #2

Opie's Maple Leaf #3

Opie's Maple Leaf #4

In my defense, the light was nice and the leaves interesting!

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24 October 2020

Mother Nature’s Yellow Period

Filed under: Autumn,Landscapes,Monadnock Region — Frank @ 6:30 PM

Picasso had his Blue Period. Mother Nature has her Yellow Period each fall.

After the maples and birches are done with their autumnal display of reds and oranges in the canopy, it is time for the beeches in the under story to take the limelight. They turn yellow, then orange-brown on their way to a light tan.

Of course, beeches, like oaks, then hold on to those pale tan leaves until spring.

These photos were made on a morning walk up the unmaintained section of Brimstone Corner Road.

Yellow Period #1

Yellow Period #2

Yellow Period #3

Yellow Period #4

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8 October 2020

Thursday Foliage

Filed under: Autumn,Landscapes,Monadnock Region — Tags: fall foliage, landscapes — Frank @ 11:32 PM

This afternoon I had to run an errand in Keene. The light and skies were perfect as I got to Hancock (around 5 PM) on the way home.

I had my camera with me and made a few photographs.

Jacquith Brook Wetland

Field's Edge #1

Field's Edge #2

Barn & Foliage

Field's Edge #3

Pond's Edge Foliage

Wetland Margin Foliage

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4 October 2020

First Saturday Jaunt

Filed under: Autumn,Landscapes,Monadnock Region — Tags: autumn leaves, foliage, landscapes — Frank @ 10:05 PM

On the first Saturday of each month (COVID not withstanding*) I get together with a group of friends and fellow photographers in Brattleboro to share work.

Yesterday morning, I headed out for our meeting early hoping to find some foliage to photograph in the early light. I was not disappointed. In addition to nice light, many of the local ponds and lakes were shrouded in morning mist as sometimes happens this time of year.

Gregg Lake: Early Morning, Early October #1

Gregg Lake: Early Morning, Early October #2

Gregg Lake: Early Morning, Early October #3

Birch Pond

Eva's Marsh

After our get together, I meandered home from Brattleboro stopping to make photographs in Fitzwilliam, Troy, Jaffrey Center and Hancock.

Bowker Pond

Window: Troy Blanket Mills #1

Jacquith Brook Wetland

Autumn Foliage: Fields Edge

Autumn Barn

Although most of the photograph were made using my ‘regular’ camera. I did breakout the camera obscura on a few occasions.

Mt Monadnock from the Meetinghouse in Jaffrey Center

Meetinghouse, Jaffrey Center

Bran and Autumn Foliage

Untitled

Field's Edge In Autumn

*After a several months of meeting via Zoom we have been getting together outside on the Common in Brattleboro. Now that the weather is becoming less conducive to outdoor meetings, we have to figure out what is next.

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29 September 2020

Fall Foliage – 2020

Filed under: Autumn,Landscapes — Tags: autumn leaves, foliage — Frank @ 11:00 AM

Yesterday morning I had some business to attend to in Saint Johnsbury, VY. It took me just a bit over two hours to get there via the interstates. The trip home took six hours… I meandered!

The foliage is pretty much peak in the northern part of NH and VT.

Fall Foliage, Looking West Across the Conn. River at Monroe, NH

Owls Head from Oliverian Pond (Glencliff. NH)

Fall Foliage (detail)

Church with Fall Foliage (Warren, NH)

Autumn Leaves

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15 May 2019

Composites

Filed under: Autumn,Garden Flowers,Spring — Frank @ 12:05 PM

One day last week, Joan came home with a flat of pansies for her garden. I was struck by the amazing variety of different shapes and colors. I snipped off a few flowers (she will never notice!) and brought them in to my “studio” (i.e. the table in the basement). I photographed each flower individually and, after cleaning up the background a bit (pesky dust spots!), I composited the three frames using PhotoShop.

This image reminded me of a project I began last fall, but had not gotten past the “collect the specimen” stage. Last October I collected a number of fallen leaves and glycerinated* them. They have been sitting in a pile for months. After finishing the pansy composite, I was inspired to finally photograph this collection of leaves. The final images you see are, again, composites.

The grid image is what I had envisioned the seven or eight months ago when I collected the leaves.

Pansies

Three Autumn Leaves

Maple Leaf Matrix

* Autumn leaves look very nice when you collect them but they are hard to photograph since they are not flat. One can press the leaves to get them flat, but, in my experience, they become brittle as they dry and thus hard to handle. They also do not stay flat for very long. Glycerination is the solution to the problem. By coating the leaves with glycerol and pressing the leaves between two glass plates one gets supple flat leaves that stay flat and therefore easier to photograph.

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28 October 2017

Photo Pairs

Filed under: Autumn — Tags: abstracts, landscapes — Frank @ 6:00 PM

I made a few new Autumnal Abstracts this past week.

Inspired by this post (at The Online Photographer), I decided to present the new work in pairs.

Choosing the pairs was a interesting process. Starting with about two dozen photographs total, I made and discarded many pairs before settling on these three.

The first pair is comprised of two different exposures of the same small scene (a pair of brightly colored leaves, if my memory serves). I chose the second pair because they both have somewhat linear patterns and they have contrasting palettes; warm colors vs. cool colors. The third pair was chosen because they have similar palettes and both include red in the lower right quadrant.

None of these pairing were planned.

The last pair, however, were intended to be displayed together from the moment I pressed the shutter release back in August (see this post).

What do you think?