Autumn « Photographs by Frank

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?

Photo Pair #1

Photo Pair #2

Photo Pair #3

Photo Pair #4

Comments Off

1 October 2017

2017 Road Trip — Wildlife

Filed under: Autumn,Birds,Mammals,Wildlife — Tags: Birds — Frank @ 10:30 PM

On Labor Day (4 Sept) we headed out on the road. Our immediate destination was western Montana and a nephews wedding on the 9th.

After the wedding festivities were over, we began the meat of the trip. Our first destination was Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), just to the west of Yellowstone National Park, our second destination. We spent five nights in Yellowstone and then wildlife refuge hopped back east.

We visited C.M Russell NWR, Bowdoin NWR, and Medicine Lake NWR all in Montana, Lostwood NWR, Des Lacs NWR and Upper Souris NWR in North Dakota and Agassiz NWR in Minnesota. We also visited the International Crane Foundation and the Aldo Leopold Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin before heading home.

We arrived home yesterday (Saturday, 30 Sept) having driven just over 7,400 miles in total.

Of course, I made one or two photographs along the way! Here is the first installment… wildlife photographs.

More to follow over the next few days.

Birds

White-crowned Sparrow, Male (Red Rock Lakes NWR)

dsc3046

White-crowned Sparrows, Pair (Red Rock Lakes NWR)

Mountain Bluebird ((Yellowstone NP))

Mountain Bluebird #2 (Yellowstone NP)

Greater Yellow Legs (Bowdoin NWR)

Plover (Bowdoin NWR)

Killdeer (Bowdoin NWR)

American Avocet #1 (Bowdoin NWR)

American Avocet #2 (Bowdoin NWR)

While Pelicans

Perigrine Falcon

White Pelican Taking Flight

Mammals

Pronghorn Antelope (Red Rock Lake NWR)

Bison Herd (Yellowstone NP)

Bison Rut ((Yellowstone NP))

Grazing Bison #1 (Yellowstone NP)

Grazing Bison #2 (Yellowstone NP)

Grazing Bison #3 (Yellowstone NP)

Bison (Yellowstone NP)

Rutting Bison #2 (Yellowstone NP)

Rutting Bison #3 (Yellowstone NP)

Elk Doe (Yellowstone NP)

Elk Doe #2(Yellowstone NP)

Bugeling Elk Bull (Yellowstone NP)

Elk Bull (Yellowstone NP)

Elk Bull #1 (CM Russell NWR)

Elk Bull #2 (CM Russell NWR)

Party Animal Elk (CM Russell NWR)

Bugeling Elk Bull with Harem (CM Russell NWR)

Comments (2)

30 October 2016

Experiments

Filed under: Autumn,Landscapes — Tags: landscapes, Snow — Frank @ 10:30 PM

Yesterday afternoon found me in the lovely village of Grafton, Vermont.

On Thursday evening, in snowed at the higher elevations in both Vermont and New Hampshire and there were still remnants on the ground on Saturday afternoon.*

These photographs were made by photographing the ground glass of a camera obscura.

Field, Grafton, VT #1

Field, Grafton, VT #2

Dodge Pond, Lempster, NH

*Here in Antrim we got mostly sleet and just a trace of accumulation. A fellow from Marlboro, VT said they had about six inches and there was still patches of snow in the woods at higher elevations, including the upper reaches of Lempster Mountain (about 20 miles from Antrim).

Comments (1)

24 October 2016

Diptych

Filed under: Autumn,Landscapes,Monadnock Region — Tags: fall foliage — Frank @ 7:00 PM

I spent last Friday evening and Saturday morning/early afternoon making photos of people at the Antrim 2020 community planning event.

People are not my usual subjects – my father once commented that I was the only one he knows that goes on a six week vacation and comes back with nary a single photo of a person – and I won’t bore you with photos of people you don’t know.

On Saturday morning, after the rain had stopped, I slipped outside for a short break from ‘event photography’; this diptych is the result:

Comments (1)

19 October 2016

Autumn Foliage – 2016 (Redux)

Filed under: Autumn,Landscapes,Monadnock Region — Tags: fall foliage, landscapes — Frank @ 11:00 AM

This year’s foliage season has been quite spectacular.

Last Thursday, we headed to camp to take the sailboat out of the water. While Joan scrubbed the summer’s accumulation off the bottom of the hull, I headed out in the kayak to photograph the lake shore. The first three photos are the result.

On Saturday, I headed out for a short drive. On the outbound leg, I headed up towards Hillsborough Center and then on to East Washington. I headed back towards home via Washington and Route 31. The Pierce Homestead is near the junction of Routes 31 and 9 in Hillsborough.

Lake Shore Foliage #1

Lake Shore Foliage #2

Lake Shore Foliage #3

Maple

Craig Road Bridge in Autumn #1

Pierce Homestead in Autumn #1

Pierce Homestead in Autumn #2

Maple and Sky

Craig Road Bridge in Autumn #2

Wetland Margin in Autumn

Autumn Foliage

On Saturday, I photographed down by the bridge on Gregg Lake three times. The skies were cloudless, bright blue when I passed by in the morning. In the early afternoon there were scattered clouds and by late afternoon the skies were mostly cloudy. The early afternoon skies made for the most interesting photos; the last thee above and the four below.

Lake Shore in Autumn

Craig Road Bridge in Autumn

North End of Gregg Lake in Autumn

Wetland Margin in Autumn

Comments Off

11 October 2016

Autumnal Abstracts, 2016 Edition

Filed under: Autumn,Monadnock Region — Tags: abstracts — Frank @ 1:30 PM

Yesterday afternoon, I took a walk up the “wild” section of Brimstone Corner to work on the 2016 edition of my Autumnal Abstract series.

This is my third year of making Autumnal Abstracts; here are the 2014 and 2015 versions.

All of these photo are made using a slow shutter speed* and deliberate movement of the camera. A moderate telephoto lens (a zoom set to 80 mm this year) was used. The maxim “less is more” seems to hold here. Thus, the narrow field of view of a telephoto seems to work better than a wider lens.

The resulting exposures are unpredictable and irreproducible; this is what makes it fun!

Processing in the computer is limited to the usual adjustments (black and white point setting, contrast adjustment and cropping). The “abstractness” comes from the camera not the computer.

This year I seem to favor the very abstract with swaths of bold color.

Autumnal Abstract 1 (2016)

Autumnal Abstract 2 (2016)

Autumnal Abstract 3 (2016)

Autumnal Abstract 4 (2016)

Autumnal Abstract 5 (2016)

Autumnal Abstract 6 (2016)

Autumnal Abstract 7 (2016)

Autumnal Abstract 8 (2016)

Autumnal Abstract 9 (2016)

Autumnal Abstract 10 (2016)

Autumnal Abstract 11 (2016)

Autumnal Abstract 12 (2016)

However, there were a few less abstract frames that caught my eye as well.

Autumnal Semi-Abstract 1 (2016)

Autumnal Semi-Abstract 2 (2016)

Autumnal Semi-Abstract 3 (2016)

* Typically the shutter speed is in the range of one to four seconds. A neutral density filter is used to achieve these shutter speeds.

Comments Off

9 October 2016

Foliage Season – 2016

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

The autumn foliage is about peak here in the Monadnock region of New Hampshire.

Friday dawned crisp and clear. I spent a bit of time making some folilage photographs on my way back from running errands in Peterborough.

Rim of Fire (north end of Gregg Lake)

Craig Road Bridge in Autumn

Maple in Full Autumn Display

Maple Foliage (detail)

Saturday dawned cloudy and a bit warmer. Joan and I spent the morning and early afternoon doing the Wool Arts Tour. In the late afternoon, while Joan visited the Monadnock Quilters Guild show, I spent an hour taking a walk at the Edward McDowell Lake in Peterborough. The rain held off until I was almost back to the car,

The View North from McDowell Lake in Autumn

Wetland Foliage #1

Lake Shore Foliage #1

Wetland Foliage #2

Lake Shore Foliage #2

Wetland Foliage #3

Comments (1)

Wool Arts Tour – 2016

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

One local Columbus Day weekend tradition is the Wool Arts Tour; this is their 33rd year.

Yesterday, Joan and I spent a few hours visiting the various sites. I found much to keep me interested interested while Joan explored and talked wool.

Pasture Tree #1

Pasture Tree #2

Pasture Foliage

Pumpkin

Truck Detail #1

Truck Detail #2

Ovine Posse

Hello Human

You Look'n At Me?

Curve in the Tracks

Comments (1)

19 September 2016

Freestyle Skateboarders – 2016

Filed under: Autumn,Monadnock Region — Tags: skateboarders — Frank @ 7:00 PM

This past Saturday was the 2016 edition of Antrim’s Home and Harvest festival.

Among the events that are part of this annual event is freestyle skateboarding at the skate park that is part of the town’s Memorial Park. I have had fun photographing the skaters in years past (here is last years post) and thus made it a priority for this year.

At one point, I spent too long knelling on the ground and was not sure that my knee was going to let me stand up again… very embarrassing when all of these young athletic guys are flying through the air and mostly landing on their feet!

Skateboarder #1

Skateboarder #2

Skateboarder #3

Skateboarder #4

Skateboarder #5

Skateboarder #6

Skateboarder #7

Skateboarder #8

Skateboarder #9

Skateboarder #10

Skateboarder #11

Skateboarder #12

Skateboarder #13

Skateboarder #14

Comments (1)

24 October 2015

Sachuest Point & Second Beach

Filed under: Autumn,Birds,Wildlife — Tags: Birds — Frank @ 11:30 AM

Last Wednesday evening I judged the nature competition at the Hockomock Digital Photographers club. I left the house early that morning and headed for the Sachuest National Wildlife Refuge in Middletown, Rhode Island.

I was hoping (but not expecting, since it is early in the season) to photograph diving ducks (including Harlequins) that winter in the waters off Sachuest Point. There were surprisingly few ducks. I saw a single female Common Eider and a single American Black Duck; that was it. The ledges off the east side of the point held a couple of dozen double-crested cormorants. And, of course, gulls, mostly herring gulls, were ever present.

On land, the most common bird, by far, were migrating yellow-rump warblers; there were dozens of them. Two different types of sparrows (also migrants?) were also common along the edges of the walking paths.

I had seen groups of small birds at the surf’s edge on Second Beach on my way out to the point. They were still there when I stopped after spending a few hours at the NWR. I spent more than an hour photographing sandpipers as they foraged at the waters edge.

These birds are a never-ending source of entertainment as they scurry about trying to avoid the waves, dogs and people while pausing intermittently to forage for a morsel of food.