Photographs by Frank

20 October 2014

Last Call for Autumn Landscapes (for this year, at least)

Filed under: Autumn,Landscapes,Monadnock Region — Tags: , — Frank @ 10:00 PM

Foliage season here in the Monadnock region is finally winding down. The season began early with the swamp maples turning in late August,  For the past week or so the landscape has been dominated with the yellow-browns of the oaks and beeches, although one still finds a splash of the reds and oranges of the maples here and there.

It has been a good season!

I have taken to driving the back roads (rather than the “numbered routes” as I go about my errands. I stop when see a possibility for a good photograph and try not to be late for scheduled appointments! All of these photos were made in the past 10 days or so.

I am having trouble deciding which of the two photos of the barn I prefer. Likewise, I am torn between the horizontal and the vertical compositions that I have titled “Edge of the Field in Autumn” (i.e. the last two photos). Anyone have strong preferences between these alternatives?

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More Abstracts

Filed under: Autumn — Tags: — Frank @ 7:00 PM

Over the past couple of weeks, I have added photographs to both of my recent abstract projects (“Flow” and “Autumnal Abstracts“), here are the latest:

 

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15 October 2014

Gregg Lake in Autumn

Filed under: Autumn,Landscapes,Monadnock Region — Frank @ 12:01 PM

Yesterday afternoon, with temperatures around 70 degrees F and rapidly moving clouds aloft, Joan and I headed down to camp to get the sailboat out of the water.

After we finished the job, I headed out around the lake in the kayak to photograph. I headed back for home only when the sun left the lake.

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Gregg Lake Panoramas

Filed under: Autumn,Landscapes,Monadnock Region — Tags: , — Frank @ 12:00 PM

The autumn foliage has been about peak for the past few days.

My photographic tendency, when it comes to landscapes, is to concentrate on the details; the “intimate landscape” a lá Eliot Porter.

However, every once in a while, I figure out how to capture the larger landscape. One mechanism for doing this is the panorama; digital photography has made it easy to build panoramas without special equipment.

The first of these panoramas was constructed by combining three frames shot from Gregg Lake Road on a cold, gray day (last Saturday). The second combines two frames shot from my kayak on a warm, mostly sunny day (yesterday).

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4 October 2014

Ashuelot River at Gilsum

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

After a day of rain on Wednesday, Thursday dawned with a heavy overcast. However, by mid-afternoon the skies seemed to lighten a bit and I headed out to see if I could photograph the stone arch bridge in Gilsum, NH. One of the tallest bridges of its type, it spans a mini-canyon carved by the Ashuelot River.

The terrain (high steep river banks and the curve of the river) and a gauging station conspire against nice photos of the bridge from river level, but I was able to make some nice photos of the river just upstream from the bridge.

As I was headed north on route 10, back towards home, I noticed some “interesting” light developing and was able to find a spot to pull off the road and take advantage of the short interval (two minutes, maybe) before the light turned dull and drab again. The last photo is the result of this quick stop.

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1 October 2014

Autumnal Progress

Filed under: Autumn,Landscapes,Monadnock Region — Tags: , — Frank @ 2:00 PM

Thursday afternoon was overcast… perfect weather for photographing running water at slow shutter speeds. Thus, I headed out to make some landscapes. My ultimate goal was Gleason Falls in Hillsborough, but I meandered. I stopped at my usual spot at the bridge on Gregg Lake on my way to the falls.

I photographed Gleason Falls (and the stone arch bridge) last October with lots of leaves on the ground but essentially none left on the trees. I was hoping to get more leaves still on the trees this year and was not disappointed.

After photographing the falls and losing my lens shade in the running water (ugh!), I headed to the nearby Gleason Falls Road stone arch bridge (not to be confused with the Gleason Falls bridge!), the only one of the cluster of stone arch bridges that I did not photograph last year.

The Gleason Fall Road bridge is actually two distinct spans. The main span is over the creek proper and the smaller spans what was once a mill race. The only sign of the mill  is a bit of stone foundation on the side of the road that is well marked with signs saying “private property”.

The bridge is too wide and there are too many obstructions do get a decent photo of the entire bridge.  Thus I photographed each span individually.

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27 September 2014

Autumnal Abstracts

Filed under: Autumn,Landscapes — Tags: , , — Frank @ 3:00 PM

Thursday afternoon, I went for a walk hoping that the clouds would break near sunset and I would have interesting skies and “good light” on the landscape.

This was not to be.

While waiting for the “good light”, I entertained myself in the drab gray light by playing with long exposures (10-20 seconds) and deliberate camera movements as I am wont to do on occasions such as this*.

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*Warning photographer talk ahead! Dull, low light makes long exposures easier although I still needed a neutral density filter for these photographs.

 

31 December 2013

An ‘Adams Dozen’ for 2013

Filed under: Autumn,Landscapes,Odontates,Other Insects,wildflowers,Winter — Tags: , , , , , — Frank @ 11:45 PM

Back at the end of 2011, I added an entry titled  “Twelve Images” based on  Ansel Adams idea that twelve good photographs in a year is a decent crop. I had intended this to be an annual event but I seem to have missed last year.

I actually chose, printed and matted the twelve photos for 2012; they are stored carefully in their own print box. However, I do not seem to have written a blog entry about them… oh well! It doesn’t seem right to post them at this late date, so I’ll just forge ahead!

Thus, without further ado, here is my ‘Adams Dozen’ for 2013:

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28 October 2013

The Weekend’s Work

Filed under: Autumn,Birds,Monadnock Region — Tags: , , , — Frank @ 4:00 PM

I spent Saturday afternoon at the Pack Monadnock Raptor Observatory again. It was a slow day, only six birds total, but one of those six was a rough-legged hawk. I missed seeing by a few minutes. This was only the second time ever that a rough-legged had been observed at Pack Monadnock.

The other highlight for the day was a golden eagle (the fourth of the season) which I did get to see at a distance.

Lastly, another merlin alit in the same tree as the one I photographed one on Friday.  I was again able to get a decent (although highly cropped) photo.

On Sunday, Joan, Sally (Joan’s childhood friend who was visiting from Lewes, Delaware) and I took a “stroll” through our neighborhood. We hit all of the high points: the lake shore, Brimstone Corner, cellar holes, the beech tree with bear claw marks, and all of the nearby beaver-made wetlands. We covered about 4.5 miles in roughly 4.5 hours and a good time was had by all.

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25 October 2013

Pack Monadnock Hawk Watch

Filed under: Autumn,Birds,Monadnock Region — Tags: — Frank @ 10:26 AM

I spent yesterday afternoon (arriving just after noon and staying until 4 PM) at the NH Audubon migratory raptor observatory on Pack Monadnock in Peterborough.  It was a slow day… seven raptors observed when I got there and fourteen for the day. The official report can be found here.

The day was blustery and cool (mid-40s) but with good layers including a windproof  outer layer it was not bad at all.

Even with the weather, there was a good crowd gathered… six individuals including Henry, the official counter, were there when I arrived.

As with most of my visits, the birds were generally too far away for photography. I keep hoping for one of those days when the birds appear at eye-level a hundred feet or less away but it hasn’t happened this year… yet! The season still has a couple of weeks to go, so there is still hope!

I did manage to grab photos (both are heavily cropped; about a quarter of the frame is shown) of a red-tailed hawk in flight and a merlin that perched briefly on a dead tree.

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