Tuesday morning I had an appointment in Keene. After the appointment I did a bit of shopping and met my friend Al, a commercial photographer with a studio in Keene, for lunch.
On my way home, I stopped in Harrisville and pointed my camera obscura at the mill buildings.
Yesterday afternoon, with broken and fast moving clouds (perfect for landscapes) and the temperature around 60 degrees F (downright tropical for mid-January and perfect for photographers) I headed out with the camera obscura and made the rounds of some of my favorite spots in Hancock.
Wednesday, mid-afternoon, I thought that the clouds were breaking up. I hoped that maybe we would have a break in the cold, gray skies (and accompanying flat uninteresting light) that has characterized the past week. Alas, this was not to be. By the time I gathered up the camera and got out the door the gaps in the clouds were closing up and the snow showers began.
I persisted anyway and made a short drive around Antrim with my camera obscura.
Last year (2019) ended on a slow note. Since we returned from our trip in October, I made exposures on only a handful of occasions.
Here are a few from December…
This afternoon I took a break from editing the photos I made on our recent trip and took a walk up the un-maintained section of Brimstone Corner Road.
As I started down the hill towards the Hancock border, I flushed a red-tailed hawk from the middle of the road maybe twenty or thirty feet in front of me.
Initially, the bird flew up to a perch in a tree at the edge of the road where it paused for only ten or fifteen seconds — long enough for me to see the chipmunk in its talons — before flying out of sight in the woods.
It must have just caught the prey since, despite a careful look, I did not find any evidence of chipmunk “pieces” on the road; not even a tuft of fur/
No photos… I was not carrying my camera. Besides, it all happened too fast for framing a photograph. Sometimes it is best to just watch.
Close encounters with animals usually only seen at a distance are always special.
Give me a good heavy load and a clear stretch of road
And just watch this old Bulldog run
—– Bill Staines (Wild, Wild, Heart)
Early this afternoon, I spent about ninety minutes wandering the Granite State Old Truck Meet/Show. (It was held at the airport in Deering this year) .
Of course there were a multitude of trucks on display… many different types and brands.
However, it was the Bulldog that kept catching my eye.
Someone has been having fun balancing stones down by the lake,
I had fun photographing the rock piles!
I wonder how long these sculptures will last.
Yesterday morning, I took my camera with me on my morning walk up the un-maintained section of Brimstone Corner Road and down Boutman Rd to its low spot.
Late yesterday afternoon I had a bit of free time before I was due at the Grange’s Summah Suppah so I headed out to make a few photographs.
Most of my recent non-wildlife photography has been done using the camera obscura. This day, I resolved to leave the camera obscura in the truck and to see what photographs I could make with the regular camera.
I ended up with two series of photographs,
Machines…
“Numbers”…
On Monday afternoon (from about 2 – 4) I took a walk up Hattie Brown Road to see what was up “ode-wise”. The temperature was in the high 70s F, the skies were mostly clear and there was a bit of breeze intermittently.
The walk along most of the road is heavily shaded and I did not expect to see many/any odes until I approached the beaver swamp. My expectations were met and I saw my first ode, a bright red male meadowhawk, just as I got to the swamp.
The swamp itself is amazingly dry, even for this time of year. The outlet stream is still flowing, but much of the swamp proper consists of large dry or drying patches separating discontinuous patches of surface water. (I imagine that there is still significant subsurface water.)
Usually, there would be good numbers of darners cruising out over the swamp, but not this trip. There were a few (two?) male meadowhawks along the road and a single female damselfly (most probably a variable dancer).
I continued along the road past the swamp and was rewarded with more numerous insects in the clearing just where the road turns up the hill.
Present in this clearing were small numbers (less than six) of both male and female common white-tails. The most common ode present were female spangled skimmers, roughly a dozen; I saw no males.
Individuals of both of these species seemed to be attacking me as they flew directly at my head numerous times, often close enough that I could hear there wings beating. A male common white-tail even briefly perched on the front of my thigh. Of course, what these insects were really doing was picking off prey from the cloud of small flying insects that I had attracted!
I also observed a single male twelve-spotted skimmer who was a very obliging model. During the course of the ten or fifteen minutes I watched him, he made repeated hunting forays and always returned to the same perch. In contrast to the other species, he ignored me and the cloud I attracted, as he flew off in seeming random directions each time.
One the way back to the truck, I passed a single meadowhawk along the road by the swamp and a single spreadwing along the road almost at its junction with Craig Road. I watched the spreadwing for a few minutes always staying low to the ground and in the shade. Just as I despaired of making its photo, it flew to a chest-high perch in a patch of sun. Even the background (the dark shaded woods at some distance away) was perfect. I made two exposures before it flew away!
Yesterday afternoon I headed to town to drop off some photos for an upcoming exhibition at the library. As I headed back to the truck, I noticed the nice light. There were dark gray clouds (and presumably rain) just to the south. We were clearly on the edge of this weather system.
I was inspired to get out my camera and to poke around the old Goodell Company mills across the street from the library. It sprinkled very lightly and for only a few minutes while I explored.
Most of my non-wildlife work these days is in black and white. However one of the first things that struck my eye yesterday was the wonderful combination of weathered blue paint and rusty hinges on a mill building door. Thus the resulting photo and the next one I made (of a nearby window) are rarities in my oeuvre.
After I finished poking around “downtown”, I decided to head to the Antrim Center and Meetinghouse Hill (the original “downtown”). It is about three miles from the library to the top of the hill.
I may have a need for a photo of a stone wall for the next issue of the Limrik and there are plenty of stone walls on Meetinghouse Hill. Of course, the same can be said about the rest of Antrim… or New Hampshire… or New England! However, I am particularly fond to those on Meetinghouse Hill.
On the way by, I stopped and made a couple of photographs of the Stone Church, where Joan and I were married some thirty nine plus years ago. For some reason, I have not made many photographs of this building.
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