Last Tuesday afternoon, I was headed out to photograph the water in Great Brook (the outlet of Gregg Lake) for my “Flow” project. I packed up and headed back up the lake road towards home just in time to witness a spectacular sunset… good thing I still had some extra space on my memory card!
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Sunday afternoon, I made a right at the end of our driveway and walked up the un-maintained section of Brimstone Corner Road.
My plan was to make photographs of the yellow foliage (mainly beech) of the forest understory.
However, I got distracted by the reflections in the puddles left over from last week’s rain.
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Despite the distraction, I did make a few photographs of the foliage along the way.
About a mile up Brimstone Corner Road from the house, one comes to a “T” intersection that is actually in Hancock; this intersection is “Brimstone Corner”. A small stream is carried under the road here in a stone culvert that I would guess to be somewhere between 150 and 200 years old.
I have been meaning to try to photograph this culvert and made a first attempt on this trip.
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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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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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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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As I headed north on Route 10 (after my attempt to photograph the Gilsum stone arch bridge) I noticed an obvious parking area with access to the river along the road. I pulled in and a within a couple of dozen steps found myself along a riffled stretch of river with very un-photogenic banks; the light was lousy as well.
Adding a neutral density filter to my lens, which allowed shutter of a few seconds, I spent roughly a half hour exploring the riffles with my camera on the tripod.
Life… Lemons… Lemonade?
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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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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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One of the peculiarities of landscape photography is that even though parts of the landscape are seemingly constant, other parts (e.g. the light and the weather) are constantly changing.
These facts have two consequences for photography:
#1 — Keep revisiting the same landscape; your photos will always be different.
#2 — If you see an interesting landscape in good light, stop and make a photograph right then and there; second chances on great conditions are rarely granted. Of course, in order to do this you always have a camera with you!
Thus, yesterday morning while out running errands, I could not (once again) resist the combination of puffy white clouds, blue sky and red swamp maples.
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Ecologically, the transitions between different environments (forest and field or water and land, for example) are very important areas. These transitions often provide shelter for animals on one side and hunting grounds on the other side.
In the early autumn many of these margins (especially those involving water) are often highlighted in the red of early-changing swamp maple foliage.
On days with puffy autumn clouds and deep blue skies one can make wonderful photographs of the landscape.
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