Photographs by Frank

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.

 

24 September 2014

Margins

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

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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20 September 2014

Early September

Filed under: Birds,Early Fall,Landscapes,Mammals,Monadnock Region — Tags: , , — Frank @ 2:00 PM

The beginning of September brings three harbingers of the autumn that is just around the corner…

The hawks and other raptors begin their migration. We, in the Monadnock region, are lucky to have a wonderful spot from which to observe this world-class spectacle. New Hampshire Audubon organizes and staff an observatory on the summit of Pack Monadnock in Miller State Park during September and October each year. Visits are always interesting; I tend to go on weekdays when it is not quite as busy.

The swamp maples begin to turn red. For some reason, the swamp maples at the north end of Gregg Lake seemed to turn especially early this year; there were signs of red in late August. Currently, these trees are about at their peak and there it little change most of the other trees.

The chipmunks become manic. Living more-or-less in the woods, with a property bounded by stone walls, we are well acquainted with chipmunks. However, in early September as the acorns start to drop, the chipmunk activity really picks up. One does not even have to go outside as their squeaking vocalizations are clearly heard when the windows are open.

Late yesterday afternoon, I noticed “nice light” on the chipmunk highway (i.e. the stone wall) down by the road. I headed down, with camera in hand, hoping to get some photos of “flying” chipmunks as they jumped from stone to stone, often with an acorn in their jaws. I failed miserably… they are just too fast for me! I did manage a couple of frames of individuals who stopped to eat along the highway!

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27 August 2014

Up North

Filed under: Landscapes,Odontates,Other Insects,Summer,wildflowers — Tags: , , , — Frank @ 6:00 PM

Monday morning, we packed up the camper and headed north. Our goal was the Errol, NH area as Joan had some plant conservation volunteer business to attend to.

We arrived at  Mollidgewock State Park in the middle of the afternoon, dropped off the camper and spent the remaining daylight hours exploring and photographing. The highlight of the evening was watching (through the spotting scope and too far away to photograph) three otters eating and playing in the Androscoggin River.

Tuesday, we awoke to dense fog over the river but it burnt off quickly and  the day turned hot (low 80’s) and sunny as predicted.

After breakfast, Joan spent  four or five hours locating a population of rare plants (the only known population of this species in the US; there are about ten other isolated populations in Canada) and collecting seeds from them  for the New England Wildflower Society.

I spent the time photographing the local roadside flora and the odes and had fun despite the harsh light.

By midafternoon, we were back on the road meandering towards home.

Landscapes

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Odes (and a grasshopper!)

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Flora

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29 June 2014

Coastal Maine Trip, Part II (Hog Island Landscapes)

Filed under: Landscapes — Tags: — Frank @ 11:00 PM

Part I of this story is here.

After settling into our room on Hog Island, we wandered the grounds of the camp and began to make the acquaintance of some of our fellow campers. We discovered that the Arts & Birding group of adults would be sharing the camp with a delightful group of teenagers participating in the Bird Studies for Teens session. Dinner was served at 6 PM and was followed by an introductory session in the “Fish House”.

Both Monday and Tuesday, we set the alarm for 4:15 AM… in time to be ready to photograph the sunrise on some of the longest days of the year.  It was well worth the effort!

Early morning bird walks were also scheduled for both mornings, however, I decided to spend the time until a 7 AM breakfast roaming and photographing by myself instead of with a group.

After breakfast on Monday morning half of the adult group headed out on a boat ride into Muscongus Bay along with the teens. The teens were dropped off on Eastern Egg Island, home to Project Puffin. The adults had to be content to view the activity there from the boat. The adults did get to spend time ashore at Harbor Island before returning to Camp in the midafternoon. The remainder of the adult group, including Joan and I, spent the morning in small groups with the various instructors*. The remainder of the afternoon was spent working on various art projects.

After dinner, Kristin Mosher and Bill Wallauer, the photography instructors for the week, gave a great presentation on their work photographing the chimpanzees of Gombe National Park in association with Jane Goodall.

Tuesday morning after breakfast, the adult groups switched activities and Joan and I, among others, got our chance to see Eastern Egg Island and Harbor Island. The delightful evening presentation on Tuesday was by Steve Kress the founder of Project Puffin.

Rather than divide up the photographs I made while on Hog Island on a strict chronological basis, I have, instead, divided them up by genre.

Here are the landscapes:

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Part III is here.

Coastal Maine Trip, Part I (Acadia)

Filed under: Landscapes,wildflowers — Tags: , — Frank @ 10:00 PM

Last week (Friday to Friday), Joan and I took a trip up the Maine coast. We left the house on the morning of the 20th and pulled into our campsite at the Seawall Campground in Acadia National Park about 4 PM. We spent the late afternoon and early evening exploring the less traveled side of the park near the campground.  After dark, we had lobster rolls for dinner at Thurston’s Lobster Pound in Bernard, ME. Highly recommended!

On Saturday, we spent most of the day driving the Park’s loop road stopping at many of the sights there are to see. In the late afternoon, we ended up at the Pinnacle Trail  parking lot watching the not-quite-fledged Peregrine Falcon chicks through the spotting scope (i.e. way too far away for photographs). The only other person at the parking lot when we arrived was a die-hard birder named Steve, from Port Washington, NY of all places! (I grew up in “Port”.) Even stranger… Steve had just finished a week volunteering at the Audubon Camp in Maine on Hog Island in Bremen. Our next stop after Acadia was to be Hog Island for the Arts & Birding session!!! Talk about “small world”! Eventually we made it back to Thurston’s for lobster rolls again… they were that good!

Sunday morning we packed up the camper and headed southish/westish… towards Bremen and Hog Island. We arrived mid-afternoon, right in time to get the second boat from the mainland to the island.

Stay tuned… there is more to follow.*

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* I have divided the weeks photos into five galleries. Thus, I expect that this will mean five posts; some may be light on the text!

22 May 2014

Isles of Shoals Landscapes

Filed under: Landscapes — Tags: — Frank @ 4:00 PM

While the main focus of last weekends trip was birds, I did manage to make a few landscapes while visiting Star Island.

As is often the case when visiting someplace for a short time, the conditions were not ideal for landscape photography. Two of the “golden hours” (Friday evening and Saturday morning) were washed out by heavy rain. The other two (Saturday evening and Sunday morning) had uninteresting skies. I did the best that I could.

Six of these nine photos were made using the 600 mm f/4 lens… not your typical landscape lens!

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9 May 2014

Mackerel Skies & Spring Birds

Filed under: Amphibians,Birds,Early Spring,Landscapes,Monadnock Region — Tags: , , , — Frank @ 11:00 AM

About 9:30 yesterday morning, I headed out to run some errands. When I got to the lake, I noticed the mackerel skies over the north end of the lake and the nice, soft light. I stopped to make a photograph or two.

As I walked back to the boat launch where the truck was parked, I noticed the birds in the trees along the road and the turtles basking in the sun.

The section of road that runs along the beach and up to the bridge seems to attract many insect-eating birds. Later in the season there will be many swifts and swallows present, but yesterday I saw mainly Eastern Kingbirds.

There were also  red-winged blackbirds and grackles present. The male red-winged blackbirds were very vocal singing their distinctive “conk-la-ree” song repeatedly.

When I got back to the truck, I decided that the errands could wait. Switching from landscape mode and wide angle lens to wildlife mode and “Big Bertha” , I  headed back towards the bridge photographing all the way.

An osprey also appeared briefly. It hovered near the bridge looking for prey and made one, unsuccessful plunge into the water before heading off. A couple of days ago, Joan and I observed an osprey exhibit  the same hovering behavior by the bridge. I guess that I’ll have to plan to spend some time  down there just to watch for ospreys!

About 11:30, I headed back to the truck and my errands.

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