Photographs by Frank

4 January 2013

Brimstone Corner (Road)

Filed under: Landscapes,The "New" Yard & Environs — Frank @ 12:00 PM

Brimstone Corner (Road*) is an old prototypical New England road… no pavement, lined with old sugar maples and stone walls. Many of the maples are reaching the end of their natural lives and some are literally falling (or have fallen) apart.  The stone walls are, however, in pretty good shape!

I think about Brimstone Corner in three segments. The road begins at the bridge across Gregg Lake and continues for a mile and a bit to the Price Farm. (We live in the house just before the Price Farm.) The second section is not maintained and is getting rough in spots. This section goes for another mile and a quarter or so; one passes from Antrim into Hancock along this stretch. The third section, in Hancock, is much like the first.

Thus, when we head out for a walk we must pause at the end of our driveway and ask the question “Left or right?  Left, down the “civilized” section towards the bridge? Or right, into the “wilderness”?

Either way we can get in a nice two mile walk.

More often than not we turn right, but this time of year that decision requires more planning and forethought as snowshoes are needed.

On New Year’s Day we turned left and walked down to the bridge and lake.

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*Most of the folks who live here call our avenue "Brimstone Corner Road". 
 However, the Postal Service insists that it is simply "Brimstone Corner". 
 Why? I have no idea!

1 January 2013

Winter Wonderland

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

Snow fell twice the week between the holidays… about a foot Wednesday night and Thursday and another  four inches or so on Friday night into Saturday.

Joan and I have been out on the snowshoes twice thus far. We have seen many tracks in the snow… moose, dear and many smaller animals.

The winter woods tend to be very quite, especially if the wind is not blowing. Perhaps, the most common sound is that of woodpeckers hard at work high up in the trees. However, on our first outing, we also heard coyotes nearby.

I have carried the new camera on both trips. I am slowly getting better about remembering to take the new camera with me when I leave the house but there is definitely an element of  “old dogs and new tricks” in this!

The new camera is nice and light… easy to carry and stow. Having only a wide to “normal” lens for the V1 has made me realize how much normally I use a telephoto lens. It forces me to think (and look) in new ways… and that’s not bad!

All of these photos were taken between the 28th and the 31st.

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22 December 2012

The Late December Landscape

Filed under: Landscapes,Monadnock Region,Winter — Tags: — Frank @ 11:59 PM

Here it is, late December, we have a bit of snow on the ground and the lake is starting to ice over in the shallow and sheltered spots. The landscape is slowly recovering from the blah grays of early winter.

I bought myself a Winter Solstice present, a Nikon 1 V1 with the zoom lens. I wanted a small “always with me” camera. I have only put a few dozen “clicks” on it since it came on Wednesday as I had much grading to finish. So far it seems to be working well… I just need to remember to take it with me each time I head out of the house!

All of the photographs shown here were taken with the new camera.

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24 November 2012

November Landscapes

Filed under: Landscapes,Monadnock Region,National Wildlife Refuges — Tags: , — Frank @ 1:00 PM

November is not the best month of the year for landscapes in New England.

Although we often have nice clear, crisp days… the cloudless skies and grey hillsides can conspire to make for somewhat bland photographs. None-the-less, I keep trying!

On Thursday (Thanksgiving) afternoon, Joan and I walked up the road to Brimstone Corner while the turkey was in the oven. Nick pulled up just as we arrived back at the house and we extended our stroll by heading down to the lake. I had not taken the camera along on the first part of the walk, but the sun was low enough to tempt me as we headed down to the lake.

Yesterday afternoon, the three of us  took a hike up North Pac Monadnock; the trail head in the Wapack NWR is about a 20 minute drive from the house. We finished the hike in the light of the mostly full moon.

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26 October 2012

The Last of the Foliage

Filed under: "Camp",Autumn,Landscapes,The "New" Yard & Environs — Tags: , — Frank @ 2:00 PM

Last weekend, I found a bit of time on both Saturday and Sunday to wander the neighborhood and photograph the last of the foliage. The bright reds of the swamp maples are long gone. However the forest canopies (of mostly oak, birch and beech, with a few maples) were still a mix of browns and yellows. The understory (a mix of many species) was just about at its yellowy peak.

As I write,  the show is pretty much over for the year. The oaks and the beeches will hang on to their brown leaves much of the winter. But for the next few weeks… until we get some snow… the landscape will be drab and grey. Here is hoping for an early snow!

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A four frame panorama, looking across at “our” side of the lake. Our camp is visible in the full-sized image but I can’t make it out in this web-sized version.

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5 October 2012

It was a dark and stormy night…

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

Actually, it was a rainy afternoon… but that doesn’t sound as dramatic!

The foliage is close to peak around here. I headed out about four o’clock in a light rain to photograph.

Over the next couple of hours the weather cycled from a drizzle to moderate rain. As the hour got later and the light began to fade the fog moved in.

I never made it past the bridge at the north end of Gregg Lake a mile from the house. The photographic possibilities seemed endless.

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29 September 2012

Foliage!

Filed under: Autumn,Landscapes,Monadnock Region — Tags: , — Frank @ 8:00 AM

Foliage season is in full swing in the Mondanock region. The wetland margins (i.e. swamp maples) are pretty much at peak and there is significant color on the hillsides.

The weather Thursday afternoon was “severe clear”… not the best for landscapes. However, with polarizer firmly in place, I headed out around four anyway.

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Three-frame panorama:

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23 September 2012

The Onrush of Autumn

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

Last Monday morning on our way south, Joan and I noted the first bits of color in the wetlands along US 202. A few swamp maples were showing tinges of orange and red.

On our trip north on Thursday, we were amazed at how much “progress” autumn had made. Now, there are even tinges of color on the hillsides.

On Saturday, as the sun was headed down,I headed out to some of the local wetlands to see how the light was falling.

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16 September 2012

The View from Eagle Cliff

Filed under: Landscapes,the White Mountains — Tags: — Frank @ 12:00 PM

Eagle Cliff in Sandwich, NH is situated on a small bit of high ground between Squam Lake and Lake Winnipesaukee. The climb from the road is is short and steep (about 600 feet of elevation in about 0.6 miles) but the views of Squam Lake and the White Mountains are spectacular.

Yesterday was a perfect early fall day. The temperature was about 60, there was a nice breeze and the clouds were decent. It was too early for Fall foliage, but that should be spectacular in a few weeks. I hope to find the time to return!

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10 September 2012

Opportunity Caught!

Filed under: Landscapes,Odontates,Other Insects — Tags: , , , — Frank @ 6:00 AM

Today was a beautiful early fall day and I could not resist the urge to wander down to “our” beaver swamp late this afternoon.

Noticing all of the nice clouds, I tossed my wide angle lens and polarizing filter in my pocket as I headed out the door. Thus, I can actually show those who have not (yet) been here a photo of the place where I have whiled away many enjoyable hours in pursuit of odes over  the past two summers.

The ode season is definitely winding down here. There were a dozen or so large odes (darners, most likely) aloft out over the meadow and I watched a couple of female darners ovipositing at the edge of the pond.  I noted two or three spreadwings along the edge of the woods and that was about it… except for one rare opportunity that I caught!

Darners are large, spectacular dragonflies that are frustrating to photograph… they rarely perch! However, every once in a great awhile one finds them perched and you get an opportunity!

I was wandering slowly along the edge of the meadow when I flushed a darner mating wheel  out of the grass. This is a fairly rare, maybe two or three times a summer, event in itself. Usually the pair flies off and that’s it. You loose track of them, they land high up in a tree or you flush them a second time trying to get a good angle photographically, et cetera, et cetera. Or as Joan would say… “excuses, excuses”!

This time the mating pair landed about ten feet up on the trunk of a nearby tree; a little high to be ideal but one takes what nature provides. I took the extension tube off the 70-300 mm lens and was able photograph them for twenty-five minutes (according to the meta-data). The show ended when the couple parted ways; presumably she headed to the pond to begin ovipositing. They are either Canada Darners or Green-striped Darners… I can’t decide. [UPDATE: Thanks to my friend Kevin and the helpful folks on the Northeast Odonates mailing list (who all agree), we can say that these are Canada Darners.]

I wandered for another hour or so before the sun dipped below the ridge and I headed home. In that interval, I saw a couple more spreadwings ,always at the edge of the woods, and a few grasshoppers among the marsh grasses.

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