Last Thursday I carried my camera while I took my daily walk.
The sun was low in the western sky. It dipped below the ridge about a half hour before astronomical sun set; I was only half way back to the house on the return leg.
I seem to have had an eye for details this day.
I am a sucker for derelict trucks… they are just so photogenic.
A couple of days ago, I noticed this truck sitting in the edge of a field that I pass by regularly. I never noticed the truck before, but I think that it just appeared there recently. I have no clue how it got there.
This morning I went back back to photograph the beauty… a Ford dump truck of unknown (to me) vintage.
Last Thursday morning, I meandered back home from Peterborough stopping to photograph buildings (or, more accurately, parts thereof) in Peterborough, Harrisville, Nelson, Hancock and Antrim.
Warning photographer talk follows:
When one points a camera up, say to photograph a tall building, the optics cause the problem of converging verticals… vertical lines, that are parallel in reality, look like they are converging and the building looks like it might fall over backwards.
This problems can be overcome in three different ways. There are special cameras and lenses with “tilt shift” mechanisms that allow one to compensate for this effect. Digital photos may be corrected (to an extent) in the computer using the proper software. Lastly, there is the solution I used for many of the photographs in this post. Tip the camera so that there are no vertical lines. No verticals, no convergence… Simple as that!
Yesterday afternoon I headed back to Washington (NH) to make the photo I had envisioned the day before.
Being Saturday, I knew that the vehicles that were there the day before were not likely to be present. However the light was not quite as nice. There were a few scattered high clouds about but none to the west where they could diffuse the sun light. I prevailed none-the-less.
After I finished at the common (at a couple of minutes past four), I headed over to East Washington; there is both a church and a Grange hall to photograph there. I was too late for the Grange, it was in the shade already. The church which is up a hill from the Grange was still in good light. The light on the church lasted ten or fifteen minutes.
I caught the last of the sunlight on a few low clouds at Gregg Lake on the way home.
Yesterday afternoon looked good for photography… there were high clouds which softened the light and this time of year the sun gets low enough for nice directional light by mid-afternoon. I spent a couple of hours (roughly 2 – 4 PM) making a circuit of favorite places to photograph.
My first stop was an old barn which I recently learned is scheduled to be demolished at some point in the not too distant future. Thus I am feeling a sense of urgency in making photos of this barns last ‘gasp’ as it were.
This sense of urgency was heightened later in my drive when I passed an old house in East Washington that I have photographed in the past; it is now in the process of being dismantled.
My second stop was Hillsborough Center. I have photographed the church there a number of times. Yesterday, I looked for other subjects there.
My last stop was the Washington (NH) commons.
I have photographed here many times and was hoping to make some photographs using my camera obscura. However, this was not in the cards for yesterday. There was a police vehicle parked next to the school house (which now serves as the police station) and there were other vehicles near the town hall. Plan B was to make photographs “looking up”… i.e. of various roof lines.
I recently discovered that the subject of Paul Strand‘s famous photograph usually titled “Town Hall, NH” is, in fact, the Washington, NH town hall. The exterior of building is unchanged since Strand took his photo in 1946. However, the flag pole has been replaced (and moved).
By four, the light was pretty much gone (even on the hilltop site of the common) so I packed up and headed home.
artifact (är′tə-făkt′)
noun
1. an object made by a human being, typically an item of cultural or historical interest.
Yesterday afternoon, I donned my blaze orange vest (the main deer hunting season began on Wednesday) and took a short walk up the unmaintained section of “our” road.
I make no claim about the significance of the artifacts I found (and photographed). However, they are interesting, at least, to me!
November is a slow time for me photographically. The hillsides, devoid of foliage, are an unphotogenic grey and the weather, in our neck of the woods, is often cold and grey. Today was NOT one of those days!
The temperature was in the high 50’s and it was partly sunny with wonderfully photographic clouds during much of the day. I made the photos shown below while running errands in the early afternoon.
I intended to head out again in the late afternoon expecting a good sunset. However, about 3:30 (sunset is about 4:30) the overcast rolled in and despite some ribbing from Joan and I did not bother to get out of the recliner!
There was a bit of snow overnight and the low temperature was in the mid-20’s. However, by mid-afternoon the temperature was a few degrees above freezing and the wind was calm. The light was not great as the sky was a dull, dark gray but I headed out the back door to photograph the birds in the backyard anyway.
As usual chickadees were most abundant. In addition to the chickadees, there were good numbers of both nuthatches and tufted titmice. Interestingly, I did not see a goldfinch or a junco in the ninety minutes I was out.
There was also a pair of downy woodpeckers present. This pair spent as much time watching and chasing each other as they did foraging for food. Watching their antics was quite entertaining.
By 4:00 PM, the light was too dim to photograph fast moving birds and I called it quits for the day.
Yesterday dawned cold and rainy; it was 38o and raining light when I arose.
By mid-morning the temperature had made it to about 40o but the rain had stopped and the fog began to thicken… perfect weather for some photography!
When I headed out to photograph after lunch, I could not see the couple of hundred yards across the lake by the boat launch… there was no hint of the far shore line just a wall of white!
I decided to make a loop of some of my favorite wetlands in Hancock and Stoddard. All of the photos shown are from Hancock; by the time I got to Stoddard there was not enough light remaining.
Earlier in the week, I put out the bird feeder (both seeds and suet) in hopes of attracting photographic subjects. I need to take it in every night to avoid attracting bears… I have only forgotten once so far!
It took a few days for the birds to find the feeder but by this morning things were hopping! Thus, after I finished a few chores, I headed out to get some practice with my new photographic tool*.
In addition to the four species (junco, chickadee, gold finch, and white-throated sparrow) I photographed, there were two other species (nuthatches and a downy woodpecker) that I did not get good photos of.
*All of these photos were taken with my new-to-me Nikkor 600 mm f/4 lens. Joan says “toy” but I am sticking with “tool”!
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