Photographs by Frank

31 December 2011

Twelve Images

Filed under: Adams Dozen — Frank @ 11:59 PM

“ Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop.” – Ansel Adams (1)

The end of another year… I suppose that it is natural to reflect back on the past year. In reflecting on my photography Adams’ quote came to mind.

This got me thinking about editing one’s work and the adage “You are known by the what you show  not the what you shoot” (2) also came to mind.

While searching (unsuccessfully) for the source of this adage, I came upon a quote from a travel photographer which is also apropos:

“It can be a trap of the photographer to think that his or her best pictures
were the ones that were hardest to get.” – Timothy Allen (3)

Thus inspired, I decided to see if I could choose just twelve photos to represent my work for the year. It was not as hard as I thought it might be.

I make no claims to their “significance” and I am certainly no Ansel Adams.

Here they are…

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(1)  Although widely attributed to Adams, I can not find specific source for this quote; maybe it is apocryphal.

(2) At least I think this is an adage and not a quote attributable to a specific individual.

(3) See: http://blog.travellerspoint.com/90/

 

P.S. for the statisticians in the crowd… I made photos on 82 days in 2011 and exposed about 12,000 “frames” total (ain’t digital wonderful… who could have afforded that with film!).  I processed about 1000 of those frames… roughly 8%.  This last number is actually pretty meaningless. I do a lot of “exploratory” shooting just because digital is cheap and I can… I am not intending that every shot I take is a “keeper”.

Water, All Forms (On a Foggy Day)

Filed under: Uncategorized — Frank @ 10:00 PM

We had rain and freezing rain overnight and this morning.  By early afternoon the rain had stopped, the temperature was in the upper thirties and there was a bit of fog about.  I went for a walk down “down back” of our property and spent an enjoyable couple of hours studying (and photographing) beaver swamps and a small stream that connects them.

As I arrived at the swamp, I perturbed a bird of prey who made much noise for about ten minutes before deciding that I was not going to leave and heading off. Awhile later, I also watched a woodpecker up high in a distant snag for about five minutes. Both were too far away to photograph and I left my binoculars in the house so I can not be more specific about the identifications. As I photographed, I was serenaded by a number of small birds that were high in the conifers overhead.  All in all a great way to end another year!

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28 December 2011

Details, Details

Filed under: Monadnock Region,Winter — Frank @ 6:00 AM

My friend Dana and I took a drive on Monday. There was a not a cloud in the sky and even though the end-of-December sun doesn’t get very high in the sky, the light was too harsh for landscapes.

So what do photographers do on days like this? They look for details… the intimate landscape.

Here are mine:

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24 December 2011

A Touch of Snow

Filed under: Landscapes,Monadnock Region — Frank @ 1:00 PM

Overnight on Thursday, an inch or two of snow fell… just enough to add some photographic interest to the ground. Around mid-day yesterday (Friday) the overcast looked like it might break up so I headed out to photograph the landscape.

The ultimate goal was “my spot” (e.g. see the first image here) for photographing Mount Monadnock. On the way there I stopped at a number of roadside wetlands.  As I got to “my spot”, the clouds to the west were beginning to break up but Monadnock was hidden in the clouds and it did not seem like it would be appearing any time soon. I did not stay long.  This was probably a wise decision as the cloud cover did not really start to break up until almost sunset.

Instead, I spent some time exploring the back roads of Roxbury and discovered a high spot near Otter Brook Lake with great views to the west (the last three images were taken here). I am quite sure that I will be revisiting this spot.

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18 December 2011

An Early Winter Meander

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

The “in between” season… in between the last foliage and reliable snow cover… is a difficult time for a nature photographer. There is not much wildlife about and the landscape is rather drab.

However, I get antsy if I do not get out to photograph at least once a week so I headed out yesterday afternoon under slate gray skies.

I had no real goal in mind but I headed south through Hancock and Peterborough figuring that I would scout for vantage points from which to photograph Pack Monadnock  and North Pack Monadnock when we finally get some snow cover.

I ended up over in Harrisville, site of a old but well maintained mill complex, thinking that architecture is a good “in between” season subject. The mid-afternoon (around 3 PM) light was at a nice low angle and very soft due to the cloud cover. One of the mill complex’s bell towers was already in shadow but the other was still nicely light, as was the tower on the town library. The mill buildings are a tough subject; there are wires and poles galore making it difficult to find angles clear of signs of modernity.

Heading back towards home, I stopped (at about 4 PM) to photograph the sunset over a small wetland in Hancock and about forty five minutes later (after a stop at the store) I got a shot of the very last light over Gregg Lake.

I arrived home with very cold hands (aluminum tripods are great heat sinks despite gloves); the thermometer was reading in the mid-twenties.

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11 December 2011

Shooting The Moon — A Near Miss!

Filed under: Monadnock Region — Frank @ 7:22 PM

The Moon… so obvious, so easy to miss.

Yesterday was a full moon and the day before that there was a lunar eclipse. I only found out both those things today. Oh well!

Late yesterday afternoon while driving back from some shopping Keene, Joan and I noticed the wonderful moon rise. I made a mental note to make time today to see if I could catch the moonrise.

The key question that need to be answered when planning  moon/sun  rise/set photographs is what to put in the foreground. One needs something “interesting” to make a good image. My thought was Powder Mill Pond in Hancock. It is easy to get to, just pull off the side of US 202 in the right spot and walk across the road; an important criterion on a cold night!

I was a day (or two late). Sunset was about 4:13 both yesterday and today; moonrise was  4:21 yesterday and 5:21 today.

This afternoon it was completely dark by the time made its appearance over ridge to the northeast of  Powder Mill Pond a bit after 5:30… ugh! Yesterday would have been just about right… enough sunlight to illuminate the foreground as the moon popped up over the ridge. Next month!!!

I did get a couple of okay shots. One  in the very last of the sun light and another in the very first of the moonlight. The two photos were taken about five minutes apart and from slightly different positions but the views are about ninety degrees for each other… very roughly southwest (last light of the sun) and northwest (first light of the moon).

The last image (of the full moon) is about one quarter of the frame, taken with my 70-300 lens… not too bad.

Next month, I’ll do it right!

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4 December 2011

Washington, NH

Filed under: Landscapes — Tags: — Frank @ 12:00 PM

Yesterday, was a nice November day… cool but not cold and partly cloudy. My goal for the day was Washington, NH but I planned stop at Sky Farm on the way there.

Sky Farm, in Deering, NH,  is part of the High Five Reservation of the Forest Society. Among its features is a hill top pasture with a great west-facing view of the Contoocook Valley. This time of year the grand vista is not particularly photogenic in its coat of early winter gray. However, I have been exploring the photographic possibilities of the scattered pasture trees against the sky This view can be had by walking a bit down the hill and looking back more-or-less west. There was a very photogenic sky this trip… deep blue sky and wispy white clouds.

The town common in Washington has three examples of classic New England public buildings… a church, a schoolhouse and a meetinghouse (from left to right in the second photo, below). All in white clapboard and all still in regular use (although the schoolhouse now serves as the police station). I found the architectural details as photographically interesting as the overall view.

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2 December 2011

November Gray

Filed under: Monadnock Region,November — Frank @ 12:00 PM

November is a tough month for nature photographers in New England. Much of the wildlife has gone dormant or headed south. The leaves have all fallen and the ground is bare of snow. The predominant color is gray. A time for black and white photography!

Last Sunday, I headed out to photograph on a foggy morning. I had three thoughts in mind… winterberries, Meetinghouse Hill and Sky Farm.

Winterberries grown in wetlands and this time of year they are often the only color other than browns and grays to be found. I have a “photo” in my head of a large stand of winterberry with a distant hillside (gray and nicely blurred) in the background. I have yet to find this scene in my travels but I keep looking. On Sunday, I thought that the fog might make it easier to “isolate” winter berries photographically; it did, but not in the way I was expecting. The fog helped with some close shots of individual plants and branches.

Meetinghouse Hill and Sky Farm are in my thoughts on foggy days because they are easy to access high spots that are often fog bound and the fog can add some “mood” to photographs.. or in the case of Sky Farm, the Contoocook Valley below can be fog bound while the hill tops are clear. Alas, the fog was mostly gone by the time I got to Meetinghouse Hill. There were even patches of blue sky showing for a short time when I got to Sky Farm.

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The group of flags on Meetinghouse Hill were “found” and shot as you see them… I did not arrange or move them.

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