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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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.
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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This year the squashes (zucchini and otherwise) have been pretty much under control. On the other hand, the tomatoes seem to be out of control!
For a number of days, I have been contemplating the counter of our kitchen island completely covered with tomatoes of all sizes, shapes and colors. I knew there had to be a photograph or two in this bounty.
Thus, yesterday afternoon, I set up a “studio” outside on our deck*.
I began by lining up some small tomatoes on the railing and made the photograph that had been rolling around in my brain for the past few days (see the first photo below). Since I was all set up to make photos, I looked around for other subjects in the tomato pile. When I finished there, I moved on to the flowers Joan grows around the perimeter of the vegetable garden.
All-in-all a good time was had by moi! I used up some creative energy and amused myself for a couple of hours
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* Warning… photographer talk ahead! My “studio” consisted of a small translucent white scrim arranged to diffuse the sunlight hitting the subjects which were set upon the deck railing. I started by using the natural scenery as background, but I eventually used a reversible white/gold reflector as the background; it was roughly ten feet beyond the deck railing. I set my exposure to over expose the background giving relatively featureless backgrounds. I used a 70-300 mm zoom lens on my camera.
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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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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