Photographs by Frank

9 June 2013

Migratory Dragonfly Workshop

Filed under: Odontates,Summer — Tags: , — Frank @ 9:00 PM

Yesterday, Joan and I spent an enjoyable day at the Vermont Center for Ecostudies in White River Junction, Vermont. We attended, with about three dozen other folks, a workshop about the  Migratory Dragonfly Project presented by Celeste M. of the Xerces Society,

Most of the day was spent inside learning about migratory dragonflies and how to be part of this citizen science project. The presentations were informative and lively.

After the presentations we explored two ponds in the VCE’s immediate neighborhood. Fortunately the weather, which started cool and rainy in the morning, had improved significantly and there were significant odes to be captured and studied… or… in my case, photographed.

Here are the results:

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Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge — Part 2, Odonates

Filed under: National Wildlife Refuges,Odontates,Summer — Tags: , — Frank @ 7:24 PM

Well… At the rate I am working it might take years to get these critters identified. This is clearly not my strong point!

Thus, I am just going to post the photos… check back at some point if you really care about the names.

UPDATE: Last evening, Joan spent some time with Paulson’s book and Odonata Central.  She has IDs for all of the photos… blame her if they are wrong!!! 😉

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7 June 2013

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge — Part 1, Birds & Landscapes

Filed under: Amphibians,Birds,National Wildlife Refuges,Summer,Wildlife — Tags: , , — Frank @ 5:00 PM

My parents recently moved to one of those “soup-to-nuts” retirement places in suburban Washington, DC and we spent last weekend visiting them at their new abode.

On Monday we headed for the Blackwater National Wildlife refuge in Cambridge, MD (on the Eastern Shore). We had made a short visit there last summer and put it on our list of spots to return to for some serious exploring and photography.

We arrived in the area mid-afternoon on Monday and dropped off the camper in the campground before hitting the wildlife drive though the refuge in time for the good late afternoon and evening light. On Tuesday we spent nine hours in the kayaks exploring the Blackwater River. On Wednesday morning we did the drive through the refuge again before pointing the car north. We arrived home just after midnight.

On our first visit to Blackwater, we were amazed at the concentration of herons, egrets, osprey and bald eagles. This was not a random event. The same was true this trip. There were spots in the water where six or eight egrets and herons would be lined up in a space of a few dozen feet. At times it seemed that no mater which direction you turned you could spot a bald eagle nest or an osprey nest. The density of the large charismatic birds is quite astounding.

It seems that this trip, we caught fledgling time for the bald eagles. We often saw two adults sitting in the same tree nearby a nest. On a couple of occasions we watched a juvenile land in the same tree.

Of course, there are also many smaller birds around as well as numerous dragonflies and damselflies. I tried to photograph them all!

The odes will have to wait until I get at least some of them identified. They are mostly different from the familiar (to me) ones in New England. But, here is the first installment of photos…birds and landscapes.

Blackwater Birds (all made in the refuge proper)…

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Landscapes (the two black and white photos were made in the refuge; the sunset photos were made from the campground we stayed at in Turners Island)…

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17 May 2013

Early Green

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

Photography, for me, gets placed on the back burner in early May as this is a busy time for me.  Lots of end-of-the-semester assignments and exams to be graded, course grades to be assigned, etc.

I finished all of that yesterday around noon… for the last time… ever!

Thus, I finally had time to process two batches of photos… one made about a week ago as I headed to the transfer station with the trash and one made yesterday evening as I headed to the monthly camera club meeting. I usually try to leave a bit of extra time when I head out from the house… one never knows when there will be good photographs to be made at the lake!

The first three photos are from last week and the last two from yesterday.

Yes, I know that two of the “early greens” are in black and white!  I could not help myself… I am just a sucker for skies done in black and white!

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15 April 2013

Early Spring – A Cruel Time for Nature Photographers

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

In case you hadn’t noticed, it has been almost a month since my last post. This is because, in New England, March is a lousy time to be a nature photographer. Winter hangs on tenaciously… well in to April this year… and the landscape is dreary and drab. Motivation to photograph is low, but yesterday I headed out “down back” of the house hoping to find a few good photographs.

The snow is the woods is patchy… lots of bare ground but many surprisingly deep pockets. When you step on a snowy spot you are never sure if you are going to sink in an inch or a foot… makes life interesting.

At one point I was standing on a patch of snow for some time when suddenly the snow under my right foot gave way. I found myself knee deep in the snow (on that side only) and, at the bottom of the hole, I felt my boot flooding with ice water! My first thought was to head directly home, but after a couple of minutes my boot was only wet and squishy so I continued to explore and photograph. It was only when I realized, some tens of minutes later, that the toes of my right foot were numb that I called it a day and headed back up the hill.

The last two photos in this set were taken at a local nursery. I accompanied Joan there on Saturday… methinks that gardeners have feelings about March similar to those of photographers!

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17 March 2013

Mid-March, A Time of Change

Filed under: Early Spring,Landscapes,Monadnock Region — Tags: — Frank @ 6:00 PM

There are many changes afoot during mid-March in New Hampshire.

Ice fishing season comes to an end.

Maple sugaring season has begun.

The first (and very faint) traces of spring are perceptible… i.e. maybe we get three or four nights in a row when the temperature stays above freezing.

Joan and I took a walk down Brimstone Corner Road late yesterday afternoon. At the end of the driveway we turned left and headed towards “civilization”; it is about a mile to the bridge across the narrow spot in the lake.

Most of the bob houses which were, until recently, spread out across the lake are sitting at the boat launch waiting to be hauled away for storage until next winter.

Folks have tapped the sugar maples along the road near the Girl Scout Camp. One side of the road has old fashioned taps and buckets. The other side has the modern tubing and tank system. The latter is not particularly photogenic!

The weather was in flux as well (usual?!). When we first arrived at the lake, the sky above the north end was a bold brilliant blue with only a few clouds around (see the fifth photo of this set). Twenty minutes later (the sixth photo), the same area of sky was filled with clouds. By the time we returned home it was completely overcast.

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14 March 2013

Powdermill Pond

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

Yesterday, I made the short (five or six miles?) drive from our house to the west shore of Powdermill Pond in Hancock.  This “pond” is actually a dammed section of the Contoocook River.  The dams (there are three) hold water for use by the Monadnock Paper Mill in Bennington. The upper two dams may also be (or have been) used for power.

I was hoping to catch the light of the setting sun on the eastern (i.e. the west-facing) side of the pond with Crotched Mountain in the background.

The third photo was taken on the drive back home. It is a view facing west across a hay field that was, until recently, owned by one of Joan’s cousins.

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Four frame panorama of Powder Mill Pond; it would print almost four feet wide (by ten inches high):

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11 March 2013

What a Difference a Day Makes!

Filed under: Landscapes,Monadnock Region,Winter — Tags: — Frank @ 6:00 PM

Last weekend brought two days of beautiful late winter/early spring weather. The temperature was in the high forties. Joan and I headed out on snow shoes in the late afternoon both days.

Saturday was bright and clear, not a cloud in the sky. The light was harsh and the sky was completely uninteresting… I made few photos and none are worth showing.

Sunday afternoon brought a front moving through in the late afternoon. The light was “nice” and the sky was interesting… the photos below are the result.

What a difference a day makes!

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Three frames stitched together:

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3 March 2013

Beaver Swamp in Late Winter

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

Yesterday afternoon, Joan and I strapped on the snowshoes and headed “down back” to the beaver swamp. We had not trekked that way for a few weeks.

There is enough snow on the ground to cover most of the grasses and other low vegetation in the swamp, leaving only the shrubs and snags standing tall. The snow was well aged and crunchy, but easy to walk on… not icy.

It is always interesting to walk on the frozen swamp. One gets views from angles that are more-or-less inaccessible at other times of the year.

The sun was as low as it can be and still illuminate the bottom lands. The light was very variable as the sun kept peaking out of the clouds and then disappearing again.  Thus, the light was good for photos, at least at the onset of our walk.

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23 February 2013

Three Very Different Photos

Filed under: Garden Flowers,Landscapes — Frank @ 10:00 PM

The first photo was taken from the backyard last Sunday at sunset. The spectacular colors lasted for roughly five minutes. I am glad that I did not try to go find a better foreground!

The second photo was taken yesterday morning while I was out doing the weekly errands. The folks at the transfer station crush and bale the aluminum cans that are dropped off to be recycled. The bales are roughly 4 feet by 4 feet by 3 feet and weigh about 600 pounds. There is often a bale or two sitting near the dumpster where we deposit our trash. I have been pondering the photographic possibilities of these bales for some months now. Yesterday I had the Nikon V1 with me and business was slow, so I got the camera out with this result!

The third photo was made on our dining room table this afternoon. I had noticed the flowering Christmas cactus earlier in the day and used the nice soft window light to make this photo.

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The first two photos were made with my little camera (the Nikon V1).

Initially, I also picked up the V1 to use for the last photograph. I was interested in exploring how close I could get (with either lens) and I was interested if I could get a nice shallow depth of field with the flower in focus and an out of focus background; the latter is always a problem with a small sensor camera and proved so again in this case. Additionally neither lens was capable of focusing in close enough to fill the frame with the flower. The V1 is a nice camera but it is not macro capable! The last photo was made with my 90 mm macro lens on the “big gun”.

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