Monroe Bridge. November 28, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Uncategorized.Tags: deerfield river, Monroe Bridge
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An image I’ve posted before, but as the atmospheric conditions change, so changes the view.
Today’s view:
I liked this one, the ship-wreck quality of the old factory building juxtaposed against the unpopulated valley.
This is my Deerfield. I’m kinda fond of it.
Moonlight Madness In Shelburne Falls. November 27, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Politics and Society.Tags: Noonlight Madness, Shelburne Falls, windy night
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“Black Friday” to the rest of the world, the Friday after Thanksgiving is “Moonlight Madness” to us locals, even if it’s misting and windy.
A few shots from tonight:
Bridge street, closed to traffic but open for a party:
Booths of stuff for sale in the brisk breeze:
Knots of people gathering against the wind:
I got the hell out of there, by way of the iron bridge running along side the unblossomed but illuminated Bridge of Flowers:
I didn’t spend a dime, but I came back with my eyes and arms full.
It’s what I saw, and it’s what I got.
Ruby Tuesday – Wild Strawberries! November 23, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Ruby Tuesday!.Tags: frost, Ruby Tuesday!, wild strawberries
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…In November???
Well, actually, it’s wild strawberry leaves, turned autumn red ruby and here festooned with the remnants of the morning’s frost:
I liked the way each of the leave’s tiny, hair-like spines had captured its own accumulation of atmospheric rime.
This was taken at about ten AM in the deep shade of a stand of firs, and the crystal structures were becoming indistinct as the day warmed. I bet it was really good a couple of hours earlier!
Thanks to Mary over at Work of the Poet for hosting this rubilicious meme. Go visit her for more rubiliciousness!
When All Else Fails… November 22, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: sunset
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…Throw ‘em another sunset:
This one’s “good from far, but far from good” – this shot benefits greatly from its reduced size. But hey, the real thing was cool, and this is what I was able to snag of it, hand-held at two seconds against my car window.
Enjoy!
Dinner With TCR – Trout du Jour! November 21, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Dinner with TCR.Tags: fresh-caught, lime, red onion, saute of, tomato, trout, with plenty of cilantro
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Got a surprise today, a gift from the project engineer, who had availed himself of a few free minutes before work to snag a fine rainbow trout. He not only landed it, he gutted and chilled it as well.
I like a man who takes care of business.
Anyway, I’m not really this guy’s tight buddy, so the fact that he offered me his morning catch suggested that everybody else had already said “no.”
I said yes. Hey, WTF, fresh trout?? I think I can live with it!!
And besides. I’d been eating in a much too pedestrian mode in recent days, and needed to class up my culinary act. A little trout in the mix seemed unlikely to cheapen my neighborhood.
So I assembled a saute: trout, tomato, red onion and cilantro
…done up in olive oil and lime juice, with virtually no other spices, as I can’t find the pepper grinder here and haven’t the heart to take my own from home:
It came out really guuud!
Anyway, it’s been a while since I shared my dinner, which my Christian up-bringing taught me was right, so I’m atoning right here and now.
Bon appetite!
A Crack In The Night. November 21, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Love and Death, poetry.Tags: blanket, night, poetry, sunset
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The Earth turns, the sun recedes and the blanket of night descends
like the closing of a coffin lid.
Light and dark, night and day, black and white, right and wrong, alive, dead, pretending.
It’s all relative, isn’t it?
Frost. November 20, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, macro photos.Tags: frost, moss, strawberries, wild, ziggy
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In this case, mid-morning frost on a carpet of moss in a field where I’m currently working. The shade of a stand of fir trees kept the frost in place until coffee break, when I gathered my kit and dashed out into the scrub to snag a couple of photos.
I’m glad I did, even though they were quite rushed.
Moss, supporting a sprawl of wild strawberries:
…and a closer shot of strawberry plants gone red as the freeze comes on:
The full-sized versions of these two photos display the temporal layering of successive ice deposits as what looks here to be chunks of Morton salt. But trust me, it’s good ol’ H2O.
These come our way courtesy of Ziggy, my 50mm Sigma prime lens.
Enjoy.
A Photographic Experiment. November 20, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: Bob, depth of field, tilt-shift photography
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My most recent lens purchase was a Canon L-series 24mm TS-E II, a lens which replicates the actions of medium and large format cameras in that it allows for the “tilting” of both the camera back/film plane and the objective lens, the one which gets punched first in a street brawl.
I bought this Rube Goldberg monstrosity while in pursuit of the ultimate landscape photograph. You know the one – the cactus flower nearly brushing the lens and the castellated horizon, both in sharp focus. It’s a look which is, practically speaking, unattainable with an SLR or modern digital camera, seeing as it depends on being able to “bend” the lens relative to the camera body, which hasn’t been an option until just about… now.
I bought Elliot (my TS-E lens, if you catch my reference ) looking for that infinite depth of field (tilt) and control of parallax (shift,) and have been struggling with the learning curve ever since. The focus is manual, and the results of my efforts aren’t really obvious in my tiny viewing screen, until I get home and blow my images up.
Then, last week, my Siamese Cousin Bob sent me a link wherein people did exactly the opposite with their tilt-Shift lenses, opting for what approximates a spot-focus amidst a sea of impressionistic blurs. It was cool enough for me to be inspired to try it, so I did.
Here’s Bossie, asking the perennial question, “Whatchoo lookin’ at???”
Obviously, I’m lookin’ at a cow with an attitude.
This isn’t what I bought Elliot for, but I anticipate having some fun with it.
Let me know what you think.
Ruby Tuesday – Self-Portrait Edition. November 17, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Love and Death, Ruby Tuesday!.Tags: glasses, ruby, self portrait
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I’m generally loathe to do this, but somehow this self-inflicted wound is slightly less painful than most, so I thought, “What the hell, it’s Tuesday, and that retainer on your dollar store glasses does look kinda Ruby…”
With appologies to Mary over at Work of the Poet for so disabusing her otherwise comely meme.
Health Warning. November 16, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: health warning, sky, sunset
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As recommended by my Siamese cousin Bob, on accounta he likes my sky shots. 
This is yet another Windsor sunset, fleeting and ephemeral, a moment in the slide show of a typical evening. As I drive along, wistful and wanting, the sky is gray and boring; the skyline is vague and uninspiring. My camera sits on the passenger seat, dejected and wondering why it came on this winding, bumpy ride.
Then it happens, as it occasionally does: the clouds fall into place like pieces of an art puzzle, and the light comes up, and suddenly I’m driving into a ditch and propping my camera against the driver’s side window for an impromptu two-second hand held shot of something which wouldn’t be there by the time I’d set up a tripod:
Yeah, at ISO 3200 it’s grainier than Plochman’s mustard, but I wasn’t really set up for it, so I got what I got.
Still, I like the clouds a lot.
