Phall Pholiage Photos! October 10, 2012
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: Autumn, barn, beaver pond, Bennington VT, bittersweet, Canon 24-105mm f/4 L US ISM lens, Canon 24mm f3.5L TS-E II lens, Canon 400mm f/5.6 L series lens, Conway MA, deerfield river, Elliot, fall foliage, Gizmo, Hawley MA, Massachusetts, Monroe MA, October, Ollie, Searsburg VT, Vermont, Vt Route 9
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More colors from this sub-optimal (but still pretty cool) season.
Locally, some back roads:
A Conway beaver pond:
Bittersweet on a barn in Hawley:
A few Deerfield river shots:
The real color, though, was higher up in the hills. I’d seen The Change coming to Southern Vermont and headed that-a-way, passing through the heights of Rowe, MA on the drive, and stopped off at a seldom-visited beaver pond for a couple of quickies:
I especially liked this shot of orange jelly fungus popping out of a fallen spruce along the pond’s edge:
All of these are from Elliot, bless his little mechanisms.
In Vermont, the best colors were along Route 9 between Searsburg on the east and Bennington on the west:
Of that last bunch, the more expansive views were captured by Ollie, the last two are from Gizmo.
This year, Autumn has been a finicky visitor and seems anxious to be moving on.
Oh well, let her go, I say. Can’t stop her anyway.
I may head farther afield in the next few days, searching for a few last kisses before Bleak November arrives.
Today’s Ramblings. October 9, 2012
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: asters, Autumn, bittersweet image, Elliot, fall foliage, ferns, stone walls, tilt-shift photography
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Spent some of this afternoon’s filtered light chasing photos, driving slowly and scrubbing the roadsides for images. The air was heavy, the light was low and the Little Things were glad to have their hands on the shutter release.
These are a few of the shots they made me take.
Gone-by asters beneath an old maple:
Bittersweet takes charge of a hedgerow beside a barn:
Fading ferns surround a few brilliant maple leaves:
…as turning vines adorn a stone wall:
All of these are courtesy of Elliot, who loves to lay his mojo down for any and all voyeurs.
Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch… September 5, 2012
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: asters, Autumn, cat tails, ostrich ferns, purple lustrife
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…shorter days and cooler nights are leaving a mark, and the wetlands are the first to show it. Here, Ostrich ferns (the ones with the delectable fiddle heads) turn gold and brown amidst the asters and lustrife which still bloom:
Soon the temps in the high country will dip to the point where swamp maples sequester their chlorophyll and show their true colors.
As much as I love summer, I just can’t wait!
Another Rainy Day… October 13, 2011
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: Autumn, Canon TS-E II, ferns, oyster mushrooms, Shelburne, tilt-shift photography
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…except this one was here on home turf. It rained all day up in Florida along the Cold river:
Taken out of my car window at lunchtime.
After work I headed to Greenfield by the back roads – the drizzle was too nice to miss. I didn’t find the right place to shoot until the atmospherics had mostly dissipated, but the “wet paint” effect was still on along this gravel road:
I was playing with Elliot, laying his plane of sharp focus vertically instead of horizontally. Does it show in that road shot?
This was in upper Shelburne in a maple grove without much understory:
I actually pulled over to photograph this grove before I noticed the light on the road. And in parking, I navigated around this oyster mushroom bloom on a stump:
It was a short but sweet stop along the road in classic New England weather.
I dug it.
Pond In Rain. September 25, 2011
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: Autumn, graveyard, pond, rain, Shelburne
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In Shelburne, along side a graveyard:
… in the rain.
Not much to post, but I’ll be back with more before you know it.
Wet Paint. September 23, 2011
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: Autumn, bog, Canon 24-105mm f2.8L IS USM, Canon TS-E II f2.8L IS USM, deerfield river, fall colors, fog, New England, plainfield, rain, Readsboro VT, Route 100, Southern Vermont, tilt-shift photography
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Well, it’s officially autumn, and the weather here in Southern New England is emphasizing that point by turning gloomy even as it paints our trees with surreal colors.
Yesterday (yeah, I know, “not officially autumn,” but close enough) I finished work in Plainfield as a persistent light rain slowed to a drizzle, and I snagged this shot of a bog with a floating sphagnum mat:
I liked the tableau enough to work it with Elliot, to an end that is considerably better than this blog format allows you to see.
Anyway, I got inspired, and came home from work through Southern Vermont (another “close enough” moment) and was delighted to be dogged by showers interspersed with fogs. The West Branch of the Deerfield river parallels this stretch of road, and though it Taketh Away a good many of the culverts and bridges along this stretch of the road, it also Giveth some lovely views:
My work was complicated by my desire to show the place as still beautiful despite the ravaged river bed; many otherwise lovely shots would have conveyed more of the latter rather than the former, but my intention here is to let the world know that Vermont is still, and perhaps more than ever, worth visiting – your dollars, from gas money to lunch to lodging will be appreciated.
This section of Route 100 is, um, “CLOSED,” but if you pass that sign you might notice the smaller sign saying “to trucks,” because there’s a dirt road reach-around up ahead. I went for it, and basically had a lot of road to myself:
The colors aren’t yet anywhere near “peak,” but the fog between showers caught my eye.
Right where the actual detour kicked in (and yes, it turns to dirt before it’s over,) the Deerfield dodged southward through a deep gorge, disappearing into a snag of pines and fog as the light took a turn towards night:
A mile farther east the river would roar back to the road, eating Readsboro’s lunch and bridges in a span of 24 hours. Road crews are still working on that, but a passable roadway isn’t far off.
Except for the first one, these shots are all from Ollie, my 24-105mm tele lens. Nice piece of glass, that boy.
Li’l Bits ‘O Heaven! October 12, 2010
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: Autumn, Buckland, fall foliage, hemlocks, maples, oaks, pines, ridges
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As much as I’ve lamented the lackluster autumn foliage season this year, I’m happy to say that there are some spots making reasonable displays of color. Here are a few shots which I took this past week.
First, a ride through Upper Buckland gave nice views of the hillsides on the east side of route 112:
There are some nice country homes out that way ; too bad they have to suffer with such unfortunate views:
😉
Closer to home (from my yard, in fact) Gizmo (my 400mm lens) was able to snag a few shots of isolated snippets of the surrounding hillsides in the last long rays of the setting sun, when the colors were optimized against the growing shadows.
Hemlocks stand guard over a hillside of maples helplessly ablaze with the last light of day:
White pines wind their way toward the valley bottom as their bedtime approaches:
…but are forced to huddle together as they’re surrounded by phalanxes of fiercely yellow ashes and cherries:
Meanwhile, stoical oaks stand above it all, unmoved by lesser trees’ rush to color:
They’re rock steady, those old oaks!
There may be a few more foliage posts left in this season, but things are fading fast, and time will tell.
Peace, Out.
Ruby Tuesday – Autumn Up Close. October 11, 2010
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, macro photos.Tags: aster, Autumn, macro photos, maple, Ruby Tuesday!
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Here in New England, autumn is a time when garishly-colored garments become camouflage; bright reds and yellows and oranges melt into the background as the local hardwoods compete in a Queen For A Day pageant of ridiculous colors.
Well, usually. This year has been pretty subdued; a dry summer and early frost turned things uncharacteristically brown, and it’s likely that seasonal visitors were underwhelmed.
But still, if one looks closely enough, there are snippets and bits of color as bright as Disney, but rendered with a veracity which only Nature can provide.
Here are a few macro shots from this past weekend.
Sphagnum moss set against a bright Ruby maple leaf:
A detail from the heart of a purple aster:
…with the Ruby being propitiously provided by a red maple leaf in the background.
And then, my personal favorite, a tiny blue aster blossom set against a sugar maple leaf:
…I know, the colors of these three shots fight amongst themselves, but they all followed the theme of the meme, so they all got past my editor.
I’m gonna have to talk to that guy…
For more Rubylicious photos, visit Mary over at Work of the Poet.
Ruby Tuesday – A Subdued Autumn. October 27, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Ruby Tuesday!.Tags: Autumn, Ruby Tuesday!
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This autumn has been uncharacteristically un-ruby. I mean, there are patches of reddishness around, but I’m not seeing as many sugar-maple-red landscapes, the ones which truly exemplify the potential Rubiliciousness of a Berkshires autumn day.
Nonetheless, it’s Tuesday, so here’s my best effort in this subdued season.
Powerlines in Shelburne, I think:
The town line’s a bit vague through there.
Yeah, the colors were a bit subdued, but the light was occasionally right enough to break out the box. Like at this old house by the dam at Puffer’s Pond, north of Amherst:
That oak branch is a structural miracle, much more so in person, where its sixty feet of wind-tossed weight has twisted and waved for a century.
Of course, there have been patches of brilliance, even Rubiliciousness, if I may be so bold. Distressed maples, like these flooded specimens in a swamp in Florida, gave it up to the Color Gods:
Even the ferns went a bit red as they prepared to call it a year and fold up shop.
And then there was the occasional stray throwback to the Days of Color, to my childhood, when every autumn struck me dumb with wonder. The skies would pile high with clouds while the farms below blazed in a seasonal Swan Song:
Seems like we used to have more of that.
But now it’s less boisterous, more measured. Here’s a view of the Connecticut river flowing southward between Sunderland on the left and Deerfield and Whately on the right, taken from the tower on Mount Sugarloaf:
The ruby-clad walker right of center doesn’t really show up at this resolution, but trust me he’s there.
Well that’s all I got for ruby, or at least reddish.
‘Till next week, I mean. 😉
Visit Mary over at Work of the Poet for more of this rubilicious meme!
Pastoral. September 16, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: Autumn, field, mushrooms, Omphalotus illudens, ouch!
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September is a transitional month in Massachusetts, with nights getting colder and colors appearing in the trees. The skies can be vivid and crisp or, as at present, shrouded in muting gray tones:
But the fields are verdant, and the roadsides peppered with treasures:
Omphalotus illudens, adorning the base of a mighty oak in Shelburne, but at a price: it inflicts its host with a delignifying butt rot.
Ouch!
Little Bang Theory 