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Phall Pholiage Photos! October 10, 2012

Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.
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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

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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.

A Show In Ashfield. October 5, 2012

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I’ve been getting my photography “out and about,” as they say, and have recently sold a few pieces. I have a few nice old car and truck pics on the walls of Chef Rob Watson’s Lone Wolf Bistro in Amherst, MA, and a few of the young ladies I’ve shot at horse jumping meets have purchased prints.

It’s not enough to pay the bills yet (I’m still digging food out of the cracks in my kitchen floor) but it’s all moving in the right direction.

I currently have a show up at Elmer’s Store, Restaurant and Gallery up in Ashfield. It’s broadly Autumnal themed, designed to coincide with the town’s great Ashfield Fall Festival which runs this Saturday and Sunday. If you’re in the area and have a chance to visit, please do – I highly recommend their breakfasts, especially the hash – yum!  🙂 ‘ll be on their walls for most of October.

For those of you who don’t live close enough to visit, I’m posting the show’s ten photos here (hey, it’s a virtual world, non? ) for your viewing pleasure.

All of these shots have appeared here before, but never as a group.

Corn and Oak, Hadley MA:

Chickley Gold, Charlemont MA:

West Branch Storm, Deerfield river, Readsboro VT:

Deerfield Dawn, Charlemont MA:

Windsor Hay Wagon, Windsor MA:

Irrigation Ditch, Hadley MA:

Catamount Cascade, Colrain MA:

Autocar Light, Bernardston MA:

Black Brook, Savoy/Florida MA:

Forest Fog, Plainfield MA:

All of these images are printed at 12″ X 18″ and matted and framed at 18″ X 24.” They’re archival presentations with 100-year inks, acid-free/pH-buffered mats and backing and Conservation Clear UV-protective glass, and are available for $275 plus tax (where applicable) and shipping.

If you’re interested, email me: ralph@ralphmunn.com.

Or better yet, stop by Elmer’s Store for a great meal and a look-see.  🙂

And now I’m off to photograph some rock climbing adventures.

Cheers!

On The Cusp Of Autumn. September 24, 2012

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Well, it’s that time of year again.

Last year’s Fall Foliage Season was disappointing here in Western Massachusetts – August’s Tropical Storm Irene devastated our rivers and roads, and the colors never really materialized.

So I’ve been looking forward to another chance to shoot Nature’s Rainbow this autumn, so much so that I had to jump the gun and hit the road – we’re just getting started with the show here in Charlemont, but I expected things to be farther along north of us, and at higher elevations.

My housemate Lizz hit New Hampshire’s White Mountains this past weekend for an early-season recon, so I went northwest to New York’s Adirondaks.

It’s still early there as well, but up in the boreal forests things are starting to happen.

Route 73 through Keene Valley is a beautiful drive:

A scrim of roadside birches and the occasional pop of color guard the dark mysteries of the great North Woods:

This area, too, is rebounding from the ravages of Irene, as witness the many full-size trees felled by the amazing volume of water which raged down this roadside cascade southeast of Lake Placid:

The “highway” follows a beautiful rocky river, with side tributaries offering visual delights to those willing to go for a short walk:

Moss and ferns festoon the many boulders strewn about the largely cedar and maple forest:

It’s a very rugged part of the State, far removed from the more widely known urban canyons of NYC, and offers great rock climbing on ancient granite, such as Washbowl Cliff:

…here coming into and out of the light as gathering storm clouds boil by. I was fortunate to catch these roadside sugar maples in a patch of filtered light.

Yes, it’s early, but it’s going to happen, a Real Northeastern Fall Foliage Season, albeit perhaps a bit tempered by this summer’s drought.

We shall see.  😉

All of these shots are courtesy of Ollie, my Canon 24-105mm f/4 L-series lens, except for the shot of the waterfall which Gizmo reeled in from perhaps half a mile away, in the rain!

Thanks, Guys!  🙂

Fading Colors, Shifting Winds. November 7, 2011

Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, Politics and Society.
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The air is changing here in Western Massachusetts.  It feels like winter is bearing down on us, even when daytime temps belie that perception.

So it seemed, this past week, like if I was going to catch the last of the colors, it would have to be now or never.  So here goes.

Bittersweet laying claim to a barn in Hadley:

…as if it had any right to it.

That’s by Elliot, with a hand-held 3-stop soft step filter.

And this, a shot of some horses’ asses which I’d hoped to use to illustrate a Republican Debate:

…but then, it’s just one photo, and there are so many asses to illustrate, so that just kinda didn’t happen.

Perhaps I’ll find a nice Shriner Mini to get political with.

Meanwhile, I think that’s about it for Fall colors.

Later, then.

A Waxing Moon. October 9, 2011

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Well it’s a couple of days short of a full moon and a couple of weeks short of “peak foliage” in these parts, but since it’s become obvious that those two things aren’t going to coincide, I broke out Gizmo to catch what was  happening this evening.

And it looked like this.

Moonrise over Berkshire East ski area:

…and a shot taken from Route 2 in Charlemont:

That one was courtesy of Ollie.

It isn’t going to be a great year for foliage, so I’m grabbing bits of it wherever I find them.

Tomorrow I’m spending at least part of the Columbus Day holiday in Southern Vermont, expecting the colors to be a bit better and looking forward to dropping a few bucks on their local businesses – they took quite a hit from Irene and could use the “stimulus,” if you know what I mean.

A Poorly Timed Road Trip. October 5, 2011

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This past weekend I had plans to get to the high country of New Hampshire with my friend and photographic mentor Lizz.  We expected to meet early on Saturday somewhere in the Mount Washington area of the White Mountains for a foliage shoot.

But my Friday night drive northward was “blessed” with torrential rains, such that I was going 40mph on the Interstate, and Lizz wisely put off her departure from Arlington until the morning.

I got as far as White River Junction before the stress of driving with white knuckles and bulging eyeballs took its toll, and I slept in a park-and-ride.

Come daylight (and a lessening of the deluge) I forged onward, because you know, if you go out in these conditions you stand a 70% chance of getting skunked, but if you turn and run, the chances of a rout go right up to 100%.

I was going there for the colors, and as the Good Ol’ Boys say, “These colors don’t run.”

Along Route 302 I stopped in the town of Bath looking for a bush (damned coffee) and ran across the Bath Bridge, one of the three remaining covered bridges in this town, spanning the Ammonoosuc river at an impressive length of 374-1/2 feet:

There’s a Great Blue Heron perched on a rock to the right, who periodically braved the steady rain to fish in the pools below the falls.

This bridge is in its fifth incarnation, having previously been destroyed by both flood and fire.  It’s first incarnation cost We The People exactly $366.66 in 1794.

These days it’s an impressive piece of work, and replacing its intricate truss-work would cost in the tens of millions of dollars:

The orange patch in the middle is me in an orange shirt, trying for an effect which totally didn’t work out.  But hey, with a thirty-second exposure, there’s time to kill, and I managed to kill it.

With a rendez-vous in the works, I continued eastward on Route 302 toward the colors of the high country, hoping there would be a break in the rain.

Though I chose not to know it just yet, there wouldn’t.

Along The Cold River. October 16, 2010

Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.
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So this morning I headed out before sunrise, not expecting to catch a glorious dawn, but rather to get some fall colors without the direct light of the sun on them.

I needn’t have rushed; as soon as I left the driveway it began to rain, the wind picked up and I considered turning around – but hey, what else was I going to do at this time of day?

So I went up the valley through blowing mists to see what I could see (kinda like the bear going over the mountain!)  And this is what I saw, through repeated moppings of the lens.

The Cold river from the Black Brook bridge:

Sorry ’bout the uniformly gray skies here, but it was what it was.

A closer look at the river:

A little farther down river, at the State Forest campground, the trails were deserted:

A picnic area seemed to have gone to sleep for the season…

…with only me and the moss there to enjoy the silence:

Those last two were courtesy of Elliot, one for perspective and one for an attempt at foreground/background focusing.  Given the low light level, I thought the result was satisfactory (with room for improvement.)

Then it was back to the farm for a late breakfast by the wood-stove, two of the simple pleasures of the season.

Have a nice weekend.  🙂

 

 

Li’l Bits ‘O Heaven! October 12, 2010

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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.

Rivers. October 19, 2009

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Rivers in autumn.  Dark, mysterious, wreathed in color, heavy with the sweet scent of decay, with tannic swirls along their descending paths to the sea.

The Chickley in Charlemont:

chickley

…and farther up in Hawley, my former neighbor to the south:

chickley road

The South River in my new home, Conway, sulking its way down valley on a dark day:

south river

The Cold in Florida, shrouded in morning mist:

cold

…And at their mouths, collecting them, shepherding them to the sea, the Connecticut, here looking down river into Hadley, where the college crew teams practice:

conn crew

…and there looking up river into Montague, placid, swirling to a slow beat:

conn montague

Water of life, rivers of time, inescapable and precious.

Long may they flow.