Brrrrrrrrr! January 23, 2013
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: Canon 2X tele-Extender III, Canon 400mm f/5.6L lens, cold river, Gizmo, ice, moonrise, New England, Western Massachusetts, winter
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Well now, this is winter! 🙂
We got a fresh inch of snow overnight, not enough to shovel, just enough to freshen up the older snow pack. And with a daytime high in the ‘teens assuring clear, crisp air, it seemed like a good time to scout some river scenes.
I headed up the Cold river a bit after noon, beneath blue skies and scuttling clouds:
The valley is still a tangled mess from Irene, but winter disguises her scars.
I’ve always liked the way tumbling rivers look when they rise up around snow covered rocks, saturating their marsh mallow hats, turning them into emerald slushies, washing them down river like slow moving ghosts. This cold weather grows the well-anchored ones into wonderful ice islands:
Quartzite cobbles complement the color scheme, wavering from below the fast-moving surface:
A faster shutter speed captures the kinetics of the flow:
The wind was brutal, and after an hour of walking the river bank, my fingers had had enough, despite my beefy gloves, and I headed back to the car, noticing on my way down river that the moon was rising. At the car I put Gizmo and his little buddy Tele on the box and got this:
I packed it in, cranked the heat and ran a few errands.
My day ended with a drive home along the Deerfield river, where I snagged this shot of the frazil ice building it’s tortuous tangle as the sun disappeared behind the near hills:
That one’s from Elliot, with a degree and a half of tilt and a hand-held three-stop graduated ND filter. It took me all of fifteen minutes, by the end of which my tripod had frozen into the river, my fingertips were wooden and I had wind-whipped tears frozen to my cheeks.
Good thing I spent all those years climbing ice, or I wouldn’t have enjoyed that one bit! 😉
Well that’s all for now, friends. I have 909 shots from last weekend’s climbing competition to process, so I’m off to work!
Birds Of Prey. August 27, 2012
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: 2X tele-Extender III, bald eagle, Canon 400mm f/5.6L lens, eagles, Gizmo, hawks, New England, red tail hawk
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I haven’t seen prominent displays of eagles on the river since Spring, and our local population of hawks is pretty private, so I was pleased today to find both within range of my lens and comfortable enough with my presence to sit for me.
Well, the eagle wasn’t exactly close – it was perhaps a hundred yards away, and sitting in a densely-leaved tree, but I reeled it in with Gizmo and a 2X Tele-Extender for an effective focal length of 800mm. The shot is hand-held, albeit resting on the door of my car, and cropped pretty hard to get this:
The faster version of this lens, with image stabilization, is a cool thousand dollars more than what I paid for Gizmo, so you’ll have to suffer with us until I hit the lottery.
I did get closer to a red tailed hawk perched on a roadside fence post this very same morning, and didn’t have to crop the photo to give you this:
I crept my 4-Runner up the shoulder of the road over ten or so minutes to position myself across from this beautiful bird, who stayed put and let me. Go figure – perhaps they know the difference between being loved and hunted.
I see lots of raptors every day, but it’s not every day that I have a chance to photograph them.
Thank you, Father Sky, for lending me your children.
Old Trees. August 22, 2012
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, Love and Death.Tags: Charlemont, Hall Tavern Farm, Massachusetts, New England, Old Growth Forest, old trees, white pines
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White pines, one of the taller tree species which grow in New England. These are out behind the Hall Tavern Farm in Charlemont:
There are four or five of these great things growing amongst a younger forest – how they were spared the saw is a mystery to me, but they’re inspirational enough for someone to have built a few benches for the contemplative visitor:
Those are both tilt-shift photos, although that gets lost in this venue. The first shot has a good deal of tilt, the second a full boat of swing planted right up the tree and catching the bench on its way by.
Large trees these are, at least for these parts. Two tall men might not reach around them.
I’ll be back.
Between The Rains. August 12, 2012
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: Franklin County, Hawley MA, misty hills, New England, one for Cuz, Pudding Hollow
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After an unusually long dry spell, we seem to have entered the it-rains-every-day phase of our screwy New England weather cycle. I can water the garden during dry spells, but keeping everything from rotting when we have too much rain is a bit more problematic.
Still, the wet weather has its advantages; our rivers certainly need the water, and if we’re going to have anything like a foliage season this year, so do the forests.
And the vistas of mists rising from the valleys is interesting to photograph, such as in this evening shot of a homestead in the Pudding Hollow section of Hawley:
There’s too much wrong with that photo for it to ever hang on a wall, but it’s passable for blog viewing.
Besides, while I have tons of other photos to process, I haven’t anything else ready to post, and I don’t want you all to fall asleep on me! 😆
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.
It’s Winter! December 30, 2010
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: Berkshires, Florida MA, ice, New England, Pudding Hollow, snow, Spruce Hill
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Like most of the Northeast, we’re having a bit of winter here in The Berks. It’s pretty up in the hills, with scenes like this one, a late afternoon shot of a shoulder of Spruce Hill up in Florida:
We didn’t get as much here as many nearby areas did, but the roads were nonetheless slick with blowing snow for a couple of days, and the streams descending through hushed cascades offered me an opportunity to break out Gizmo for a few close-ups:
…and:
That last one was taken beneath a heavy overcast; I really liked the textures and palette which came through.
Little Bang Theory 