Trying to Peg the Photo Geometries

Today was zero humidity - crystal clear, and I took more shots that please me than I have taken in a few weeks. In spite of the glorious blue sky and light, today's shot was taken into the roof of one of the barn's on Rabbit Hill.

Experiment in White & Gray

For the past few weeks I have been photographing icicles and ice. All the images that have pleased me most have also been flawed in some ways. On the way home from the post office today as the snow/sleat/rain began again with the promise of refreshing the landscape with new white, a fog rolled in. I reached the top of Rabbit Hill for this photo almost too late, but stood in the muck to take a dozen shots of this farm. I could barely see what I was photographing and backed my effort with a variety of exposures. I've never before tried shooting into such thick fog and the resulting image needed much work to adjust tones (and remove the marks left by dirt on the camera's image sensor (the plague of digital photography). For the moment, I'm pleased, but I wish I had moved a bit right to separate the truck more from the barns. I'm not sure what I'll think tomorrow, but the opportunity has already passed. Any tips or criticism will be much appreciated.

Dandelion's Revenge

This photo from last June was taken just before leaving New Brunswick, Canada, after a week-long photo workshop with Andre Gallant and Freeman Patterson. I passed by this field on my first day in New Brunswick 7 days earlier. Then the field was all yellow. I took numerous shots, but I like this one for the bit of mid-ground dialogue between left and right. I'm not sure why, but the house peeping over the treetops makes me giggle. It has hung in my dining room for a few weeks, and I have also come to enjoy the soft focus of the hillside in the far background. At the camera club they complained about both house and background soft focus. They said I should have tilted the camera down and just taken dandilions. Well, I did that too, and I chose this instead.

Barn Cat

Last night we got our second snow of the year. It was just a bit more than a dusting, but there was a shot I wanted at a barn in Cornwall, so I was up early to catch my shot before footprints and wind spoiled it. While I trespassed on the snow-covered lawn in front of the barn, a woman stopped her car. Before I could apologize for trespassing, she asked if I wanted her to wait before she left car tracks in the long driveway to the door of the barn and spoiled my image. Trespassers have no right to expect such consideration.

As it turns out, she is the, "milkmaid." The farm is owned by New Yorkers, and she takes care of the cows. After shooting outside, I knocked on the barn door and introduced myself further. She gave me permission to explore the barn and take all the pictures I wanted. This cat never budged from her perch. She looked at me for a few moments and then turned to look back out the window. I took the photo both ways and haven't decided yet whether I like her better looking at the camera or with her facing away and enjoying the view from her spot of warmth.

I don't know what the object on the right is, but I loke the way it catches the light and balances out the picture.

Dry Bones

My daughter commented, appropriately, that she found this one more disturbing than the last.

Missed Opportunities

I have been meaning to stop and photograph this barn for almost a year. From route 4 it was towering, almost gothic in its force. I was too late. When I passed it last week, the roof had caved in, and the two turret-like vents were somewhere inside, swallowed by the beast. Even in its current state, it is not without merit, but when I finally got there today, the long shot I had imagined was no longer possible.

Never put off to tomorrow...

Journey to the Underworld

I thought this was a good follow up to the previous photo past the "No Trespass" and down the garden path. If I took photos in the city more often, there might be more like this.

The apparition of these faces in a crowd.
Petals on a wet, black bough.

In fact, it was taken while descending into the Prague Metro.

To the Garden of Delights

This photo was taken a few years back. It never quite worked, but today with a bit of deft cropping, I think I got the background space to read properly so that one is encouraged to make the journey down the garden path. I've also tried this photo in monochrome, and I like it both ways, but right now it's so good to have all that color.

Seeking Color

This photo was taken just before the last of the fall leaves had disappeared from the hill behind Meeker Swamp. The last of the days light adds deep shadows and makes the few remaining leaves glow. I came across it during my periodic review of old images, and it reminded me of how much I'm longing for either more color or a complete white-out beneath a blanket of snow.

Monochrome or Technicolor

Wind sweeping across the surface of Meeker Swamp has momentarily blown the dusting of snow into an unteresting pattern. I'm offering the image here in monochrome even though I'm also very exctied by the rich blue, white and gold of the full color version. Choices are so hard. Can one accept two versions of the same photo?

In Monochrome

Our light dusting of snow as not enough to coat the ground but wet enough to line the branches until the wind began. I've been experimenting with monochrome images. I especially like the way monochrome universalizes this barn scene and makes the whole photo much more about textures than about subject.