Yeah, fall is supposed to be all about the foliage, but I always like to buck a trend. Mushrooms offer endless subjects these days and hiking with me is basically an exercise in watching me put the camera on the beanbag and shoot another one. Since I always use natural light, sometimes I have to... Continue Reading →
Woo hoo! Another fall-themed indian pipe shot. The brown stick phase of these little guys is so interesting, but I find it difficult to capture well. It's the texture and the funny shape the seed pods take that attracts me. Their dark coloring is a challenge, too; hard to light. I think I did ok... Continue Reading →
By now you must know how much I love indian pipe wildflowers and how even though my original project was for one season, I still shoot them almost every time I see them. Usually they bloom in June and sometimes spill over into July. But October? October?! Psyche!! Yes, I did place one of those... Continue Reading →
Lately I have been a bit starved for inspiration. The same-old-same-old just isn't doing it for me. As a result, I shoot less. I'm not bothered by this. Ups and downs are part of my normal. When I do go in the woods I just can't see if you know what I mean. I think... Continue Reading →
It's raining now and probably will for most of the week. That means more mushrooms, but it's not like we have a shortage now. All were shot with the OM 90mm. I don't know what I'd do without that lens.
and you should know that by now. Here's a group of tiny things that have found themselves in front of my lens. oh and something a little different, from Ryan and Wood Distillery, based in Gloucester, MA. Haven't been shooting so much as last year, but I am going to California in September and so... Continue Reading →
or perhaps at our feet. Mushroom season of course. This year with a lot less rain, there will probably be a lot fewer 'shrooms about, but those that are are rarin' to go. I shot a few in full shade, but they are so flat and lifeless compared to this shot with the sun lighting... Continue Reading →
Wahoo! Another beauty photographed. Never have I shot these before, but while out doing some river work (my favorite, the Piscataquog, and I'll post about that soon) I found some near a pond's runoff streams. This flower has become quite rare in some areas due to people picking and digging it up a lot. I... Continue Reading →
Another one that isn't so much elusive, as limited in photographic potential. It's limited in a few ways. First it lives in bogs and fens which are relatively rare habitats made rarer by man's manic need to fill in wetlands and build subdivisions on them. If you live in Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee or Illinois the... Continue Reading →
After a colorless winter and a dive straight into spring with all its rainbow colors, I sometimes come off a color binge and process a series of monochrome images. Usually I try for something with lots of interesting texture and a definitive structure and these leaves are perfect. I have no idea what they are,... Continue Reading →
Ah Monty Python, what a bunch of mad freaks you were. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check this out - Part 2. You really have to like MP to find it funny, but I always think of it when anyone mentions lupines. And the other day when I shot some, I... Continue Reading →
This little wonder hides in plain sight. For years I've been marching past stands of them, ignoring them as just part of the undergrowth. This year though I looked closer and wondered what they were. Then the other day I noticed they made the most delicately strange little flowers under those leaves. I wasn't prepared... Continue Reading →
Yesterday on the return leg of a hike up some small mountains in southern NH, I spied this beauty on a striped maple. It's a rare and wondrous luna moth and the backlight was a bonus. Judging by the bushy and feathery antennae, it's probably a male. It had newly emerged from the cocoon and... Continue Reading →
For the last few days I've been grounded with the car in the shop for new brakes and some other fiddly bits. So I went into the yard with the 90mm macro, a 25mm extension tube and a ring flash. What do you know, abstract macro. And if you know where your towel is... Continue Reading →
As these are pretty common flowers (apart from the columbine, which I shot a few weeks ago) I'm not including them in the elusive category. Popular and ubiquitous or not though, I can't resist them. Wait!!! How did that last one get in there?? Heh.
If you hang around this blog you'll quickly realize I love the woods. Forests of all stripes and ecologies fascinate and enchant me. Mostly I look for the small scenes and tiny things that are often overlooked. This year I want to also try to show the larger view of why I hang out in... Continue Reading →
Do you remember me stalking a plant that wasn't blooming and me not knowing what it was? Well today was my lucky day and I finally found it blooming. It's columbine! Yay!! Another one I'd never shot before. I don't remember even seeing it outside of books. Sa-weet. The light was really spectacular, but... Continue Reading →
"It looked like I had another chance at the twenty dollars." - Philip Marlowe, The Little Sister There's never a bad time for Raymond Chandler now is there? When I went to see if another flower was blooming, I found that the hepatica still were and this line from my favorite Chandler came into my... Continue Reading →
Phew. A second trip got me what I wanted. Hepatica in bloom. The wind though was relentless and the light harsh, so my photographic options were somewhat limited, but I got a couple that I'm happy with. This first one is the same group of flowers in the trail that I shot on my first... Continue Reading →
In the event that I get crap out of the camera tomorrow, here's what I shot today. All three were shot with my old Olympus 90mm. It's round-lobed hepatica, a very early riser in the spring wildflower pantheon. And one I've never shot before. The name refers to the leaves which are quite distinctive and... Continue Reading →
Earlier today I took a quick stroll around the yard, looking at this and that, checking on things that might be emerging. It's not officially spring, but it sure feels like it out there. We've got spring peepers peeping already and I saw a garter snake around the 10th. Amazing. Anyway, on my quick stroll... Continue Reading →
The other day I decided to walk in the common land at the end of the road. It's woods and has a couple of old roads running through it and it was logged sometime in the past. There are some trails, one in particular runs to the back of a nearby horse stable and gets... Continue Reading →
From this morning. I couldn't resist the patterns or the light.
Even though it's hunting season up here, I still get into the woods. I feel a bit funny being so conspicuous in my blaze orange though. So many times I've gone completely unnoticed by other folks. Not when I'm on the trail or right next to it, but if I go off trail and am... Continue Reading →
Fall is one of the most productive...well, if I can call it that, times for me as a photographer. There are so many things that catch my eye and the season is so volatile that there is a surprise almost every day. Here's a few of my favorite catches. Early in October things are still... Continue Reading →
