No Excuse Part II

I heard that autumn color was at peak in Keene Valley so I headed down that way. On the way I stopped between Upper and Lower Cascade lakes where I found these lovely birches and young Mountain Ash. A bit further on I found a bright red vine over light grey rocks. I'm a sucker for anything that is red.

From there I went on to climb Owl's Head Peak and was rewarded with some good color if somewhat dull light.

Finally I came home via Wilmington Notch where I met this fine pine on the banks of the Ausable River.

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No Excuses

It's been weeks since I posted anything and I have no excuse. I'm not even sure why except that I've been preoccupied with chores. This will be a 2-in-1 day set of posts to catch up.

The first set of photos are from my final lean-to hike of the year. My friend Rick Reed went along and unlike the first trip this year we had a dry day. On the way to the trailhead we were greeted by a beautiful sunrise along the Loj Rd. There wasn't as much to clean up as last trip and I left a box of crayons with the register just for fun.

Heart Lake was smooth as glass when we hiked by on our way to the lean-to.

On the way out we climbed Mt. Jo which overlooks Heart Lake. Although he has climbed all 46 High Peaks Rick had never climbed Mt. Jo before.

The Heart of Photography is Openness - A Book Review

I just bought a photo book that I love. It is "Small Island, Big Pictures" by Alexandra de Steiguer. Alex has spent sixteen winters as caretaker on a group of islands off the New England coast, alone. She thinks, explores, writes and photographs with a medium format camera. Her photographs are nothing short of wonderful. The written part is spare, like the winter islands she photographs, an appropriate compliment to the images without distracting from the visual experience. And that's what this book is, a visual experience of a place at a time that (mostly) only she sees.

Discussing her photography she says that even the making of the photographs can be an intrusion on the experience of being there and that "Without the camera, I loved being outside. It didn't matter that the light be 'just right', or the day dramatic. Only with the camera was there a certain expectation. I spent more time looking than appreciating, more time searching than seeing."  I know the feeling. Probably the most important 'trick' or technique a photographer can learn is to see through the camera as if it weren't there. To reach the point when the camera is merely a note taking tool, a means of saving a moment in time and space. That is the real craft of photography at its finest and Alex de Steiguer has mastered it in this fine collection of images.

The book is available through http://www.alexdesteiguer.com/portfolio/pages/her+new+book. Her website URL is http://alexdesteiguer.com/

The usual disclaimer: I do not know Alex de Steiguer. I requested and received her permission to use the photo above in this review which I chose to write wholly of my own accord after purchasing the book. The photograph is the property of Alex de Steiguer and the review is copyrighted by me. She may use it if and as she wishes, all others are prohibited from reposting without permission.

Shameless Commercialism

But it isn't for me, it is for our Arts Council. They have created a 2014 calendar featuring the work of several member artists (including moi but I don't get money from it) in order to raise money and/or new members. You can get one by joining for $50 or you can just buy the calendar at this link. Please mention that you were referred by me.

The Moon Again

Last night as I was going out to take in the bird feeders* in I spotted this scene and dashed back to get my camera. It was shot with the Canon SX 50 handheld 1/15th sec. Judging by the tree at the right I'd say the image stabilization worked pretty well. I love the colors of the sunset afterglow.

*We take in the bird feeders at night because the raccoons get into them if we leave them out.

Moonshine

Not the drinking kind of moonshine but it has an intoxicating effect on some poets anyway. I shot this photo during an evening shoot of some daylilies. When the sun went down too far for more handheld photos of flowers I looked up and noticed the moon. I learned some years ago that the trick to photographing the moon so that you can see the 'face' is to shoot it at the same exposure as you would for full sun* because the moon, which is your main subject, is in full sun. Of course if you wait until it is too dark that means everything else is underexposed and black. That brings up the second trick which is to shoot the moon at twilight while there is still enough light and color in the sky and of course a few clouds help too.

*Exposure for full sun is f/16 at whatever your ISO is for the shutter speed. I.E. ISO 100 full sun exposure is f/16 @ 1/100th sec. Some photographers like to open up one stop to f/11 but too much exposure will wash out the detail and you'll just get a white disk. Try both to see how it works for your camera.

Wild about Wildflowers

I wandered out into my back field this evening to look for wild flowers. The first that I encountered was this Queen Ann's Lace. I shot a couple of frames before this but I particularly liked the way the cluster of blossoms seemed to flow downward when seen from this angle. It is very suggestive of lace on the front of a lady's dress.

Canon 7D on a tripod with an EFs 18-135mm and and extension tube. Processed to B&W in NIK SE2 and duotoned in Photoshop CC.

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Twenty Years Later

Yesterday I climbed Whiteface Mt in the Adirondacks with a small group of friends. The trip was in celebration of the 20th anniversary of my completion of the 46 High Peaks. I had finished on Whiteface on a chilly damp day in 1993 but yesterday was quite the opposite, very hot, high 80s to 90° F and very humid. Once we reached the top it was pleasant enough with a strong breeze to cool us but the trip back down was even hotter and more humid than the climb. I took 4 liters of water and drank it all by the time we got back down.

I took the Canon G11 and a polarizing filter that attaches with some adapter tubes. I wanted to keep my pack as light as possible considering the heat and climbing about 3100 feet in 4 miles. We took our time, averaging a bit less than 1 mph. The view above is from near the Weather Station looking South. The photo below was made from the promontory in this view looking North.

I'm planning to do the trip again for the 25th anniversary although I may hitch a ride back down on that trip, or not. Who knows? If I can stay in shape to climb I should be able to walk back down too.

Below are the celebrants: Dave Allen 46er (finished two years ago), Rick Reed 46er (finished five years ago), Yours Truly and Ron Reed, Rick's twin brother and aspiring 46er. With a bit of luck and good health we should all be 46ers when we do the 25th anniversary climb.

Climbing Mountains

I'm going to repeat my final 46er climb up Whiteface on Wednesday, the 20th anniversary of my completing the 46. I've been walking several miles/day in preparation but the hills around here, while steep for this area, are no comparison to climbing a mountain so I decided to climb Azure today because, for a "little" mountain it is a stiff climb. It was miserably hot and humid. By the time I reached the summit the front of my shirt was totally sweated out. I looked like someone had hit me with a garden hose. There was a decent breeze on top though and I got cooled down after a bit of time taking photos on the summit.

The photo is of a glacial erratic that sits on a ledge overlooking a steep drop off into a valley with several ponds. I decided to process it as a B&W in NIK Silver Efex 2 and then I toned it in Photoshop using the Duotone mode before converting it back to RGB. The only file format that recognizes Duotone is PSD and that's no good for emailing or posting to the web. I've been leaning toward B&W for some time now, a return to my roots I guess, and it worked well for this image.

There are a few more color images below. All were made using a Canon 7D with an 18-135 EFs lens. All are copyrighted. Please do not repost without permission.

Thoughts on Aging and Attitude

The photo is from four years and almost nine months ago. I made it on the way to join my friend Rick Reed who was completing his climbs of the 46 Adirondack High Peaks on Whiteface that day. It was my pleasure (and honor) to present him with a 46er pin when he reached the summit (see http://www.adk46r.org/ for an explanation of 46ers). I post it today because it is the same peak on which I finished climbing the 46 in 1993 and I will be repeating the climb as a 20th anniversary hike on the 17th, a little less than two weeks from today.

In the process of preparing to do this I have on occasion suffered a bit of self doubt, thoughts about being 20 years older, can I still do this, etc. Upon expressing them I have heard some of them echoed by others. On the other hand, inside my head I hear my eldest brother Bruce who was known for saying "there's no such thing as can't", On my daily walk this evening, which is longer than the distance up Whiteface, albeit not as steep, I pondered the business of age and concluded that there are three aspects to aging.

The first is chronological, the calendar, and you can't do anything about it nor in a larger sense does it matter. Time supposedly passes, that's how we experience things, but realistically all there is is NOW. The second aspect is physical. Our bodies do wear out with the passage of time but we have considerable control over how and how quickly they wear out. Abuse your body in any of a number of ways and it will wear out more sooner. Eat right, exercise (motion is good for you), generally take care of it and it will last longer. The third aspect is mind/attitude, the thing my brother was talking about. We have (almost) total control over that. I threw in the 'almost' because some of us will suffer from things like Alzheimer's. For most of us though, we choose our attitude when we wake up in the morning and with each encounter throughout the day. We can stay interested in life and the world, we can stay positive or  not. It is our choice. I've known people who were young in mind well into old age while others were mentally old at 40. Research has shown that learning new skills (learn to dance, learn to play a musical instrument, learn a new language) keeps our minds young.

Our attitude is key for keeping our bodies in shape but I think there is a part of our brain that is like Hal in Space Odyssey 2001. It has a 'prime directive' to preserve our body which it interprets as seeking ease and comfort above all  else. Unfortunately, that is not always what is best for our physical well being. The Hal part of my brain tells me it's too hot to go for a walk and I have to shut 'Hal' off, listen to Bruce's voice instead and go anyway. So my thought for the day is ignore the calendar and adopt an attitude of caring for yourself and the world, and a attitude of "I CAN". See you on the mountaintop.

Nothing New Under The Sun?

There may be nothing new but if you haven't already seen it, it is as good as new. This flower was new to me this morning. It's a Deptford Pink according to my Audubon guide. I thought when I spotted it that it must be related to the Maiden Pinks I'd been photographing in my back field but there are distinct differences so I had to look it up. I don't recall ever seeing this variety before and I'm quite certain I've never photographed any of them before. So I end the month of June with a 'new' flower.

Canon SX50, Lightroom & Photoshop CC

Into the Mists

Yesterday I did one of my lean-to maintenance hikes. I adopt a lean-to in the Adirondacks that is about 4 miles in from the trailhead. The adopter does clean up and minor maintenance to the shelter and the adjacent camping area. My friend Rick went with me.

The forecast was for a 30% chance of rain and I had hoped it would hold off until late in the day so we started early. The photo above was made at 7 AM looking across the Plains of Abraham so we knew as we drove in the Loj Rd. that we would see rain and we did. I think I can safely say we got all of the 30% that was forecast, about half of it in one 15-20 minute downpour. Fortunately we were at the lean-to when the downpour occurred so, although we got wet, we didn't get drenched.

This is my 22nd year as a lean-to adopter. It allows me to 'give back' as they put it, a way to contribute to the welfare of the Adirondack wilderness that gives me a lot of pleasure, not to mention a lot of photographs. It also gives me a sense of ownership over what is actually public land, a proprietary feeling of concern for preserving it for future generations. Part of that proprietary feeling is a sense of indignation towards those who willfully disrespect this gift of nature.

That indignation got exercised yesterday. There is, and has been for several years now, a ban on campfires in the High Peaks area. The first thing we discovered on arrival at the lean-to was an elaborate fire pit built by digging a hollow in the ground and placing a ring of rocks that had been taken from the stream around the edge of the pit. There had been a No Fires sign on the front post of the lean-to but it had been cut away around the nails that held it and apparently burned in the pit along with tin cans, glass and other trash that any fool should know doesn't burn, leaving a charred and ugly mess for Rick and I to haul out.

We bagged up the trash and dismantled the fire ring, returning the rocks to the stream along with the stash of firewood that the builders had piled nearby. We delivered a new register (the old one was falling apart) and headed back out by 11 AM taking a detour to Rocky Falls on the way. I'm sure I've posted pictures of Rocky Falls before but here's another. It was a good day to be in the woods, but then, it's a rare day  that isn't.

The panorama at the top was stitched from 4 frames. All photos were made with a Canon G11.

Out Standing in my Field

A photo of a bumble bee on some Cow Vetch. The field is really coming alive with wildflowers. The former owners mowed the field every year with a brush hog and not much grew there last year. I spread some wildflower seeds Monday to encourage even more variety. If I start to get trees and shrubs where I don't want them, I'm remove them selectively rather than just mowing everything. I'm not a big fan of mowing where there's no real reason. Back when I first retired I spent the first summer taking walks along the country roads around where I lived and photographing the wild flowers along them with my first digital camera, an Olympus 4040. Part way through the summer I discovered that the sides of the road had been mowed by the town highway department and wrote this:

In The Shadow of a Goose

Two weeks ago there were wildflowers

on the shoulder of this country road,

and as I walked along that day I stopped to photograph

Queen Ann’s Lace, Mayweed, and Bladder Campion.

Purple clusters of Vetch and

pink trumpet blooms of Bindweed

climbed the tall grasses

reaching for the sun.

Then the highway department came through,

a big tractor pulled a huge mower

that cut anything smaller than your thumb

leaving in its wake a mass of mangled green.

Now, the grass is getting tall again,

almost as tall as it was, and ragweed is thriving,

but the wildflowers are gone from the roadside.

It’s neater now, everything the same height and all green.

The wildflowers are still in bloom of course,

just over the fence, in the farmer’s field.

Here on the public right of way,

things are neat and orderly, not wild.

Off to my right a dozen or so geese rise from a wetland.

They fly across the road, between me and the sun.

The shadow of a goose passes over me,

over the fence and over the wildflowers in the field.

More Wildflowers

More flowers from my back field. These are Maiden Pinks. I first spotted them while driving the tractor and from that height they looked like a pink version of Blue Eyed Grass. The blooms are a similar size and there are no obvious leaves off the sides of the stems. Upon closer inspection though there are significant differences aside from the color. Photographing flowers this small on a breezy day is a challenge. I'm laying down in the field with the tripod legs spread out horizontally, I get the distance, framing and focus just right and just as I'm ready to trip the shutter a breeze makes the flower bob wildly in and out of the frame. Patience! It settles down and I refocus, perhaps readjust the framing too and try again. Sometimes it takes several tries. Occasionally I discover after getting the images into the computer that they are all slightly blurred but it works often enough and I keep doing it because I like the results when it works.

The Rough Bedstraw was another new wildflower out in the field yesterday (the white flower mixed in with Blue Eyed Grass below) and on the way into the house I photographed the Chives blooms (bottom photo). They aren't wildflowers but I like any flowers.

All were made with a Canon 7D, 18-135mm EFs lens and extension tubes. The images are copyrighted. If you wish to share them with others please respect my copyright and refer them to the URL here. Do not repost without permission.