Sea of Ferns

I did this photograph yesterday, before the rain.  I went to the store in the afternoon, and when backing out of the driveway, noticed how the light was falling on the ferns.  So when I got back, with the groceries, I grabbed the camera and explored the scene.  It is amazing to me that less than a month ago the small fiddleheads were just pushing out of the ground.  There didn't seem to be enough of them to fill in the entire bank.  What a surprise - look at them all now!

Timing...

I first saw this fence about 4 months ago.  I pass it each week on the way to my astronomy meeting.  Only thing was, it was dark out - much too dark to take a photograph.  So I kept an eye on it each week, and finally, as the days got longer, it was bright enough at the time I passed by, to finally take a photograph.  It is interesting - most times if I see something, there is no thinking that I should come back later - it is usually: "I need to stop NOW!"  It is risky to pass by something and think that I can shoot it later.  But this was different.  By the way, I left the color balance on the blue side, as I took it.  I tried correcting the color by removing the blue, but I like that the pallet of this photograph is just cool colors.

Someone is Asleep

At the astronomy meeting tonight, we had a slideshow in the planetarium dome, about some of the objects in the sky that we look at during Spring. It was a well-done talk, with a lot of technical details.  The problem is, that the planetarium has been recently completely rebuilt, and it has REALLY comfortable chairs. It is not unusual for members to fall asleep, especially when the lights go down when we have a sky show, and the entire planetarium is dark.  I thought I would take a few pictures for the website since the lights were on.  I was using a telephoto lens from some distance away, and that's when I saw that one of my subjects appeared to be asleep, even with the lights on.

Something Different

I wanted something with a different feeling to it - something unlike my landscapes.  So I saw this little vase holding sticks that get dipped in fragrance and then are left to perfume a room.  So I brought the vase and sticks it into the dining room, and put them on the window sash.  Then I used a longer focal length lens with the aperture wide open to blur the background.  And then I converted it to black & white to complete the transformation.

"454 Main Street, USA"

This rock has a storied history.  I drove by this for at least 20 years on the way to the processing lab.  The people who lived in the house had it painted bright white, and had their name painted on it: "Kamen."  I can still see it in my mind's eye.  Now the bad part.  It seemed that every few months I would see that someone had thrown something onto the rock, defacing it.  Eggs, paint, and who knows what else.  The residents would patiently clean it and paint it again.  It was distressing to see it defaced constantly, though. Well the house was sold perhaps ten years ago, and I never really paid attention to the rock, until I drove by it the other day, and the setting sun was illuminating it.  The new owners have painted an American flag on it, and it appears that the rock is no longer being regularly defaced.

"Good Fences Make Good Neighbors..."

Well, this got my attention! When I first saw it, the entire lawn was dirt.  I didn't stop to photograph it that first day, and then we were away.  When we came back, there was a whole new lawn.  I am guessing that they will be putting in a whole new fence, but that they will save this lovely gate area.  But until the rest of the fence shows up, we have a very incongruous looking situation.  I was immediately reminded of Robert Frost's "Mending Wall" - a favorite poem by him, where he mentions a couple of times: "Good fences make good neighbors."

Taking Out The Garbage

I took out the garbage the other night, and as I usually do, I took a moment to look around.  As I glanced up Laurel Avenue, I saw the fog that was in the air, illuminated by the streetlights.  It was a lovely atmospheric effect, so I went and got a camera and the tripod.  I shot the original in color, but the colors in the scene were really bizarre because of the mercury vapor street light.  So I converted the image to black and white, and I like this version much better.