Broken Horse

This was turning out to be the usual horse shoot. I'd decided to go with the horse insn't co-operating theme and couldn't line up a decent one of those. There were three horses and they were doing their best to ignore me and screw up the pix. They knew I was there. I was thinking of another pic called Horses Ass, as all three lined up a good distance apart and headed away but they made that look bad. I found another position, kept shooting, hoping, but getting nothing. Finally this one decided she had to check me out, turned and moved quickly to me. Luck was turning. I got a few decent images of her coming and she nosed my lens before I pulled my camera away. I scratched her head and talked her up, wishing I had a carrot. She waited while I changed lenses, I then shot this. She has no idea how psyched I was!

Water and Tree

This was one wet day. It almost looks like the water is coming out of the ground and headed out into the field but it was actually running to me and into a culvert. I thought shooting through my fogged up window helped with the feeling I had, wet and cold. It was slushy, wet, winter, and one of those days one should stay home. The tree was right at home. It's probably been through many of these days.

Hidden Truck

We'd stopped so I could try to make something of a half built log cabin and I almost missed the this truck. I wonder about things like this. Did someone drive it here, park it and never plan on coming back? It bothered me a little that it was almost overgrown with the brush but I had to make something of it. Maybe I just wanted to see more of it and have more of a creative chance. Not to be. The half built log cabin has vanished since, but the truck is still there. I like this now because it is what it is.

NEX Rainbows

I think rainbows are something you sit, watch, and enjoy. I'm usually trying to find a better angle, whether speeding around in the car, running through the woods, or frantically trying to find the right lens while time is running out. They just don't last long enough. These were spotted at the end of the work day and for a few moments I watched but finally broke down and ran to get my camera. My angle couldn't have been better and the light on the NEX building was just what it should have been. I captured a few and the rainbows disappeared, almost like they were waiting for me to finish.

Frigid Balloons

This was a cold day and we were about to go into a shop when I decided to stop and try to get something. I include this in my movement series and I think it has this look from a combination of a breeze and a little zoom. My fingers don't move well when they get real cold, I was having a hard time getting a grip (to stay smooth with the lens), the sun was doing nothing for warmth, but working as a fine backlight (and the angle of the shot gave me neck pain). I had to stick it out, there was an image here and I had to find it. I've found that when my fingers stop moving during shooting, they always seem to work again after warming them up. And that's good.

Train Cars

This would be a dull image of nothing if it weren't for the train coming through. I like trains and their cars and I found it's their movement that intrigues me. I can fool the viewer by changing shutter speeds, and even wait for color to help separate the the cars. You can mess up for quite awhile if the trains long enough and they usually are. This train was going about 5.

Connecticut River

There's a lot of activity on the Connecticut River normally. Maybe it was to early or something but nobody out on this morning. The little floats were what interested me at first. I liked the diagonal they were on and I only had to move a little from my original view before I had them in the composition that worked for me. I like how blue the image went, it was how the morning was.

Tree and Fence

I wanted to do something with the sky, I found the cloud pattern so interesting. I'd rather not make an image of "just" clouds, and sometimes I do, but they have to be special. When I saw the fence and knew I could include it, I figured the image would work. It helps add dimension and gives a good base to the shot. With the lack of light on the fence, it went dark, more icing on the cake.

Foggy Forest

Usually when I see from this spot I feel like you do when you notice distances in the desert. Seems like the trees go on forever. The fog stops the forever feel today, but that's OK. I like how there's one row of trees separated out by the fog. The point of focus is now the these trees. It helps add depth and interest to an otherwise nothing image.

Hidden Horses

I'm as elevated as I can be and still can't get high enough. I think the horses knew I was coming, so they did what they could to hide themselves. The trick worked during the summer but not today. I'm perfectly willing to shoot this way. If I can shoot through dirty car windows, grass, and broken beer bottles, I can shoot through a bush. To bad horses, I got you again!

Poplar Tree

This was a day I didn't have the quick release plate. I had the camera, had the tripod, but not the connection. It was with the lens I wish I had. We had a breeze, it was a perfect day to do some time exposures, if... I had the QR plate. So what to do. I new I had to be steady and I wasn't, so I went to plan B. I held as steady as I could and took two exposures a fraction of a second apart at faster shutter speeds on top of each other, hoping the breeze would move the leaves enough so they blurred each other in combination. The faster shutter speeds helped me keep the tree in the same spot. It was really quit easy.

Conduit

I got out of the car to make another image and saw this. The conduit seemed odd to me being on the road side of the guard rail, but this is Western Mass. Seems like this composition is full of angles separated buy color and contrast. I forgot what image I made on the other side of the road, but it was probably a usual. Sometimes I enjoy looking at an image more than when it happened. Something tells me to shoot it, so I do.

Holy Smokes #002

I thought this was some place with the salt and pepper shakers handy on the windowsill. This was taken at Holy Smokes, it no longer exists as a restaurant, but it's a nice part of a series I've been working on. The windows were colored glass, as a church should have, and this one was warm with the warm toned finishing, so I thought it would make a good simple photograph. And that's just the thing, somethings are just so simple.

Maple Duo

The tree was pretty good but far away. Shooting from the side of the road worked out pretty well here in that it the bank was so close and the tree far away. I used half the frame for basically nothing but color, the other half being the star of the show. The depth of field separated the color and helps send you to the maple. Looking at this now I'm glad I didn't have a long lens. I would have a big image of the tree, but no environment.

Water and Sky

This was one of those times when nothing was working. I decided to do the opposite thing where I figure out what I'm doing and then do, the opposite. I was trying to show motion, and decided to freeze it. Instead of focusing on the reflection I focus on the hardest thing to see, the rocky bottom. Much better. I took many images this day, and almost gave up. We won't have many more days like this, I'm glad I stuck with it.

Cloud Cover

I guess I don't know a lot about clouds. The clouds are covered by a thin layer of cloud? I'll take the phenomenon, and the picture (of course). I don't fly enough, and have to envy pilots of the big heavy's. Imagine the view and all the neat cloud formations they get to enjoy. I wonder if they appreciate it. They should.

Bird

It was windy and sunny and dark and fast! I looked out the window and saw the dark sky relative to the light toned NEX building. All I could think of was, "another NEX image!" It wasn't to be though. I recorded what was there but I was missing something. I started aiming left and playing with the light on the trees and the lack of light in the clouds. I knew at any moment the light could change so I was kinda frantic. I wasn't thrilled with this until I saw the lone bird playing in the wind. Up and down it went, I could barely see when the wings were spread but could tell they were flappen. This was a good day to be a bird.

Fence and Laundry

My first thoughts were I wished the fence was white. It wasn't, and you can't have everything, but I loved the light playing on it. I had to take a picture. The color and depth of focus in the background is all I needed to help separate this. I think it worked.

Tree Trunks

This is a nice place to stop unless the bugs are out. A bog on each side of the road, there's usually something to look at. I was looking for color and contrast when I spotted this group of trees. When I aimed down and got rid of the sky, the color popped and the Tree Trunks stood out. The red is bold and demanding but the shot depends on the trunks.

Gypsy Jazz Band

I never got to thank this duo that entertained us. They were perfect and unexpected. I only took a few images the day of my opening. I guess that makes the few precious. I thought I would go without the camera, broke down, used it, and then put it away. It was a day to experience, not record.

Tony

This is what I looked like on the opening at the Gallery. My mom and dad came to see. I usually do better when I aim the camera at myself, maybe I was nervous. It was a good day.

Barn and Tree

This was a quiet, dull, wet day, and the Barn and Tree seemed to pop right out. The shrubbery on the right is perfect balance to the road on the left and it adds depth to the image. Shadows, shrubs, roads, secondary things, seem to help the main subjects of the image more interesting. Some of the places and things I make images of have so many looks to them. It's a matter of season, weather, time of day, all kinds of things. I wonder often about how many things I don't see.

Ice Tractors

I couldn't stop the car fast enough when I saw these tractors. You know how your car slides when you lock the brakes up on ice. What an addition to my tractor series. I shot this through the passenger side window (it was down), and made a few more when I got out of the car. It didn't seem right to step on the icy grass, everything was crystal. I think the weed ice blocking the lower part of the tractor adds to the the ice effect since the background says white and not ice. It's like a fence. Makes sense.

Cow and Weeds

This was done the morning of my previous post. I found this a good day for images, everything clicked. My lens wasn't long enough to isolate the cow and I even found myself widening out to get more of the field and the darker grass on the lower right edge of the frame. The foliage is early enough not to steel the show, and there's two things going on here, the cow and the weeds. The title seemed appropriate.

Autumn Highlights

I thought the telephone lines were begging for an image with this highlight on them. Everything else in the image was just support for this otherwise regular and mundane subject. I saw this through my foggy wet drivers side window and just before I rolled it down I made 2 quick decisions. Not to roll the window down and take one shot. I didn't even roll the window down to see what I may have missed. The sharpest part of the image is a small sliver of telephone line of the left edge. It's another "it's not in focus but what's out of focus" shot. My lens gave the perfect vignette possibly from the closeness and angle my lens was to the window. It's like a painting.

Quiet Country Road

This was such a day. The tree is what I wanted to feature in my initial thoughts. I think the treeline, the power lines, poles, and even the road help show how big and grand the tree is. I wanted to shoot more of the tree but I had a building on the left (you can see a bit of it), and the composition wasn't there if you added more to the right. I love how dark the tree went. The ice on the tree and landscape were just "icing" on the cake! I'm glad it worked out the way it did. The image makes me think "Quiet" but it really wasn't. It was more crinkly.

Past Ferns

I'm not sure how many bad images of this fern patch I made but enough so I almost gave up. I didn't pick the prettiest of ferns and that was part of the plan. Because I didn't have the light inside this treeline I hoped the shallow depth of field would give the image the character it needed for me to be happy. I chose this view because of the lightness of the featured fern. It sticks out naturally. The green (or almost green) of the image didn't do it so I dropped it into black and white. Now,......it's perfect.

Telephone Pole

For me, this, I think, is the most incredible image I've made, in my life, of a telephone pole.

Tree by House

I thought this worked out pretty well. I liked the texture of the wall and the vine on the tree. I wanted to do something of both and it seemed perfect to block out the sky with the wall. It was an overcast day, wet, rainy, perfect for this type of stuff. The bigger I make this image the less real it seems. I like the illusion.

Silk City

We rarely go to Silk City. This night was different because a band was playing we knew and wanted to go enjoy the sound. I brought my camera, shot and shot (the band), and never realized what was going on behind me. Normally I look, I guess the music distracted me. The band was done, packing up, I turned and saw it, thought, I don't have enough room on my card! Anyway, another lessen learned. I got good stuff on the band and........the floor!

Morning Fog

This image again made just to the left of my previous posts. I saw the light as I headed for work and thought I might have some luck again at Unity Park. No luck there. I've left the airport alone because of the construction (their building a longer runway), but not this morning. I found a place to park and started running thru the grass to get my shot and then race back to get to work on time. I wanted to get the fog and mist in the hills but realized the mounded up dirt would be a good element in the shot. I don't know how long the dirt will be there so my soaked feet seemed worth it.