Figure 1 – A dismal day on the pond. Maynard, MA (c) DE Wolf 2018t

Figure 1 was taken back in early October with my IPhone at the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge. The idea was to capture the absolutely dismal quality of the light as well as the gloomy solitude of denuded trees. I have chosen to remain in color, though it is minimal. The image required almost no processing to obtain the effect that I was after – just a tiny bit of dodging in the clouds and an emphatic blue tone. And, of course, there was the requisite sharpening of the image. Dominant is the bilateral symmetry of tree and sky reflected in the water.

The odd quality of a gloomy scene is that it is somehow uplifting. Melancholia, like that of Hamlet, evokes contemplation. Here our thoughts zero in on the transitional moment, the liminal passage between fall and winter. Soon the pond will be frozen. But always there is the assertion of spring and summer – the promise of another year.