Figure 1 – Photopictorialist study # 19 – landscape behind The Clark, Williams College, Williamstown, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2019.

The year is nearing its end, and we are joyfully nearing the shortest day. Eventually we may emerge, like Dante, from the tyranny of Daylight Standard Time. Not that I am bitter and grumpy! I spent a really nice weekend in Western Massachusetts and, as a result was able to capture, the nineteenth of my photopictorialist studies. This is shown in Figure 1 as a stark, but well groomed, hill taken from behind The Clark at Williams College in Williamstown, MA. All that I have done to the original, so as to “pictorialize” it is to add a bit of noise and to brighten and saturate the colors. I took several images concentrated on including and excluding, as well as positioning, various trees in the foreground. This is the image that pleased me most in the end.

It may be worth noting that despite the fact that this was only a few days after our first big snow of the year, recent warm weather and heavy rains had obliterated all of the snow. Grass and trees cling to life in a New England winter only to themselves emerge again come spring, and spring will come!