Figure 1 – Male Mallard, Little Fresh Pond, Fresh Pond Reserve, Cambridge, MA April 2015. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

The other day I was walking around a still frozen Fresh Pond in Cambridge, MA and I was wondering just how long it would take the ducks to return after the melt.  The answer is not long at all.  Maybe there’s a link on Travelocity for ducks to check the ice conditions, like snow conditions for skiers.  But no sooner than a significant amount of water opened up, but the water fowl returned.  So far these have included, Mallards, Canadian geese, Herring gulls, American coots, and cormorants.  Yesterday I tried to photograph a coot on a nasty rainy day.  I succeeded in obtaining a grey picture of a grey bird, swimming and diving in grey water that reflected a grey sky.  The grey-test  but not the greatest of photographs.  I did however, find a beautiful male mallard (Anas platyrhyncus) posing and preening himself on a log – clearly to impress the nearby lady mallard.  Mallards are our most common duck, but still beautiful because of their iridescent green heads and the patch of blue on their wings.  As for Figure 1, I am happy with the pose, the scenery, and with the reflection of the bird in the pond.

Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens at 200 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture-priority AE mode, 1/640th sec at f/10.0, with +1 exposure compensation.

Figure 1 – Easter morning at Helen’s in Concord. IPhone photograph. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

After a satisfying night watching the Wisconsin Badgers defeat the Kentucky Wild Cats in Big Four NCAA play, it was fun to get up late on Easter Sunday morning and go with our friend Jane to Helen’s in Concord for Breakfast.  You gotta get there early.  Helen’s has been the breakfast spot in Concord since 1936; so what is that four generations.  It is just a casual family place with good food and no pretension.

This morning the waitresses were adorned in Easter Bunny ears and I convinced them to pose for an IPhone photograph. Again not a great work of art, just an unpretentious snap shot into a somewhat harsh light. Although I do really like the flare and shadow pattern emanating from the wall fixture.  I had better take a Sunday nap and rest up for Monday’s night championship game, Wisconsin vs. Duke.  At the risk of allienating some of my readers, I have only one thing more to say:

“On Wisconsin!”

Figure 1 – The opportunistic fisherman, Little Fresh Pond, Cambridge, MA, (c) DE Wolf 2015.

As the ice has been melting on our ponds I have noticed hundreds of dead fish first floating just below the ice and then in the melted water.  It is a disturbing scene but one quite nature.  This is winter pond kill. In shallow pods as ice and then snow block both exchange with the atmosphere and light penetration to fuel photosynthesis, the water becomes depleted of oxygen and the fish suffocate.  It is a gruesome scene, but quite a boon to the sea gulls, such as this herring gull (Larus argentatus), that have flown inland for the feast.

I found this guy on Little Fresh Pond in Cambridge, MA, feasting on not so fresh fish this past Friday.  The light was annoying, very dull and overcast.  But he was happy to pose for me and I kept taking pictures until I got just the right combination of bird, wing, and fish.

Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens at 145 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture-priority AE mode, 1/1600th sec at f/10.0, with +1 exposure compensation.

Figure 1 – Wood and ice, Black’s Nook, Fresh Pomd Reserve, Cambridge, MA, March 2015. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

All winter long I have been intrigued by the trees that make their living with limbs dipped into the ponds and frozen in ice. It seems a tough existence, but they have evolved to a niche.  I made several attempts to photograph them but there was just too much whiteness to carry it off the way that I imagined it.  But now the ice is melting and the process has created some gorgeous textures and contrasts. I took the image of Figure 1 this past Monday at Black’s Nook, in Cambridge, MA around noon in a glorious late March light. The wonderful thing about March light as opposed to its counterpart September light is that the trees have not yet leafed out and the bare wood of the forest is bathed in warm sunlight. I debated keeping the original color, but in the end chose the way that I originally envisioned it in pure black and white without toning.

Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens at 70 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture-priority AE mode, 1/320th sec at f/20.0, with +1 exposure compensation.

Figure 1 – The Wink, IPhone photograph (c) DE Wolf 2015.

On my Saturday morning walk at the mall I encountered this woman, not quite real.  She was reclining on a furry chair and was ready to wink at all passersby.  I admired her friendly gaze and carmine lipstick that was ever so perfectly applied, as if printed on fabric. Hmm…

Figure 1 – The Troglodyte,IPhone photograph, (c) DE Wolf 2015.

A troglodyte is  a cave dweller, one who lives in a cave.  But the word has come to take on further and more sinister meanings.  The troglodyte is one who spends his days half-human toiling beneath the Earth.  So much for the happy seven dwarfs.  But more sinister still are the troglodyte Morlocks in H. G. Wells’ Time Machine.  These creatures, descended from humans in the year AD 802,701, live underground, tend machinery, and provide, clothing, and infrastructure for the childlike race of Eloi. Sinister? Well, yes.  The Morlocks eat the Eloi for food.  Shutter.

It was with these thoughts that I like Orpheus descended yesterday into the cave that we refer to as the mall parking garage.  I was intrigued by an intense and eery light that illuminated a foam covered joist with harsh contrast.  I looked up and there it was – not quite human, a specter, Morlock, or troglodyte.  I could not be certain but did manage to take his photograph (Figure 1).