Winter 2015 #5 Trees reflected in the melting snow, Fresh Pond, Cambridge, MA, March. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

March the first marked the beginning of meteorological spring.  Boston and Cambridge remain waste deep in mountains of dirty snow.  Still there are signs that Winter’s Witch will soon be beaten.  We had our first serious melt today, and I slogged through it along Fresh Pond in Cambridge.  Spring’s signs are definitely there.  There is the unmistakeable greenish yellow tone of the willows ready to burst fourth. I was greeted by a bulldog named Kaylee, who was just so excited to be out and about.  I heard and saw the first male cardinal proclaiming his territory and love of mate from the tallest tree. And I found just enough open water on the pond to be a sure sign that the ducks will soon feel welcome and return.

As for the melt, I became photographically intrigued by the bare trees reflected in the puddles. I offer two of these as Figures 1 and 2. There is a certain delight in the fuzzy focus, or lack there of, brought on my the wind blowing over the water.  For someone as obsessed by sharpness as I the impressionist sense is disconcerting, but appealing.

And as for Winter’s Witch:

“I’m melting! Melting! Oh, what a world! What a world!”

Figure 2 – Sycamore reflected in melting March snow, Fresh Pond, Cambridge, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2015

Both photographs taken with a Canon T2i using a EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens ISO 1600 Aperture-Priority AE mode with no exposure compensation

Figure 1 at 113 mm 1/4000th sec at f/4.0

Figure 2 at 70 mm 1/2500th sec at f/4.0

Figure 1 – Winter 2015, Leaves in the snow, Fresh Pond Reserve, Cambridge, MA, (c) DE Wolf 2015.

Figure 1 – “Winter 2015 Leaves in the snow” is so far my favorite image of this grueling winter.  There is nothing that I like better than coming upon a scene where a beam of light accentuates.  In this case there is a sense of golden warmth contrasting with a cold blue-tinted winter snow.  I tend to think of winter in black and white, but sometimes, this being an example, it demands color.

Significantly the view is very small. To me it is like a Japanese garden, a miniaturized idyllic garden.  Japanese gardens have taught me to think of landscapes as fractal in nature.  They function equally on all scales, from sweeping vistas to perhaps a single plant or stone and everything in between..  The day itself, was warm in a winter sense and sunny; so I was actively in search for shadows and highlights. And here you have the additional contrast of the leaves of autumn against the snows of winter.

One complication when I took the photograph was that there was a breeze causing the leaves to move.  I cut back on the f-number and therefore depth of field so that I could decrease the exposure time.  I waited for an auspicious moment of near quiet and shot at f/8.0 at 1/800th sec.

Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM at 70 mm, ISO 400, Aperture-priority AE mode, 1/800th sec at f/8.0 with +1 exposure compensation.

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I think that for most New Englanders the start of winter brings on a sort of car neglect.  It does not seem of much use to wash one’s car since it is certain to become filthy again with the next snow fall.  So this morning I realized that my car was essentially encased in salt and decided to do something about it.  There I am sitting on the line for the car-wash, I have put my car in neutral, and am slowly being inched forward.  Then it hits me. Photo-op! Fortunately while i did not have my digital SLR with me, I did have my IPhone and so I began snapping images contentedly.  The results are the four images of the short slide show about, a few minutes journey into an impressionist worl.

Figure 1 – Primroses. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

To all my readers and friends in the Northern hemisphere, today is March the first.

Think spring!

And remember what Ophelia said to Laertes:

“Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,
Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own rede.”

– Hamlet (1.3.48-52)

Figure 1 – Winter 2015, Photominimalism. Fresh Pond Reserve, Cambridge, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

Even more than sand and seaweed snow provides the ultimate environment for photominimalism.  It is all about contrast, just short of pure black and pure white – a binary image.  Figure 1 shows one of my favorite subjects in this medium, a pure white, cold, and windy landscape broken only by some dried and intriguing plant forms.  These are the merest remnants of last summer and thus emphasize the sterile lifelessness of winter contrasted with the abundant life of spring and summer.  It provides a promise.

And what I have tried to accomplish here is to create the sense that the light is on the verge of overwhelming the scene and the image.  I take this from the book of J. M. W Turner (1775-1851).  Turner was referred to as “the painter of light,” and through his career the light slowly seized control and methodically overwhelmed the subject. We move now towards the vernal equinox towards the ascendance of the light.

Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens at 100 mm, ISO 400, Aperture-Priority AE mode, 1/500th sec at f/16.0, with +1 exposure compensation. Cold toned black and white image.