Tough guy challenge

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Yes, they have been reading my mind!  They?  I mean photographers of eccentric sports from all around the world.  Here in New England we’ve got nearly sixty inches of snow on the ground.  It’s getting rather annoying.  And it’s also been rather cold.  As I write it is 13 deg. F. outside my window.  Speaking of eccentric: inches? deg. F.  Hello, Americans!  You’re giving the rest of the world a headache with these stupid conversions from silliness to international standards. But in Perton, we’ve got this wonderful picture by Phil Noble of Reuters of this guy in the all and all crawling in the mud in the annual Tough Guy Challenge. First there is a  cross-country run and then an obstacle course through freezing water pools, fire pits, and tunnels. Don’t you just love the bow-tie.  We’ve got at least one regular reader who’s probably thinking right now, hmm looks like fun.

 

Dim, distant, and haunting memories

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February 2 marked the 72nd anniversary of the end of the fearsome Battle of Stalingrad, now Volgorad – the ultimate triumph of the Red Army.  The casualties of this battle were staggering.  It is estimated that “The Axis” suffered 850,000 casualties and the USSR 1,129,619 (wounded, killed, captured). Such was the tragedy of World War Two.  The siege was ended on February 2, 1943.

This anniversary was marked last week and is captured in a very poignant photograph by Dmitry Regulin for the AP. A man dressed in Red Army World War II uniform walks toward the monument to Motherland.  The form of the monument is indistinct.  The fog seems to epitomize the dimness of memory with age and time.  But as the determined figure indicates memory is dim but remembrance essential.

Bedpost bathed in a winter sunbeam

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Figure 1 - Bedpost bathed in a winter sunbeam. (c) DE wolf 2015.

Figure 1 – Bedpost bathed in a winter sunbeam. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

One of the things that I really like about winter is that the sun is low in the sky, and when you least expect it can suddenly fill a room with a golden sunbeam.  It is almost a contradiction to have this kind of friendly warmth on a February’s day.  Still there it is there, transforming something as ordinary as the bedpost of Figure 1 into something and almost magical. I played with this sunlit bedpost for sometime, paying close attention to how much of the post should appear in the photograph and exactly what the out of focus background should be.  In the end I decided that it should be only the door with vertical and parallel lines that complement the post.  I especially like the solidity of the wooden post and the way in which the angle of the shot creates the illusion of vaulting height.  The post seems to hold the image up, and I also like the double bokeh of the doorknob. For my taste at 70 mm the degree of out-of-focus of the door is perfect for the composition.

Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens at 70 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture-Priority AE mode, 1/125th sec at f/8.0 with -1/3 exposure compensation.

Climbing the Empire State Building

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It has been a while since I have blogged about images of weird and eccentric sports events like “wife carry races” and “the Highland Games.  So today I couldn’t resist this image by Carlo Allegri of Reuters of a runner in the 38th Annual Empire State Building Run-Up. Here runner is arriving on the 86th floor.  Here runner is looking pained and not so happy.  It is, of course, a lot like running up a small mountain.  Indeed, I had a colleague back in my postdoc days who used to climb mountains and would practice by donning his hiking boots and running up stairs.

When I first look at this photograph, I feel the man’s pain.  But then I started to look at the compositional elements that really make the image.  The application of the rule of thirds and most interesting the repeating theme of parallel lines, all with perfect internal symmetry but all askew from one another.

Winter beauty

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I’d like to follow up on yesterday’s theme about what is really the intrinsic magical beauty of winter.  Snow and ice create some pretty amazing forms.  So yesterday we looked at a spectacular moon set in Germany. Today I’d like to consider this equally gorgeous photograph by Jim Young for Reuters, showng Chicago’s Crown Fountain in this week’s midwestern snowstorm.  This image has the same blue tint that indicates cold, and then there is the wonderfully captured little streaks of snow and the two passerbys, hurrying to escape the cold.  And notice how both the buildings and the people lean forward.  This adds dynamics to the image. But the street lights and most of all the face on the fountain itself create that “je ne sais quoi ” surreal enigma.

And I think that there is an important lesson to be learned from this photograph.  In winter especially there are a thousand excuses to stay indoors and not take photographs.  Last night I looked out at the tree shadows cast by the moon on the four feet of snow in my yard.  It was so easy just to go back to bed.  But what I should have done is gotten dressed and set up my camera on its tripod

Winter Moon

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In my experience, if you are looking for the epitome of winter glory, you need to look no further than Bavaria in Germany.  I came across this wonderful image by Armin Weigel for the AFP of yesterday’s full moon setting over the parish church of Schoenach near the Bavarian village of Regensburg in Germany.  It’s got everything required the cold blueness and the snow create a sense of absolutely frigid winter. Readers of Hati and Skoll will recognize the allusion to the end of the Norse world, the Gotterdammerung.  And yet the glorious moon hovers and dances in thermal disequillibrium over the church, creating a pale and incongruous golden warmth.

And as for the moon, it will soon be out of the way at night and readers are advised to search out either with naked eye or binoculars the green glory og comet Lovejoy in early February. Cameras out please!

Merely a tourist

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Figure 1 - IPhone image of the frozen Concord River on the First of February 2015. (c) DE Wolf 2015

Figure 1 – IPhone image of the frozen Concord River on the First of February 2015. (c) DE Wolf 2015

OK, so Monday morning and snowing again. Welcome to New England, in all its spectacular winter glory.  I found myself yesterday with a most excellent view of the historic and very frozen Concord River and only my IPhone to record it.  This is the land of Emerson, Alcott, and Thoreau. So please accept Figure 1 for what it is.  Merely a tourist’s snapshot, appropriately taken with a cell phone.  This just in case you are wondering why we put up with this kind of weather.  It is so, so beautiful and we love it.

Cityscapes

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One of the weekly photocolumns that I follow pretty closely is the reader photos to a preset theme.  This week’s theme was “City Skylines” and there are some really wonderful submissions.  I particularly like Michael Kennan’s spectacular skyline of Seattle from Queen Anne Hill.  Then there is Jane Barrett’s cleverly circularized image of the harbor in Stockholm. But my admiration doesn’t stop there.  There is a really interesting image by Owen Bowler of the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth reflected off the water.  This is a particularly subtle and clever variation of the distorted reflection genre of architectural photographs. Finally among my favorites is Daniel Furon’s moody and wonderful image of the San Francisco skyline. Honestly, I have seen a lot of beautiful photographs of San Francisco over the years.  This one takes my breath away.

American goldfinch – spinus tristis

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Figure 1 - American Goldfinch in winter plumage, January. (c) DE Wolf 2014.

Figure 1 – American Goldfinch (spinus tristis) in winter plumage, January. (c) DE Wolf 2014.

At this time of year, the beautiful American goldfinches are pale shadows of their late summer selves.  They are however, grateful visitors to my feeder, and unlike many of the more frenetic birds, they seem to sit politely at the feeding stations, like well-behaved dinner guess. Of course, sitting with their heads buried in the feeder is hardly they way yu want to photograph them The fellow pictured in Figure 1, with his prized sunflower seed, had a cowl of gold that very much exceeded that of most of his peers.  Perhaps he is a Boston Bruins fan. What has most intrigued me is that if I take a picture of even the palest goldfinch, I find that with just a little boosting of the color saturation they become brightly yellow.  No other adjustment is necessary.  The color is there latent and subdued, ready to pop out – like the Yin of summer buried deep within the Yang of winter.

This image was taken hand-held and again through glass at 300 mm.  The little birds are a bit demanding subjects.  But I think that this was reasonably successful.

Canon T2i with EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens at 300 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture Priority A mode,1/160th sec. at f/11.0 with +1 exposure compensation