Figure 1 – Magenta hibiscus or swamp  rose-mallow. Great Meadow National Wildlife Refuge, Concord, MA, August 2, 2021. (c)n DE Wolf 2021

I have been thinking of something very simple, yet elegant, for today. Among the many flowers heralding in these August days have been the magenta hibiscus, the swamp rose-mallow.  Figure 1 shows a cluster that I photographed on Monday at the Great Meadow National Wildlife Refuge in Concord, MA.  All of these blooms seem to define midsummer. By July we seem to be taking summer for granted, particularly the long sunlight. As halcyon August emerges thoughts of the coming fall and winter start to creep in. Flowers such as these hibisci seem to define August with all of its marvelous ambiguity.

Figure 1 – Great Blue Heron at the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge, August 3, 2021. (c) DE Wolf 2021.

The great blue herons (Ardea herodias) almost always elicited a gasp of satisfaction and wonder when you encounter them. Here is something unique and truly a privilege to behold – something prehistoric in nature. This morning at the Assabet River National Wildlife refuge I came upon this glorious bird in the marsh grasses with wonderful waterlilies in the foreground. How could I resist. It seemed to demand to be photographed! I was, as always, enthralled.

Canon T2i with Ef 100 to 400 mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM lens at 220 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture Priority AE Mode 1/1600th sec at F/7.1 with no exposure compensation.

Against Idleness and Mischief 

How doth the little busy bee
   Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
   From every opening flower!

How skilfully she builds her cell!
   How neat she spreads the wax!
And labours hard to store it well
   With the sweet food she makes.

In works of labour or of skill
   I would be busy too:
For Satan finds some mischief still
   For idle hands to do.

In books, or work, or healthful play
   Let my first years be past,
That I may give for every day
   Some good account at last.

Isaac Watts 1715

Figure 1 – Honey bee in a common button flower, Great Meadow National Wildlife Refuge, August 2, 2021. (c) DE Wolf 2021.

Figure 1 is a follow up on our discussion yesterday about Lewis Carroll and Tiger lilies. In 1715 Isaac Watts wrote the moralistic, as in “idle hands are the Devil’s workshop,” poem entitled “Against Idleness and Mischief.” Lewis Carroll’s poem from Alice in Wonderland, “How doth the little crocodile,” is, in fact, a parody on Isaac Watts’ poem.

And hence we have today’s image from The Great Meadow National Wildlife Refuge in Concord, MA of a honey bee in a common button flower. It seems strange to me that as a child we were taught to fear the honey bee’s sting as if their role on this Earth was to attack us – again no longer PC and much like poor, now defamed, Tiger Lily. The bees are glorious and what they produce is very much the ambrosia of the gods. It is as Pooh said, “The only reason for being a bee is to make honey. And the only reason for making honey is so I can eat it.”

How doth the little crocodile
  Improve his shining tail
And pour the waters of the Nile
  On every golden scale!

How cheerfully he seems to grin
  How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in
  With gently smiling jaws!

Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 1865.

Figure 1 – Tiger Lily, Old North Bridge National Historic Site, Concord, MA, August 1, 2021. (c) DE Wolf 2021.

I have been rejoicing in these dog days of summer – the transition from hot July to hotter and sultry August. And next will be the marvels of the September light. Heralding in these deep summer days have been the lilies, especially the day lilies and the tiger lilies. Figure 1 is a perfect, of color and form, tiger lily ( Lilium lancifolium) that I encountered yesterday at the Old North Bridge National Historic Site in Concord, MA.

Now Tiger lilies are certainly beautiful. But more significantly they carry with them a certain magic – the magic of childhood. First, there is Tiger Lily from Peter Pan. Although by now she has, alas,  become a tired non-PC trope. Always amazing that we never realized that we were being non-PC. Times change, but the memories of childhood do not. Second, there is the Tiger Lily of Lewis Carrol’s “Through the Looking Glass,” and the Garden of Living Flowers. Alice woefully says, ”

“Oh Tiger Lily, I wish you could talk so you could tell me how to get out of this wood.”

To which the Tiger Lily replies,

“I can talk, when there’s anybody worth talking to!”

And sometimes when summer is particularly hot and sultry you find yourself wishing that flowers could actually talk and tell us their stories. And if it is even hotter and harder to breathe perhaps you can actually hear them muttering. Just muttering because we really are not worth talking to!

Figure 1 – Break in the Clouds, July 26, 2021. (c) DE Wolf 2021.

Figure 1 is another image that I took near sunset in Rockport, MA on the 26th. I am calling this one break in the clouds as it concentrates on a distant bright spot of cloud over the water. I am trying for the effect of an impressionist seascape. The tones picked up here are all of the blues with a dash of magenta for spice, deep and meditative, Rayleigh scattering and reflections off the water. All of this speaks to a warm and atmospheric zenith of summer. You can become lost in these cloud patterns. You can set aside for a few moments the mounting troubles of the world. That bright spot near the sea I think adds additional mystery

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.

Rabindranath Tagore

Figure 1 – Zinnias. (c) DE Wolf 2021.

I took the photograph of Figure 1 of zinnias in a friend’s garden this past Saturday and I keep be drawn to it because it looks so three-dimensional to me. This is because by random chance it achieves all of the rules of three-dimensional perspective that were in the toolbox of the masters. Or I could take credit and say that the composition was all intentional. Probably it is somewhere in between random and intentional. But the image keeps calling me. The zinnias are splendid, and I suspect that there is an important lesson in the image of what may be accomplished with a little trying, not to mention patience!

Figure 1 – Sunset Rockport, MA, July 22, 2021. (c) DE Wolf 2021.

Last Thursday evening on Cape Ann, Massachusetts was just picture perfect. In the distance were the threatening storm clouds bathed in the warm light of the setting sun. Figure 1 is an image of one of these clouds, hanging over a distant horizon. As always there is something glorious about a sunset. As always there is something glorious about Cape Ann and Rockport, MA. As always there is something glorious about these dog days of summer. So for a moment forget the terror of the coming fourth wave – brought to you by unscientific morons. Forget even about all the money that still needs to be laundered out of Nigeria.  For a moment say “Namaste” to the divinity within your soul!

Figure 1 – M16 Eagle Nebula and the Pillars of Creation. (c) DE Wolf 2021.

I have been continuing to experiment with remote astrophotography and have specifically been grabbling with the question of whether to go with color or black and white. There is something pure, simple, and elegant with black and white, and you don’t have to deal with the very subjective issue of color. Of course, you can calibrate the color – a tedious process and one not all that likely to give you something pleasing. There is a fundamental conflict between the scientifically accurate image and the aesthetically pleasing one. Indeed, there is even the fundamental issue of what you mean by scientifically accurate. Do you mean that the greyscales are linear so that there is a “true” intensity relationship between points in space? Or do you mean that the intensity range follows and reports on the sensitivity of the human eye?  

Figure 1 is an image that I took on a 200 mm telescope in the Namibian desert  (Hakos Veloce 200 RH) of M-16, the Great Eagle Nebula and in particular highlights the so called “Pillars of Creation” made famous by the Hubble Space Telescope.  This of course, swings me very strongly towards the purity of black and white. But we shall see!